Sara

I ve been having problems with my lower back... three different episodes since November and this one has been going on for a week. It hurts like hell, particually if I bend a certain way (or ways), more so on the right side/right hip.

If I sit on anything with a cushion (and you d be amazed how many chairs have cushions!) my back spasms and the only way to find relief is to lie on the floor on my belly till it s over. Only hard chairs seem to be okay and even then only for short times. The most comfortable place is lying on my belly on the floor.

I tried a soft rocking chair to gently rock... that was a bad idea, thirty seconds later my entire lower back, both hips and my stomach were cramping and spasming.

And this has been going on for a week.

What the hell? What s going on and how can I heal/recover/find some relief from this? This is agony and I can t spend the whole year lying on my stomach.

I've had bronchitis twice in two months. This time itcame very sudden in 12 hours... major ear infection (though no pain), brain fog, yellow mucus, sore throat, fever, insomnia.

as the bronchitis has gotten better... no more fever or brain fog... the coughing fits stay pretty angry. They're persistent and can go for up to half an hour (made up of 3+ coughs with minute breaks) with stomach and back cramps and peeing self. I can't stop peeing myself. It's not much fun. I'm often feeling nausea and exhausted after. And my head hurts.

I don't seem to have any phgelm anymore. And I've noticed that i seen to cough less when lying down on my stomach. Sitting or standing can start a new cycle over again. As its been a week today I'm pretty fed up...what can I do!

I've had the flu and a mild fever for a few days now... including being unable to sleep properly... and while that seems to be breaking, there is a large lump on one of my tonsils that I feel -all the time-. It's making it hard to sleep and it's very hard to swallow anything that isn't fluid.

Is there a way to shrink these things? Like a salt gargle?

Quickly or slow...

or am I going to have to go to a doctor for antibiotics or something?

Firstly- We have been in frequent contact with the vet yesterday and today via the phone. He knows the financial situation we're in. We will take Prince in if the vet thinks it's urgent but at the moment he believes it isn't.

My dog did a major chestflop off the bed yesterday. Into the floorboards. Being a small dog aged 18 and less than 3kgs this clearly did not go down well.... and now he's pretty sore and sorry for himself. He didn't move for a few minutes, cried when he was touched, and that continued all day yesterday. Limped, held one paw off the ground, but he also ate and went to the bathroom several times which the vet thought was a good sign. He (and we) thought he probably pulled a muscle in his chest or bruised some ribs. Or both. Pain meds apparently might be dangerous because he might move too fast and make the damage worse.

Still all day yesterday he couldn't bear being touched.

Today he's much perkier, even tried to run and stretch (both of which failed), still eating super mushed food... but he's still pretty sore and unhappy. We still can't touch his chest. So how can I make him comfortable? Would a hot water bottle or a heat pack under his bedding make him feel better? It's difficult to sit here knowing that he's in pain. I've never bruised ribs but I hear they're pretty awful.

I dreamed that I saw something thrashing about so I told the others to stop the car. It was a Marlin caught in a net at first, head and tail rising above the water, and then it morphed into a great silver dragon (chinese) that raised its head to look directly at me.

I jumped out of the car and ran to the side of the dragon.

Now it turned into a great white horse that was panicked and afraid, nets turning into heavy ropes, the horse charging in circles through a city park and getting caught on trees as people tried to catch it. I approached it as the ropes got tangled between two trees, forcing it to stop, and somehow managed to grasp it without getting kicked.

Now it morphed into a small white dog (Like a pomeranion or chihiowa.) and it struggled against me holding it down, every muscle tense with fear, cramping as it strained to resist.

I sung to it as I stroked it, slowly and gently, holding it in place, singing a lullaby. I didn't care if people were watching... I continued to stroke it and massage it and sooth it. After a while it calmed down and I was able to lift this dog into my arms and it settled down there. I decided then and there that it was coming home with me as I already had two small dogs and knew it would be the least threatened with me.... at least till it saw a vet and I considered what next to do. No one could talk me out of it.

Another interesting thing in this dream was that I already lived with two small Pomeranian x dogs- because I only have ONE dog at the moment.

Hello

My dog (who is around 18yrs) has been having it very tough the last few days as the weather suddenly grows hot... fleas are driving him crazy, his skin is red and sweaty and inflamed, and this has all happened just in the past two days or so.

I tried to give him a bath with a medicated shampoo for skin inflammation but he's still pretty unhappy.

We have this prickly heat talcum powder and it was suggested that I could use that to 'dry and cool' his sore and sweaty belly... but of course I want to make SURE it's safe before I try it. It has zinc oxide in a starch base...

Would it help? Is it SAFE for the dog? If not, is there something else I can do? We're starting flea treatment as well.

Any tips on de-fleaing a home enviroment would also be welcome. We do it year after year... but always something new and better to learn.

I have tonsilitis (at 27) which is something I used to have yearly as a child. NOW... here it is again. I started antibiotics yesterday, a pretty hefty dose apparently, but I've noticed that in the past 20 hours or so this entire thing has gotten worse again- my throat is more swollon, pills get stuck halfway down, and I'm feeling feverish chills again.

Is this normal... when you start antibiotics for the virius or whatever it is to ramp it up? I am trying to figure out if I should head back to the doc.

My dog (who is about 16) has started wetting the bed in his sleep. He doesn't even appear to have noticed he's done it- he only gets up in the morning. We've also noticed that he's peeing quite a lot more compared to usual and it's very watery. He also tends to try and eat and drink in the middle of the night more than once and will even wake us up to get to his food and/or water.

Anyone got an idea about what he's trying to tell us?

I've been looking for a job for a while now. All the correct jobs for me, qualification wise and so on, ask for a 'bubbly' personality. It's one of their 'position requirements'. Given that 1/3 people suffer from depression...

Is this even legal? Seriously?

My dog, a little pomeranion x, has been behaving pretty strange the past few days. He's stopped lifting his leg when he pees (which is something he's always done).

He's very interested in food but he doesn't eat it. And on the last walk he didn't poo. Usually I'll clean it up, unless we're in the bush, so I've noticed he ALWAYS poos somewhere along the journey. It's something I can guarantee with our walks- I'm going to need bags.

He also no longer relaxes his hips outwards- it was something he used to do whenever someone was stroking his belly, as he liked to be stroked on the skin of his inner hips, but now he holds his entire back end very tense, very close together, usually curling it up. My dog is still holding his tail up when he walks... but he no longer likes being held.

He is pretty trembly which we originally assumed was the cold as it's winter here, but he is kept very warm, and still tends to tremble. And he's gotten to be a bit of a stalker over the past week as well- I can't walk anywhere in the house without the dog finding a place to settle down nearby and watch.

I have noticed that when he heads outside he tries to eat dirt. It's something we've been trying to get him to STOP... but even now he seems more interested in dirt than actual food. We usually feed him on chicken, dog mince, dry dog food that the vet recommended, and sometimes a lean sausage. He only eats about half a cup a meal and has only gained some of his original weight back but seems healthy so we weren't so concerned.

Almost exactly a year ago he was very sick with something which the vet could never identify, something that caused bloody stools and caused him to loose over half his weight (from around 5kgs to 2 kgs) in just a matter of weeks, and literally on the day we decided to put him down... he started eating again and everything returned to normal.

So... I'm not sure what to do or how urgent it is. He has a genetic fault that provokes hips going out of joint every now and then but that's usually obvious- there's a limp. It also is usually only one hip. This 'curl up and keep both hips tightly held in' is pretty new.

Has anyone got any tips or seen this in their own dogs? He is still eating (or at least taking nibbles), walking, and shows interest in things, but I'd like to know what I could do to assist him in feeling a bit better if he is in a bit of pain.

Also- I totally agree about seeing the vet. There's no need to say it. :) His checkup is soon as well... and if he doesn't do a poo in the next two days he's going to the vet regardless.

The past three weeks I've noticed my body is trembling/twitching at night. I'm not cold.

It can be so strong that I actually wonder if I'm feeling the dog's trembling... I usually have to double check that he isn't on the bed with me!... but it's always my own body.

It feels like it's right along the bones in all the limbs... arms, legs, everything, and it doesn't stop all night. I had a few nights without it then I drank one cup of tea and it was back again. (Only one cup of tea and that was it... no other source of caffine all day... So I'm not sure if the tea in the caffine can do that.)

Has anyone experianced this? I'm not sure what to ask the doctor... it is just so weird.

Hello- I've noticed my Cervical Mucus is egg-white and stretchy, which I know is normal, but it has patches of cloudy mucus mixed in with it... so it's spotty. It's also very early for the 'fertile' period... it's only been a week since my period ended.

Is this normal?

Hello :) Lately my skin has been behaving very strange. (Past two months.) It started with the cheek... it started to dry out and get flaky dry skin, 'sores' rather than acne.

Now my entire face, except for my left cheek, is very dry and flaking off dead skin, and there's a few sores here and there across my nose and face. No real acne... just very dry skin that's got a lot of dead skin still attached. Doctor did a testosterone test, in case it was POS, but that's all normal.

Has anyone got any tips for how to help my face recover? I'm not sure how it happened to begin with but it'd be nice to reverse it.

Hello ;) I've been presented with a challenge. My friend has land which (some thousand years ago or so) was once sand dunes and is still almost pure-sand. It has ferns, trees, all native bushland... but still the base ground is sand. (Think sand dunes with a forest growing into it.)

There's a few areas of soil but they're lower down along the river and whenever it rains those areas become very soggy and soft. It's so soft during wet weather that you'd almost want a boardwalk to get over it... but I'm guessing it's highly fertile down there.

The other issue is that she'd like some kind of livestock.

I'm guessing we'd need to do raised garden beds or something... but I would love to hear people's tips about how they'd use this soil. Is there a way to treat areas of it? Do you recommend raised garden beds?

So I drank some homemade juice about three hours ago and now I've started to have diarrhea. It's pretty obvious it's the same drink- it's still as bright pink as it was then. (THanks, beets!) Only with acid involved. My stomach hurts pretty bad too... cramps and stuff. (I have had a little blood here and there the past few months which we were working on as fast as ew could... but public healthcare system means a few delays in a 'non-emergancy'.)

Should I be really worried about the fact that juice just zoomed through my body and out the butt without stopping?

Hello... over the past few days I've rushed backwards and forwards, travelled to a friends, and have been crazy busy more than usual... and tonight at a conference I suddenly started to feel strange. My BONES started to ache- literally in the dead middle of my arms and legs, in my left thigh bone and my arms, this throb-throb-throb that comes and goes in waves.

I also feel warm and my throat feels a bit strange and dry... I feel exhausted suddenly. But I can't sleep. My shoulders ache as well.

I can't remember having BONES ache like this during a flu but is that possible?

I am still at my friends house out in the remote country and about six hours from home (got to take a specific train into the city from the country) and I want to figure this out now and try to avoid infecting her with it as well if that's what is going on.

My poor Pomeranian has been having flea issues all summer. He's 16 and spends most of his day or night chewing on his fur, biting, licking and scratching, to the point of the fur around his belly, legs, claws and behind going pink.

We've tried flea baths, flea bombs, flea collars, flea squeezy things, and most summers this seems to work. But this summer... I don't know why but they just don't seem to be affected by anything. His pink skin has almost turned black and within days after another bath (which stresses him out badly) the flea dirt is back. The worst places are on his ears and his head. He chews on his legs all the time and is constantly scratching. His behind is very inflammed now as well... very red and swollen.

Any tips for getting those little buggers out of my dog's life?

I've never seen this one before. I'm located in Victoria, Australia.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/neithie/857...