Last week’s most read posts –
- The meaning behind different dog sounds. Link.
Last AHD Bulletin –
- Animal Health Digest Bulletin, Thursday, September 29, 2022. Link.
Can veterinary social workers help alleviate workplace stress?
Source: Paulick Report, September 30, 2022. Link. Veterinary social work offers compassion, empathy, understanding, validation, and compassion to pet owners suffering a loss. The veterinary social worker role is also designed to support vets and veterinary staff who are experiencing workplace stress and burnout, which is often exacerbated by staffing shortages.
In Alaska’s Fat Bear Week election, there’s no party like a salmon party
Source: NPR, October 4, 2022. Link. In many ways, it’s a model election. The campaign runs for only one week, and all the candidates are well-grounded and devoid of hypocrisy.
Once upon a time . . . women rode miles on horseback to deliver books
Source: Atlas Obscura. Link. The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA and created to help lift America out of the Great Depression. The book women rode 100 to 120 miles a week, on their own horses or mules, along designated routes, regardless of the weather.
When it comes to raccoons, it’s the shy ones you have to watch out for.
Source: Salon, October 2, 2022. Link. It’s like taking candy from a baby. Or leftover Chinese food from a garbage can; whatever metaphor works for you. Just play it cool. Don’t pick any fights and don’t make a lot of noise. If you really want to make it as a bandit in the big city, you’ve got to become the kind of raccoon nobody suspects.
Why itching may be contagious
Source: New Scientist, October 4, 2022. Link. Gastrin-releasing peptide, a chemical messenger, was first associated with itching in 2007. Contagious itching may have evolved as a survival mechanism, such as by alerting other animals in the group that a parasite could be circulating. Researchers at Washington University in Missouri are studying visual reflexes in mice and inhibiting the itch response.