Dog Diabetes. Pet Foods. Please Click. Feral Cat Hoarding. Dog v. Wolf. Michael Vick's Dogs. Cutest Frog. Baptist Pastor on Easter. April Fools. First Weather Satellite. Tobacco Ads Banned. “Food Matters”.

 

For “Mammal Monday”:

A Single Treatment Cures Diabetes - How to Protect Your Pet Now

“Researchers in Spain have successfully used gene therapy to treat type I diabetes in dogs.

Type I diabetes, known as juvenile diabetes in humans, is the form of diabetes that most often affects canines. It occurs primarily in adult dogs as the result of lifestyle factors, including over-vaccination, diets high in carbohydrates, and lack of exercise.  The gene therapy treatment is given in a single session, and the dogs in the study recovered their health and showed no further signs of the disease – some through over four years of monitoring.

The dogs experienced good glucose control whether fasting or eating, with no episodes of hypoglycemia, even after exercise. The dogs also had improved body weight and developed no secondary complications four years after treatment.

Dog diabetes is almost always avoidable, so while the news of a cure is exciting, preventing disease in your pet should remain the focus of your efforts.

Obesity in companion animals is becoming an epidemic. And obesity stems from two sources:

1. Lack of movement
2. Diet, which is the underlying and most obvious reason behind weight gain and the development of diabetes 

The majority of pets in the U.S. consume a high calorie, high carb diet. And yet, dogs and cats have no physiological requirement for grains like corn, wheat, rice, soy, millet or quinoa as sources of energy.

Dogs are scavenging carnivores, cats are obligate carnivores – they are designed by nature to burn fat and protein very efficiently. The majority of commercially available dog and cat foods in the U.S. use grains or potato starch as filler.

Your pet’s body doesn’t need those carbs, and certainly not in the quantities contained in most commercial pet foods. You should really only give carbs as treats, if at all.

All the carbohydrates in your pet’s food – which can be as much as 80 percent of the contents – break down into sugar. Excess sugar can result in diabetes.  Too much sugar in your pet’s system can result in pancreatic failure, insulin production deficiency or insulin resistance, a condition in which the body’s cells stop using insulin efficiently and become starved of essential nutrients.

To avoid feeding carbs, transition your cat or dog to a species-appropriate, preferably raw diet.”  More at:   http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/04/07/causes-of-pet-diabetes.aspx

_______

How to Tell If a Pet Food Manufacturer is Untrustworthy

“Recently a DVM and professor from Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Lisa Freeman, gave a lecture based on her research on companion animal nutrition.

During her presentation, Dr. Freeman showed images of various pet food labels. One label for a cat food showed flaxseed on the ingredient list. Flaxseed can be metabolized by the human digestive system. It can also be marginally digested by dogs. However, cats can't digest the stuff at all – but there it was, big as life, on the ingredient label.

In Dr. Freeman's view, this is a sign the pet food manufacturer doesn't know much about canine and feline nutrition. I would take it a step further and suggest the company also doesn't care much about pet nutrition. How can a maker of cat food use an ingredient wholly indigestible to cats and still give a hoot about feline nutrition?

It is shocking how many pet food companies do not have a nutritionist on staff. She would prefer companies spend less money on marketing and more on research and development and experts in animal nutrition.

Animal by-products are rendered ingredients in pet food. The rendering process is designed to blend anything and everything – from clean muscle meat … to slaughter floor waste … to roadkill … to euthanized shelter pets – into ingredients pet food manufacturers can include in their formulas.”  More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/27/pet-food-label-guidelines.aspx

--------

How to Know if the Poultry in Your Pet's Food is Chicken... or Roadkill

“The pet food rendering industry exists for one reason – to turn animal and food waste not fit for human consumption into ingredients pet food manufacturers will buy.

What most pet parents who buy popular commercial pet foods don’t know is exactly what type of “raw materials” wind up at rendering facilities and ultimately, in the food they feed their beloved dog or cat.

Plenty of pet food consumers also don’t realize there’s a huge difference between “chicken” and “poultry” on pet food ingredient labels. There’s also a huge difference between “chicken” and “chicken by-products.” And these differences are extremely important when it comes to the health of dogs and cats.

The sad fact is, most of the biggest pet food companies are consumed with increasing profits, not your pet’s health. That’s why every pet parent should learn to read pet food labels and know the difference between good, acceptable, and poor/dangerous pet food ingredients.”   More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/11/pet-food-contains-poultry.aspx

_______

It's High in Protein, High in Fat - But Should You Feed It to Your Dog?

“Unfortunately, the ingredient lists for these new diets aren’t impressive. Chicken did top the list (before processing), but the next several ingredients in all three formulas were primarily grains – including plenty of corn/corn derivatives -- and byproducts.”  More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/03/20/new-dog-food-formula.aspx

_______

Please Click every day.

“Angie asks all ANIMAL LOVERS to pass this on. The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site DAILY -www.theanimalrescuesite.com  It is the only way they can meet their quota of getting free food to be donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned and neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Just go to their site and click on the purple box 'FUND FOOD FOR ANIMALS' for FREE.”   Thank you.

_______

Florida Legislature Poised to Approve Public Cat Hoarding

(Washington, D.C., March 29, 2013) “Despite public opposition, the Florida legislature is moving towards approving legislation that would authorize the public hoarding of cats by feral cat activists, in the face of potential public health and property value impacts, as well as predicted high mortality for native animals. The cost of cleaning up these areas could also fall on Florida taxpayers.

“Even if the threat of serious disease is not off-putting, the fact is that one in five Americans - about 48 million people - engage in birdwatching. None of those people will want to live in an area that has a state-sanctioned cat hoarding area. We continually get calls from people asking what they can do to get rid of the feral cats that kill the wildlife in their backyards that they so enjoy watching. It is not inconceivable that when word gets out to the wildlife community, birdwatchers may begin to avoid Florida as a birding destination with potentially significant economic impacts to small businesses."  More at: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/130329.html   

On ABC’s Facebook page many have said that they will boycott FL if this approved!!

_______

Born to Be Wild: Why Wolves Are and Dogs Aren’t

“Based on exciting new research, it seems we’ve made some incorrect assumptions about how wolf pups mature. Their senses of sight, sound and smell develop very similar to those of dogs, but there’s one important difference – wolf pups begin walking and discovering their world two weeks sooner than their domestic counterparts.

This means wolf pups enter the all-important socialization period at just two weeks of age, when they cannot yet see or hear. Only their sense of smell is functioning as they begin to explore their world. This is a vastly different developmental experience than that of dog puppies, and is very likely the reason the behaviors of adult wolves and dogs are dissimilar.

It seems nature has designed wolf pups to be prepared to survive out in the world at a young age... but with that readiness comes a greater level of fear and aversion to other species and unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells.”  More at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/03/27/dog-wolf-differences.aspx

_______

Michael Vick's former dogs celebrated at reunion

“Six of the 22 dogs taken in by Best Friends Animal Society from Vick's notorious 'Bad Newz Kennels' gather for an event sponsored by the animal sanctuary.”  Pictures and more at:  http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/michael-vicks-former-dogs-celebrated-at-reunion

 

_______ 

I know it’s not a mammal, but it sounds like a dog’s squeaky toy.

Worlds Cutest Frog - Desert Rain Frog

“The Desert Rain Frog’s natural habitat is in Namibia and South Africa along a 10 kilometer stretch of land along the ocean. The frog is nocturnal and enjoys moist areas, which the ocean fog helps provide.”

“Is he crying for his mama?   A viral video that was released earlier this week of a tiny, squeaky-voiced frog has won the hearts of many, including dogs, some of whom can’t get enough of the clip. The so-called “world’s cutest frog,” a South African desert rain frog, has a voice like a squeaky toy, drives dogs wild.

The frog was found and filmed by naturalist Dean Boshoff, who was walking past a sand dune in South Africa when he heard an insistent squeaking.   “I found him, I knelt down,” said Boshoff. “I couldn’t believe the little sound that he was making.”    Neither, apparently, can many dogs.

When Dean posted the video, he asked others to share their pets’ reactions.  The resulting video clips have shown dogs butting computers with their heads, running around in circles and even trying to make off with one user’s smart phone.”

______

Should Christians Celebrate Easter?  By Pastor Jeff Alexander,    Pastor Calvary Baptist Church of Lamar, Colorado

“Easter is commonly understood to be a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The date for it is set as the Sunday immediately following the fourteenth day of the paschal (Passover) moon, which happens on or after the vernal equinox. However, as is explained in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Vol. 2, p. 682), “The present variable time [for fixing the date of Easter] was appointed by early Romanism in amalgamation with the very ancient pagan spring festival to the goddess of the spring.”

As a result, pagan symbols have been so thoroughly embedded that they are now generally thought to be Christian in origin. An example is the Easter lily. Where is there biblical authority for its prevalence at Easter? Merrill Unger (Archeology and the Old Testament, pp. 173, 174) describes the Canaanite goddess “as a nude woman bestride a lion with a lily in one hand and a serpent in the other.” The lily “bespeaks the grace and sex appeal of the bearer” and the serpent “symbolizes her fecundity” (fertility).

The Roman Church incorporated the egg as an emblem of Christ’s resurrection. Pope Paul V taught people to pray at Easter, “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee this, thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, where is the biblical authority to support such a notion?”     More at: http://www.inplainsite.org/html/easter.html

_______

On This Day:

April Fools tradition popularized, Apr 1, 1700:

“On this day in 1700, pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools' Day by playing practical jokes on each other.

Historians have also linked April Fools' Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There's also speculation that April Fools' Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.”

______

First weather satellite, Apr 1, 1960

“The first weather satellite to be considered a success was TIROS-1, launched by NASA on April 1, 1960. TIROS operated for 78 days and proved to be much more successful than Vanguard 2. TIROS paved the way for the Nimbus program, whose technology and findings are the heritage of most of the Earth-observing satellites NASA and NOAA have launched since then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite

_______

Nixon signs legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio, Apr 1, 1970:

“On this day in 1970, President Richard Nixon signs legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. Nixon, who was an avid pipe smoker, indulging in as many as eight bowls a day, supported the legislation at the increasing insistence of public health advocates.

Tobacco has played a part in the lives of presidents since the country's inception. A hugely profitable crop in early America, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Jackson owned tobacco plantations and used tobacco in the form of snuff or smoked cigars. Regulation of the tobacco industry in the form of excise taxes began during Washington's presidency and continues to this day. In 1962, Kennedy became the first president to sponsor studies on smoking and public health.”

_______

Yesterday:

After watching the sermon program on WGN TV, I tried to take care of Misty and Terry’s breakfast.  Misty is easy, she’ll eat anything, though I try to feed her only the best.  She is still spry and happy at 18 years old.  But Terry was not his usual ravenous self.  He had finished the amoxicillin antibiotic for his URI on Saturday, but he has been sick for nearly a month, and he is still having trouble with his breathing.  Now, he doesn’t want to eat.  I tried different foods, but he didn’t want them, so I poked some Nutri-Cal in his mouth to keep him going. 

DD had left a comment about a health show called "Know The Cause", so I found it online and watched some of the episodes.  But to me, they had the tone of infomercials for the products that they sell. 

So I started looking at some of the sites from the well-known health doctors, (some are non-profit sites), like Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr Mark Fuhrman, Dr. Weston Price, Dr. Mercola and Dr. Andrew Saul, and came across the documentary “Food Matters”.  It is very interesting, and everyone should see it.  It could be one of the most important 1¼ hours of your life.  http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/food_matters_2008/

 

While the video was playing on my computer, I did dishes, removed sheets, did laundry, dusted, put sheets back on, (doesn’t everyone have their favorite sheets?), and caught up with a few household chores. But I was anxious to get back to it, to hit ‘play’ each time.

In the afternoon, I had just finished drinking some homemade veggie juice and getting ready to take Misty for a walk down to the mailboxes, when it got humid and started raining.  It didn’t last long, but then the grass was all wet. So much for that.

Terry had been hiding in my closet most of the day and still didn’t want any dinner.  I mashed up some canned cat food with some Whiskas cat milk, and got it down him with a feeding syringe. I know I have to take him back to the vet today.