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ADVENTURE

From extreme neglect to new life of love and adventure make room for ‘Nakey Jakey’

by Tracy J. Chu

At the Kentucky Humane Society, a terrier mix suffering from heartbreaking neglect arrived. His severe disease and infections left his skin so raw and inflamed, all of his fur had fallen away. In fact, his skin was so raw and painful on arrival, the staff had not even been able to even comfort him.

In addition to his raging infections almost all over his body, the dog dubbed Jake’s front legs were deformed as a result of carpal hypertension – a condition caused by long term malnutrition. His nails were some of the longest and most painful the veterinarians treating him had ever seen. His condition is similar to animals who have been confined for most of their lives.

Despite all he’s been through, he is sweet, a little goofy and gentle. We named him Jakey, but everyone has fallen so in love with him that we are affectionately calling him Nakey Jakey! Our vet team is treating his skin infections and managing his pain and we are making sure he is getting all the nutrition he needs. We’re already beginning to see some fur come in! Once his infections are under control and he is on the road to recovery.

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From now on, Nakey Jakey will be receiving the care and love he needs, although he does have a long road to recovery ahead of him.

Updates to follow.

To help Nakey Jakey and other dogs in desperate need, please click here.

Follow the National Pet Rescue on Facebook for the latest animal related news.

Learning how to howl.

Don’t mess with me.

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VACATION

Planning A Caribbean Vacation? Here Are Some Infections To Consider Protecting Yourself Against

by Tracy J. Chu

Most sites offering travel safety advice focus on petty theft, watching that your drinks aren’t spiked, and being careful after dark. Little is written about reducing your infectious risk beyond “Don’t drink the water or ice.”

Being an infectious disease doctor, I wanted to share my concerns about travel to the Caribbean now and how you might have a safe(r) trip.

I’m in Puerto Rico now, my first major travel since Covid began. It’s been good for my soul, and while I’m likely taking more precautions than many would—an occupational hazard mostly from seeing complications of things—I’ve felt safer here than most places at home.

Covid

Frankly, my flight on United Airlines was the scariest part of the trip. I’m sure they are not unique in having lousy ventilation. I watched my Aranet 4 CO2 monitor readings throughout the flight. They rose to 2900 during boarding and were never less than ~1700 during the flight.

Dr. Jeff Gilchrist had a helpful thread about CO2 levels, and offered a “spreadsheet shared air calculator. When the CO2 levels are at 975 ppm, you can see that every breath people take in that room contains 1.5% of the collective breath of others. This may not sound like much, except the typical amount of air inhaled per day means you are breathing in 6 litres every hour of other people’s breath. If ventilation was horrible and CO2 levels were 3152 ppm, that would be 30 litres every hour of other people’s breath.”

We wore N-100 masks and did not remove them for a moment, except for TSA’s identification check, from the time

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