u/Frigatebird26

I’m a nice person and I have trouble putting down firm boundaries. I have a neighbor Nextdoor. looks to be late teens-early 20s. On Easter his uncle saw me and said the guy could mow my lawn. He came a week later and I paid him to mow my lawn. the following 2 weeks he wanted to mow again. It needed it so I said fine. I paid him and he mowed again. A week later I was at work and he texted me and said his phone got shut off so he asked if I could pay him early to mow the lawn so he could get it turned back on. He promised to mow that week. He seemed like a nice kid. He was living with his granny and this is a poor neighborhood so I trusted him. A few days later I tried to call. He never turned the phone on. Something was fishy. A week later he asked to borrow $20 to put gas in his mower to mow my lawn. Said he would pay me back. He also asked for a ride to work. I gave him a few rides to be nice. He smelled strongly of weed in my car. No judgement but if someone can’t afford to turn on their phone bill and can’t afford to buy gas for their mower, how can they afford weed? I live in a state where weed is illegal. Anyway, I continued to be nice and gave a few rides that week. Even picked him up when I had the time. That Saturday I was very clear to him I could only do a ride in the morning. He said understood. He could walk home. Around noon he was trying to FaceTime me since he hadn’t turned off his phone. I ignored. Then he texted me asking for money for food and an Uber after we agreed he would walk home. I ignored and blocked him. A couple days later he texted me from another phone asking for a ride. I blocked that number too. He never bothered to mow my lawn 3 weeks after I paid him so I did a chargeback to PayPal. All was quiet up till last night he wanted a ride to the liquor store at 9pm. I just said no. I took meds that impair my ability to drive so can’t drive. The liquor store is within walking distance mind you. I struggle to put down firm boundaries and I don’t want this guy at my house anymore. The trouble is we are neighbors and I don’t want them to make my life a living hell. I can’t move. I bought this house in November last year. The neighborhood is liveable but not wonderful or friendly.

Several months ago I bought a necklace from Poppy’s website and “she” sent me a thank you note with a confirmation- I know it wasn‘t from her but it was nice. Three weeks ago I bought a girl surprise bag from her website and I didn’t get a confirmation at all. I had to email customer service to chase it down. They took over a week to answer and that was after I sent a follow up email. I know Poppy has nothing to do with it but just wondering if she changed vendors or something. It was just weird.

I didn’t buy it since I’m getting a signed poster when I go to the concert in August but I saw 5 below had a Poppy poster for sale.

I posted on here yesterday. To recap- I’m a vet (DVM, not veteran, although this profession makes me feel like I’ve lived through wars). I’m dealing with insurmountable burning pain and doctors have almost given up on me. I can’t remember if I said that in the post- I didn’t sleep due to pain. Nobody in here responded to my post, which is fine. No feelings hurt. However, prior to posting on here I posted in a vet support FB group Not One More Vet. I would get a mixed bag of support on that group in past interactions. Some people would validate my frustrations and that was helpful. Over 99% were coming at me with advice on treatments to try or therapy to deal with the pain. That wasn’t helpful. If anything, it pissed me off more. One person came on and told me I was an asshole since all these people were doing was trying to help. I left the group. I’ve gotten better support from people who‘ve bullied me- seriously at least in the distant past they gave me a hug. I guess human nature says if you have a problem, you must need someone to offer you a solution to fix it. That’s kind of outdated and untrue. If I say I want to be euthanized due to my pain, don’t tell me to hang in there and keep trying, especially when I’ve said I have tried every single treatment for my condition available, all have failed, and I have been suffering with this for YEARS. Just some food for thought.

I can’t remember if it’s this forum or another I posted on but I’m not looking for advice please. just looking to vent since I have no real friends or family. A couple things. I’m a DVM for a roadside zoo. I wanted to work for a zoo and this was the best I could get. Real zoos don’t want someone who isn’t boarded regardless of their level of experience. Pet practice was not for me and I have no interest in starting a practice. I deal with severe chronic pain and honestly don’t know how long I’ll be able to work. I have no support. People only contact me when they want something. I’ve had people tell me they were my friend but literally wanted me to put my license in jeopardy by writing them a prescription for the their dog so they could take it themselves since they didn’t want to see a doctor. Real friends don’t do this. This is the most disrespected and undervalued medical profession there is. That same friend- when I was recovering from brain surgery, not once did they check in or help me with anything. My surgery was traumatizing. It failed to help me and left me in worse pain, which the doctors did nothing about. I got a second opinion postop and was told the surgeon did the wrong procedure for my diagnosis. Revision surgery is decently unlikely to work and I honestly don’t have the money or time, let alone the desire to relive the trauma of a 3 or more day hospital stay with shitty nursing care and half ass pain management for less than a 50% chance at success and a 7%chance of going deaf or becoming permanently dizzy. When I reported 10/10 pain, all they did was give me Robaxin. Doctor took no responsibility for what did or did not happen intraop or postop. If I pulled crap like this I would be sued for malpractice. Heck— it if I am one day late on delivering lab results I’m treated like a villain. Just sayin. I’m really tired of life and being told to hang in there. There’s nothing to hang onto. I’m lying in bed unable to sleep due to being in 30/10 pain tonight. ER ain’t doing nothing. I’m already on Percocet and oral ketamine because I can’t afford infusions and neither do a damn thing.

I’m an exotics DVM. I’m not yet boarded and didn’t do an internship or residency- I worked my way up from GP by incorporating exotics into practice early on and doing lots of reading and professional development. In the early days, VIN was really helpful, especially since I never had great mentorship. As I advanced in my career, I ended up in an all exotics hospital run by a VIN consultant. I learned a lot from this person but what I really wanted was to do zoo med. I had trouble getting into an internship and residency program in spite of having 4 years of exotic specialty practice experience behind me- I was told by some it was because I was more than 2 years out of school. So I decided I was going to move on from pet practice and find my own way.

I lucked out and I did find a job at a small zoo and wildlife center. However, these branches of medicine are vastly different from pet practice and the zoo I work for isn’t run by any gold standards. it is not AZA accredited and my hands are tied since I’m only there twice a month. I did a preceptorship at a zoo during vet school and volunteered at a zoo hospital all through undergrad so I had some idea of how it should be run but I haven’t had any mentorship besides my experiences.

Again, I have turned to VIN for help with cases and some people are really helpful but I am finding the senior clinicians to be really nit picky and borderline rude. I get bashed for things that aren’t my fault, told my facility sucks, and I’m only trying to help the animals and people I work with. I’ve started avoiding VIN as much as possible and have considered ending my membership, as the $70 per month could be better spent elsewhere.

As a clinician, I’ve always taken a very humble approach as I’ve advanced in my career. I don’t think of myself as “better than anyone” and I feel like we can learn a lot from eqch other. Half of what I learned in practice I learned from my technicians. I just wanted to put that out there. Being critical and rude to someone who is only trying to ask for help doesn’t teach them anything but how much they want to avoid you. This career is difficult enough without that sort of mentality.

I’m an exotics vet. Except for vaccine clinics and 1-2 time per year GP shifts on Roo, I only see exotics. In fact, I don’t just see exotics- I see exotics in zoo and wildlife facilities. I rarely see pets anymore and that’s for good reason. I feel like when I did exotic companion animal practice, what I could do for people was severely undervalued. I would get a lot of, “Well I don’t want to spend that. It’s not a dog.”. I see fish. I had a client come in with a sick goldfish with lumps and a swim bladder issue. I gave him the rundown on what I could offer him diagnostic wise- cytology, rads, etc. I can understand if someone just doesn’t have the money but this guy just plain laughed in my face and said, “Why would I do any of that for a fish?”. seriously. Did he think it was free? I think people go into vet clinics thinking we can just diagnose their animals right off the bat without doing anything to try and figure out what’s wrong. It seems to be the trend in human medicine but here’s one problem with that in vet vet med- our patients can‘t talk. And hobbyists- don’t even get me started on that crap. Not all, but many reptile hobbyists kind of suck. They think they know it all and refuse to listen to backed scientific data, but get mad when their beardie dies of egg binding or their leopard gecko dies from MBD. A lot of them I couldn’t even convince to do a $30 fecal exam on their animal. I would sometimes try to be helpful on exotic pet subreddits and Facebook groups and actually give free vet advice only to be struck down by a hobbyist who probably has no ability to analyze a scientific research paper and relies on Wikipedia for knowledge. People are constantly hassling me for free advice but when I give it without being asked I’m treated like shit. There are reasons why I went into zoo and wildlife medicine and clients are many of them.

Please- if you’re going to say something mean just scroll on and go away. I’m already on the verge of killing myself. I’m just sick of my life. I’m a 40F who’s been lonely as f my whole life. My family are all dumbasses and I don’t have any friends. I moved south for my career, which I have sort of found but it has been far from satisfying. I’m a vet for a small roadside zoo that demands everything from me but their animals keep dying despite my efforts since they keep buying animals from random breeders with poor reputations. I also work for a wildlife center that’s government funded but they pay me as a contractor and pay me whenever they freaking feel like it so I usually only get half my salary once per month if even. I deal with horrible chronic pain and no doctor can help me. I’ve literally done everything, from medications to ablations to freaking brain surgery and not a damn thing has helped me. I’m in 7-10/10 pain every freaking day. I’m having to buy the most expensive health plan on the marketplace, which cost $25 more than my mortgage, since I don’t technically qualify for any subsidies and am contracted both jobs so I don’t qualify for benefits. I’m a doctor and I’m piss poor. I’ve tried to get a real job at an AZA accredited zoo but none of them want me since I’m not board certified, and it’s a long, painful road to get to that point, one that I don’t know if I’m realistically healthy enough to achieve. Because my wildlife job barely pays me anything I have to do relief shifts elsewhere. I was at a Banfield today and after the shift, I tried to get home. I was making a U-turn and this nasty woman driving like a bat out of hell nearly slams into my vehicle and then has the audacity to aggressively follow me into a parking lot, then tries to block my car and tells me I nearly hit her car and she would’ve beaten my ass if I did. I called the cops on her but I doubt they’ll do anything. Yesterday i had a woman in a Walmart parking lot scream at me and call me a rude bitch because she was sitting in the middle of the freaking parking lot and I was just trying to get around. Believe me- I don’t want my little junk Chevy to hit her beautiful, expensive looking Tesla. I can’t afford my insurance to go up. I’ve had guys 20 years older than me try to hit on me and then call me a stupid bitch when I wouldn’t give out my name and number. I’ve had nasty children tell me I walked bowlegged. I’ve had people promise to help me and steal money from me- a lady promises to watch my pets when I had brain surgery, took $90, and never came once. I lost a pet snake because of her. The kid next door mowed my lawn a couple times and I paid him. Then he asked for an advanced payment so he could turn on his phone again (which he didn’t) and my naive, dumbass self, trying to be kind, tried to help him and he just kept trying to use me until I finally blocked him. I’m just over my miserable life and I want to be done. I hate people. I can’t trust a freaking soul and I want no part of this world.

I posted a couple days ago but here’s an update. To recap the situation, I purchased a juvenile ackie from a breeder on Morph Market a couple of weeks ago and he shipped it out to me on Monday to a FedEx Hub. It’s been 72 hours and my animal has not arrived. I have called FedEx multiple times and been promised an update but never given one. I’ve messaged the breeder a few times and he said he’s called FedEx but they could not give him any information. I do not know if he went through a reptile shipping company. He created the label himself so I’m guessing not. He did say if it’s DOA I get a refund. It’s not even about the money at this point. There’s a living animal lost at the hub in Memphis, TN and FedEx doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass. I asked why my animal isn’t here and all they can tell me is it didn’t make it on the plane on time. I asked how it could fail to make it on the plane 3 days in a row if it were actually marked as a high priority live animal delivery like they said it was and all they will tell me is “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.” Inconvenience?! it’s beyond that. This is a living creature thats being treated like a sac of potatoes. I don’t know what the hell is going on with FedEx right now. I will never buy an animal from an online breeder again. I don’t know where to make a formal complaint about this but I feel like it should be brought up so it doesn’t happen again.

I bought a juvenile Ackie monitor from a breeder on morph market and it was shipped overnight via FedEx on Monday. It was supposed to have arrived yesterday but got held up in Memphis, TN. I live in Daytona Beach, FL. I alerted the breeder and he said not to worry about it. I contacted FedEx and they promised me they would put an alert on the package as live animal and high priority and would contact me with an update. I did not get an update and I checked the tracking again on the package and it’s still in Memphis. I again alerted the breeder- just did it a few minutes ago so no word back. I also called FedEx again and explained the gravity of the situation. Again, they promised it would be labeled as high priority and they would update me tonight. I’m pretty upset. I’ve not had this happen to a live animal shipment before and I’ve had several. I’ve had a few come one day later than expected but 2+? I’m really worried about the animal not having enough heat, food, or air for that length of time. I’m pretty upset and don’t really know what to do. I’m buying my reptiles from expos for now on.

I recently had to change insurance plans since the place I originally got insurance from terminated my plan with 3 weeks notice and wanted to switch it to a shitty bronze level plan with minimal coverage for at least $900 per month. I ended up buying a marketplace plan that cost me $1400 per month. For this $1400 per month plan, I now have to get a prior authorization for every tramadol refill I get. I have never had this before. It’s kind of ridiculous. I’ve been on this medication for almost 5 years now. I’m just sick of the bullshit. The plan won’t even cover some of my other medications at all since they’re not in the formulary. Wow. What a great value for $1400 per month. For that kind of money you should expect gold star service. Fuck US healthcare.

As some further clarification, I bought this plan because it was labeled as a platinum plan with a $0 deductible and a wide network. My healthcare needs are complex and I needed a high level of coverage. I’m a 1099 worker so don’t qualify for job sponsored plans.

I’m a veterinarian who deals with my own chronic disease and if I did just a quarter of the shit to people that my doctors did to me I would be sued for malpractice and my name would forever be tarnished on the internet. Every day I feel like a sac of shit. My ear canal feels like it’s on fire and I’ve been to every specialist imaginable. We have done literally everything I can afford (I.e. what insurance will cover) and not a damn thing has helped me in the slightest- not even freaking brain surgery. Now we’re at the point where seeing doctors is a complete waste of my time and money because since the failed surgery, all I’ve gotten is being told they can’t do anything to help me.

I continue to live with burning in my ear canal and they all say they don’t know wtf is wrong. Per the most competent neurosurgeon I’ve spoken with so far, I was diagnosed with geniculate neuralgia, but the suegeon at Mayo screwed me over by doing the wrong type of procedure for this condition and now I’m in worse pain.

I’m paying $1400 per month now for insurance and It won’t even pay for my medications, which barely work but are “better than nothing.” I’m really sick and tired of the whole “better than nothing” lifestyle and I honestly want to be a thing of the past- turned to ashes or buried in the ground.

I’m really tired of my life. Very few people have been supportive. I’ve dealt with all of this on my own with no help. But people don’t hesitate to ask me for free veterinary help when I barely have the energy to clean my house. When I ask for help suddenly everyone is too busy or not available. Fuck the world. I’m over it all. Doctors suck. I’m honestly not sure why I’m paying $1400 per month in insurance anymore because I’m no better for it. I don’t have a life outside of work. My life consists of going to doctors appointments for nothing.

And you want to know what else pisses me off? Not only do doctors completely blow me off but they just don’t care. Their practices are so freaking disorganized, nothing ever gets done. Examples? Last week alone, I saw My pain doctor and he said he would send a prescription for oral ketamine since I can’t afford infusions. I doubt it will work and it will cost me a freaking fortune out of pocket but before I go the route of assisted suicide overseas, I have to say I “tried everything.” I saw him on Tuesday. It is now the following Monday and still on prescription. I called the office and they said they hadn’t heard back from the pharmacy but the pharmacy says they never received the prescription. Another example- 3 weeks ago I had a telehealth appt with an ass of a neurologist who wouldn’t let me get in 3 words and wasted my time and money. I called the office and said I wasn’t happy and wanted to see someone else. They said they would have to “discuss transfer of care” with the team and get back to me in 3 days. I contacted the office 5 days later and they had no record of this request so we had to go through the whole ordeal all over again. As a third example, my surgeon at Mayo gave me occipital neuralgia when he haphazardly sliced into my skull, cutting one of my occipital nerves. I was going to an acupuncturist to try and help with the pain. My insurance no longer covered my acupuncture and the practice became out of network. I had out of network benefits, however, and if would’ve saved me some money if I used them. However, the practice promised to call me after verifying and I heard nothing back. Wow. Three incidents in the same week. But this has been most days of my life since the end of 2022 when this all started. Nothing but shitty care, gaslighting, and a lack of care or concern by medical practitioners. They all suck. I’m over it all.

Is it possible to buy feeder insects wholesale? If so, where do you get them from? I’m not a zoo or a reptile store but I have a lot of reptiles and tarantulas, and purchasing crickets from pet shops is getting expensive. I eventually will start breeding my own but for the time being, I’m looking for a place to get quality feeders. I tried Chewy for a while but the crickets would end up dead or infested with ants so I don’t want to use them anymore for feeders. I live in Daytona Beach, Florida. Thanks.