Hi, I am new to this particular forum but not to Gardenweb. One thing I noticed was that a lot of you talked about your dogs having hot spots - I wanted to make sure to suggest comfrey salve to you to heal those VERY quickly. I grow my own comfrey and make my own salve in quantity for my use and my 6 dogs, but you can also find it in your local natural foods store more than likely. Make sure if you put it on them you cover it so the dog can't lick it as comfrey can cause liver damage when taken internally. But the stuff is amazing. On the topic of feeding home-cooked, I have had great luck with the following when I have had a furkid with pancreatitis, or a puppy sick from tummy surgery, etc. In a large bowl I mix: 2 cups cooked brown rice 1 large jar baby food in a vegetable/meat combination any leftover plain cooked meat I have, chopped small (or baby food meat sticks if I don't have leftovers) 1 hard boiled egg, chopped 1 banana, mashed into mixture Mix and serve!

I was loosing my hair by the handfulls too and my hair had always been somewhat thin. Now I had about 5 spots that were nearly bald. I went to my family doctor who did bloodwork and he said it was alopecia and I knew it was not. He gave me 1 milligram tablets of Finisteride and said it should start producing hair within six months. It didn't help at all. Then I went to a dermatologist and he assured me I would not loose all of my hair and that it was alopecia. I knew there was no family trait of loosing hair so that wasn't it. I found a highly recommended dermatologist and he said he thought it was alopecia but that the 1 milligram tablets of Finisteride wasn't strong enough. He gave me five milligram tablets and told me to come back in eight months. The meds didn't help so I went back. He said just in case it was an infection he gave me an antibiotic called Doryx. Within 4 days of starting the Doryx my hair quit falling out and grew back in. I'm still taking the Finesteride and it's never grown any hair. If your family does not have a history of hair loss do not take "Alopecia" as a diagnosis. Keep going to dermatologists until you find a good one.

Take a needleless syringe and fill it with water. Coat the deworming tablet with butter and put it in a pet piller. Sit down with the cat between your knees and grab him by the scruff. Lift only his front feet off the floor an inch or two. Squirt a few drops of water into the side of his mouth. This will wet his throat and make swallowing easier. Using the piller, immediately place the wormer as far back in his mouth as possible. Immediately follow that with more water (a few drops at a time) from the syringe. The water will force swallowing before the cat has time to spit the pill out. Keep giving a few drops of water at a time until you are certain the pill has been swallowed. ONLY AFTER THE PILL IS SWALLOWED, lower the cat's front feet back down to the ground. I, personally, don't usually use a piller when using this technique. I wrap the pill in a Pill Pocket and place it in his mouth after the "pre-wetting" drops of water, then immediately chase it down with more water. I find that if the pill is in a Pill Pocket, the cat won't generally fight as hard to spit it out. BUT, it is easier to get bitten when not using a piller, which is why I described its use above. The water and holding the cat's front end off the floor an inch or two are the real keys to the success of this method. Laurie

Don't know I need to read the paper on line....I don't go and buy oen because i never know whats going on!! Stacy