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Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Do any of our resident doctors know anything about clostridial diseases? Tetanus, botulism, pulpy-kidney, black liver, etc.

You can vaccinate livestock for all of them, but afaik the only one available for humans is tetanus. Considering how untreatable a lot of them are ("supportive care and possibly surgery to cut out destroyed tissue"), I'm surprised there's not more focus on it.

And yeah, I've been sitting here staring at an animal going "is she more twitchy than usual? Is it normal to stick her head bolt-out like that?"

There's only about 200 botulism cases in the US every year, so I suspect that there's just no real benefit to vaccinating. You're more likely to die by falling out of bed than to catch botulism.

Maybe they could target the lucrative risky-home-canned goods enjoyer market, though.