#moderating

ANDREW GARFIELD

moderating a screening of "All of Us Strangers" tonight in the UK with Claire Foy, Andrew Scott, and Andrew Haigh.

I'm moderating my first panel, and my guests are Hildur Knútsdóttir, Istvan Vizvary, Søren Aske Hjorth and T. Kingfisher!

Given that this is a blog run by volunteers, we cannot answer every question that comes in. Some are due to lack of time; others are due to the fact that we simply can’t answer that type of question well.

First and foremost: PLEASE SEARCH THE BLOG FOR THE TOPIC OF YOUR ASK, *BEFORE* YOU ASK. If your question has been thoroughly addressed in the past, it will either be deleted without an answer, or routed to the previous posts if the mods are feeling generous. All of our asks are well-tagged with the topic(s) of the ask and are easily searchable. The home blogs of our contributing authors are also a treasure trove of previous discussions and information. Due to the long time delay, we recommend searching their blogs for relevant information as well before submitting your ask. We are working on several masterposts on a variety of topics and will link the main masterpost here when it is ready.

Second: even if your question follows all of the guidelines, we cannot answer time-sensitive questions. We place our asks in a week-long queue in the event we have time and energy to get to them, so a question asked today might not get published for a month or more. Some questions will simply never be answered due to time or energy constraints, or because they do not fit the guidelines below.

Third: this is a vet care blog, NOT a pet care blog. Questions should be relevant to veterinary medicine. We can discuss anxiety disorders in animals, but will not offer advice on how to make your specific pet's life more enriched or which crate is most indestructible. We are happy to discuss animal nutrition, but will not get into which food bowls are the best for your situation. Caveat: Questions about exotics* husbandry and nutrition are acceptable, as this is a large part of exotics medicine, but we are not here to tell you how to set up an enclosure for every single exotic pet.

*Exotics include any pet that isn’t a cat, dog, or farm animal

Fourth: We will not answer questions privately. If they follow the guidelines and are a question we want to answer, it will be published on the main blog.

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Once you have considered the above three points, keep in mind that we cannot, or will not, answer the following question types:

1. “My vet told me this, why did they say that?”

We can’t tell you. Go back and ask your vet. It’s okay to ask “My cat was diagnosed with heart failure. Can you discuss what factors are involved in the development of heart failure?” and another thing entirely to ask “Why did my vet prescribe a diuretic for my cat?”

2. “My vet told me this/did this to my pet, but I don’t believe them/think they did the wrong thing. Do you agree?”

We can’t tell you anything that your vet hasn’t already told you, at least not without a hands-on physical exam and performing diagnostics. If you don’t believe your vet, you need to ask for a second opinion or request referral to a specialty clinic. If you truly believe there was malpractice, you need to report the vet to the local governing board. We will not side with you against your vet and will not publish any question that includes vet-bashing.

3. “I haven’t been to a vet yet and my pet is sick. What do you think it is?” OR, “I’ve been to a vet and they don’t know what is wrong with my pet. What do you think it is?”

Again, we can’t tell you anything without a physical and diagnostics. Even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to prescribe or perform any treatments. Especially if it could be time-sensitive, you need to get in touch with a vet that can actually help you.

4. “Why does my pet behave in a certain way?”

While we do have a board-certified veterinary behaviorist volunteering with us, she is the busiest of all of us and has the least time to volunteer. While she does like to discuss overall behavior and behavioral disorders, there is simply not enough time for her to get into the nitty-gritty of every unusual habit of every single person’s pet. That is more of an @why-animals-do-the-thing question.

5. Personal anecdotes or responses to previous questions.

Clinic stories, life stories, vet stories, pet stories, etc will not be answered. While we do, as a group, occasionally appreciate the OP’s follow-up on our answered questions, and will read them if they come through the inbox, these will not get published. The purpose of the blog is information-spreading, rather than feel-good stories, of which there are many blogs to whom you can submit your pet pics and stories!

Finally, we reserve the right to decline to answer any and all questions that come through the inbox. We are a small group of volunteers and the blog needs to stay fun for us too. This project is intended to be an informational blog, not a replacement for doing your own research and asking your own vet.