Since all work and no play makes for dogs and humans going bonkers, we've decided to pass on some of the neat or important things we've run across during our sanity breaks. There's no real theme, just whatever caught our fancy and made us go "hmmmmm", or "that's good to know", or "that's neat!".
It'll be expanded along the way as we run across more interesting stuff so keep checking back to see what's new!
An amazing story and video about a new mind controlled bionic arm made for amputees that is able to do such incredibly precise things as picking up grapes without squashing them. It almost rivals Luke Skywalker's arm! Read about it!
EATING YOUR WAY TO SEIZURE CONTROL
A small study at Johns Hopkins Hospital was conducted to determine if the popular weight loss treatment, the Atkins diet, would be a successful form of treatment for epilepsy that did not respond to normal medical treatment. The trial consisted of three children (aged 7 - 12 years), an 18-year-old teenager, and two adults (aged 42 and 52 years).
The results of the trial were remarkable in that two of the children and the teenager had a greater than 90% seizure reduction! Read about it!
LYME DISEASE - STEALTHY AND DEADLY!
Lyme Disease is a debilitating and sometimes deadly disease spread by ticks, that can be extremely frustrating and difficult to diagnose. Known as the "Great Imitator" it can masquerade as a multitude of different diseases and unless caught early, can cause permanent and disabling damage throughout the body.
To learn more about this disease and what to look for to see if you might be infected, check out this Lyme information! Read about it!
NUTRO BRAND PET FOODS
April 18, 2008
A worrisome health trend among dogs and cats across the country has surfaced in the past few months. Scores of pets from California to South Carolina have experienced sudden and recurring bouts of diarrhea, vomiting, and other digestive problems.
The Red Cross offers classes on how to perform pet first aid. Contact your local chapter to find out when the next class will be held. For a quick overview of the Red Cross' techniques to treat the following emergency situations, click on the links below.
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS TIPS FOR PEOPLE WITH SERVICE ANIMALS OR PETS Tips from the American Red Cross for being prepared for disasters for both Service Dogs and their handlers and also pet owners. www.prepare.org/disabilities/animaltips.htm
(NEW YORK, NY) July 6, 2004 -- The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center continues to caution dog owners that raisins and grapes may be toxic to some dogs. From April 2003 to April 2004, the Center managed 140 cases, each involving one or more dogs that ingested varying amounts of raisins or grapes. Of these cases, over 50 animals developed clinical signs ranging from vomiting to life-threatening kidney failure, and seven dogs died...
We all know that dogs are a favorite buffet for a variety of insects. While usually the bites themselves aren't dangerous, what they pass on in their saliva can be deadly! Here are a few examples to help you know what to look for when it comes to tick diseases that can make your dog sick!
(When clicking the "Read all about..." links, if you get a popup window saying you have to register... don't worry, just click on the close button and you'll still have access to the full article.)
If you have one of the larger dog breeds (usually the ones with deep chests) then you **NEED** to know about a condition calledBloat (here is a link for a good description of Bloat and Torsion). This is where the stomach overextends either from gas, food, or water and twists inside the ribcage until it has tourniqueted off its blood supply and the stomach dies. THIS CONDITION USUALLY HAPPENS IN ONLY A MATTER OF HOURS AND IS INCREDIBLY PAINFUL AND DEADLY! While sometimes your vet can save a beloved pet, too often, by the time the owner realizes something's wrong, it's too late. But there are some things you can do to help prevent this deadly disease from happening.
First and foremost, do not feed your dog's daily food ration as just a single large meal, especially not at the end of the day. While this may be convenient for you, it could put your dog at great risk. Many Bloats occur in the middle of the night while everyone is sleeping. Sadly, the usual scenario is the owner wakes up and finds their furry friend dead. Unfortunately, dying by Bloat is not a painless passing. Quite the opposite.
By splitting your dog's food servings into 2 or more smaller meals through the day, you can help to decrease the chance of this painful and lethal condition occurring. Keep in mind this also applies to drinking too much water. Anything that over expands the stomach will seriously increase their chances of getting Bloat.
While there is no sure fire cure to stop bloat once it's started, some owners who have dealt with it before feel that the higher dosage formulas of the liquid anti-gas pills made of simethecone can help give the dog an extra advantage very early in the condition's onset. THIS IS NOT A CURE BUT IS ONLY A POSSIBLE EXTRA EDGE WHILE YOU RUSH YOUR DOG TO THE VET!!!!! This will NOT work if the stomach has already twisted and shut off access from the throat. If Bloat is caught very early on though, some people have found that administering about 10 pills has helped their dogs beat the odds. Please note that secondary problems can and do arise from Bloat that are just as life threatening so ALWAYS TAKE YOUR DOG TO THE VET IMMEDIATELY IF YOU SUSPECT THAT BLOAT IS OCCURRING!!! To wait could mean the difference between them living or dying. Please give them every chance possible so they can continue to warm your heart with their love!
DOG HAVE STINKY BREATH? Has Fido's breath almost knocked you over no matter how much you scrub their teeth with that dog toothpaste? Sometimes no amount of brushing or spraying those doggie breath sprays makes a bit of difference with their dragon breath. What I've found works the absolute best for my guys and gals is the white rawhide knot bones. The bigger they are (that the dog still can chew on) the better. The dog literally knaws their teeth sparkling clean on all the surfaces, including those back crevices that toothbrushing just can't reach. The longer they gnaw on one, the less doggy breath they have. The one thing to remember though is that rawhide can be bitten off into chunks large enough to get stuck in the throat and cause choking. NEVER LET THEM CHEW ON A RAWHIDE WITHOUT SUPERVISION SINCE CHOKING CAN HAPPEN SUDDENLY AND CAN KILL WITHIN MINUTES. That shouldn't scare you off from letting them chew on them, just use some common sense and also take time to
read the following page to learn how to administer the Heimlich Maneuver to your dog
if it does choke.
PUDGY POOCHES!
While losing weight might be overwhelming and frustrating to us humans, it's pretty easy to do for our furry friends. Half the battle's won with them... unlike us, they usually can't open the refridgerator on their own (of course if you're talking about Service Dogs, that advantage doesn't apply)!
To learn tips on how to help your pooch lose their pudge and become a healthier and happier pup, check out this video.
Find a pet near you ready and waiting to be adopted! Visit PetFinder.com to locate shelters and rescue groups currently caring for adoptable pets.
Website: PetFinder.com
Disclaimer: The information provided is not to be used in place of qualified medical advice. Please contact your doctor (for humans) or veterinarian (for pets) with any questions or problems regarding either you or your pet's health and well-being. Information provided by Shore Service Dogs and their sources is done so in good faith and therefore Shore Service Dogs does not accept responsibility or liability for your actions based on the content of the information provided. When dealing with ANY emergency, please contact a local expert to assist with your situation as soon a possible!
Had a hard day? Tired of the concrete jungle? Want to relax in a beautiful English garden and hear the joyous songs of birds carolling in the misty tendrils of dawn's early glow?
But what? You say there's no way short of the proverbial Hell freezing over that you'll drag yourself out of bed at that time of the morning?! Well you don't have to! Mary ran across this gem while she was scrolling through the list of iTunes radio stations and it's turned into a favorite of her's. It's a continuous, uninterrupted loop of a variety of birds welcoming in a Spring morning in the English countryside. In case you're a bird lover, or just want to listen to something beautiful and soothing, click on the play button, and kick back and let the birds sing your cares away!
Want to bookmark Birdsong?
A peaceful Dawn Chorus broadcast live over the internet.
Powered by Birdsong Radio
BABY, HOW TWEET IT IS!
From the BBC in England, this news story about orphaned baby birds being cared for in RSPCA centres that are being taught to sing using CD recordings of the dawn chorus that you can hear on Birdsong Radio. I wonder if they also fed them "bytes of computer worms" too (sorry, just couldn't resist).
TIME FLIES FOR CENTADECAGENARIAN (IS THAT RIGHT?)!
Mr. Harry Patch, a sprightly and engaging man from the United Kingdom, is celebrating his 110th birthday on June 17th, 2008. For those who haven't had their coffee yet to kick start the braincells, that means he was born in 1898!
Here's a little time perspective... a mere 13 years before Mr. Patch was born (1885), the Statue of Liberty was brought over from France to become one of the most beautiful amd eagerly awaited sights ever seen by millions of immigrants arriving to America.
The average *yearly* wage in 1903 for the New England area of the United States was a prosperous sum of $471.23 (that was $10.51 more than 1902's yearly wages of only $460.72). If you worked for a brewery, you were rich with a yearly wage of $859.16. Broom, brush, and mop makers did "not so good" with a paltry $314.16 per year wage (the cost of living has gone up just a tad hasn't it).
And on December 17th of that momentous 5th year of his life, the Wright brothers performed the very first successful flight of a heavier than air machine, paving the way for us to reach the moon and beyond! But Mr. Patch wasn't able to watch it live because it would be almost another 25 more years (1925- 1928) before television became a reality!
It's pretty mind boggling to think of all the history Mr. Patch has lived through and experienced first hand, that we now just casually take for granted. Definitely gets you thinking about what life might be like in the next 110 years!
PREDJAMA CASTLE... THE EUROPEAN ANASAZI CLIFF DWELLING!
Predjama in 1689 (can you spot the differences?)
Predjama today
Well, not really Anasazi but this European version is just as impressive! Mary ran across Slovenia's Predjama Castle while reading some dry article that had a link to a description about it. The article was quickly forgotten but Predjama was a different story and what a story it has! Full of almost a thousand years of robber barons, secret passages, deadly court intrigues, murders, noble knights, damsels in distress, you name it! All the while perched precariously on the side of a cliff with a warren of caves for the interior (but you'd never know it by the beautifully sculpted rooms). There's now even a Medieval Tournament every August with one of the highlights being the Medieval Banquet, where dishes are prepared using original medieval recipes and served just as they were five hundred years ago! The eating with daggers and hands part is probably optional.
So if you're a history buff, a fan of the mysteries of caves, or even a reader of Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series (this could almost come straight from the pages of her books), you might want to put this beautiful castle on your list of must sees!
