November 16, 2008
Guest Blog
The following is a guest blog entry written by Christine Wilhelm. To read more from Christine, check out her blog here: The Cat /Dog Lot.
Home Remedy For Your Dog's Ear Infections
My dog Abby is a cocker spaniel, and they are infamous for having ear infections (otitis). Her ear infections had become chronic to the point that antibiotics weren't helping any longer, so I decided to test a home remedy I read about on a dog forum group. It only took a few days for me to see that it was helping her, and within a couple of weeks I knew we were on to something good. I've been using it for over a year now, with no recurrence of the otitis, and her ears look and smell normal. In fact at her recent checkup, my vet gave her the "best Cocker Spaniel ears" award and asked what I had been using.
First of all, if your dog's ears are badly infected, with open sores, I recommend you first treat them with a product I've used with good results called Zymox Otic available at Amazon.com for around $10. It contains 3 enzymes derived from milk products, and is highly effective against yeast and bacterial infections, completely safe with no side effects. It is a cleaner as well as a treatment, and is very soothing. As I said previously, Abby's ears were to the point that even antibiotics didn't work long term, and unfortunately neither did Zymox long term. It kept her comfortable, but if I didn't use it every few days, the itching would return. If the ears are just smelly and itchy with no open sores, you can start right off with the home remedy.
You will need the following ingredients: (If you can't find these locally, they are available online at many places like Amazon.com. The ingredients are inexpensive and it's very economical as I haven't even used half of the mixture in over a year's time - a little bit goes a long way.
16 oz. rubbing alcohol
4 TBSP. Boric Acid
16 drops of Gentian Violet (1% is fine)
The boric acid and gentian violet are both antibacterial and antifungal agents. Just add the boric acid and gentian violet to the alcohol bottle. Then transfer a portion of it into a small squeeze bottle. (I used an empty antibiotic dropper) Then daily squeeze a few drops into the ear and massage. Just a word of warning, the gentian violet in the mixture will stain any surface, including the dog a light tinge of lavender. I used it daily for about 1 week, then went to every 3 days, then once a week, and now we go about 2 weeks or longer between applications. My dog's ears look very healthy and there is no itching, something I thought Abby would never experience the rest of her life.
p.s. This is also effective for human's itching skin, like mosquito bites. I tried it and got relief instantly.
Thank you Christine for this great tip!
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November 05, 2008
Stop Puppy Mills!
For all of our readers out there who are not familiar with puppy mills, please listen. We need your help.
What is a puppy mill? It is a place where puppies are viewed as business and profit. It is a large facility where dogs are crammed into cages, with little food, love, care, or human contact. They are forced to live in small cages and breed heat cycle after heat cycle, while an uncaring owner reaps the profits. This is often how these dogs spend their entire life.What Can You Do?
Because most puppy mills are not illegal (very sad and disturbing), we need help from the public to put an end to the consumer demand for their “product”. You can help put a stop to puppy mills by getting your next dog from either:- An animal shelter or pet rescue group
- A well-screened, responsible breeder
Craig
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October 24, 2008
Bad Economy for Donations?
As our economy declines, local charities struggle to receive donations. Local business/citizens want to donate but simply don’t have the extra cash to spare. We need to be creative.
Ask your local business partners to use GiveBackAmerica.org and choose your organization as the beneficiary!
Look at the everyday things a local business does that could DIRECTLY benefit your organization.
1) Order office supplies online
2) Book company travel online
3) Network with other local business
Ask your local businesses/corporate sponsors to embrace your personal shopping mall. They will be happy to know they could help your organization while going about their everyday business. This simple effort could means thousands of extra dollars per year to local charities.
Posted by Craig at 08:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Digg It
August 10, 2008
Stray Animals in Beijing
While most of the world is caught up in all of the drama and feel good stories that the Olympics provide, there is a problem in Beijing that is being overlooked. In preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, organizers tried to "clean up" the city, making it more appealing to visitors. This sounded like a good idea, until you learn of one of ways this was achieved. Officials thought that the stray cats who lived in the city would cause problems, and took methods to reduce their population. Reports are that local officials were sent out on the streets to kill these stray cats. They would receive money for reaching certain quotas.
I read a great article detailing this story on CNN.com. The focus is on China native Qin Xianona, who is going to great lengths to protect the stray cats of Beijing. She had a great quote, saying "People's attitude toward animals reflects their attitude toward fellow human beings." This couldn't be more true, and Beijing officials should be ashamed. It is one thing to make their city as presentable as possible for visitors, but to do so at the cost of helpless animals is simply disgusting. Hopefully, stories like these will surface during the games, and the next city to host the Olympics will learn from the mistakes made in Beijing.
To read more about this story, visit www.Cnn.com and search "Stray Cats Beijing".
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July 22, 2008
Website Redesign
Over the past few months, we have worked hard at redesigning GiveBackAmerica.org to provide everyone with a more user friendly experience. The new site is finally live, and we hope that you will be as pleased with the results as we are. Some of the new features on the site include:
- An individual charity commission tracker
- A "Checks Sent" page
- A "Link to Us" page, where you can customize links and banners to bring your supporters directly to your charity shopping page
- Enhanced charity search function capability, where now you can search for a charity to support by cause, state, or name
- A video introduction on the homepage, where visitors can learn quickly how GBA works
- A cleaner and more modern looking site design
Over the next few months we will be adding many more charities to the site. As always, please contact us if there is a specific charity you would like to see us add to the site, or a specific store you would like to see added to the mall. We also welcome anyone to write a guest entry on our blog. Contact me at rob@givebackamerica.com if you are interested in doing so.
We would love to hear any feedback you have about our new site. Our goal is to make the process as simple for you as we can. Please use our Refer-A-Friend link in the right margin of the homepage to let your friends know about our program. Help us reach our goal of "Changing the Way America Gives, One Purchase at a Time!".
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May 03, 2008
NFL Star Diagnosed With Diabetes
NFL star quarterback Jay Cutler learned recently that he has diabetes. After finding out, of course his first question was "Can I still play football?". The answer, he was happy to hear, was that he can.
Cutler, a 25 year old quarterback for the Denver Broncos, complained last year of a lack of energy while also watching his weight drop 30 pounds. Team doctors thought that it was just stress and the toll that a full football season can take on the body. Throughout the off season though, Cutler complained of continued fatigue. Routine blood tests this spring showed that Cutler had Type 1 diabetes.
The biggest upcoming change for Cutler will be his diet. He will not be able to eat "anything and everything", as he says he has in the past. That means eating less fast food, counting carbs, and injecting insulin. Doctors maintain that the disease should not affect his football career, as long as he takes the proper precautions. There have been numerous professional athletes who have had long careers after being diagnosed with diabetes.
Cutler also says that he plans on expanding his charity work to include juvenile diabetes. We feature many charities here that deal with diabetes. Click the link below to visit our homepage and support them when you shop online.
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April 27, 2008
Universal Health Care or Privatized?
I spent last weekend celebrating a wedding with many of my old college friends. This is a great group of guys who have stayed close well after our college years (I'm 35 yrs old now). Our biggest debate of the weekend was politics. Specifically, we debated (they yelled at me) about healthcare.
Now to preface this, I'm very liberal on many social issues and conservative financially. Capitalism is wonderful and often leads to peak efficiency. Individuals and companies are incentived to grow and prosper. Now on the other hand, most of my friends are conservative both socially and financially. The main difference is that I believe everyone in our country should be ENTITLED to:
1) Healthcare
2) Housing (a basic roof and nothing more)
3) Food (it doesnt have to taste good, just do the job to survive)
4) ACCESS to education (we can't force feed you, you need to want it)
5) Equal opportunities (we need to strictly enforce this)
Healthcare was the big debate. Let's do a quick summary.
Universal Health Care PROS: Everyone will be covered and there will be no gray area, nobody falls through the cracks. It's not all about $ and without our health we have nothing.
Universal Healthcare Cons: Government is extremely inefficient and ruins anything it controls, long lines for service that you have little say about, Drs. shouldn't be limited on salary, if you take the profit out of healthcare then drug companies have no incentive to research new drugs that help mankind (sad but very true), profit drives medical community and Drs. to offer better service (incentive), when you sum it up it's just the taxpayer picking up the universal healthcare tab with HUGE INCREASE IN TAXES while the gov infringes on capitalism and tells me they can handle my money better than i do.
See on paper it seems to clearly favor private healthcare. There must be a better answer. Overall, I love capitalism and private enterprise. I think our system is great for the rich, poor and most of the middle class. I still cant help feeling empathy for the working poor (middle class) that get "unlucky" with health issues and gets CRUSHED by the system.
Whats the answer to save this unfortunate group? Maybe set a cap on medical bills you are responsible for if you have adequate coverage? Force the insurance companies to cover ALL MEDICAL RELATED COSTS and stop denying claims? Offer affordable guarenteed health policies where everyone has access to education? Is it fair that a person BORN WITH type 1 diabetes has to pay through his teeth for coverage for his entire life? I'm feel for people that were dealt a tough hand and get crushed by the system as a result.
Someone please give me suggestions and help me see this more clearly.
Craig
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