Category: Education

Lidl Recalls Orlando Brand Dog Food

Yet another dog food recall.

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Lidl Recalls Orlando Brand Dog Food

November 9, 2018

Lidl USA is voluntarily recalling specific lots of Orlando brand Grain Free Chicken & Chickpea Superfood Recipe Dog Food because the products may contain elevated levels of Vitamin D.

What’s Recalled?

The recalled Orlando brand products include the following lot numbers manufactured between March 3, 2018 and May 15, 2018:

TI1 3 Mar 2019
TB2 21 Mar 2019
TB3 21 Mar 2019
TA2 19 Apr 2019
TB1 15 May 2019
TB2 15 May 2019

Elevated Vitamin D Levels

Dogs consuming elevated levels of Vitamin D could exhibit symptoms such as vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, excessive drooling, and weight loss.

Customers with dogs who have consumed this product and are exhibiting these symptoms should contact their veterinarian as soon as possible.

No other products sold by Lidl are impacted by the recall.

This is a voluntary recall and is being conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

What to Do?

Customers who have purchased this product with the affected lot codes should stop feeding it to their dogs and discard the product immediately or return it to their nearest Lidl store for a full refund.

Customers who have questions about this recall should call the Lidl US Customer Care Hotline at 844-747-5435, 8 AM to 9 PM Eastern time, 7 days a week.

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

Get Dog Food Recall Alerts by Email

Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s emergency recall notification system.

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Please share this amongst all your friends.

Just a number, or is it!

I can do no better than republish in full the following:

(Simply because I scarcely understand it!)

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Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics

Famous physicists like Richard Feynman think 137 holds the answers to the Universe.

By PAUL RATNER, 31st October, 2018.

The fine structure constant has mystified scientists since the 1800s.
The number 1/137 might hold the clues to the Grand Unified Theory.
Relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics are unified by the number.

Does the Universe around us have a fundamental structure that can be glimpsed through special numbers?

The brilliant physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988) famously thought so, saying there is a number that all theoretical physicists of worth should “worry about”. He called it “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man”.

That magic number, called the fine structure constant, is a fundamental constant, with a value which nearly equals 1/137. Or 1/137.03599913, to be precise. It is denoted by the Greek letter alpha – α.

What’s special about alpha is that it’s regarded as the best example of a pure number, one that doesn’t need units. It actually combines three of nature’s fundamental constants – the speed of light, the electric charge carried by one electron, and the Planck’s constant, as explains physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies to Cosmos magazine. Appearing at the intersection of such key areas of physics as relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics is what gives 1/137 its allure.

Physicist Laurence Eaves, a professor at the University of Nottingham, thinks the number 137 would be the one you’d signal to the aliens to indicate that we have some measure of mastery over our planet and understand quantum mechanics. The aliens would know the number as well, especially if they developed advanced sciences.

The number preoccupied other great physicists as well, including the Nobel Prize winning Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) who was obsessed with it his whole life.

“When I die my first question to the Devil will be: What is the meaning of the fine structure constant?” Pauli joked.

Pauli also referred to the fine structure constant during his Nobel lecture on December 13th, 1946 in Stockholm, saying a theory was necessary that would determine the constant’s value and “thus explain the atomistic structure of electricity, which is such an essential quality of all atomic sources of electric fields actually occurring in nature.”

One use of this curious number is to measure the interaction of charged particles like electrons with electromagnetic fields. Alpha determines how fast an excited atom can emit a photon. It also affects the details of the light emitted by atoms. Scientists have been able to observe a pattern of shifts of light coming from atoms called “fine structure” (giving the constant its name). This “fine structure” has been seen in sunlight and the light coming from other stars.

The constant figures in other situations, making physicists wonder why. Why does nature insist on this number? It has appeared in various calculations in physics since the 1880s, spurring numerous attempts to come up with a Grand Unified Theory that would incorporate the constant since. So far no single explanation took hold. Recent research also introduced the possibility that the constant has actually increased over the last six billion years, even though slightly.

If you’d like to know the math behind fine structure constant more specifically, the way you arrive at alpha is by putting the 3 constants h,c, and e together in the equation —

As the units c, e, and h cancel each other out, the “pure” number of 137.03599913 is left behind. For historical reasons, says Professor Davies, the inverse of the equation is used 2πe2/hc = 1/137.03599913. If you’re wondering what is the precise value of that fraction – it’s 0.007297351.

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Now, as I said in my introduction, I don’t understand this. But it doesn’t stop me from marvelling at the figure.

Back to getting rid of worms!

OK, so it’s another guest post but useful nonetheless.

I have published a number of posts over the years on the topic of getting rid of worms. But this deserves republishing as it uses things around the house.

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How to Get Rid of Worms in Dogs At Home, Without Going to the Vet

By Ashley Turner.

Did you know that there are five different types of worms your dog can get including heartworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, and whipworms? If you don’t treat them, they can lead to several complications for your dog including poor growth, slowed development, anemia, and possibly death.

However, before you treat the worm infestation, you have to know what to look for. We’ll cover the common signs and how to get rid of worms in dogs, so you know how to safely and effectively treat this parasite before it leads to health complications for your dog.

Common Clues Your Dog Has a Parasite Infection

With some internal parasites, a diagnosis can be tricky because there may not be any obvious signs that something is wrong with your dog. However, there are also several common symptoms or clues that can point to an internal parasite infection, and they include:

Bloating – Does your dog look bloated whether or not they’ve eaten? Having continuous bloat or seeming generally uncomfortable can be a sign of worms.
Coughing – Your dog naturally coughs from time to time just like a person will. However, if you notice your dog starting to cough more than normal or go on extended coughing fits, this is a sign of worms.
Fever – You may notice that your dog is running a fever with this type of infection. It can come and go, and it normally won’t stay constant.
Lethargy – Sudden changes in appetite or lethargy is common as the worms advance. This can also come with vomiting that gets worse over time.
Scooting – Scooting refers to your dog dragging it’s butt across the floor. It looks like they’re “scooting” across the floor when they do this.
Stool Problems – Your dog’s stool may be loose or covered in mucus when they go to the bathroom. Additionally, you may notice worms in their stool or what looks like small grains of rice.

Different Types of Worms

While there are five types of worms, only four types are intestinal worms, but we’re going to cover all five types. We’ll go over what each worm is, how it’s transmitted, and symptoms specific to that type of parasite infection.

Heartworms

Heartworms are almost completely preventable, but they’re also one of the most damaging and scary types of parasitic infection your dog can get. Heartworms live and thrive in your dog’s heart and in the large blood vessels, and they can grow to be over 12 inches long.

Heartworms are transmitted by a mosquito biting your dog and transmitting the heartworm larvae into your dog’s blood where it travels to their heart. These worms can cause coughing, difficulty breathing, and death in more severe cases, so prevention is the key with this parasite.

Hookworms

Hookworms are small worms with hook-like attachments on their mouths that attach to your dog’s intestinal wall. They feed on your dog’s blood, and they eject their eggs out into your dog’s intestines and into their feces.

These parasites can get into your dog’s body through your dog licking and cleaning themselves, ingesting feces or dirt, through milk by nursing puppies, or by the worms burrowing through their pads on the bottom of their feet. Since it feeds on blood, these types of worms can cause anemia, and this is especially dangerous to young puppies or older dogs.

Roundworms

Roundworms live in your dog’s small intestine, and they’re a slightly larger parasite that grows up to seven inches long and look are long and thin like spaghetti noodles. The roundworms attach to your dog’s intestine and feed on your dog’s blood as well as the nutrients from their food.

Roundworms are one of the most common parasite infections your dog can get, and your dog can get roundworm by eating infected rodents or birds, as well as through the mother dog’s milk. Common symptoms of roundworms include a potbellied look, weight loss, dull coat, and abdominal pain.

Tapeworms

Tapeworms are flat and long worms that attach to your dog’s intestines, but you can also see them on your dog’s rear end and in their feces as small, white specs that look like grains of rice. They feed on the nutrients your dog gets from their food, and there may not be any warning signs.

There are 14 different species of tapeworms, but one of the most common ways your dog gets an infection is through flea eggs. Also, if your dog eats meat that is contaminated with these worms, they can transfer from the meat to your dog and cause lethargy and weight loss.

Whipworms

Whipworms thrive in your dog’s cecum, and they’re two to three inches long with a tapered end that resembles a whip. They attach to your dog’s mucus membrane, and they feed on your dog’s blood.

Your dog can get a whipworm infection through eating soil or drinking water that is contaminated with feces containing whipworm eggs. You may notice bloody feces with this infection and a more severe infection can lead to worse complications or even death in otherwise healthy dogs.

Preventing Worms in Dogs

Prevention is the key when it comes to these parasites because it’s much easier to take preventative steps than to treat the resulting infection. There are several things that you can do to prevent these worms, and they include:

Make sure that you clean your yard regularly and remove any feces that you can see, and you should plan on doing this at least once a week. Over time, these feces can get infested with worms, and they can transmit to your dog if they eat it or get it on their coat and then ingest it when they clean themselves.
Your vet will prescribe deworming medications, and it’s important that you give these medications to your dog as recommended by your veterinarian. It’s especially important that you do this when your dog is young because puppies usually get at least three rounds of dewormer to help prevent infections as they grow.
If you can’t prevent your dog from getting worms, you can help to catch it quickly before the infection advances. Make sure that you’re routinely checking your dog’s fur, feces, and rear for the worms themselves, larvae, or any eggs.

How to Get Rid of Worms Naturally

Although you may want to take your dog to the veterinarian to get a professional’s opinion, there are several things that you can do at home to keep your dog healthy, happy, and free of a parasitic infection.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Almost all homes have apple cider vinegar around because it has powerful antibacterial and antimicrobial properties that make it an excellent cleaning agent. It’s natural and safe for your dog to digest, and this makes it a popular remedy for getting rid of worms.

To give this remedy to your dog, start by adding one-fourth of a teaspoon to their food or water each day, and slowly increase this over a week until you get to one teaspoon. Once you get to a teaspoon, you can keep giving them this amount each day to keep the worms away.

Black Cumin and Pumpkin Seeds

Both black cumin and pumpkin seeds along with black cumin oil are safe for your dog, and they work to prevent, expel, and maintain your dog’s worm-free state. You want to give your dog between a half and a whole teaspoon of black cumin seed each day in their food, but remember to heat it first to get rid of the very bitter aftertaste.

Pumpkin seeds work very well if you grind them before you add them to your dog’s food, and you want to add around one-fourth of a teaspoon for every 10 pounds of body weight. For black cumin oil, use half of what you use for black cumin seeds, and it’s always a good idea to start at the lower end of the dosage and work your way up to the full dose.

Chamomile

Chamomile is popular for having anti-inflammatory properties, but it’s a slower acting herb where parasites are concerned that works by reducing any discomfort your dog may have. You can make a chamomile tincture and add it to your dog’s food or water twice a day at 0.25 to 0.50 milliliters per every 20 pounds of body weight.

To make your chamomile tincture by mixing:

1/2 to 1 cup of dried Chamomile flowers
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of boiling water
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups rum or vodka
Quart glass jar with an airtight lid

Add your flowers to the bottom of the jar and pour the boiling water over the flowers. Next, pour the rum or vodka into the water and flower mixture until the jar is full and seal the lid.

Once it’s sealed, store it in a cool and dry place for four to six weeks and shake it for a few minutes each day. After four to six weeks, open the jar, strain the liquid, and it’s now ready to add to your dog’s water or food once a day.

Dried Coconut

Dried coconut is excellent for getting rid of worms due to its fiber content, and it can help expel up to 90 percent of any parasitic worms that your dog may have in under 24 hours. You do want to start your dog on a lower quantity and slowly work your way up to the regular dose over the span of a week or two to avoid digestive upset.

The maintenance dose you want to eventually end up with is one teaspoon for small dogs, two teaspoons for medium dogs, and one tablespoon for large dogs once a day sprinkled over their food. You may want to start with half of a dose or a quarter of a dose and work your way up to the full dose.

Garlic

As long as your dog isn’t on blood thinners, feeding them garlic can help to rid them of any parasitic worms. Garlic helps to remove mucus from your dog’s stomach lining, and this makes it more difficult for the worms to attach and thrive.

You do want to give your dog fresh cloves of garlic, and let it sit at room temperature for at least 15 to 20 minutes before you chop it and add it to their food because this will allow the garlic to release an amino acid called allicin. The suggested feeding guidelines are as follows:

Small Dogs – One-quarter of a clove of garlic twice per day.
Medium Dogs – One half of a clove of garlic twice per day.
Large Dogs – Three-quarters of a clove of garlic twice per day.
Giant Dogs – One clove of garlic twice per day.

Vegetables and Fruits

Anything with high levels of vitamin A is an excellent home remedy to help slow down and eradicate an infection of parasitic worms. You don’t want to feed your dog too much of these fruits and vegetables because it can cause digestive upset, especially when you first introduce it into their diet.

You may want to start feeding your dog a half of a teaspoon of fruits or vegetables for every 10 pounds of body weight once a day for at least a week to get them used to it. After a week, you can increase this dose to a half of a teaspoon for every 10 pounds of body weight twice a day at mealtimes.

Fruits and vegetables that have high levels of vitamin A include:

Raw Carrot
Squash
Watercress
Pumpkin
Cantaloupe
Asparagus
Apricots
Apples

Getting rid of worms in dogs can be an ongoing process that takes time and effort on your part. But, once you get rid of them, keeping your dog healthy, happy, and worm free is a relatively easy process, especially if you use one or more of our natural worm remedies.

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I don’t know about you but we found it incredibly useful.

Pet-proofing your apartment – a guest post.

A guest post about dogs.

Or rather about protecting an apartment.

I was contacted about three weeks ago by a Jenny Harrison who wondered if I would be interested in posting a guest post. I said that I was and we settled on the following. Enjoy!

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What Is the Best Way to Pet-Proof an Apartment?

By Jenny Harrison.

There isn’t any doubt that pets are great companions to have around. Not only will they encourage you to be more active, but they look forward to seeing you after you have been out all day. Now the thing is if you plan on leaving your pet alone in your apartment, there is always a chance they might harm themselves. Keeping a pet in an apartment is tricky, but it is not something you can’t pull off.

If you worry about your pet being alone at home, you should definitely look into pet-proofing your apartment. To learn more about pet-proofing your home, and the best ways you can go about doing so, read on.

Organize your Living Space

You will find it incredibly cute that your pet pulls on anything and everything it comes across, but it is unsafe. You will not want your pet around electrical cords, blind cords, earbud cords and any wire or cord for that matter. Keep everything wrapped up and tidy. Leave no stone unturned to make your living space free from cords or laces of any type.

For things your pet loves to chew on i.e. cushions, shoes, or even paper, make it a point to keep them away. If your pet is tearing things up, especially your dog, then it is a sign they are restless. Take your pet out as much as you can so they are calm and relaxed at home.

Pet-Proof your Furniture

Cats are known for leaving claw marks on couches. All cat owners are familiar with this, but that does not mean you can’t do anything about it. You can cat-proof your couch with the help of cat-deterrent sprays or stick furniture strips, that will make it uncomfortable for your cat to use your couch as a scratching post.

Dogs aren’t any better when it comes to couches, since they shed their fur, chew and leave their scent. To deal with dogs get a blanket or cover for furniture, but keep it reserved for your pet alone. If the smell gets to you or your guests, then get a furniture spray.

Another great way to solve this problem is by getting furniture that can’t be chewed and is unattractive to pets; so that is a no to furniture with fluffy cushions and wooden legs. Also, if your pet does not refrain from sitting or sleeping on the couch, then get a couch that matches with your pet’s coat of fur, so it is not visible.

Install Baby Gates

For pets that are too noisy, it is a good idea to install baby gates. You can install baby gates in areas you want to keep them out from. This is especially useful for those times when you will be out for longer than usual, and can’t exactly keep an eye on them.

If your pet is too big, and won’t be held back by baby gates, then a crate might just do the trick. If you opt for this option, ask someone to check out your pet in the apartment, and take them out for a walk, more specifically if it is a dog.

Give your Pets their own Space

One of the biggest reasons your pet will want to sit on your bed, couch or anywhere else they should not be in the first place, is because it looks comfortable. Another reason they will want to do so is that they want to be close to you.

Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the fact that you need to give your pet their own space. Get a bed for them and don’t be surprised if they snub it at first. Remember, it takes time for pets to get used to change, and if you want them off your bed or couch, then you will have to be consistent about teaching them to sit or sleep in their own cozy little bed.

Keep away Cleaners

Animals are curious creatures so you need to treat them like children. You cannot expect them to stay clear of stuff, like cleaners for instance, so you might as well remove them from their sight. Since some cleaners consist of harmful chemicals, you can’t let this one slide.

Cats love licking themselves clean, not excluding their paws, which would come in contact with the floor you just cleaned with chemicals. So the next time you go shopping for cleaning products, take your pet into consideration. You should look into “green alternatives”, or better yet, you can concoct your own with a hot water and vinegar solution.

Prepare to Clean… A lot!

Living with a pet in an apartment means you should be ready for anything. You will have to deal with expected as well as unexpected cleanups.

Keep a lint roller within your reach to remove fur stuck to your furniture. As for the carpets, get new ones installed, the kind that comes with a unique stain resistant technology. It may cost you a bit, but it will make cleaning accidents a breeze.

There are a lot of great ways you can pet-proof your apartment, so it is up to you to decide what will work and what won’t. Since you know your pet better, adapt and overcome challenges as they come your way. But remember, your pet’s safety should be your top priority.

The aforementioned tips should be part of your apartment move in checklist if you have a pet, or you are getting a pet in the apartment for the first time. No matter the case, make it a point to do a bit of homework on your own to ensure you are not getting in way over your head.

If you need help, ask your friends or family, especially those who already know how to deal with pets. Pet-proofing your home may seem difficult at first, but it does not require much time or effort to pull off, so don’t get overwhelmed.

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It is a useful document and one that would find itself valuable in the right situation.

For your reference Jenny included her bio. It is as follow:

Jenny Harrison is a passionate home and lifestyle blogger. She loves to engage with readers who are seeking home and lifestyle-related information on the internet. She is a featured blogger at various high authority blogs and magazines in which she shared her research and experience with the vast online community. Currently, she is associated with New York moving company ‘All Around Moving Services Company Inc.’ Specializes in arranging and assembling services of professional and skilled local movers locally in New York City as well as areas in New Jersey, Connecticut and the Miami Dale area in South Florida. Follow her on twitter @MJennyHarrison for more updates.

A complex relationship

Slowly getting back to normal!

And posts like this help.

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Wolves on Michigan’s Isle Royale reveal new info about predator-prey relationships

This we know: Top carnivores profoundly influence local ecosystems.

By STARRE VARTAN October 26, 2018.

Dawn breaks over Moskey Basin, at Isle Royale National Park, Michigan. Canadian wolves colonized the island in 1949. (Photo: Steve Lagreca/Shutterstock)

The American people’s relationship with top predators — especially wolves — is complex and ever-evolving. About three decades ago, it was mostly just animal-rights groups and their supporters who fought for the wolves’ right to exist; they were often considered a nuisance. But now there’s plenty of scientific evidence proving what’s good for wolves is good for their prey, the plants those prey eat, and indeed, positively affects the entire ecosystem. That’s ultimately good for humans too — unless you’re competing with the wolves, like a rancher who grazes animals or a hunter who wants to shoot the same deer or moose that wolves need to eat. But at this point, even some ranchers and hunters have come over to the pro-predator side.

Much of that change in the perception of predators is down to studies that have proven how precisely cougars, wolves, bears, tigers, lions, bald eagles, alligators and other apex predators affect the land around them. None have been studied longer than the wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park, a Guam-sized island in Lake Superior. For almost 60 years, the populations of these two groups have been tracked — as well as their effects on the plants and other animal communities on the island. (You can read the reports here, including the recent 59th annual report.)

As the video above explains, there used to be as many as 50 wolves on Isle Royale; however, that number has dwindled, mostly due to inbreeding that caused a debilitating spinal condition to proliferate among the too-closely-related wolves. Just 10 years ago, there were still around 30 wolves but by 2015, there were only three wolves left. Now, there are just two, a closely related male-female pair that probably won’t breed. (The female of the pair has aggressively fought back when the male attempted to breed with her.)

Already, the moose population on the island has boomed, “undoubtably because of lack of predation,” John Vucetich, a wildlife ecologist from Michigan Technological University told Science magazine, adding that the two remaining wolves are now “… swimming in moose.” Despite the wolves’ regular predation on moose, there’s been a 20 percent increase in moose in just one year, which scientists estimate is about five to 10 times higher than on mainland areas. Beaver populations have also risen sharply. There’s just not enough wolves to keep either population in check.

So what’s so bad about so many moose? Well, as most ungulates do, moose spend their days browsing on vegetation, so the more moose, the more food they need — and the plants on the island can only take so much nibbling. An aquatic plant, which was found in abundance just six years ago, is now only found in places where moose are not. Long-term, this means the island will soon run out of food to keep the ever-larger moose population alive, and many will starve once food becomes scarce. Previously, the wolves have kept moose populations low enough so they didn’t overeat the vegetation, keeping the system in balance.

A plan to rebalance the ecosystem

This female wolf arrived at Isle Royale on Oct. 2, 2018. (Photo: NPS/Jim Peaco)

This is why some people think the best solution is to bring a fresh influx of wolves to Isle Royale National Park. The plan is to release 25-30 wolves over the next three to five years. So far, park officials have trapped four wolves on the mainland beginning in late September and released them on the island. Three of the wolves are female — with the hope they will successfully breed.

This new blood would potentially rebalance the predator-prey relationship and the idea is that the rest of the ecosystem would follow. Introducing so many wolves over several years is hardly natural either, others argue, saying that humans should just be hands off and let nature take its course. The original 50 wolves had found their way to the island on their own, having moved in from Canada; perhaps they could do so again if given the chance.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated since it was originally published in April 2017.

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This is the real news!

A dog food recall for you!

This came in while we were away.

G & C Dog and Cat Food Recall Expands to Include Multiple Brands

October 24, 2018 — G & C Raw of Versailles, Ohio, is recalling all products lots manufactured from February 27, 2018 through July 20, 2018, because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Affected products are sold under the brand names G & C Raw Dog Food and G & C Raw Cat Food and sold through direct distribution to customers.

Product Image

No product images have been provided by either the company or the Food and Drug Administration.

About Listeria

Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in animals eating the products.

Furthermore, there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.

Healthy people infected with Listeria monocytogenes should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, aches, fever, and diarrhea.

Listeria monocytogenes infections can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Listeria monocytogenes infections are rare, and pets may display symptoms such as mild to severe diarrhea, anorexia, fever, nervous, muscular and respiratory signs, abortion, depression, shock, and death.

In addition to the possibility of becoming sick, such infected animals can shed Listeria monocytogenes through their feces onto their coats and into the home environment and thus serve as sources of infection to humans and other animals in the household.

If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

Where Was Product Distributed?

Recalled products were distributed by direct delivery and may have been sent to the following states:

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Michigan

North Carolina

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Tennessee

What’s Being Recalled?

The manufacture dates are included at the end of the lot number.

For example, the pet food product manufactured on February 27, 2018 has a lot code of that ends with 022718.

The company is now recalling all products with lot numbers that end in 022718 through 072018.

The recalled dog food products include:

Beef Veggie Mix Dog Food

Ground Beef Dog Food

Sliced Beef Heart Dog Food

Ground Beef Heart Dog Food

Kim’s Special Beef Organ Dog Food

Ground Chicken Dog Food

Chicken Veggie Mix Dog Food

Chicken Mix Patties Dog Food

Duck Veggie Mix Dog Food

Ground Duck Dog Food

Ground Rabbit Dog Food

Rabbit Veggie Mix Dog Food

Ground Lamb Dog Food

Lamb Veggie Mix Dog Food

Ground Beef Pancreas Dog Food

Beef Liver Chunks Dog Food

Beef Sweet Breads Dog Food

Ground Pork Dog Food

Pork Veggie Mix Dog Food

Shelby’s Pork Organ Mix Dog Food

Ground Pollock Dog Food

Turkey Veggie Mix Dog Food

Ground Turkey Dog Food

Tripe Dog Food

The recalled cat food products include:

Pat’s Cat Beef

Pat’s Cat Chicken

Pat’s Cat Turkey

Pat’s Cat Duck

Pat’s Cat Rabbit

No confirmed illnesses have been reported to date.

What Caused the Recall?

The recall was initiated as the result of a routine sampling program by the Ohio Department of Agriculture which revealed that some finished products contained the bacteria.

What to Do?

Consumers who have purchased the products are urged to return them to G & C Raw, 225 N. West Street, Versailles, OH, for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact G & C Raw at 937-827-0010 from 9 to 5 pm Easter Time or by email at mgcrawdogfood@yahoo.com.

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to http://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

You keep all your dogs safe out there!

What a way to spend a Sunday!

Poor little Sweeny!

Last Sunday, Sweeny not having eaten for 3 days, it was felt that we could not leave it any longer and decided to take Sweeny to Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center. They are an emergency 24-hour a day service. It turned out to be a longer day that we had anticipated.

For we arrived at 9:15 am and didn’t leave until 5:15 pm.

Even then we were still left with some uncertainty.

For the long rigmarole of tests didn’t come to a firm conclusion.

Luckily we could leave taking dear Sweeny back with us but the results from the Fine needle aspirate won’t be through until Tuesday or Wednesday. (P.S. Just heard by phone that the results should be through in the next hour. Ergo: Monday evening.)

If it is Tuesday that will be better than Wednesday.

For on Wednesday we leave for a short holiday in Mexico.

In fairness, the house is being looked after by Jana Stewart but it will still be better to know before we leave.

That leads me to say that for the next ten days the regularity of blogging is going to be variable; to say the least.

Not only beautiful …….

……. but also intelligent.

There is something about a Huskie that takes one’s breath away. Not only because of the grace and wit with which they conduct their lives but also because the majority of them are working dogs.

So it was with interest that I read recently about the Huskies and wanted to share it with you all.

Here it is.

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Why do huskies have blue eyes?

New genetic study finally solves the mystery.

BRYAN NELSON, October 4, 2018.

A happy husky with its characteristic blue eyes. (Photo: Nancy Wong/Wiki Commons)

A dog DNA startup company called Embark, based out of Boston, Massachusetts, and Ithaca, New York, appears to have finally solved the mystery as to why huskies sport their beautiful blue eyes. The study is the first consumer genomics study ever conducted in a non-human model, as well as the largest canine genome-wide association study to date, reports Phys.org.

The key, it turns out, lies in the dogs’ 18th chromosome. A duplication on chromosome 18, near the ALX4 gene, was found to be strongly associated with blue eye color. The ALX4 gene plays an important role in mammalian eye development, so this association is not entirely out of left field. And interestingly, the study also found this same genetic quirk in non-merle Australian shepherds, which also tend to have blue eyes.

This flies in the face of how eye color is usually thought to be determined in dogs. For instance, two genetic variants are known to underlie blue eye color in many dogs, but scientists have long known that these variants do not explain the blue eyes of huskies, thus the mystery.

In fact, even though we’re seemingly in a genomic scientific age, the genetic underpinnings of many traits in non-human animals are still largely unknown, even for humans’ best friends. Embark aims to change that.

For the study, which was performed in partnership with Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, researchers used a diverse panel of 6,070 genetically tested dogs, with owners who contributed phenotype data — physical traits of the dogs — via web-based surveys and photo uploads. A comprehensive, consumer-driven survey of this size is largely unprecedented.

“Using genetic data from the pets of our customers, combined with eye colors reported by customers for those same animals, we have discovered a genetic duplication that is strongly associated with blue eye color. This study demonstrates the power of the approach that Embark is taking towards improving canine health,” explained Aaron J. Sams of Embark. “In a single year, we collected enough data to conduct the largest canine study of its kind. Embark is currently pursuing similar research projects in a range of morphological and health-related traits and we hope to continue to use our platform to move canine genetics and health forward in a very real way.”

It’s all in the name of improved health care options for our canine companions, as well as helping curious human owners better understand the origins of their pets. Answering why huskies have blue eyes is just the first such mystery they hope to solve.

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What can one say! They are such beautiful dogs!

Picture Parade Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine

Taken from the world’s most smartest dogs.

From this site,

Herding dogs are often considered some of the smartest breeds.

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The keenest eyes in this Doberman Pinscher.

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Have you seen such a face in this Shetland Sheepdog Sheltie.

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Onward and upwards to another set.

A Letter to Mr. Cosmos, Page One

The last in this recent series on me examining my navel!

Dear Mr. Cosmos,

Clearly, I have no idea how many letters you receive from us funny inhabitants on Planet Earth. Can’t imagine you get floods of them but then neither can I imagine that this is the first one you have ever received.

Why can I not imagine this is to be your first? Simply, because us funny folk on this incredible planet of yours have been around for quite a while. I mean that over in that country we folk call Israel there has been found evidence of “control of fire by humans nearly 790,000 years ago.”

Whoops!

Just realised that me saying “quite a while” and writing of “790,000 years ago” will be utterly meaningless, in terms of scale, to how you describe your past. Just as it is utterly meaningless for me to contemplate that in cosmological terms the ‘Big Bang”, generally recognised as the start of your Universe, was, give or take, some 13.8 billion years ago.

I wish I could really get an idea of what a million years feels like, let alone a billion years. Ah well!

Let me stay with this notion of stuff being meaningless.

My dear, long-time friend Dan Gomez sent me a link to an item that had been published on the Science Alert website. It was about how the NASA Hubble space telescope had recently embarked on a new mission. Or in the words of that article:

Hubble Just Revealed Thousands of Hidden Galaxies in This Jaw-Dropping Photo

By Michelle Starr, September 13th, 2018

Hubble has embarked on a new observation mission: to study the farthest reaches of the Universe, using some of the most massive objects in the Universe – galaxy clusters.

And this newly released picture shows how.

At the centre is Abell 370, a cluster of a few hundred galaxies located around 4 billion light-years from Earth. And arrayed around it, never seen before, are thousands of galaxies, out even farther in the depths of space.

The reason we can see them now is because of Abell 370. All those hundreds of galaxies, clustered so close together, and the associated dark matter, create an immense field of gravity.

When the light behind that field passes through it, the gravitational force is so strong that it bends the path of the light. This creates a magnifying effect called gravitational lensing, allowing us to see objects we usually can’t.

Abell 370 is the first of these clusters.

Here is one of those photographs,

(NASA, ESA, A. Koekemoer, M. Jauzac, C. Steinhardt, and the BUFFALO team)

And an explanation of what we are looking at:

In the image, you can see the galaxies in Abell 370. The brightest yellowish white ones are huge, containing hundreds of billions of stars. The bluer ones are smaller, spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, with younger populations of stars. And the dimmer, yellower galaxies are older, with ageing star populations.

The galaxies behind Abell 370 appear as smeared lines of light. The most spectacular, to the lower left of the centre, is nicknamed the Dragon (possibly for its resemblance to a Chinese dragon), with its head to the left. It’s made up of five images of the same spiral galaxy, magnified and stretched by the gravitational lens.

Mr. Cosmos, you know a little earlier I was remarking about how it is impossible to comprehend the age of the Universe. Well, dear Sir, it’s just as impossible to comprehend your distances.

Take Abell 370 out there some 4 billion light years from Planet Earth! I really wanted to have a go at understanding that distance.

First, I looked up the distance in miles that is represented by one light-year. Answer: one light year is a tad under six trillion miles.

Just one, let alone some 4 billion of them!

Next, I looked up the distance of our very familiar Big Dipper constellation. You must have heard of it? This one!

The Big Dipper. Image Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss

Turns out that even this very familiar sight in our night sky ranges from 78 to 123 light years away. Average that as 100 light years and, bingo, you are looking at this familiar cluster of stars that is 590 trillion miles away!

So, dear Mr. Cosmos, that puts your Abell 370 constellation about a distance that is 10 million times more distant than our Big Dipper!

I wrote above that “I really wanted to understand that distance.” In reference to how far that Abell 370 constellation truly was. My conclusion is that I will never, ever understand that distance.

Anyone able to help?

Tomorrow, Mr. Cosmos, the closing page two of my letter to you.