dimondites

ThisNext.com just launched their Pet Shopping Guide and it’s filled with super great stuff, all of which were recommended pet lovers. It is totally worth checking out. If you like to show what’s on your list, all you have to do is sign up and recommend your own favorites. It is super easy. All you have to do is cut and paste the URL. That’s probably the hardest task (My list is on this site via the fancy flash banner, which was easily created on ThisNext via their ShopCast widget (check out my flash badge For the Love of Dogs. To your right and below the navigation menu).

Long a folk remedy, cider vinegar has been used for various health-related improvements in people and animals. For dogs, it is especially good. It helps with digestion, gas, constipation, bladder stones, urinary tract infections and more.

I’ve been slowly adding vinegar to our dogs water… They smaaart. They avoid that water and wait until we are upstairs, where they go immediately to the bathtub and scratch at the facuet demanding running water.

If you feel like starting, be sure to get organic cider vinegar, which is usually raw and unpasteurized. This is very different than the ones you get at Safeway. The organic cider vinegar will have all the enzymes that are beneificial. I recommend Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, which is available at Farmer Joe’s or other organic grocery stores.

For non-dog related tasks, I use regular vinegar to kill weeds, wash out rugs and clean floors.

Vinegar rocks.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR FOR YOUR DOG

The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care (Revised Edition), CJ Puotinen

Many herbalists recommend vinegar for pets, especially because it can be poured over garlic and others herbs to make medicinal tinctures. Even without those herb, cider vinegar is an important ingredient in your pet’s diet. Use any raw, unpasteurized, unheated, organic vinegar …. Do not use a vinegar that is uniformly clear and clean looking, such as vinegar sold in the supermarkets. These are dead vinegars with none of the enzymes and other live factors that make raw, unpasteurized vinegar so valuable.

Long a folk remedy, cider vinegar has been shown to improve health of dairy cows, horses, dogs, and other animals. It reduces common infections, aids whelping, improves stamina, prevents muscle fatigue after exercise, increases resistance to disease, and protects against food poisoning. Cider vinegar is rich in the vitamins, minerals, and trace elements found in apples, especially potassium; it normalizes acid levels in the stomach, improves digestion and the assimilation of nutrients, reduces intestinal gas and fecal odors, helps cure constipation, alleviates some of the symptoms of arthritis and helps prevent bladder stones and urinary tract infections.

Add apple cider vinegar directly to food or drinking water, starting with small amounts and building up to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per 15 pounds of body weight for dogs and cats (1 teaspoon per day for the average cat, 1 tablespoon for a 50-pound dog or 2 tablespoons for a 90-pound dog). By gradually adding small doses to your pet’s food over time, you can help even the most finicky eater to accept this valuable food.

SOURCE:  The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care (Revised Edition), CJ Puotinen, Keats Publishing, ISBN 0-658-00996-6

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We are receiving consumer complaints regarding the Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Foods. We do not know what is wrong with the food at this time, but we have heard that animals are vomiting and experiencing kidney problems. Although the problems seem to be focused on one particular lot, as a precautionary measure, we are pulling all dates of Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food from the shelves.

Please discontinue feeding all Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Food, and Venison and Green Pea Dry Cat Food.

We are working closely with the FDA.  We will update this website today, as more information comes available.

NO OTHER NATURAL BALANCE PRODUCTS ARE AFFECTED.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

A recall of pet food expanded Friday to include the first dry product, which is available only through veterinarians’ offices. Meanwhile, the FDA now says the contamination in wet pet food that has injured and killed pets across the country may not have been the pesticide aminopterin but possibly a fertilizer and plastics agent called melamine. In a news conference Friday morning, the Food and Drug Administration announced that its labs had detected melamine in samples of the pet food, in the wheat gluten used to make it and in the urine and kidneys of cats who were injured by it. FDA investigators are not certain how melamine would sicken or kill dogs and cats; there is little scientific information available about melamine exposure in animals.

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Frightening, isn’t it, how obsessive I can get? Some of my favorites picks for them puppies… They get presents too, you know. If they could type, I think they would have added these to their wishlist too.

See more of my for the love of dogs list at ThisNext.