Issue #60
Did you know… When the colonists first came to the New World, they used pumpkin seeds for curing kidney ailments and urinary issues, healing wounds and for parasitic treatment on humans? In most recent years, herbalists have found that pumpkin seeds are an effective agent in deworming for humans and dogs as well. What makes pumpkin seeds successful with deworming is the amino acid they contain called cucurbitin. Check out this quick recipe on preparing ground pumpkin seeds as a natural dewormer.
🔮Magic is in the air! Available until Dec 1st, here’s the current lineup: 🐓Chicken Heart 🐄Beef Spleen 🐟Alaskan Pollock 🐄Beef Aorta 🦆Duck Neck 🦃Turkey Wing + Super Chew: 🐖Pig Trotter
Hill’s Pet Nutrition expands its recall and nobody is talking about it. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive, is expanding a recall they said in January was for food sold last year and therefore probably not still on sale. The products, including Hill’s® Prescription Diet® i/d® Digestive Care Chicken&Vegetable Stew Canned Dog Food, has now expanded into a different level of concern.
Technology that helps dogs learn how to talk with humans. The FIDO Project at Georgia Institute of technology is currently working on nose-activated vests and touchscreens that can be used by our furry friends to summon help for their handlers and so much more. The research includes testing wearable devices and a way to interpret what is being conveyed by a dog’s variety of barks.
White House Secret Service Dog honored with a medal of devotion of duty. Hurricane, a black Belgian Malinois, is a Special Operations Canine. During the night of Oct. 22, 2014, an intruder scaled the north lawn fence at the White House. Hurricane leaped at the intruder, past the last guard who had the intruder at gunpoint, and took him off his feet, eventually pushing him back to the perimeter fence. "It was very hard to watch," said Miraichi in a video posted by the charity. "I've never had to see my dog get hit like that, slammed like that, kicked, punched. He was cut up pretty good from the fight. I knew it was bad. Hurricane went in and did that so we didn't have to."
Dogs spayed or neutered are more likely to be overweight or obese. A recent paper on about 2,800 golden retrievers enrolled in a lifetime study also found that dogs fixed before they were 6 months old had much higher rates of orthopedic injuries, and that keeping dogs lean didn’t prevent those injuries. Spaying and neutering do have some clear health benefits for dogs (testicular and ovarian cancers are moot), but researchers say the reproductive hormones controlled by the removed sex organs have important systemic roles. They influence muscle mass and tendon and ligament strength, and they tell bones when to stop growing.
FDA approves Clomipramine Hydrochloride for separation anxiety in dogs. Clomipramine hydrochloride is a tricyclic antidepressant typically used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in humans. The FDA has recently approved the generic version of Clomicalm for dogs. According to the FDA, “Pet owners whose dogs have been prescribed clomipramine hydrochloride should be aware that it is not for use in humans, and they should keep the product out of reach of children, and seek medical care if ingestion occurs. Clomipramine overdose in humans can cause effects such as convulsions, irregular heart rhythm, and elevated heart rate.” So yeah, that’s scary.
Bone cancer genome in dogs could help decipher disease in children. A new scientific study has shown that there is a genetic similarity between human osteosarcoma (OS) and bone cancer in dogs. Although OS is rare in children, it is quite prevalent among dogs and is an aggressive form of cancer that tends to spread to the lungs. The similar genomic features and clinical expression of the illness in both species allow us to use comparative oncology to share potential new treatment options.