Natural Pet Care at its finest? In nature we expect certain couplings. The natural way for a dog to care for her puppies is by nursing her own puppies. How about throwing into the mix another animals offspring. Is this a play on the words "natural pet care"? Princess, a Shih Tzu dog, is nursing three female puppies along with a newborn squirrel that she has adopted as one of her own. Doug Thomas, the owner of Princess, said the abandoned squirrel was found near his Agoura Hills property. Ventura County Star, Sept. 09, 09 This story brings to mind that age old question: Is man really dogs best friend? We can laugh about it, but I see countless households with only one dog, no other animals and the humans that live with the dog. Whose idea is that anyway? Some people think I have gone overboard, I have SIX lovely dogs. Maybe by most standards that is a large group of dogs. I am a breeder of French BullDogs so therein is part of the reason. But, I can easily imagine life with less, however, never just one. Even though they look to me as their Queen Bee who feeds them, puts them to bed and walks them everyday, there is nothing I can do to replace the expereince they have amoungst themselves when they play and cuddle. Sure, I realize that some people live in apartments, and two dogs might be too much, but have you ever considered the delight your dog would have with a cat? This picture represents the possibility that any other animal could be a companion for your dog. I have heard of Hippos in the house, horse, ducks, ferrets, birds and now squirrels. I hope only that this article will reflect upon you single dog owners to reconsider why you have only one animal? Whose idea was it anyway?
The day began with my dog eating the leftovers of a chocolate Éclair! How much did she eat? How long ago? How much chocolate was in that frosting? In my anxious state, knowing only that Chocolate is BAD for a dog, I knew that I needed to do something. But what exactly? These are the kind of things that a book can tell you on the page, but until you go through it, experience it, feel the emotion associated with the experience, only then will you commit it to memory.
I had my guide book, Vet Secrets Revealed. I could very easily look things up in there. Like , how do I make my dog throw up? I knew this, but not the dose by heart. I also know that chocolate is BAD for the dog, but how much is really toxic. Did I need to be worried, or was it just not enough?
What I learned will now be committed to memory. We survived the chocolate. But I do feel a need for one place to tell you the whole truth because I could not find it all that way. My Vet Secrets book revealed how to make the dog throw up, the dose and the after ingredient. Another two sites on-line gave me minimal details about chocolate quantity toxicity. The on- line resources said to go to the vet to get a shot to make her throw up. The Vet book doesn’t talk specifically about chocolate, only poisoning in general. So what is the whole story.
Theobromine is the stimulant in chocolate that is similar to caffeine. In the worst case scenario you dog can experience problems with the heart and the nervous system, making him terribly sick and in severe cases it could cause death.
Different kinds of chocolate have different doses of theobromine.
MILK CHOCOLATE ; roughly one square is equal to 1 ounce which has 45 mg of Theobromine. The toxic dose would be at one ounce eaten per pound of body weight. So, if your dog weighs 10 pounds and eats a whole entire candy bar, 10 squares, this is very bad. If your 100 pound dog eats a candy bar, this would be only 1/10th the toxic dose, and hence not so bad. You wouldn’t have to panic.
SEMI SWEET chocolate has 260 mg. per ounce. It is toxic for each ounce per 3-6 pound of body weight. So, this is much stronger. A 10 pound dog could only ingest 2 squares (2 oz.) having the same toxicity level of an entire milk chocolate candy bar.
BAKERS CHOCOLATE is much stronger yet, containing 450 mg. per ounce, being toxic at only 1 square (1 oz.) per 10 pounds of body weight.
COCOA BEANS have 450-1500 mg per ounce. They become toxic at one ounce ingested per 10-33 pounds body weight.
If your dog eats chocolate at a lower does than these measurements than probably you will have a dog with digestive upset such that vomiting and diarrhea may occur. This can happen right away or maybe not until the next day.
My suggestions is this:
If in doubt do the following two things;
1) INDUCE VOMITING
2) FOLLOW with ACTIVATED CHARCOAL.
Dose the hydrogen peroxide at 1 teaspoon per 10 pounds. Remember the shot you could go to your vet and get? This works splendidly. Dose the dog once. My 30 pound dog got 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon). Remember that 5ml. is 1 teaspoon. It is easiest to take up in a syringe. They often have ml. measurements on them. Squirt into the back of the mouth. If you don’t have a syringe, soak it up in bread. My dog hated it that way, but I have heard it can work too.
If no reaction, dose ONLY 1 MORE TIME, same dose. I have never not had it work for various reasons that I have had to induce vomiting. But if after 2 doses there is no result then I would GO TO THE VET.
Optimistically speaking, after the dog throws up, give activated charcoal capsules. I have never been actually able to find a dose on this. I looked everywhere. I have experimented with this. Basically, not any dog has ever had an adverse reaction to any dose I gave. Today I gave 2 capsules. If we use that as a gauge, how about 1 capsule per 15 pounds. Charcoal is entirely NON TOXIC and absorbs, like a sponge, any bad stuff inside the stomach or the intestine. Think of your water filtration system, it is full of charcoal. It removes chlorine from the tap water and will remove other things from your dogs tummy.
So, be safe and ALWAYS have Hydrogen Peroxide and Activited Charcoal in your medicine cabinet, with a syringe on standby.
Who is training who in this picture?
In the spirit of training, it goes on all the time, in all kids of relationships. Not just you and your dog. How any relationship developed is a result of certain processes that are repeated over time. If you boyfriend or girlfriend always makes a big deal about it when you dress up then you feel more encouraged to dress up. And likewise, if they don’t ever give you a compliment when you dress up, then you eventaully loose your zest for dressing up for them. And os might be the truth for you and your dog. Read more
I too have had the expereince of unlikely pals. My cats sleep with my dogs. We call it alternative friends. Well here is another example of just the same thing. I think that predjudice might be a human condition. What do you think? Read more
I got this letter from my favorite vet today. He is my mentor of sorts. I learn from him all the time. And I have long since known about the dangers of dog food. I have already written about it here on my blog. But stil, even my closest friends, resist the truth. I tried to convert one dear friend who is feeding her recently adopted 10 year old dog food with these very ingredients discussed here at the end of this article. He is also very overweight. She hadd been gone for 2 months so when the dog saw her one can only imagine the emotinal expereince for the dog. Naturally he thought she was long since gone forever. And imagine what this dog has been through in his past. She has him only becuase he was abandoned and in a shelter. She started to foster him and now has fallen in love. But, he needs care. He missed her . She is home. He started diarrhea . He has been on a new good food for 1 week at that point with no problems. But now he starts to poopin. She blames it on the good food and puts him back on the old bad food. I sent her numerious reports. Yet, she will not listen. She is sold on the name brand. It is the same one that vets sell. And now, from the mouth of a vet whose dog died of cancer. Here is what he has to say.
Later check out his supplement for SUPERIOR HEALTH ALTERNATIVES;
www.thedogsupplement.com/cmd.php Read more
Essiac for pets is safe and can help improve their health and quality of life.
My first call of the day was “Can Essiac tea help my cat with cancer?” Yes!
Using essiac for pets is an idea whose time has come. Let me explain why.
Domestic pets are becoming increasingly likely to suffer from some form of cancer in their lifetime. Almost half of all pets in North America over the age of 10 will develop cancer.
Although the causes are not all certain, most are likely to be found from the environment: pesticides, pet food preservatives, second-hand smoke, improper diet, and lack of exercise all contribute to poor pet health and may be responsible for the increase in diseases like cancer.
This morning My Six Pack awoke to the not so often phenomena in my house of itchy fanatic scratching. Three out of six are scratching. Those three have a circus of fleas visiting their crotch area. I confess that it crossed my mind to do the easy thing. Buy some front line, momentarily on sale at costco and forget about bugs for 30 days. Then I reminded myself about the hazards of these chemical repellents. Read this wonderful link below for the TRUTH about commercial “spot on” flea killers. They could eventually harm your pet.
www.apnm.org/publications/resources/fleachemfin.pdf
Instead I pulled out my squirt bottle with the 50/50 solution of apple cider vinegar and water and made a bath of their hind quarters. INSTANTLY the flease are dead! I can simply pick them off with my fingers. I spent all of 10 minutes with this duty and marvel at the ease of it and thought everyone should be reminded or told about the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar. I searched the web for a good article and found this one to be thorough enough. I could procrastinate the day away with this lovely topic as it inspired me to know what I can do to help my dogs who are so forever dependent on me. Today FLEAS be Gone. Tomorrow this magic juice will help my overwieght Mama dog loose some of her hips. Read on and be informed.
And, by the way, I would bet that the three dogs that are not infested have a different body chemistry, probably more aciidic would be my guess. Not sure. Hence, adding the Apple cider to everyones food should regulate the PH Balance of the wholeSIX Pack. Will let you know.
Apple Cider Vinegar for Dog
Every home with dogs should have apple cider vinegar. It’s a remedy with multiple uses for dogs: alleviating allergies, arthritis, establishing correct pH balance. You can also give apple cider vinegar to cats and horses
This little video (see link at end of article). came to me this morning just shortly after breathing a sigh of relief when my dog Gigi came running back to me from nearly a 1/4 mile away after having her “shit eating” party with the neighbor’s horse. Yum. But yuk. Despite her party she came a runnin’. But in that moment before I had my doubts and realized that I could be using a better method for “come”. What if she couldn’t hear me for the distance between us? Read more
Pet Food Recall Update
The Pet Food Recall lawsuit designedto compensate many of the THOUSANDS of pets affected by tainted food is still NOT yet settled.
Here’s the story: Read more
