Diabetes and Autoimmune Disorders

For the last couple of weeks I have been unable to visit the Larimer Humane Society due to mounting amounts of homework and work I have to get through each night and weekend. With this break (from volunteering at least), I felt I would describe two common feline diseases: Diabetes Mellitus and Eosinophillic Granuloma Complex. Two diseases that I have had first hand experience treating because my cat Krystal (shown on left) has both diseases. My drive to become a veterinarian was sparked through helping Krystal through her trials and tribulations with these conflicting diseases.

Fourteen years ago on Thanksgiving Day, my family sat around the couch eating pie and watching television after gorging only an hour earlier. My brother Bob came in holding a small black kitten in his arms. My twin sister and I at the age of eight jumped with joy and immediately grabbed Krystal from his arms. My mother looked a little upset about the sudden appearance of a cat in a primarily dog family, but held back from saying anything until she could corner my elder brother alone. That night sparked a relationship with Krystal to which forever changed me. That night was the beginning of a 14 year relationship.

In the beginning when Krystal was younger, she primarily was an indoor cat to protect Krystal from the high traffic around our house and superstitious neighbors. However, when my family moved to Austin, Texas, where our house was secluded and far from highways, Krystal switched from an indoor cat to an indoor/outdoor cat. This switch symbolized the key moment in Krystal's health. From this moment forward she would never be fully healthy again.

A year after moving to Austin, Krystal begin to develop strange habits such as excessive licking and drinking. Ulcerated masses appeared on her upper lips and paws along with the loss of hair on her belly. Worried, my mother and I took Krystal to the vet to configure what was happening. Our veterinarian Dr. Skinner, diagnosed Krystal with an autoimmune disorder but could not identify what immune disorder or the antigen (allergen) that was causing the symptoms. The vet prescribed vitamin E and told us to switch foods as it possibly could be from a food allergy. Another two weeks go by and Krystal's condition gets worse. Her salivary glands are swollen causing her breathing problems. She wheezes and sleeps all day. Obviously the new diet did not change the situation. This time at the vet Krystal was given a steroid shot to boost her immune system.

Krystal would continue to get shots for the next three years until new symptoms allowed our veterinarian to diagnose Krystal with the autoimmune disorder eosinophil granuloma. In this disorder, the immune system of the cat overreacts to some allergen (often food or insect) causing a certain white blood cell known as a eosinophil to recruit to the tissues (where the animal is bitten or having problems) and forms granulomas. This is not a abnormal function, however, eosinophils in auto-immune diseases target not only the antigen but also the body itself which leads to tissue damage and formation of the ulcers. The steroid shots help keep the disease at bay, but without a knowing the identification of what she was allergic to, not more could be done.

The years continued to go by with Krystal suffering on a seasonal basis as the disease seemed to flare up mainly in the summer and not in the winter. I moved to Colorado for my first year in college and was away from home for the first time. Within weeks, however, things at home back in Austin got worst. Krystal was losing weight even though she was constantly hungry and eating all the time. She was getting so hungry that she would steal food while my parents tried to eat diner, a behavior she never once exhibited. Krystal also was drinking massive amounts of water and seemed to waste away more each day. Worried, my parents took Krystal into the veterinary where Krystal was diagnosed with a second disease: Diabetes mellitus. At the age of 11, Krystal had lived longer then many people had believed, but now a new disease complicated situations. With Diabetes mellitus in felines the condition is always insulin dependent or similar in disease state to type I or juvenile diabetes in humans. However, cats, unlike humans, can be transient diabetics (diabetic for a short time) and then return to a healthy state where they are not insulin dependent. Diabetes in cats is also a common phenomenon for cats older than 13 years of age to acquire. With a new disease, Krystal would now require a carb free diet, insulin shots twice a day, and monthly checkups to the vet to monitor her glucose levels as a way to determine the amount of insulin she would need.

Krystal's diabetes helped Krystal become healthier than I had ever seen her. The insulin seemed to have magic effects on her health, behavior, and her general appearance. For the first time in seven years, Krystal grew a full coat without ulcerations and without the bald spot on her belly. But, this did not last long. Soon the ulcers returned worst than ever covering her entire interior of her right hind leg which are still present today. There is no treatment we can administer to Krystal because now that she is diabetic, the traditional steroid shot cannot be used to abate the disease. In the summer she suffers as the autoimmune disorder gives her crawling skin to which she constantly licks and scratches and there is nothing we can do to provide her comfort. The battle Krystal suffers daily is my constant reminder why I want to become a veterinarian and why research is needed. Krystal is my drive to enter into the veterinarina field as a way to help others who suffer and cannot help themselves. Krystal is my bestfriend and she has suffered long enough.

Copyrighted Material Guidelines

At the moment I am going to take an aside from the Larimer Humane society to place information regarding my beliefs/policies on the use of copyrighted material. In my writing online class at Colorado State University, we held a discussion about copyright laws and the internet culminating in a paper where each class member wrote what they believed the policy on copyright should be and how we would direct using copyright on our own sites and how we would communicate to others what we felt others could do with our own work from our websites. With much of my information on this blog coming from the Larimer Humane society, I felt that people deciding to utilize the information on this blog could see where I stand on copyright and what I feel is appropriate use of my written/image material.

The culture, art, and knowledge of a society is in constant flux often building, remaking, or even reusing old ideologies to form the new standard. Conversion to electronic formats have not changed this tradition, but only complicated the process due to the accessibility and the wide audience that is now available to artists and scientists. However, many feel that the internet version of building or reusing another’s work is theft, piracy, or bootlegging. Instead of falling under fair use, these acts are considered the same as deliberately stealing a whole work and passing it off as one’s own creation and bring the same penalties under copyright law. Publishing works online can create a vast community allowing wide dissemination of knowledge thus establishment of rhetoric for using these online works through fair use should be defined and outlined to distinguish rightful creation from stealing.

As stated earlier, the recreation of arts and ideas is not something new in culture, but is essential in innovating and continuing progress. In line with “Changing Copyright” by Negativland, the copyright concept of Fair Use should be broadened to allow for the use of existing work in the creation of new work. I believe Fair Use should extend to recreation with the stipulation that the new work references and gives credit to the original work whether done for profit or non-commercial reasons. This is completely different from taking an entire work and then selling or allowing free access to it through peer to peer networks which is piracy and stealing. The ideology of referencing is already established in scientific work where new published research credits and cites the previous research to which they utilized and often built upon. If science were forced with the same statutes through copyright law that now exist, the same roadblocks stifling progress would make research even more expensive to perform and less would be accomplished. I find big companies trying to enforce stricter copy right laws in terms of remixing to be hypocritical in their approach as both the David Post article and the journal article “Why Napster Matters to Writing: Filesharing as a New Ethic of Digital Delivery” cite that Disney utilized this very concept in the creation of Steam Boat Willy and in many of their fairy tale movies going back to the basic tenant that this tradition of remixing/rebuilding is not new and should be accepted.

Fair Use policies should also extend for the continued protection of use of copyrighted material in education. The article on the creative commons states that higher education is rooted in sharing and expanding work. However, what is frightening is copyrighted material is becoming more and more unavailable to students as seen in many of my classes where teachers are unable to give out materials of reference or slide of information (such as diagrams from a book) because they do not have permission. In the “Why Napster Matters to Writing: Filesharing as a New Ethic of Digital Delivery” journal article, the authors states that big industries are trying to close copyright loopholes such as fair use that may eventually limit education use and access to research. How can progress continue if information is inaccessible? How are we to teach? Fair Use should stay and continue to protect educational uses without need to pay or obtain permission.

The stealing of an entire work is punishable while building upon old work whether text, art, movie, or music with referencing should be allowed. In terms of my own work I support the use of my words and my pictures granted that individuals cite where the information originated. The use my entire work, however, requires permission at the minimum. In other situations and other artists, I feel it is up to the artist whether payment is due or that permission will suffice when using an entire work. The only exception is if the work is being used for broadcasting such as radio which “Get Real? A Manifesto From a New Generation of Cultural Critics: Technorealism” states belongs to the public requiring no payment and no permission. Parodies are protected under Fair Use and I invite people to socially criticize works along with mine as a right under their freedom of speech. Peer to Peer sharing of whole works including mine will not be allowed unless given permission and should not be sold for profit unless condoned by the artist (such as in charitable events). These acts if not otherwise permitted should be punishable, but the later act should be harsher in sentence than the former. Recreation is a tradition required for continued improvement and should be allowed.

In my own use of copyright on my blog and other online works, the aforementioned rules still apply including citing, permission/payment if an entire work, and not posting on peer to peer networks. I am a scientist and employ the referencing method in many of my essays and also utilize this concept with my blog where much of my information comes from the Larimer Humane Society. I do have permission from the Larimer Humane Society to place information on this blog; however, under my guidelines, permission is not needed as the blogs posted are remixes of information obtained by myself and from information provided at the Larimer Humane Society.

As the Principles of Technorealism states “Information should be protected…we must update old laws and interpretation to that information receives roughly the same protection as it did in the context of old media.” For culture to be fluid, to improve a new standard has to be reached allowing both the protection of art/knowledge, but also allowing the unbiased action of recreating and building off old ideas.