u/Hot-Bed-8157

Hi all - I’m moving across the country tomorrow and after I rehomed my fish and took down my aquarium, I found 5-10 cherry shrimp I had missed. I’d love to not cart them across the country for 6 days in a jar. If anyone is interested let me know! Must have a tank at least 2.5 gallons for them or an already established tank. Thanks!! Pick up would be by the Bethesda metro.

Hi all - I’m moving across the country tomorrow and after I rehomed my fish and took down my aquarium, I found 5-10 cherry shrimp I had missed. I’d love to not cart them across the country for 6 days in a jar. If anyone is interested let me know! Must have a tank at least 2.5 gallons for them or an already established tank. Thanks!!

Looking for a renter friendly way to enclose/screen in this porch. Would love an actual door but have been looking at retractable screen doors. And then trying to figure out how to screen the rest in a renter friendly minimally invasive way.

My cat, 5yo spayed female 10lbs, was prescribed gabapentin for our upcoming 6 day road trip. She was prescribed 100mg 2-3x/day and we were advised we could go up to 200mg if needed.

I gave her 50mg for the trial this morning and she is sleepy as expected. She is also very wobbly and kind of dragging her feet a bit, which I wasn’t expecting but I realize is a common side effect. It’s been about 5 hours since the dose.

My question is, is ataxia an acceptable side effect or does it mean we should consider a different sedative/anti-anxiety med? I’ll call the vet tomorrow but am just wondering.

Our other cat, 3yo spayed female 10lbs, got the same dose and has no ataxia.

Hi all,

Moving to WA and driving cross country with my partner. I want to propose on the last day of the trip and we will be in the area of Mt. Rainier. Problem is, it will be summer and we will have pets in the car, so we won’t be able to really wander far (we can leave the car on and locked with the AC running but of course don’t want to leave it fully unattended.)

I figure there’s got to be scenic overlooks in that area that could work as a pretty proposal spot. So far the interwebs is telling me the Chinook Pass Overlook is probably the best bet? Is it a nice location? What are the odds there will actually be any parking available? Are there other good pull offs you might recommend?

I’m not opposed to actually entering the national park, either. Again we just won’t be able to really leave the car.

Thanks in advance! I’m all ears.

My dog has a history of calcium oxalate stones. As part of his recurrence risk reduction keeping him well hydrated is important and I monitor his hydration via USG with a refractometer. I find I need to supplement his water intake with an additional 3/4 - 1 cup of water to keep him around 1.020, he naturally is at 1.040-ish without supplementation. He does drink water and only eats wet food but apparently not enough.

I currently make him little soups from his food and serve them on the side of his meals but I was wondering if Purina Hydracare, made for cats, would be safe for him. I noticed calcium chloride in the ingredients so I wasn’t sure. He won’t eat his food if I water it down but will drink soup on the side. Quirky fellow.

If it isn’t recommended, is there a ready-to-serve alternative safe for dogs with calcium oxalate stone history that would reduce the time it takes to feed him each meal? If not of course I’ll keep up with the soups but it would make my life easier.

I’ll consult with his internal medicine specialist but she is quite busy and since this is non-urgent it may take her a bit to get back to me. He doesn’t have another follow up for 3 months.

Hi all, I’m moving to Olympia next month and have been considering apartments with Urban Olympia. I’d love to be downtown if possible (coming from a big city.)

I like these apartments but have heard there’s construction next door ? and was wondering if anyone could fill me in about that. Thanks in advance! Also open to any other suggestions, I’ve been scouring this sub as well as Google for a few weeks now.

Hi all. My 11 year old, 17lb male dog has had low T4 on his last two annuals (December 2024 & 2025) which were his first bloodworks done so unfortunately not sure if this is new or not.

His results were <.04ug/dL.

He is asymptomatic, and his previous vet thought not to fix it if it isn’t broken. He has had abdominal ultrasounds and all his other numbers on labs have always been fine. The first time it tested low more blood was sent to Michigan lab. Vets always remark he’s in great shape and would never guess he’s a hypothyroid dog by looking at him.

Simultaneously, he had cystolithotomy to remove calcium oxalate bladder stones this March. Since then I’ve been closely monitoring urine pH and SG and I can’t get his USG down below 1.030 despite significantly increasing fluid intake. His pee is always yellow, never pale yellow, and in the morning it’s a darker yellow (never bloody or cloudy, just not as pale/dilute as I’m hoping to get it.)

What questions should I be asking my vet about this, and how might you go about management for the concurrent issues?

Thanks so much in advance. Happy to provide any additional info.

We are moving cross country from MD to Seattle. We’re driving and will be shipping our things so they will arrive at a storage location before we arrive in WA. We are expecting it to be a bit of a harrowing journey due to having our 3 pets with us and we will be starting work quickly after arriving, so I was wondering if we could have movers unload boxes into our apartment before we actually arrive there. We will unpack them ourselves, but this would give us an extra day to settle in vs coordinating moving logistics when we arrive.

Has anyone here done this before? If so, any tips on how to organize/coordinate this? Of course I’d need to speak with the leasing office at our new apartment as they’d need to give the movers access without us being present. I’m assuming I’m not the first person to want this done, just looking for advice about how best to coordinate it. Thanks!

I have kiddo still using a fisted grasp after over a year of OT. Developmentally speaking they “should be” using at least a static quad with emerging distal movements if not a full dynamic quad or tripod. They had lots of other goals to work on and have met those but still have that fisted grasp. With one cue they can switch to a dynamic quad but will always pick the marker/crayon etc up in a fist independently.

I’ve of course been focusing on strengthening and separating out that side of the hand for a long time. Have also tried visual and tactile cues on the marker and their hand (stickers on the marker, grips (which they don’t like and won’t use), and “Mr. Alligator/Mrs. Unicorn” on the web of their hand.)

A parent has a wonky grasp and the child is aware of this and I feel it may be a component, especially since it works for them. But it is not a fisted grasp.

Visual motor is all on target and they are young so they aren’t experiencing challenges due to grasp with low-no academic demand.

Do I discharge with an exercise program and hope they’ll switch to a more functional grasp as they age, since they know how to do so just don’t want to? Do I keep them on my caseload until they start using a different grasp? It seems like not enough to keep them on since it is currently functional, but I’m worried they’ll end up in third grade with fatigue from an inefficient grasp like I see so often and don’t want to drop the ball right now.

I work with very experienced OTs who have given advice but nothing has worked.

Hi all - my partner, our 3 pets, and I will be loading up and driving from MD to Washington in July in our 04' CRV with 190k miles on it. It will be just under 3k miles and we plan to do it in roughly 6 days. Knock on wood, she's been a great car for shorter road trips (like 200ish miles, in Shenandoah so a bit mountainous) and weekend errands but we mainly take public transport living/working in a big city so she isn't a daily driver.

We're due for an oil change right before we go, anyway, so of course we will get that done. We live in MD which has a very strict state inspection, so when we bought the car last September we got 4 new tires, had the front control arms replaced, new brakes all around. Nothing else popped up on the inspection (aside from the lock switches not working, which we also had to have fixed to pass inspection.) We are getting a knock sensor code intermittently, which we'll have fixed when it goes for an oil change.

What services should we consider having done (if any) prior to our trip? I've heard conflicting things about basically "if it isn't broken don't fix it" and following regular maintenance schedules. Neither of us are car savvy beyond changing a tire and I've held a flashlight for my very mechanically inclined dad many a time and done a few oil changes, so we'd love any advice about the drive and maintenance in general.

Thanks in advance!

I’m an occupational therapist and moving to Washington this summer. I’ve gotten two job offers and I feel overwhelmed between multiple interviews, negotiating salaries, and recruiters constantly asking me “how I feel.”

I’m torn between these two offers. Job #1 initially low balled me a bit and has been persistently trying to get me to sign the offer. Job #2 gave me slightly more money than I asked for (after benefits) and has been pretty chill overall.

I’m leaning toward job #2 but am feeling guilty about negotiating with #1 (and getting what I asked for) and expressing significant interest to the owner prior to my interview with #2.

I think I mostly need advice about how to handle this without burning bridges with the other clinic.

Job 1: has a bonus structure for productivity. They pay an “admin time” rate of $32/hour and billable session rate of $48/hour (I negotiated this up from original $46.) Basically if I’m not treating, I get paid admin time. I work with kids and kids get sick and cancel a lot in my experience so this is a factor.

Base salary at minimum productivity standards (28 patients a week) is $88k before benefits. At highest productivity (34 kids a week) the salary is $93k after bonuses.

They cover 1/2 of health insurance costs (up to $3k) and match 4% to 401k after the first year on top of salary. 104 hours of PTO which is paid at admin rate.

Job 2: more traditional salary structure. $90k/year with an expectation of 32 kids per week, but no pay deduction if I have extra cancels or something.

They cover 90% of health insurance and match 3% to IRA. 3 weeks of PTO included in salary.