RANT HERE thread

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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that redhead said:
Oh good, that's really all I'd need it for - send it on over :D

As to the other topic, I'm very puzzled by the far less serious but far more common "limping" presentation where, as I get into the history, the owners will remark multiple times, "But (s)he doesn't seem painful." Oh...so why is it that they're limping? I think people expect some human-like screaming or something. (Actually I don't know what they expect; not sure why drawing a parallel to humans is so difficult.)
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Hands off our scope, you. :)

And YES. Whenever they say that, I'm always like "so you think they're just faking the limp?" I mean.... I'm pretty sure someone will jump in in classic SDN style with a "It happens! I saw it once!" story about some dog somewhere faking something, but in general? C'mon people. If your dog is lame, it hurts.
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LetItSnow said:
Hands off our scope, you. :)

And YES. Whenever they say that, I'm always like "so you think they're just faking the limp?" I mean.... I'm pretty sure someone will jump in in classic SDN style with a "It happens! I saw it once!" story about some dog somewhere faking something, but in general? C'mon people. If your dog is lame, it hurts.
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What if horses faked lameness? An entire industry turned on its head.
 
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LetItSnow said:
Hands off our scope, you. :)

And YES. Whenever they say that, I'm always like "so you think they're just faking the limp?" I mean.... I'm pretty sure someone will jump in in classic SDN style with a "It happens! I saw it once!" story about some dog somewhere faking something, but in general? C'mon people. If your dog is lame, it hurts.
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yeah 9 times out of 10, not faking. but that one dog that knows he get special attention when he "hurts" himself?

twelvetigers said:
What if horses faked lameness? An entire industry turned on its head.
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horse suicide right there
 
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LetItSnow said:
Hands off our scope, you. :)

And YES. Whenever they say that, I'm always like "so you think they're just faking the limp?" I mean.... I'm pretty sure someone will jump in in classic SDN style with a "It happens! I saw it once!" story about some dog somewhere faking something, but in general? C'mon people. If your dog is lame, it hurts.
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My one dog tweeked his leg coming down the stairs one day and when he was still limping the next day, he went into work with me. He got lots of attention of course. The next day BOTH of my other dogs faked a limp on a front leg for a short period of time. I really couldn't believe it when I saw it. The faking was really brief though and I don't suspect that is common at all.
 
heyyimhayley said:
So just as a warning , anyone who is my FB friend may have seen it already but I feel like I need to share this.. So I'm getting slandered and harassed on Facebook. So I deleted my account. So anyway, anyone who is my friend I would like to ask if you receive anything please let me know, but don't reply just report and block whatever you hear from. Thanks :)
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I did receive a friend request from this strange account last tuesday, but it had already been taken down and was unclickable. It happened too quickly for me to say anything. Sad that others can't find anything better to do with their time.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG.

I've been xrayed by accident THREE TIMES in the last six weeks and I'M OVER IT. STOP MUTATING MY OVARIES PEOPLE. SAY XRAY OR CLEAR OR SOMETHING AND LOOK TO SEE IF I'M CLEAR.

:punch::mad::bang:
 
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nyanko said:
I had to euthanize my 5 year old dog yesterday. She had congenital multifocal brain disease (deaf, cerebellar, and had seizures), and had been doing really well. Seemed non-progressive. But yesterday, she had an episode of status epilepticus that was absolutely non-responsive to benzos, loaded her on pheno and keppra and had to put her on a propofol CRI intubated. Tried weaning her off after 4 hours and she immediately went back to seizuring nonstop. Made the decision to stop rather than keep her there overnight on propofol only to repeat the same thing today and prolong the inevitable. I'm pretty torn up over this since it was so sudden. Her other 2 witnessed seizures in her life were like 30 seconds-1 minute long and she recovered easily, and the last one was years ago. We were just about to move to where she would have a huge yard again too. :(
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Im SO sorry


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
TerraVet said:
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG.

I've been xrayed by accident THREE TIMES in the last six weeks and I'M OVER IT. STOP MUTATING MY OVARIES PEOPLE. SAY XRAY OR CLEAR OR SOMETHING AND LOOK TO SEE IF I'M CLEAR.

:punch::mad::bang:
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good news! If it's digital radiology, the likelihood is that you haven't really been exposed to much
 
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Today someone beat a dog and then threw it in a charcoal barbecue. We're not sure if he beat it to death or burned it to death, but both options are equally abhorrent.
 
vetmedhead said:
Today someone beat a dog and then threw it in a charcoal barbecue. We're not sure if he beat it to death or burned it to death, but both options are equally abhorrent.
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Do they know who and will they be flogged or tarred and feathered?
 
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vetmedhead said:
Today someone beat a dog and then threw it in a charcoal barbecue. We're not sure if he beat it to death or burned it to death, but both options are equally abhorrent.
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My lab got an 8 month old puppy sent to us for the pathologists to try and see which of these two methods killed it. It was a few months ago from and I think the animal control folks were vigorously pursing punishment for the person that did it.
The pictures of it were terrible.
 
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Teepster87 said:
My lab got an 8 month old puppy sent to us for the pathologists to try and see which of these two methods killed it. It was a few months ago from and I think the animal control folks were vigorously pursing punishment for the person that did it.
The pictures of it were terrible.
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We're in a similar position. We know a pathologist who specifically works on cruelty forensics cases and we're hoping to get her to do a more thorough necropsy than we have the supplies for.

The pictures are bad, the smell worse.
 
Getting the rabies vaccine series is turning into the biggest PITA.
 
Coquette22 said:
I work with two vets that LOVE surgery, they do the cutting for me. In return, I help them interpret blood work and figure out their anesthetic protocols.
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my associate loves surgery, too. I "let" her do everything but some neuters (I really like neuters)
 
Coquette22 said:
I work with two vets that LOVE surgery, they do the cutting for me. In return, I help them interpret blood work and figure out their anesthetic protocols.
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I can't even express how much surgery I would do for people for them to interpret my bloodwork for me. By far my least favourite subject, ha.
 
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Trilt said:
I can't even express how much surgery I would do for people for them to interpret my bloodwork for me. By far my least favourite subject, ha.
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Radiographs would be my exchange and then I'd do surgery. Except I won't do ortho. Maybe a lateral suture but that's it. Oh and I'd be okay with gross skin things.
 
orca2011 said:
Radiographs would be my exchange and then I'd do surgery. Except I won't do ortho. Maybe a lateral suture but that's it. Oh and I'd be okay with gross skin things.
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:love:
I think once I'm out of school I would be the vet willing to take gross skin things and gross dead things in exchange for someone else doing surgery for me.
 
Teepster87 said:
My lab got an 8 month old puppy sent to us for the pathologists to try and see which of these two methods killed it. It was a few months ago from and I think the animal control folks were vigorously pursing punishment for the person that did it.
The pictures of it were terrible.
Click to expand...

Ugh. I hate those cases. I did a few in residency, including a pitty puppy that was set on fire. :(
 
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WhtsThFrequency said:
I'm right there with you.

I really loved anesthesia though for some reason. Just not the whole doing things under anesthesia.
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Anesthesia terrified me in school, but I find myself really enjoying it in practice. We have a newly graduated tech who is writing her VTNE soon and she told me her weak point is pharmacology to which I enthusiatically responded, "Ooh that's my favourite!"
 
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Coquette22 said:
I really wish people would stop acting like I'm an alien for being a vet that hates doing surgery.
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This is me. I don't mind neuters, mass removals and laceration repairs, but I'd rather avoid anything big and bleedy in the abdomen. And hell no to orthopedics.

Give me rads and bw anytime.
 
Our favorite cat-hoarder client brought in 3 near death kitties. One was euthanized, two are doing a lot better, all were covered in fleas. (Fleas = My new nemesis)

One of the cats is a mama. She came in with 6 kittens. All were covered in fleas, one had maggots (or maggot-like things) all over his head and inside his mouth. So many of the cases she brings us are heartbreaking. She 'saves' feral cats and brings them into her home and barn, and builds little rooms for them to keep them all separate. She's had 9 litters of kittens so far this summer.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Our favorite cat-hoarder client brought in 3 near death kitties. One was euthanized, two are doing a lot better, all were covered in fleas. (Fleas = My new nemesis)

One of the cats is a mama. She came in with 6 kittens. All were covered in fleas, one had maggots (or maggot-like things) all over his head and inside his mouth. So many of the cases she brings us are heartbreaking. She 'saves' feral cats and brings them into her home and barn, and builds little rooms for them to keep them all separate. She's had 9 litters of kittens so far this summer.
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Ugh, we had a client like this, too :(

I'm glad the two are doing better, and hope the kittens will be okay. Did she surrender them to your clinic or is she planning to take them all back?
 
Caiter92 said:
Ugh, we had a client like this, too :(

I'm glad the two are doing better, and hope the kittens will be okay. Did she surrender them to your clinic or is she planning to take them all back?
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She's planning to take them back to her still very flea-infested house. She was talking to us today about how she has one room that has less fleas than the others, but fleas are still fleas . . . I don't want them to go back there, especially the itty bitty 2-day old kittens. I want to kidnap them all and take them home with me.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
She's planning to take them back to her still very flea-infested house. She was talking to us today about how she has one room that has less fleas than the others, but fleas are still fleas . . . I don't want them to go back there, especially the itty bitty 2-day old kittens. I want to kidnap them all and take them home with me.
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:(
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Our favorite cat-hoarder client brought in 3 near death kitties. One was euthanized, two are doing a lot better, all were covered in fleas. (Fleas = My new nemesis)

One of the cats is a mama. She came in with 6 kittens. All were covered in fleas, one had maggots (or maggot-like things) all over his head and inside his mouth. So many of the cases she brings us are heartbreaking. She 'saves' feral cats and brings them into her home and barn, and builds little rooms for them to keep them all separate. She's had 9 litters of kittens so far this summer.
Click to expand...

Caiter92 said:
Ugh, we had a client like this, too :(

I'm glad the two are doing better, and hope the kittens will be okay. Did she surrender them to your clinic or is she planning to take them all back?
Click to expand...

PrincessButterCup said:
She's planning to take them back to her still very flea-infested house. She was talking to us today about how she has one room that has less fleas than the others, but fleas are still fleas . . . I don't want them to go back there, especially the itty bitty 2-day old kittens. I want to kidnap them all and take them home with me.
Click to expand...
You are describing pretty much every day at work for me, as we get a lot of community cats (and hoarded cats) in awful shape at animal control. The maggot kitten we probably would have euthanized on intake.

Is there an "end point" for the cats she "rescues"? Do they ever leave her care or does she keep them indefinitely?

Has the practitioner at your practice approached her about surrendering any of the animals to someone or even just not taking in more? Hoarding at the level you're describing is pretty serious animal cruelty and though the offenders usually seem fairly innocuous, their animals are generally suffering from being in their care.

Something to think about (from an animal control employee's perspective): stray animals (even ferals) are not usually as sick when they come in as hoarded animals typically are, despite having no person to care for them whatsoever and being on their own in the elements. Animals would literally be better off on their own than under a hoarder's care.

If she's unreceptive to conversations about giving her animals away, I would encourage you or the vets you work with to report the hoarding suspicions to a regulatory authority like animal control. Most municipalities have statutes limiting the number of animals a person can own, and they could potentially remove those animals from her care and give her access to resources to be able to manage an appropriate number of animals. Reporting hoarding can also be important if she has any dependent family members like children or elderly parents, as they would need to be removed from the home as well.

I worked on a case with a lady like that once, she had dirty litter boxes stacked chest high all over the house and kept all of her dead cats in her freezer. :/

Also, if she's not actually a hoarder and you're just venting, sorry to jump all over you with this long post. I've just had animal cruelty on my mind a lot today and I'm kind of in autopilot .
 
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PrincessButterCup said:
Our favorite cat-hoarder client brought in 3 near death kitties. One was euthanized, two are doing a lot better, all were covered in fleas. (Fleas = My new nemesis)

One of the cats is a mama. She came in with 6 kittens. All were covered in fleas, one had maggots (or maggot-like things) all over his head and inside his mouth. So many of the cases she brings us are heartbreaking. She 'saves' feral cats and brings them into her home and barn, and builds little rooms for them to keep them all separate. She's had 9 litters of kittens so far this summer.
Click to expand...
Had a client like this before, but worse. Every time she brought a cat in it was on death's door, but she refused to ever euthanize. She had something like 300 cats on her property. Also had some weird respiratory infection that we couldn't identify go through her colony. And she always smelled like cat pee. She almost never paid her bill. I'm not entirely sure why the vet continued to see her, but he was the practice owner so his choice I suppose.
 
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WildZoo said:
Had a client like this before, but worse. Every time she brought a cat in it was on death's door, but she refused to ever euthanize. She had something like 300 cats on her property. Also had some weird respiratory infection that we couldn't identify go through her colony. And she always smelled like cat pee. She almost never paid her bill. I'm not entirely sure why the vet continued to see her, but he was the practice owner so his choice I suppose.
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Omg, I bet her house was just rancid. Hoarder houses smell ungodly awful with even just 20 animals, I can't even imagine 300. And the cat pee smell :eek:

I wonder if her cats were also getting sick from the amount of ammonia in that place. A house we raided last month had a pet tarantula in it that was getting sick just from the pure concentration of ammonia in the house.
 
WildZoo said:
Had a client like this before, but worse. Every time she brought a cat in it was on death's door, but she refused to ever euthanize. She had something like 300 cats on her property. Also had some weird respiratory infection that we couldn't identify go through her colony. And she always smelled like cat pee. She almost never paid her bill. I'm not entirely sure why the vet continued to see her, but he was the practice owner so his choice I suppose.
Click to expand...

We have a similar one. Some of her cats are very sick, but it's a struggle to get her to euthanize. She honestly believes she's on a mission from God to save cats. The house has well over 150 cats, but a coworker has actually been there and said that they keep the house very clean. The vast majority of the cats are actually in catteries. How they manage that, I have no idea, but the one woman's entire life and every waking moment is devoted to those cats. Her friend or partner or whoever is much more realistic and has been pushing to reduce the number they have, but it's a struggle.

I've worked with this client repeatedly, and it's like the porch light is on but nobody's home. She'll even come in with "Fluffy. #4. I think. Or maybe this is Stinky #2. I can't remember if I ever brought this one in." Almost none of them are vaccinated, and most of the ones we see are FIV+. We only see the really sick ones. Like the one with a really nasty, invasive tumor who she kept clinging on to for a few weeks before her partner finally convinced her to let the cat go. That cat was getting SQ fluids on a regular basis, and she'd book her appointments last minute and expect us to accommodate her no matter what. She even asked more than one coworker if they'd be willing to come to her house and do it for her. Yeah, okay. But this client does in fact pay the bill every time, and she's in frequently, so there you have it.
 
vetmedhead said:
You are describing pretty much every day at work for me, as we get a lot of community cats (and hoarded cats) in awful shape at animal control. The maggot kitten we probably would have euthanized on intake.

Is there an "end point" for the cats she "rescues"? Do they ever leave her care or does she keep them indefinitely?

Has the practitioner at your practice approached her about surrendering any of the animals to someone or even just not taking in more? Hoarding at the level you're describing is pretty serious animal cruelty and though the offenders usually seem fairly innocuous, their animals are generally suffering from being in their care.

Something to think about (from an animal control employee's perspective): stray animals (even ferals) are not usually as sick when they come in as hoarded animals typically are, despite having no person to care for them whatsoever and being on their own in the elements. Animals would literally be better off on their own than under a hoarder's care.

If she's unreceptive to conversations about giving her animals away, I would encourage you or the vets you work with to report the hoarding suspicions to a regulatory authority like animal control. Most municipalities have statutes limiting the number of animals a person can own, and they could potentially remove those animals from her care and give her access to resources to be able to manage an appropriate number of animals. Reporting hoarding can also be important if she has any dependent family members like children or elderly parents, as they would need to be removed from the home as well.

I worked on a case with a lady like that once, she had dirty litter boxes stacked chest high all over the house and kept all of her dead cats in her freezer. :/

Also, if she's not actually a hoarder and you're just venting, sorry to jump all over you with this long post. I've just had animal cruelty on my mind a lot today and I'm kind of in autopilot .
Click to expand...


She was reported by another clinic earlier this year. She was keeping an elderly dog in her car. He had an e. collar because of a laceration, was frequently getting stuck between seats of the car, and spent no one knows how many hours stuck upside down with vomit in his e. collar before she found him that night. the vet was concerned and she said she wouldn't keep in the car anymore, but then she didn't change a thing. (He was living in the car 24/7 except for coming out once a day) The clinic reported her, and the police went out and did an inspection of her home.

From what I understand, they couldn't do anything about her cat hoarding because that wasn't the problem that was reported? I'm not sure. She was given an ultimatum to euthanize the dog but nothing happened about the cats.

She is unreliable about paying. When I first started working here she owed 2,000 dollars, which was only paid when we refused her service. She is willing to adopt out cats, but she rarely finds a home that meets her standards. She boarded 2 kittens with us for 6 months to try and find them a home, but there was no one who could meet all of her conditions. They now live in a room in her barn. At our count she currently has 30+ cats in her home, no clue about the barn. All the ones that come in are covered in urine and fleas and look like they're at death's door. In the past she's refused to euthanize for any reason, but this week she let us put down a late stage renal failure.

If she is reported for the cats, does it have to come from a vet or be connected to the hospital? Can it be reported anonymously?
 
PrincessButterCup said:
If she is reported for the cats, does it have to come from a vet or be connected to the hospital? Can it be reported anonymously?
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I've reported someone anonymously that we saw at the hospital. The vet I was working with at the time was on the fence about it and I felt there was no harm in requesting a wellness check.
 
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PrincessButterCup said:
She was reported by another clinic earlier this year. She was keeping an elderly dog in her car. He had an e. collar because of a laceration, was frequently getting stuck between seats of the car, and spent no one knows how many hours stuck upside down with vomit in his e. collar before she found him that night. the vet was concerned and she said she wouldn't keep in the car anymore, but then she didn't change a thing. (He was living in the car 24/7 except for coming out once a day) The clinic reported her, and the police went out and did an inspection of her home.

From what I understand, they couldn't do anything about her cat hoarding because that wasn't the problem that was reported? I'm not sure. She was given an ultimatum to euthanize the dog but nothing happened about the cats.

She is unreliable about paying. When I first started working here she owed 2,000 dollars, which was only paid when we refused her service. She is willing to adopt out cats, but she rarely finds a home that meets her standards. She boarded 2 kittens with us for 6 months to try and find them a home, but there was no one who could meet all of her conditions. They now live in a room in her barn. At our count she currently has 30+ cats in her home, no clue about the barn. All the ones that come in are covered in urine and fleas and look like they're at death's door. In the past she's refused to euthanize for any reason, but this week she let us put down a late stage renal failure.

If she is reported for the cats, does it have to come from a vet or be connected to the hospital? Can it be reported anonymously?
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with laws in your area, but where I'm at reports are taken from anybody (we also often take police/911 calls) and tend to be taken more seriously with names attached so we know it's not just spatting neighbors or something. The reporters don't have to be vets - anybody can call! We've even put cases together based on receiving a ton (like 15) "community" cats from a single street and talking to neighbors about where they were coming from.

As for previous reports on her, not sure about that. They may have only been allowed to truly search her car/seize her dog since that is where the animal was reported to be kept and that is the case they were called out on. Officers generally cannot enter a property without being invited by the homeowner and/or given permission by courts via a search warrant unless there are exigent circumstances requiring their entrance (things like a crime actively occurring, someone is dying in the house, someone is actively destroying criminal evidence in the house, they're in hot pursuit of a suspect, etc.). Animals are also generally considered property, so they cannot be seized without a warrant or very obvious exigent circumstances (to seize then without one of these is a fourth amendment violation). It also sounds like she is keeping the cats in her barn, in which case a search of the home may turn up no obvious signs of animal cruelty (unless they had happened to check her freezer... She sounds like a lady who might keep all her dead cats lol)

My suspicion is that if she were reported for the hoarding specifically they could likely work on a case to enter the home and seize the animals. These types of cases take time and a lot of interdepartmental coordination to both build a case and identify all of the laws potentially being broken in the home. You want to be able to go into these homes prepared and with an ironclad warrant that outlines absolutely everything you're looking for and may want to seize, which takes time to put together. Many hoarder homes are often cited for city code violations, CPS/APS may need to be contacted, there may be drugs in the home, etc. which can all complicate things.

If she lives in an unincorporated or rural area, she would likely be outside city limits and may not be subject to restrictions on the number of animals she owns. This gets complicated, but if officers can find evidence of animal suffering or inadequate care they may be able to still pursue a case against her. If they did that they may subpoena medical records from your clinic looking for evidence that she had provided medical care to her animals.
 
vetmedhead said:
Omg, I bet her house was just rancid. Hoarder houses smell ungodly awful with even just 20 animals, I can't even imagine 300. And the cat pee smell :eek:

I wonder if her cats were also getting sick from the amount of ammonia in that place. A house we raided last month had a pet tarantula in it that was getting sick just from the pure concentration of ammonia in the house.
Click to expand...
I cannot imagine and don't really want to. I'm not sure if it was accurate and it was a few years ago so i could be wrong but I think I was told that we (vets and staff) couldn't report her because the only reason we knew about the hoarding was because she was seeking medical care. Or something like that. Doesn't sound right now that i say it but I know they told me some reason for why they hadn't reported her. Had an idea about reporting it after I quit working there but couldn't remember her full name, and I didn't ever see her address.
 
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