From the Library

Reserved the books a week back and collected them last Thursday. As I wanted to start reading on Friday, I took them along to the office, but forgot bring home for the weekend. ;<

I must remember to bring them home today.

Left: 'Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog' by Wendy Volhard & Kerry Brown, D.V.M

Right: 'Work Wonders, Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones' by Tom Lonsdale

Quick Buys

First quick buy:  

Venison flank steak

I was actually going there for lunch, but just dropped by the store, as it is located there. I had wanted to buy it the next time I replenish Rossi gal's meat supplies, but when I saw the Venison, I couldnt resist getting it for her. And so, I grabbed one pack home. ;>

Next quick buy:

Organic plain yoghurt

I just dropped by to see if they have yoghurt. When I went there last Thursday, I didnt manage to get it. I was glad they have it today, so I got one for Rossi gal. (*I be sharing it with Rossi gal, as its a pretty big tub and  tastes yummy too. ;p)

Treats for Rossi gal

Dehydrated some treats for Rossi gal yesterday late afternoon. 

Organic Pork

Australian Lamb 

 They are ready this morning. These are the end-products. 

Dehydrated Pork

Dehydrated Lamb

3 boxes of treats for my Rossi gal 

Emu Meat*

I bought a pack of Emu Meat  some time back for Rossi gal to try. This was my first time seeing Emu meat for sale and it was only available at this particular store. So far, I have not seen it anywhere else.

Diced Emu Meat

It was Rossi gal's first taste of the meat and as usual, she gobbled everything up. The meat was pretty ok too. It didnt have that gamey smell. I will get it again for Rossi gal. ;) 

*Update (7 June 2011) : The store where I got the Emu Meat from, is not selling it anymore. I had wanted to get another pack for Rossi gal, but was told by the staff that they are not taking in this meat anymore.

An Afternoon Shopping

Yesterday afternoon, I went to shop on my own. Usually, Daddy will come along to help with carrying the stuff, but this time, he didn't join me, as he gota work. (*I took a half day off from work.)

Therefore, I gota go to the places and haul the stuff home myself. I went to two places, my usual butchery and another store, which was not too far off.

This was what I got from one of the places. I took the pic of this, cos it's the first time I have seen this and thought it looked pretty cool.
*Sua Ku me.. @x@

The 'Hot-Cold' Bag

The stuff inside

I also got a tub of cottage cheese for Rossi gal. It's been a long while since she ate it, cos I couldn't find the previous brand that she used to eat. Then I saw this organic one, so I grabbed one for her. I like cottage cheese too, so this tub will be shared between Rossi gal & me. It tastes yummy! ^_^

Organic Burdock Root

*Sometime back, I was giving Rossi gal Burdock Root Powder , then later stopped. Currently, I'm taking the burdock root powder myself. I have also introduced it to my friend, who is taking it as well.

Recently, I have re-introduced burdock root into her diet. This time, it's in the dried herb form. 
  

Organic Burdock Root, Dried

The dried burdock root is boiled with water. (Herbal Decoction)

After simmering, the mixture looks like this.

The burdock root is then sieved out from the water.

When the water has cooled, it is poured over Rossi gal's food.

Besides its nutritive & purifiying properties, the burdock water also has a nice aroma and 'adds flavor' to the food.

Tonic Drink: Korean Ginseng Extract with Honey

Rossi gal's tonic drink, 'Korean Ginseng Extract with Honey'.

As the ginseng extract is quite thick and bitter, it is harder to consume it on its own. The instruction on the bottle also recommended mixing in some honey or sugar for easier consumption.

I only mixed a small amount of the ginseng extract with manuka honey & some water. Even with the addition of honey, the ginseng's bitter aftertaste was still quite obvious. (I tasted it. +__+ Hmm..It's an acquired taste. )

Rossi gal sniffed at the mixture cautiously, sipped at it abit and didnt want to continue anymore.

This changed when I threw in a couple of meat treats into the bowl. In order to eat the treats, she drank up the mixture to reach them.

She is willing to drink "bitter water" for the sake of her precious treats. ;I

Probiotics

*Thanks Regina for your recommendation of this Probiotics.

I have bought a bottle of Probiotics for Rossi gal today, as I feel that yoghurt alone is not sufficient. I wanted her to have a better source of Probiotics.  

This is the Probiotics supp I got and it will be Rossi gal's new supp, starting today. Just gave her the first dose earlier :)








Arrival of the New Chia Seeds

*Thanks to Iris for the wonderful suggestion to order the mighty seeds online.

I ordered a new batch of Chia Seeds online. They just arrived today, early evening. I intend for me, daddy and Rossi gal to take the Mighty seeds long term.

 4 Packs of Chia Seeds
(2 packs are mine, the other 2 packs are for my colleague, shared purchase.)



Close-up Look



The Thyroid Test (& A New Discovery)

Lately, daddy & I have noticed some thinning at the front sides of Rossi gal's body and we were getting very concerned about this. In fact, I was feeling very depressed over this.  

After her bald patch recovered, I was so relieved and had thought the worst was over. After this ordeal, I thought it would be easier for me to maintain her health through diet and natural supps. Then the thinning issue came up.

There were 3 things I suspected that could have led to the thinning:

1) 'Relapse' of Demodectic Mange
But then again, hair have already regrown and covered the big bald patch on her body. The hair on Her tail used to be very bare and thin with patches of hair loss. Now the hair on her tail has regrown too. She has quite a bushy tail now, compared to before. Other smaller bald areas like her thighs have signs of hair re-growing too, though slow.

Furthermore, her raw diet and the other immune-boosting supps I give her, should help in keeping her Mange under control. (Mange is a immune system-related condition.) So what's with the thinning?  

2) The 'Antibiotics+Hormones Free' Chicken 
I give Rossi gal a mix of organic and 'antibiotics+hormones free' chicken, but between the two, I give more of the latter. I used to think 'anti-biotic+hormone free' is quite as good as organic, cos the butcher referred to them as 'they are not certified organic only.' 

But recently, I realised how very wrong I am. (Thanks to *Iris for your detailed sharing on the vital differences between them & Thanks to *Regina for sharing your experience on feeding them. Thanks for showing me the 'light'.)

I had always attributed Rossi gal's increased scratching, outbreak & softer poo to her super sensitive skin. I had always thought the farming, sodium level etc of this chicken were fine, since I had read from its website that they use "special" farming methods. How very wrong I am! Ignorant me! I wondered if the damn chicken contributed to her thinning. So much for free of antibiotics+hormones. Scam.  

So from now on, no more of this so called 'antibiotic+hormone free' chicken (& their eggs) for Rossi gal. Ban them! I will only use organic chicken(& eggs) now.

3) Thyroid
Last, but not least, it's the thyroid. One of the symptoms of a Hypothyroidism, is hair loss. She is exhibiting this symptom in particular, but not the other symptoms I have read about. However, I would not know if she is having a thyroid issue, unless I take her to do a thyroid test. 

Thus, I made the appointment with her vet for the thyroid test. This was also a test that we missed out during her blood test last year. I needed to know if her thinning was due to her thyroid. Then from there, I can know how to help her more effectively.

The Thyroid Test
We waited two hours from our appointment time before we saw her vet. When he saw Rossi gal, he commented that her furs were nice and pretty, one of the positive results from going raw. He emphasized to us Never to change from raw and to stick to raw all the way. 

(Sidetrack: With all the rubbish I had been reading from kibble supporters, I told him that there are people who do not believe in raw. He looked up at me and said, "That's ok. It's here. Look at the Japanese. They eat raw foods and they live long lives. Breast cancers in Japan are very little too." Words from an enlightened vet, how very rare here. This is for the kibble supporters : Wake up! Dump those damn biscuits and give your dogs some Real Meat!)  

We proceeded to show him the thinning sides and expressed our concerns. He examined her and said, her body looked fine, except for the thinning, which was not normal. He agreed that this could be a sign of a low thyroid. Blood was then drawn from Rossi gal for the test and we waited about 20 minutes for the result.

The result:

As per the result of her thyroid test (T4), her thyroid is fine. However, he still suggested to put her on a low dose of natural thyroid supplement. (*We had informed him at the start of the consultation that we did not want any medications. We were looking into natural treatment options/supplements, which he agreed.)

Natural Thyroid Supplement,'Thyroid Activator'.
It's a herbal supplement meant for humans.

The List of Ingredients

I was really glad that Rossi gal did not have a thyroid problem. But what's wrong? The vet was baffled too. I asked if high sodium levels in food could cause thinning, but he said that functioning kidneys will be able to filter the sodium out through urination. Then I asked if it could be genetics, he said it's possible. Oh, he did not attribute it to the relapse of her mange.

With this, we went out to the waiting area.

A New Discovery

Just as my mind was exploring ways of how I could help Rossi gal in this case, the vet suddenly came out of his room and beckoned us to go in again. I got a scare. I was thinking, could there be anything seriously wrong with Rossi gal that he discovered at the last minute?  

The first thing he said to us was, "Rossi gal is spayed, right?" I told him, yes, at exactly 6 months of age. He then indicated that this could possibly be the problem.

He explained that Mother Nature has put in place the organs for a good reason. But mainly to prevent unwanted litters, vets do their part by sterilizing. There are vets who went as far as to sterilise at very young ages. He gave the example of women in menopause experiencing symptoms like thinning hair and weight gain etc. This was definitely something we did not expect.

Therefore, what Rossi gal was experiencing, could possibly be a hormonal problem (or 'lack of hormones' for her case). She was spayed before her first heat. We spayed her based on the advice of another vet whom we consulted at that time. She insisted this was the best time to do it. I was also looking at the benefits like lowered risk of female cancers, so I went ahead to spay her. I really believed it was the best thing for her at that time. 

(I'm wondering too, if her sensitive skin and hot spots, could possibly be partly or a large part due to her hormones.)

The vet then prescribed Rossi gal a natural progesterone cream made from Mexican Wild Yam to see if it could help her.(http://circulartimes.org/Wild%20Yam%20Extract.htm) He told us to apply a tiny amount on her every alternate day.





*Sighz* with *Fingers Crossed*