Your pet's hair can help clean up the oil spill!

If you plan to get your dog or cat groomed, or do it yourself, save those clippings. If you are getting your own hair cut, save those clippings, too. Clean out your brushes and combs - just leave the vacuum bags alone.
Your hair and your pets' fur can help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't vacuum it up, because the hair and fur needs to be as free of other debris as possible.
The hair and fur is stuffed into old pantyhose or nylons, and made into booms that soak up the oil and cleanse the water. You can also donate those old nylons, runs and all, by the way.
At the root of this collection drive is Matter of Trust. This is a non-profit organization based in California, and they have already collected thousands of pounds of hair and fur to help make the booms.
"People" salons are collecting hair clippings, too. Carol McCoy, of the Carol Mccoy Salon at Stranz Hair Salon in Macon, said, "We're doing it in our salon, but I don't mind being a collection point."
She said she plans to get boxes soon to ship the hair and any fur, stockings or wool that needs to go, too. Call the salon to make an appointment if you want to get your hair cut, and to coordinate your donations if you have any of the other materials to bring. Call the salon at 478-731-0603 or 478-474-7644. The shop is open Tuesday - Saturday.
Other Macon area salons registered with Matter of Trust are:

• Signature Salon & Spa, Macon (704) 254-1561
• Stranz Hair Salon, Macon ( 478 ) 787-8924
• Studio L.A.S., Macon (478) 746-1386
• Visual Glamour,  Macon 478-474-1712
• Matthew Caleb Salon, Warner Robins  (478 ) 256-0369 
• Serenity Salon and Spa, Warner Robins  (478) 320-5310 or (478) 953-3001      
• Emerald Cuts, Dublin ( 478 ) 275-4222
• Great Lengths, Milledgeville (478) 453-2569

Please call to find out if the salon is willing to add your pet's fur to their donated hair before you drag the fur over to their shops.
While we can't find a local collection point specifically for fur, Coastal Pet Rescue in the Savannah area is accepting donations there for transfer to a Florida collection point.
You can send in donations of hair and fur yourself. Go to the sign-up page at Matter of Trust, sign up and get instructions for sending your donations to them. Although you are asked for credit card information, this is only if you wish to buy from the site (posters, etc.), and you do not have to put in your credit card information. Just leave that part blank and hit the sign up button.
If you own a pet grooming business, hair salon or any other kind of business and wish to donate, go here.
Schools that want to make a class or school project of making donations to help rid the Gulf of Mexico of all that oil and help save wildlife should click here.
Churches, government entities and other non-profits should click here.
Your donation and anything you spend on postage/shipping of that donation, are tax-deductible. Just save your receipt for shipping. Matter of Trust will send you a receipt for the donation after it is received and accepted.
Once you sign up, you'll get an e-mail telling you where to send your hair, fur, wool, nylons, etc.
The oil spill is expected to not only kill precious wildlife resources, but can effectively put out of business all those fishermen and small fishing companies that depend on the sea for their livelihood. This not only impacts them, but will likely cause the price of fish at the supermarket to rise significantly.
If you can't see the video link, click here to see the YouTube video of how fur and hair is used to make mats to soak up oil, and an amazing demonstration of how well these mats work.

Ways to make your dog smile #2 Inner ear noogies

Rub the little piece of cartilage that juts out at the entrance to your dogs' ear.  The dog will probably cock his ear to one side with his eyes half closed.
from 97 ways to make a dog smile, by Jenny Langbehn.

Tips for parasite prevention

10 Tips to Protect Your Horses from Insects

Follow these tips to protect your horses from insects and parasites and make your property less fly-friendly.

By Allison Rogers

Here's what you can do to make your horses more comfortable and your property less fly- and bug-friendly.

1. Remove anything that holds rainwater, such as old tires and unused buckets, and fill in persistent or perennial puddles.
2. Do not spread fresh, uncomposted manure on horse pastures you intend to use before the manure decomposes.
3. Don't overcrowd pastures.
4. Clean up grain spills and decaying vegetation, such as grass clippings and uneaten hay in pastures.
5. Keep water buckets clean and provide fresh water.
6. Deworm your horses on a regular basis.
7. Apply insecticide and repellent frequently.
8. Outfit your horses in fly masks.
9. Provide a shady shelter as a refuge from biting flies for pastured horses.
10. Remove manure from stalls daily and from pastures twice a week, and compost or dispose of it.
This article originally appeared in the May 1997 issue of EQUUS magazine. Read "A Trail Rider's Guide to Stopping Flies" in the June 2006 issue for a few quick and easy techniques to stop winged pests from ruining your summer rides.

Mosquitos are more than annoying...they spread deadly diseases

     Mosquitos are responsible for a number of diseases in North America, including West Nile virus and heartworm.  The former mostly affects horses, while heartworm is dangerous  to dogs.
    Where do mosquitos live?  They rest in dark, shaded vegetation during daylight, and come out to feed at night.  Mosquito eggs grow in water, and cannot survive without it.  Prevention must include getting rid of any water sources you can including your pets' water bowls when not in use.
     Keep your pets inside at night when mosquitos are most active; and leave lights off because they attract insects.  

Choosing good foods for your dog

Here are some tips for choosing good dog food:
A well researched, home prepared fresh diet is the best, but that can be time consuming and expensive.
Dry food is the least natural to the canine species.
Different dogs have different needs, so watch your dog carefully for signs of compromised health. Here are a few bad symptoms: runny eyes, smelly ears, itchy skin, severe gas, or frequest diarrhea.
Keep track of what your dog is getting and his response.
Switching foods regularly allows for a variation in the content of minerals and vitamins.

New home for hemopet

Hemopet, the first and only national non-profit animal blood bank, and its laboratory diagnostic division, Hemolife, have relocated to a custom built, expanded new facility in Garden Grove, California. The new 20,000 square foot facility houses Hemopet's animal blood bank, the Hemolife laboratory, large living quarters for donor greyhounds, consultation and office space as well as an expanded conference room for professional veterinary and community seminars.  Robert Woods, D.V.M, offers on-site complementary veterinary therapies including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, hemeopathy, homtoxicology, nutraceutical therapy and flower essence therapy.  hemopet.org  source: Animal Wellness

Racing greyhounds

I hope you enjoy this video of greyhounds.  Racing greyhounds captured on film doing what they love.....running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbHzLY9VFgk&feature=related

YouTube - Training Dogs for Greyhound Racing : Sprinting Practice for Greyhound Racing Training

The dogs have a great time at this sprint training center. They run for the love of running.
YouTube - Training Dogs for Greyhound Racing : Sprinting Practice for Greyhound Racing Training

YouTube - Canine Angel saves Boy from Cougar - Dog fights off Wild Animal

This is such a great story about a golden retriever saving her boy from a cougar attack.
 YouTube - Canine Angel saves Boy from Cougar - Dog fights off Wild Animal

Equestrian Professional.com - The Horse Business Site

Equestrian Professional.com - The Horse Business Site

Dangers of raw pet foods: A Better Alternative

Fresh foods fed in variety are without question the perfect form of nutrition. Appropriately designed cat and dog supplements to help reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens and oxidation, and to help balance high meat meals and provide a spectrum of vegetable-based nutrients and nutraceuticals such as Wysong has developed can also be of great benefit. Anything less than this is a compromise. The next best alternative is packaged dried raw foods that have incorporated in them food technology to impede pathogens, parasites and oxidation. The low water activity of these products is a great inhibitor of pathogens and the low level of moisture make storage and shipping efficient and environmentally friendly. (See our Wysong TNT™ raw dog and cat foods .) Good quality table scraps and properly designed dry pet foods and canned pet foods can be mixed into the diet rotation with benefit as well.
Consumers must learn the principles of fresh foods fed in variety and to trust in nature. Every pet owner desires the best for their pet and they are correct in thinking food is an essential element in achieving that goal. But it is incorrect to believe that another person can do more for their pet’s health than they can do themselves. All that is required is a little understanding and use of common sense. To that end we provide a free e-Health Letter, a free one-hour CD by Dr. Wysong entitled, “The Thinking Person’s Master Key To Health,” healthy product alternatives designed intelligently with health as the number one objective, and books and recipes for anyone wanting to take control of their own and their family’s and pet’s health destiny so as not be led down health destructive primrose marketing paths.
(Note: Although the authors are associated with the technical development of the Wysong products mentioned above, the reader should not misconstrue the information as a commercial inducement. Wysong will teach people for free how to fresh-food-feed using only products purchased in the meat and vegetable aisles in the grocery. Although Wysong products provide convenient and supplemental alternatives and variety, no Wysong product is required to be purchased in order to achieve this superior method of feeding. The position is taken at Wysong that health professionals [which we are] have an ethical responsibility to help people prevent disease and thus are duty bound to teach people how to not need their services. So that is exactly what we do. Wysong pet products are a mere tool to help people along that path to the ideal goal of health self-sufficiency.)

Dangers of raw pet foods: Environmental

We live in an age of pollution and energy diminishment. RF pet foods require a tremendous amount of refrigeration and equipment all along the supply path. Freezing is energy inefficient and consumes valuable energy resources. Since RF pet foods are 70% water (at least) there are huge resources wasted in freezing and transporting the tons of this food-contained water through the supply chain. Along with all the equipment, trucking, freezing and frozen water handling inefficiency comes the pollution that parallels such industry.

Dangers of raw pet foods: Packaging

The best packaging for any pet food, particularly RF pet foods, is light- and oxygen-barrier and modified atmosphere flushed. In the absence of this, oxidation proceeds rendering the lipids toxic. None of the producers surveyed employed these technologies that we could detect. Even if they did, the other problems and dangers listed above would remain.

Dangers of raw pet foods: Parasites Are Ignored

– A wide range of parasites can be found within RF pet foods. Although there is technology in terms of freezing and natural ingredients that can be used to thwart this problem, none of the producers examined employed any of it that we could detect.

Dangers of raw pet foods: Quality

In order to make their foods anywhere near affordable, RF pet food producers must search the ingredient market for items that can carry the name of real food but may in fact be only a hollow shell of the real thing. Inferior meat and organ ingredients, heat processed grains and vegetable riffraff (for example “broccoli” on a label may really be broccoli stems – like eating a branch from an apple tree rather than the apple) are used because they are of low cost. That is not to say the marketing brochures and labels do not make it appear as though the brand is not a true gourmet meal. If one reviews the various labels it becomes clear that the race is on to see who can put the fanciest and most exotic ingredients on labels ... as if that is the road to pet health. (It is not.) In a brief ingredient survey this is what we found:
Every manner of “pureed” vegetable Organic beef, rabbit, chicken, turkey, goat, lamb, duck, pork Organic honey Organic papaya, persimmons, blueberries, oranges, apples, pears Organic yogurt Organic alfalfa, millet, quinoa and barley sprouts Wheat grass Nettles Bok choy Cultured kefir Cod liver oil Capsicum Watermelon
The reader is challenged to go to the store and total up the cost of such ingredients. Some of the organic ingredients can cost over $15 per pound. But the RF pet diets containing them can retail for as little as $2-4 per pound. Take away margins for distributors and retail stores and the producer is selling them wholesale for close to a dollar per pound. Now on top of the cost of ingredients is the production, advertising, packaging, freezing and in some cases a sales force making six figures. Something most certainly does not add up. The only thing that can be missing is true ingredient quality. But how can the label say these expensive ingredients are in the food? All the RF pet food producer needs to do is put in pinches of the expensive ingredients just to say they are there.
The only economic hope for a RF pet food producer is to create the perception of “value added.” They simply could not put the costly ingredients in the food to any degree and make a profit for themselves and all the middlemen up and down the chain. The price they would have to charge would be ridiculous. In effect, in order to be successful, producers must become accomplished at propaganda, not health and nutrition.
Consumers interested in cutting through to the truth do themselves and their pets a service by going to the grocery store with a list of the ingredients ostensibly in a RF pet diet. Although some RF diets in the lower price range appear to not be attempting to mislead, consumers should do the math comparing the exotic ingredients in RF pet foods to the prices for the real thing in the store and decide for themselves whether either value or honesty resides in RF pet products.