The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Asthma The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Asthma
Showing posts with label Asthma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asthma. Show all posts

Friday, July 30, 2021

Why You Should Never Approach a Service Dog: Teen with Disabilities Had a Seizure When Her Service Dog was Distracted


Hailey Ashmore has several conditions, including: epilepsy, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, reactive hypoglycemia, severe allergies, gastroparesis, and asthma.

The 16-year-old from Dallas, TX relies on the help of her service dog, Flynn.

According to Fetching Apparel, Hailey was once a dancer on the varsity drill team, student council member, violinist and at the top of her class. However, with her conditions progressing, Hailey can only take classes online.

She is dependent on her parents, nurse, medications, and Flynn. The condition she grapples with the most is epilepsy, which causes seizures. Seizures are very serious; in another instance, a mom had a seizure and was unable to tend to her infant at the mall.

“To get a service dog you must be disabled to the point where you can no longer function at a normal quality of life without the assistance of service dogs,” said Hailey.

“It takes around two years of intense training and thousands of dollars (if you owner train) to actually be able to call your dog a service dog. A service dog can go anywhere its handler goes, with the exception of a sterile environment such as an operating room or burn unit, a religious building — such as a church, or some federal buildings,” she said.

The job of a service dog is very important to its human. See why Hailey is pleading with strangers to get them to stop petting her dog without permission.
  
                    Hailey has had Flynn since he was an itty-bitty puppy.


                              Needless to say, it was love at first sight.




Hailey also struggles with several conditions. “I have epilepsy, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, reactive hypoglycemia, severe allergies, gastroparesis, asthma, and more,” Hailey told Fetching Apparel.




Flynn isn't just a friend — he is Hailey's service dog. Flynn can sense when Hailey is going to have a seizure before it happens. This gives Hailey time to respond, get help, and find a safe place.




One day, Hailey was visiting her dad at work. When she arrived with Flynn, a staff member could not resist how adorable he is. They began to pet him, ignoring the giant "STOP" sign he wears. "I immediately told him to stop [petting Flyyn],” Hailey told the Dodo.


"The only time somebody should ever approach Flynn and I is if I am unconscious and/or having a seizure. Besides that, nobody should try to pet or get near him. I wish people could understand that's what the giant stop sign patch means. If somebody distracts him I can get seriously hurt. If you see a service dog in public please educate your children, your friends, your family, anybody else that they are doing a really important job. Thank you."



While Flynn was distracted from the petting, Hailey had a seizure. “I am used to him giving me 10 minute warnings, so when he alerted that’s what I thought I had,” explained Hailey. “Out of nowhere I remember the world going black. I woke up with Flynn on top of my legs and my father cradling my head. On the whole left side of my face there was a terrible sting that made me tear up.”



                                  Hailey woke up with rug burns on her head.



"My service dog is my lifeline. I don't say that to be cute. He helps keep me alive just like life support. If he gets distracted this happens. If he gets distracted I can die. Do not pet service dogs. Do not call to service dogs. Do not taunt service dogs. Do not talk to service dogs. Do not do anything to service dogs. Thank you," she wrote on Instagram.





Many of us are so eager to connect with animals, we often forget that they are protecting their human. Let's learn something from another's mistake and be more mindful of other people's animals!
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Monday, January 11, 2016

Researchers Believe That They Have Found a Link Between a Lower Risk of Asthma and Children’s Early Exposure to Pets


Researchers believe that they have found a link between a lower risk of asthma and children’s early exposure to pets. The hypothesis is that kids in animal environments breathe air that contains more bacterial fragments…and that can be a good thing, as it may actually lower their risk of asthma. Parents in busy animal-and-baby households understand that it’s nearly impossible to keep everything clean all of the time and the study suggests that this may be beneficial for the baby’s future health.

We already know that dog ownership comes with some important health benefits. Dogs help reduce stress and stave off depression. They even lower the risk of heart disease in their owners since generally dog owners lead a more active and social lifestyle.

More than 230 million people worldwide have asthma, a chronic inflammatory disease whose causes are unclear. Both genetics and external allergens are suspected to play a role. In the United States, 8.5% of children have asthma.

For this new research, Swedish scientists studied more than one million
children, combing through individual records and comparing people’s histories of family dog ownership against diagnosis of childhood asthma. Access to this data was possible because Sweden tracks medical records of all of its citizens through unique ID numbers, and the country also requires everyone to register dog ownership. Data analyzed for the study covered a time period from January 2007 through September 2012. The results of the research were published in the journal JAMA on November 2.

Among the children in the study, those who had been exposed to dogs during the first year of their life were 13% less likely to have asthma by age 6, compared to kids who had no exposure. The research also showed that school-aged kids who were exposed to farm animals in their first year of life were 52% less likely to have developed asthma by age 6 than those with no exposure. Among the preschool set of younger children, kids exposed to farm animals in their first year had 31% lower incidents of asthma between 1-5 years old compared to non-exposed toddlers.

Study author Tove Fall is an associate professor at Uppsala University in Sweden. Dr. Fall told Live Science that the lower asthma rate among children exposed to both dogs and farm animals might be due to a single factor, but is more likely a combination of factors related to a dog owners’ lifestyle and attitudes such as the kids “early exposure to household dirt and pet dust, time spent outdoors or being physically active.”

One positive takeaway message from the study is that parents fearful of childhood asthma don’t need to worry about keeping their dog or getting a puppy when they’re expecting a baby. This conclusion falls right in line with other previous hygiene studies that say being exposed to bacteria early in life can be critical for shaping a healthy and strong immune system.


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