His name is Samson. Or Sam. Or Sammie. Or possibly Sammie Sam. We recently noticed that he was having problems with his left leg and walking. We took him to our regular veterinarian (Sammie loves the vet, he gets super-jaunty). Our vet gave us a preliminary diagnosis of Canine Degenerative Myelopathy or CDM — incurable, leads to paralysis and an early death. And tears and worry.
BUT, Sam's doctor isn’t quite certain. Sam is awfully young (3 yrs, normal onset is 5-7 yrs), CDM is rare, and we won’t really know for sure until a genetic test comes back. I took this uncertainty and ran with it to the Internet.
I found videos of dogs with CDM on YouTube (where I fell into a YouTube hole of sick pet videos), advice from those same folks, holistic veterinarians recommending herbal supplements, canine chiropractors, canine massage therapists and well-designed websites with authoritative sounding names that compile pet health information, but open with a pop-up ad (petMD, I’m looking at you).
And while canine alternative medicine might sound good to you, I’m a skeptic. I like double-blind placebo studies and Western medicine. I acknowledge that other approaches to medicine may be valid, but they can be difficult to measure accurately.
I also teach "information literacy" and am about as expert as you can get at sorting through the varieties of crap on the web. And I was confused.
So I consulted with the authorities in my life. Our veterinarian mentioned an acupuncturist he works with. I spoke with the resident authority on dogs in the Centennial Science and Engineering Library and another colleague who had used canine acupuncture successfully before. I probably wouldn’t seriously consider acupuncture for myself, but for my dog? Maybe it would help and he doesn’t know to be scared of needles.
After a conversation with Amy -- our Life Sciences Librarian (she used to work for the San Diego Zoo!) -- she sent me a bunch of useful resources. This resource in particular did not come up in my Google searches: The Merck Veterinary Manual.
And the Merck Manual was the key. It helped me with things like: what other conditions might Sam suffer from and why the term “canine degenerative myelopathy" wasn’t quite as successful in the Google searches as I had expected and the deal with acupuncture for dogs (yes! there's evidence that it works). Amy knew where to find the best information.
I mentioned information literacy. We librarians have this Framework to help us focus our teaching efforts around certain important concepts. One of these concepts is called “authority.” We like to say that “authority is constructed and contextual.” Constructed is a way of referring to the systems that we use to build and confirm authority. Sam's veterinarian has an advanced degree — a DVM, doctor of veterinary medicine — that’s one kind of authority. I referred to a colleague who I consider an expert on dogs — she’s built authority with me over time because she’s given me good advice about my own dogs. We all know people we trust to give us good information, and for me that includes my librarian colleagues. That’s another kind of authority based on experience.
And context is everything when it comes to authority. A professional diagnosis gave me little hope. Our veterinary doctor suggested acupuncture because it might help Sam feel more comfortable or it might slow the progress of the disease. Western medicine has nothing for CDM, as the Merck Manual said:
There is no specific treatment and no evidence that glucocorticoids, other drugs, or supplements alter the course of the disease. Most dogs are euthanized because of disability within 1–3 yr of diagnosis.
And my local authorities, people I trust who have experience in the matter at hand, combined with some truly authoritative sources, helped me evaluate my options and make choices that I feel comfortable with. That’s really all authority is about, how we know what information to trust. Sure, we need to evaluate our sources critically and seek the most accurate and useful information available -- but that sometimes means admitting we don't know enough to make that evaluation on our own.
And yesterday we found out that Sam tested negative for CDM =)
0 Comments.