Horse Lover

Hello!

In my Science class, one of the final tests had a perplexing question. My mom and I both tried to solve it, but to no avail. Could you guys help?

The weak acid HC2H3O2 has an equilibrium expression of Keq= [H+] [C2H3O2-] / [HC2H3O2]

The Keq= 1.8 x 10 to the negative fifth power. If the [HC2H3O2] = 0.10M, what is the [H+]?

The answer key indicates the correct answer is 1.34 x 10 to the negative third power, but I have no clue how to get there. Thanks!

My 7 year old male tabby cat, Aslan, has had a serious ear problem since the middle of September.

He is an indoor/outdoor cat, and he came in at about 11AM on Friday, September 16. He was staggering like a cat coming out from under general anesthesia. His eyes were clear, though. We let him sleep for a few hours, thinking that maybe he had eaten something and needed to recover from that. At around 4:30, he was no better. We took him to the vet's clinic, but our regular vet (the one we like the most) was ready to leave and only got a quick glance at him. The vet we did see diagnosed him with toxicity from First Shield, a flea treatment he had received the previous day. She recommended that we take him to the Emergency Vet and have them give him a bath, put a catheter in him, and give him a muscle relaxant. Please note that she did no tests.

The next morning, Saturday, my mom was looking up toxicity from First Shield. It turns out that toxicity from First Shield is highly unlikely, and if the cat were to have a reaction to it, there would swelling and redness at the application spot. Aslan clearly did not have this. We took him to the Emergency Vet that morning for another opinion. The vet there agreed with us; that First Shield was not the problem. She did a complete blood test, and everything was normal. She even did a simple neurological test, and he passed. It is worth mentioning here that Aslan's right ear was twitched back a bit and he tilted his head to the right. She suspected toxoplasmosis, and gave us a week's worth of antibiotics. She told us to recheck with our regular vet on Monday.

On Sunday, my mom noticed something odd with Aslan's eyes: nystagmus. His eyes were darting quickly away from his right ear and moving back at a slightly slower speed.

That following Tuesday, we took him to our regular vet. My mom had researched what could have been wrong with him, and she strongly suspected Vestibular Disease. She brought this info to the vet. He added antivert and topical ear drops to Aslan's medicines. Aslan finished his antibiotic and the antivert in that week, and was much better when he was on the antibiotic. I would also like to note that Aslan's nystagmus went away in a few days.

One week after he finished the antibiotic for toxoplasmosis, Aslan became worse. He started the whole thing over again: twitched right ear and lack of balance and coordination. He went back to the vet, and the vet thought that maybe an ear infection was causing this. Clavamox was prescribed at 1.8 cc twice a day. Aslan went through three bottles of the stuff, and finished them in one-and-a-half weeks. He had gotten better within hours of receiving his first dose. Aslan got steadily better over the next week and a half.

Here we are today, two weeks after Aslan finished the Clavamox, and he has gotten those same problems again. His right ear is not twitched back, but his balance is definitely off. His head is also tilted so much that his ears are nearly vertical. He has racked up $400 in vet bills, and my parents do not want to spend much more money on him.

Please note that during all of this, Aslan has been eating and drinking normally. He uses the litterbox normally. Also, these onsets of ear problems occur suddenly with no warning, and they have happened exactly one week and two weeks after his antibiotics have been finished up, respectively.

I've read that weather can negatively affect cats who have Vestibular Disease. It is supposed to rain tomorrow where I live. Could that affect him somehow? Please help me. I hate seeing my cat like this.