User talk:Joelmills

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[edit] A welcome from Sango123

Hello, Joelmills, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay. We're glad to have you in our community! Here are a few good links for newcomers:

If you haven't already, drop by the New user log and tell others a bit about yourself.
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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Though we all make goofy mistakes, here is what Wikipedia is not. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. The Community Portal can also be very useful.

Happy editing!

-- Sango 123 (talk) 21:13, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

P.S. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you need help with anything or simply wish to say hello. :)

[edit] Pets wikicity

Hey welcome! I noticed you are a vet and was wondering if you would like to contribute to this wikicity petswikicity[1] For people who love pets. We need more people to contribute

[edit] Dog health in all directions

I'm delighted that you're taking the time to add to Wikipedia. I hope you continue to enjoy it. I've been editing dog-related articles for a couple of years now (you'll find my fingers all over the history pages of almost everything, including the Dog health article, which I pulled together from bits and pieces inserted by dozens of people in dozens of other articles, and the mange article, which I wrote with a bunch of books in front of me and recollections from talking to vets over the years). I'm not a dog health expert, only somewhat knowledgable having had 6 dogs over the years, being around lots of "dog people" (competitors, breeders), and reading tons. But my real knowledge in the health area is slim. Actually I think this is good because it means I've had healthy dogs. :-)

HOWEVER, I did create the beginnings of an article on hemangiosarcoma because one of my dogs died from it, and I'd like it if you could take a look at it. Thanks. Elf | Talk 05:29, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, yeah, and cool photos of mange & heartworm! Elf | Talk 05:36, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah, again--you're doing a great job of editing; even got all the right info in place on your uploaded photos, which lots of newcomers don't. You can always ask on my Talk page if you have questions; I'm not on all the time but a lot more often than I probably should be. Elf | Talk 05:42, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lists and categories

You wrote:

One other thing. I'd like to move the diseases and ailments section of dog health to the category: dog health (or vice versa). Each list has things not on the other list. Please let me know what you think.

There's actually a need for both because of the way that categories work. Articles become a member of a category when someone puts a [[Category:whateverthenameis]] notation in the article. What this means is that, if the article doesn't exist, it can't be a member of a category. Lists on wikipedia often exist in addition to more-or-less parallel categories because:

There are many topics that haven't yet been covered by articles and, in things like my starting list in Dog health and in List of dog breeds, it's really hard to say that the list is ever complete. So, even though there's a Category:Dog health and a Category:Dog breeds, we also need the lists. People might come up with more topics about which there should be articles, and adding them to such lists is a good way to keep track of them and to let readers know that the topics exist.
Also, articles appear in categories only with their article titles; there's no way to include alternative names (such as common names or scientific names or regional names or whatever) or notations or brief explanations. If I can continue to use List of dog breeds as an example, you'll see that it provides navigational aids to readers by listing different forms of the names and by subgrouping them and so on, none of which we can do in the Category page.

All that said--IMHO, any existing articles about illnesses & ailments that appear in the list in Dog health ought to have a Category tag in them so that they appear in the category. And illnesses & ailments in the category that don't appear in the Dog health list ought to be added.

But wait--there's more! Not everything in the category is an illness or ailment. So it's possible to create subcategories to better group related things. For example, you could change the [[Category:Dog health]] tag in Mange to be [[Category:Dog parasites]]. (Note that, while articles are singular in title, categories are generally plural.) Then, to put that category into the dog health category, you just click on the new link that appears in the Mange article and add the tag [[Category:Dog health]] to the new parasites category and you're set.

You just need to think carefully about how these categories should be titled, however. For example, is "dog parasites" correct, or would it be "canine parasites"? I don't know that I know the answer to that. And there might already be categories related to canine parasites out there--I don't know that, either, but by poking around in categories from the various existing articles, you might find out.

The nifty thing, though, is that any category, like any article, can be in multiple categories itself. So, for example, Category:Dog parasites could be in both Category:Dog health and Category:Parasites (if there is such a category).

This is a lot of info to dump on a newcomer, but hey, you're a vet, you're familiar with classifying things, right? ;-) Hope it made at least a little sense.

Oh, yeah, also, the list in the dog health article COULD be split out into separate articles like List of dog ailments or List of dog illnesses or... I dunno... the text part of the article is already long enough to be a stand-alone article, so maybe that would be worth doing (I had oriignally figured I'd do that when the list got long enough). So thoughts about appropriate titles and splits would be welcome. And now...I'm going to bed...soon as I check my Watchlist one more time. 'Night. Elf | Talk 06:24, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Helping out--you certainly are! Have fun and I'm sure you'll see me poking my nose in from time to time to make edits. FYI, there's a fairly well-established Wikipedia:WikiProject Dog breeds with several active participants and lots of ideas and to-do lists and all sorts of stuff like that. You'll find that we don't restrict ourselves to just dog breeds, but range into everything related to dogs. There's nothing like it for the poor underrepresented cats, however--you might already have discovered that there's very little in the way of cat material on WP. Elf | Talk 22:00, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dog breed names & capitalization

Yup, convention is to capitalize. Names of articles (which shd be reflected in List of dog breeds) were chosen based on most common official, or most commonly used, breed names among English-speaking kennel clubs or web sites (or both). Hence, Dobermann, because more of the major Eng-lang kennel clubs call it that; ditto German Shepherd Dog. Once again, I'm off for the night to go fill out some entry forms for a couple of agility trials. Ta. Elf | Talk 06:05, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Health topics

Glaucoma in dogs etc. sounds good to me. I have a couple of other thoughts-- but first, a word from your sponsor. :-) Actually it's just a suggestion that you could actually post general questions like this on the talk page for the dog breeds project or the dog health talk pg. I suggest this because they're still on my watchlist and I'll see them if I'm online (although not necessarily as quickly as on my talk page); because if i'm not around, someone else might see them who's familiar with the area and give an opinon; because it preserves the question and answer in one place; and because it preserves the discussion somewhere where we can find it later to point to as a general guideline and evidence that it *has* been discussed. You'll probably get a couple more responses on the project page than on a more-specific page like dog health, but the latter is probably the most apropos location for a question on health articles. So I'm going to copy your Q and my A and more thoughts to the health talk page. Elf | Talk 01:07, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spellings and redirects

You're doing a tremendous amount of good work, still! I can't say it too often.

Suggestion: When you end up piping topics with very different names to the correct topic--e.g., [[Bloat|Gastric dilitation volvulus]--it's also a good idea to create a redirect page from the alternative name to the real name (and, in this case, from the misspelled alternative name also, since it's likely to be done commonly again) so that any future links created by other people will also go to the right place. If you've never done this before, see Wikipedia:Redirect and of course ask if it's still confusing. :-)

Question--on Akita Inu, you changed the phrase to "Canine herpesvirus" -- that really should be 3 words, yes? (Although I see also the article itself is only 2 words...) Elf | Talk 03:06, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article writing

Me again, and I hope you don't mind, but it occurs to me that as a new user, you're adding such complete, well-written articles in single drafts, that I should make certain that you're writing the articles completely in your own words and not simply copying them from the reference works. Just checking-- If you are doing it in your own words, well then, take it as a compliment. :-) Elf | Talk 05:10, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

You wrote (in part):

Thanks for the input (and the edits). The articles are in my own words ... Things like affected breed lists are taken straight from the reference, though. It does bring up a question though, which I should already know the answer to but I haven't written a term paper in 12 years. Is it improper to paraphrase sections of a text? For instance, in the follicular dysplasia article I mention the characteristics of structural follicular dysplasia. This is not taken word for word from the reference, but it certainly contains all the pertinent info mentioned in the reference. Organization and language is all mine.

One other thing. I noticed you altered the reference structure using a template. Is that important to do? The difference seems to be minimal. --Joelmills 05:34, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it's OK to paraphrase some small bits; some things it's hard to say in an entirely different way and still be accurate. The question is whether someone will look at an article and say, hey, that's MY writing being used here.

Template for references--not critical at all, but it does help to ensure consistency in formatting. You can see all the possible options for the template by searching for "template:book reference" and looking at its talk page. It's not a perfect template. But the nice thing longterm about templates for consistency is that, if the WP community decides to adopt a slightly different format, it can be changed in one place (the template) and everything else will match. I've only just recently started using the templates myself (there are actually a bunch of similar ones, for journals, web sites, etc.). Elf | Talk 23:06, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Coefficient of Inbreeding

Elf pointed me in your direction. I have an article request. I have been reading about the COI on a few sites. When I was looking for for my last hunting dog, a few of the breeders published this information about upcomming litters. I think that an article explaining this tool and how to use it would be a good addition to Wikipedia. Thanks--Counsel 05:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trick for including oft-cited book

Here's what I did for books that I often use as sources for material in dog articles--created my own user template that I can insert whenever I use those books.

You can see what it looks like here: User:Elf/dogrefs.

Then, when I want to cite those references, I just include this text in the article:

{{Subst:User:Elf/dogrefs}}

Then I don't have to retype & reformat the whole thing over & over. (You could add same kind of thing as, e.g., User:Joelmills/vetbook or whatever.) Elf | Talk 02:13, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

What I do is insert the whole list using the method above, save the page (and the "Subst" part converts the template reference to editable text), then edit it again and remove the ones I don't want. Certainly you could have one for each book if you wanted, but I think that might get more complicated than the 2-save idea. Elf | Talk 02:24, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleft lip dog

The pictures are very interesting, and the added section fits well. Having both of those pictures so close together makes it feel cramped, but other than that they are good contributions. - Dozenist talk 04:05, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help with blain (distemper)

I was hoping you could help update this symptom/disease to the modern day. The term was used back in the 1700s to refer to a swelling on the back of an animal's tongue that blocks off the windpipe. — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2006-03-12 06:50

It's likely that the symptom/disease is known by something else today. Is there anything like this known today? — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2006-03-12 23:40
- Chaffing was a misspelling of chafing, as in iritation by rubbing. — ₀₉₁₈^BRIAN • 2006-03-13 03:14

Hi Dr Mills: I saw your reply to this in Brian0918 and I thought I'd respond. Here's what I wrote on his talk page:

Hi: I saw the message on the topic in your archives, and I wanted to just let you know that when I saw 'blain', I thought of chilblains, which are blisters. So perhaps calling it a blister would be appropriate. Also, despite the description from the time, the malady that it reminded me of was described in one of the James Herriot books, where he had to lance an abscess in a cow's throat that was threatening to cut off its airway. He exlained that at the time they didn't know what caused these frequent abscesses, but later wisdom decreed that they were most likely caused by tuburculosis.--Anchoress 02:06, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Victim's Family

Hey man, good job with the Victim's Family rewrite, Cheers. Pete.Hurd 05:59, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Feline Viral Diseases

Hey Joel, nice job with Feline Viral Rhinotrachaetis and the link from Trap-Neuter-Return. Care to do an article on Calicivirus ? FelineAvenger 02:11, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Awesome job on the new calicivirus article too. I see it links to a general article on "sarcoma" since there isn't an article for the feline vaccination-site associated sarcoma ... hmm.... :-) FelineAvenger 03:46, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flashman books

Thanks for saying you would help on this. I recently did the Iain Banks books (though some of them were started already, unlike this case), so have my hand in! But this is a big project and I don't know all of the books equally well. I'll try and put up stubs tonight, so you can get started. Don't worry about format, I can help there. But a brief description of the period, main characters, locations etc. Any reviews or links, as it all has to be sourced of course, or at least sourcable. I can do a few hours a night, even so it will take a while. Look forward to working with you, Guinnog 21:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Ah, you're welcome. Keeps me off the streets. Yes, those are recent UK covers. No offence, but I nearly always find a UK cover nicer than the corresponding US one! Thank you too for all your good work. I think we can manage this ourselves, slowly building up good articles, do you agree? Guinnog 06:45, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your continuing good work. I can feel a Barnstar coming on! --Guinnog 23:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bone metastasis in feline and canine Mammary cancer

Hello Joemills, on metastasis to the bones during feline breast or mammary cancer:

I learned when you see lameness of unknown origin in a cat, think of metastasis from breast cancer. But may be I am wrong. Are you shure? My best regards --Elisabeth Rieping 19:28, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

There is a report on bone metastasis in cats http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9507421&query_hl=20&itool=pubmed_docsum

Dear Joelmills, I just read your text on mammary tumors in animals. It was very interesting for me. --Elisabeth Rieping 19:58, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User:Joelmills/Flashman timeline

I've just seen the timeline. Remarkable. Jooler 15:02, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome to WikiProject Viruses!

Hi Joel, thankyou for your support in the Project - we're glad to have someone as knowledgable as yourself onboard. The Project should start gearing up once we start attracting more people. Thanks again, and kudos to your impressive editting repertoire -- Serephine / talk - 00:48, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dog and Human Breast Cancer, Infectious origin

Hello Joemills I yust saw your comment on dog breast cancer on my discussion site. I left htis answer for you. Sorry taht it comes so late. I hope that it is interessting for you. Here is a copy:

Dear Joemills. That ist strange. There are numbers on breast tumors in dogs in Norway which say that more than half of the dogs have breast tumors. Probably that are not all cancers. The author was a veterinäry callde Moe.

I found the reference it in a paper concerning former contact between women suffering from breast cancer and dogs. The authors looked for an infektion. The paper was called: Do dogs harbour risk factors for human breast cancer? And here you find the summary: [1] Although I am not convinced by this hypothesis, I could not find a fault in it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Elisabeth_Rieping"

--Elisabeth Rieping 09:17, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Images to Wikipedia Commons, please

Hi.

I saw your Image:Yellow sac spider.JPG. It would be very good if you could upload this (and any other images you have) to the Wikipedia Commons since when you put them there all the other Wikipedias can access them. Thanks. P0M 23:44, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Atlantis (song)

Yes, I've always liked it too! Have you seen the article on it? Tyrenius 02:56, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hi

Hi, I'm de:Benutzer:Kalumet and I saw your pictures on commons; de:Benutzer:Uwe Gille and me, we're veterinarians too and added some more images. I would be glad, if you could have a look at the english summaries, because my english is not so good, I think. Thanks and gx --84.180.227.20 22:13, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Special greetings from me, too. We reorganized the commons category veterinary medicine tonight and hope you can agree with our changes. Maybe you will find some pictures there that are useful for en:WP as well. --Uwe Gille 22:57, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

P.S: Have you figured out the cause of external otitis depicted in Image:Ear infection in cocker spaniel.JPG? Was there a participation of Malassezia pachydermatis? Could you transfer Image:Heartworm.JPG to commons? Is Category:Infectious diseases in Animals a adequate name or better Animal infectious diseases--Uwe Gille 23:39, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

I have uploaded your stent-image on Commons. Hope, you will not be angry about this? Thank you and gx Karsten 19:53, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Veterinary Surgery

Thank you again for doing such a tremendous job in expanding the Veterinary surgery page. It certainly is easier to delete a stub but the effort of folks like you helped make Wikipedia a little bit better. Agne 04:15, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I'm also very thankful for the great job you did on the article, and thank you for providing those nice and very informative pictures as well. --Mad Max 21:59, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] OOOPS I apologize

For removing the image you loaded. I did not know I did that and I feel badly about it. I hope you restore it. --Blue Tie 04:40, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

It was part of a big drive for Frank Klepacki related articles. I'm not exactly through, since I'm waiting to buy most the albums and supplement those articles. College expenses put a squeeze on my plans for the time being...but thanks! --Zeality 03:11, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dental caries

Hi, since you may know a considerable amount of various diseases in animals, I was wondering if you thought there would be much to contribute to the dental caries article. I do not know how often and to what extent caries is in animals, but if you think there would be a lot to say on the subject then perhaps we could make an article specific to the topic and link to it from the dental caries article. What do you think? - Dozenist talk 21:53, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh, that would be wonderful. I would greatly appreciate it. - Dozenist talk 20:56, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

The article looks great. It really helps to have a link to it from the dental caries article. I do not know if a sentence or two would be required in the article to say how tooth decay is less prevalent in animals or not. Do you have any thoughts on it? - Dozenist talk 01:06, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Andrew Jackson Jihad

Please review this newest AfD, your opinion would be appreciated. PT ^(s-s-s-s) 00:42, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hello from fellow DVM

I found you from your Cheyletiella article. Nice job! Though you might like to know that I created a Wikipedians who have DVM degree category, which you can see on my Userpage, in case you want to categorize yourself! Carold e rmoid (talk • contribs) 19:05, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Hey again. Let me know what particular pages you are most wanting work on. One caveat though ... I am a specialist ... in dermatology, so there are some topics that I don't need to be messing with! lol I saw your list of dog diseases. There is one on skin - dermal fragility syndrome - that you might want to change to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome as I added just a bit of veterinary information to that general topic.

I am pretty new to wiki editing. I just set up a Wiki Commons account and want to add some piccies to the commons ... so I created a category over there, *Veterinary Medical Images

--Caroldermoid (talk • contribs) 13:55, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

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