The News At Home
Someone needs to give Cassie a degree in medical diagnostics – or something! We call her “the nurse” for good reason.

Several months before my late mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor on the right side of the brain, Cassie would leap on mom’s lap and sniff the right side of her head non-stop. She was so focused on this that she’d sniff from the right ear to the eye, finally settling on the lower scalp area until we had to physically pull her away. This happened every single time my mother would visit.

Several days before Zoey shows any sign or gastrointestinal or ear problems, Cassie sniffs her sister’s appropriate body part. Urinary tract infections receive the same sniff treatment usually involving the body part as well as the urine itself.

Cassie also seems to know when she herself is coming down with something. When things are well, she does her outdoor duties and walks away. If there’s something brewing, she turns around to sniff the “product”, walking all around it in a circle, taking a nose break by sniffing the air and then resumes the diagnostic protocol.

So? Does anyone have a medical practice that needs a great nose on four legs? Cassie is for hire and only requests food, water and a lot of love as payment – but you can’t keep her!

What’s New at monicasegal.com
Cod Liver Oil in capsules
Cod Liver Oil liquid
We are delighted to offer cod liver oil under the Monica Segal label. As you probably know, cod liver oil is valued for it’s vitamin A and vitamin D contents and it provides Omega 3 fatty acids. What you may not know is that it can also provide more heavy metals than you’d like. The lab assays on our web site prove that our cod liver oil is top quality and very pure but there’s more to the story and we’re proud to share it.

Our cod liver oil is extracted without chemicals. The lab reports match the label claim consistently. Our gelatin capsules are preserved with vitamin E and even the capsules themselves contain nothing but gelatin, glycerin and purified water. Of course, the benefit from anything in a capsule can only be derived if the capsule disintegrates quickly once it’s in the body. The standard in the industry is to follow the rules set by United States Pharmacopoeia. In this case, the standard says it should disintegrate in no more than 45 minutes. Our capsule only took 7 minutes.

We feel proud of these products and you should as well. Your dog will benefit from purity, proven by lab reports and a nutrient delivery system that surpasses expectations.

Seminar Reminder

Grand Rapids Agility Club
The Grand Rapids Agility Club is hosting my next seminar in Grand Rapids Michigan on October 9, 2005. Registration is available through Karen West westdal3@yahoo.com or by phone, 616-485-1023.

As with all seminars, my focus is on nutrition and the varied interests of participants. While dogs performing in Agility may have their unique needs, we expect to have a diverse group of people who may have other interests and questions. Your input is what makes each seminar different from the next. You are given the opportunity to state your interest and any problems that your dog may be experiencing, by completing a questionnaire after registration through Karen West.

Don’t wait until the last minute! October is only two months away and seating is limited.

Fact of The Month

Older Dogs Benefit From Enriched Diets and Antioxidants
The antioxidant craze is alive and well. We seem very focused on just about anything that can prevent or control signs of aging. This is true of the human population and so, extends to our canines for obvious reasons. We want our dogs to live as a long time as possible and for their quality of life to be a good as possible. Can diet play a role? You bet!

Essential fatty acids form every membrane of every cell in the body as well as making up a large part of the structural and functional tissue in the brain. A diet that provides meats will supply the Omega 6 essential fatty acids. The addition of fish oils can provide the Omega 3 essential fatty acids. Older dogs can be in need of leaner diets due to a weakened gastrointestinal tract. In these cases, we may need to cut back on the fattier cuts of meat such as lamb, beef and pork and add Evening Primrose oil or Borage oil for their non-inflammatory versions of Omega 6 fatty acids.

All vitamins and minerals play critical roles so it makes good sense to feed a diet that meets a dog’s needs. Going past this basic step is to provide foods and supplements that act as antioxidants. Vitamins A, C and E are the most common. Vitamin A is found in large concentrations within fish liver oils, animal livers and, in the form of beta carotene in bright green and yellow vegetables. Vitamin C is found in fruits and vegetables as well as in supplement form. If you choose to use a supplement and your dog has a sensitive digestive tract, Ester-C is the best version. Vitamin E is found in very small amounts in most foods. Supplementation with vitamin E is usually the best way of ensuring that your dog is receiving it in sufficient supply.

Selenium, a mineral that also works as an antioxidant, is found in most foods. In areas where the soil is deficient in this mineral, the foods grown on that soil will also be deficient. Be careful with this one though. Like most vitamins and minerals, selenium can be toxic in high amounts but the difference is that it doesn’t take much selenium to overdo it. Stick to real foods and don’t supplement with selenium unless you are being advised by a veterinarian.

How do you enrich your dog’s diet? Add veggies, essential fatty acids and vitamin E at minimum. If you want to learn more about older dogs, replacing myths with action that can help your four-legged friend, you may be interested in our booklet Feeding Older Dogs.

The following abstract also shows just how important an enriched diet may be and it notes the results: Consumption of an enriched diet and antioxidants helps to partially counteract some of the expected effects of old age in dogs.

Dietary enrichment counteracts
age-associated cognitive dysfunction in canines.
Milgram NW, Zicker SC, Head E, Muggenburg BA,
Murphey H, Ikeda-Douglas CJ,Cotman CW.
Life Science Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough
1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ont, Canada M1C 1A4 milgram@psych.utoronto.ca

Advanced age is accompanied by cognitive decline indicative of central nervous system dysfunction. One possibly critical causal factor is oxidative stress. Accordingly, we studied the effects of dietary antioxidants and age in a canine model of aging that parallels the key features of cognitive decline and neuropathology in humans. Old and young animals were placed on either a standard control food, or a food enriched with a broad spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial enzymatic cofactors. After 6 months of treatment, the animals were tested on four increasingly difficult oddity discrimination learning problems. The old animals learned more slowly than the young, making significantly more errors. However, this age-associated decline was reduced in the animals fed the enriched food, particularly on the more difficult tasks. These results indicate that maintenance on foods fortified with complex mixtures of antioxidants can partially counteract the deleterious effects of aging on cognitionAdvanced age is accompanied by cognitive decline indicative of central nervous system dysfunction. One possibly critical causal factor is oxidative stress. Accordingly, we studied the effects of dietary antioxidants and age in a canine model of aging that parallels the key features of cognitive decline and neuropathology in humans. Old and young animals were placed on either a standard control food, or a food enriched with a broad spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial enzymatic cofactors. After 6 months of treatment, the animals were tested on four increasingly difficult oddity discrimination learning problems. The old animals learned more slowly than the young, making significantly more errors. However, this age-associated decline was reduced in the animals fed the enriched food, particularly on the more difficult tasks. These results indicate that maintenance on foods fortified with complex mixtures of antioxidants can partially counteract the deleterious effects of aging on cognition.

Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Inc.
PMID: 12392778 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Until next time...

Monica

“Every time I go near the stove, the dog howls ...”
-- Phyllis Diller