Dogged Blog

Dogs on drugs: FDA warns of dangerous drug interaction

Dogs who are taking the flea preventive drug Comfortis (spinosad) at the same time they are being given high dosages of the drug ivermectin, such as those used in the treatment of demodetic mange, are at risk of ivermectin toxicity.



The maker of the drug, Eli Lilly's companion animal health division, does not believe that there is any risk to using the regular heartworm-prevention dose of ivermectin with Comfortis; the daily dosages used to treat some stubborn cases of demodetic mange are as much as 100 times the monthly dosage used to prevent heartworm infection. In an informational release, the company cited a supporting field study that involved hundreds of dogs (PDF file):

The administration of Comfortis and approved canine formulations of ivermectin at doses labeled for heartworm prevention has been tested and shown to be safe, including in a North American field trial involving over 450 dogs that were required to be on monthly heartworm prevention throughout the three-month study. Laboratory work has found that, even at doses of 5 times the monthly dose of spinosad combined with 10 times the monthly dose of milbemycin oxime in ivermectin-sensitive collies, there were no signs of neurotoxicity (Sherman et al., publication pending).

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine is advising that the two drugs not be prescribed at the same time.

Ivermectin toxicity can be fatal and requires immediate veterinary care. Early signs include vomiting, weakness, drooling, tremors and coma. Dogs also often become blind, although this is usally reversible.

With aggressive veterinary care including hospitalization with round-the-clock nursing, most dogs will recover.

High-dose use of ivermectin is considered "extra-label," which means a use of an approved drug to treat an illness for which it has not been approved. Such use is legal under the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act of 1996; without extra-label prescribing, half or more of the drugs used in veterinary medicine every day would be unavailable, including most antibiotics.

Wherein I bark and growl

Over on SFGate.com this morning, my article on the closing of the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program, just a few months before it would have celebrated its 30th anniversary.

And now for a rant. Feel free to ignore it, I just have to get this out. Consider it a form of therapy.

My Borzoi Kyrie grew up in the country. She was born there and she lived there until I moved to San Francisco a year and a half ago. Although she went to training classes as a puppy, and I even showed her a few times, I got lazy and failed to continue to take her places where there were other dogs as she got older. She had many guests both canine and human, and got along with them all, as she got along with all my own dogs, who numbered as many as 11 during her younger years. The only exception was some prey drive she showed towards toy dogs. Well, one toy dog.

So I was unprepared for her fearful reaction to being approached by other dogs when she was on a leash. Over time she's become less reactive and less fearful, and I have no reason to believe she'd be a problem with off-leash dogs if she were off leash herself. But I haven't tested that theory, because I don't think it's ethical or fair to conduct an experiment with other people's dogs. She continues to be friendly with dogs who visit me at my house, whose owners can make the informed decision to take a chance.

(Rebel was shown for quite a while and lived for part of his early life in a town, where he went regularly to a dog park, so he's perfectly fine with strange dogs, on-leash and off.)

Now, in the year and a half since I have lived here, the number of incidents involving Kyrie and other dogs is zero. She hasn't gotten into a fight, gotten off her leash, or snapped at another dog. She used to bark when she'd see one, and back up in a fearful body posture, but she doesn't even do that anymore. I walk her at off hours (I work out of a home office so I have the ability to do that) and if I see other dogs, I just turn around and leave the area. I never have her in off-leash areas when there are other dogs around or likely to be around, and I never, ever let her off leash unless we're in a safely fenced area and there's no one there but us. Which in San Francisco is not often.

So, here I have a dog who I only suspect might tangle with another dog, and I'm acting like she's some kind of dangerous animal, simply because I love her and care about other dogs and don't want there to ever be a problem that I could have prevented. It was hard for me at first to accept that people in San Francisco allow their untrained dogs off leash in leash-required areas, and that they honestly don't care that their dog is racing a hundred miles an hour towards my leashed dogs, and that their dog has either gone deaf or never heard his or her name before and has no idea what the word "Come" means, which doesn't stop them from saying it over and over and over again.

No, I still resent that fact, but I've accepted it, which is why I never go anywhere there's likely to be such a dog.

So of course, the night before last I was out with the dogs at 9 at night. They were on a leash. We were in a leash-required area separated from a busy street by nothing more than a few trees. We were at the far end of that area, at least 100 feet from the road, down a hill from the path that runs parallel to the street, next to the trees. So, at least 75 feet from that path, down a hill that was itself covered with trees and shrubbery.

And a dog comes trotting down that path, off leash, her owner following behind, talking on her cell phone, leash looped around her neck.

The dog sees my dogs, and starts scrambling down the hill towards us.

My dogs do nothing. They don't bark or pull or advance. They do look up from the fascinating bits of dirt they had been sniffing, but that's it.

The owner breaks away from her phone call long enough to assure me that her dog just wants to say hi. I smile, hold the hand that's gripping Kyrie's leash up an inch or two, and say, "She's not friendly, so could you call her?"

Suddenly, owner goes ballistic on me. Says she's heard all about my dogs causing trouble in the park, that I have a bad reputation, just goes nuts. Now, I know what she's saying is impossible. Other than a short run-in I had a year and a half ago with a lady whose off-leash Jack Russell tried to bite Rebel's head -- something that prompted not even a growl from Rebel, who just looked at the little dog and said, "You're kidding, right?" --  and who I have never seen again in the park, I've never had any problems with anyone about my dogs.

Once or twice I've smilingly asked someone to hang onto their dog while I left the area so they could continue their use of the park without worrying about my dog (and again, these are unleashed, untrained dogs in leash-required areas), but never did anyone react with anything but prompt courtesy, and even one or two offers to leave or leash their dog. So she was either making the whole thing up to upset me (it worked) or had me confused with someone else (although none of my neighbors or fellow late-night dogwalkers has ever mentioned there being someone using the park who has problem dogs).

So, I actually laughed when she started saying these things. Then she got really vicious and started using a lot of four-letter words, called me "a cackling witch" and walked backwards out of the area screaming at me without ceasing the entire time.

And she never did put her dog on leash or even call her.

And neither Rebel nor Kyrie ever barked.

That was Sunday. This is Tuesday, and it's still bugging me, so I'm trying this. I guess I'm not as well-behaved as Rebel and Kyrie.

Helping animals in flooded Cedar Rapids

In the devastation caused by recent floods in the Midwest, every city and town has its stories of families, livestock, and pets left homeless, injured, or even killed in the disaster.



One such story hit close to home for me, when one of my colleagues at PetHobbyist.com, who goes by the name of PHRascal, blogged about the flood's impact on her own town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

There are no words in the English language to adequately describe the extent of devastation here, but losses for the state of Iowa already have exceeded those of Katrina, and the tally climbs daily. There are over 25,000 newly homeless people in Cedar Rapids now. Over 1300 city blocks of this town were flooded. The flood waters have receded and the massive cleanup has begun, but it is going to be years before this town recovers from this catastrophe.



[....]



There are countless stories of loss and heartache, and many stories now of heroism, altruism and dedication to rebuilding this fine town. Iowans are helping Iowans as they always do in a crisis, but I want to put in a plug for one place that really needs help.



The city animal shelter was destroyed by the flood and those animals are now being housed at Kirkwood Community College. Fortunately, Kirkwood has agricultural programs and a vet tech program, along with a beautiful new equestrian arena and several barns. Kirkwood is also the temporary home to nearly 1000 animals, including pets rescued from flooded areas, new strays since the flood and drop-offs by owners who have lost their homes and currently cannot care for their pets.



As you can imagine, the expense is huge for this kind of undertaking. Each animal is microchipped, vaccinated, bathed and examined by a veterinarian on arrival. Medical needs are addressed. Local veterinarians have been generous with their time and volunteers have done a yeoman’s job of helping to care for the ever increasing number of animals. PetSmart and other businesses have contributed much needed supplies. HSUS, EARS and other national rescue groups have been helping rescue, transport and care for the animals. Even an HSUS group from Missouri has been here helping. I have volunteered out there and can attest that the animals are receiving excellent care.

Her full account is here.



PHRascal said that Kirkwood Community College has set up a "Friends of the Cedar Rapids Animal Shelter" fund and is accepting donations to support these efforts. You can donate online here; be sure to indicate the donation is for "Friends of Cedar Rapids Animal Shelter."



Another organization Rascal says can definitely use help is the local dog park, which is underwater. You can view photos of the damage here, and donate to help them restore the park here. It is also a 501(c)3 organization and any donations are tax deductible.

The human — and canine — stories behind the closure of San Francisco SPCA ' s Hearing Dog Program

This November should have been the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program, which took dogs out of shelters and trained them to alert their deaf and hearing impaired human partners to sounds like smoke alarms, oncoming traffic, the phone, and a knock at the door.



But instead of breaking out the birthday cake, the program found itself homeless, its trainers out of a job with not even a day's notice, its hearing-dogs-in-training moved into the shelter's adoption program to be placed as pets, and dozens of people in line to receive a dog left having to start their long wait over at a different agency. People like Nona Stegman, whose story is part of my column on SFGate.com this week:

Nona Stegman wants a dog.



Not the way, say, your little nephew who envies his cousins' golden retriever does. And not even the way you might, after seeing your neighbor running in the park with his happy-go-lucky mixed breed dog.



Nona wants a dog because she's deaf and a parapalegic. "A service animal is the lifeline for people who have been awarded a dog to help them through their daily schedules," she told me. She needs a dog with special training, who can walk safely at the side of her wheelchair, alert her to sounds, retrieve objects she's dropped, and bring her the phone if she falls.



But as important as those things are, they're not the only reasons why Nona wants a dog. She's had one before, and found it made a huge difference in the quality of her life. "This animal would be such a major comfort in my life," she said. "It would allow me to have a friend again. I miss it greatly."



Nona applied about two years ago to the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program for one of its specially trained assistance dogs. She also recently relocated to California from Nevada partly to provide a better living situation, including a fenced yard, for the dog.

There's also a canine side of the story:

Before the program was closed, and at about the same time Nona Stegman was moving to California and preparing to receive her trained hearing dog, Central Valley dog trainer Julia Priest was working with Tofu, a bright-eyed little Pomeranian some clients of hers had rescued from an abusive situation. He was a fast learner, eager and alert. "I taught him sit down and come in about a day," Priest told me. "He was just very bright, very trainable, highly reward motivated, and so easy to teach new behaviors."



She thought he'd be a perfect hearing dog, so she brought him to Hoffman, who agreed the little dog was a natural.



"I talked to the owners," Priest told me, "and said, 'This is the situation. He'll get this special training and he'll get to help somebody.' And they said, 'OK, well, if that's what it's going to be, then we're willing to let him go.'" So, Tofu donned a bright orange jacket with the Hearing Dog Program's logo on it, and began the training that might have led him to be the partner of someone like Nona.



But Tofu isn't anyone's helper today; he was one of the hearing-dogs-in-training who was put into the San Francisco SPCA's adoption program, where he was quickly adopted as a pet.

The full story is here.



Other related Pet Connection links:



Has the San Francisco SPCA gone off-course? A defense from the top



Interview with SF SPCA President Jan McHugh-Smith



Martha Hoffman’s statement on the closing of the SF SPCA Hearing Dog Program



Volunteers, donors, and hearing dog partners speak out about closure of SF SPCA’s Hearing Dog Program

Of video and the written word

Dear people who want to tell me stuff,

If you send me to a website on which there is little or nothing but a video clip, the odds are very, very, very, very, very high I will not play it.

Only if you have also written text that tells me what is in it and put it in context as part of your message is there any chance at all I will click "play" on the video.

In fact, you had better just tell me in writing everything you want me to know, because even when you put that video in context, I'm still probably not going to click on it. Your video clip (or podcast, for that matter) needs to be in addition to, not instead of, written words.

This isn't about me approving or disapproving of the fact that apparently you are accepting (or maybe just assuming) that people no longer can or will read. I am not doing this as a form of protest or to send you a message. I'm telling you that if you want me to know what you want to tell me, then write it out.

This concludes my message to people who want to tell me stuff.

Has the San Francisco SPCA gone off-course? A defense from the top

Last week, I blogged about a recent article in San Francisco Weekly that was sharply critical of the San Francisco SPCA. Under the direction of Richard Avanzino, now head of Maddie's Fund, SF SPCA was a leader in the early no-kill movement. They also founded the Hearing Dog Program, which took dogs out of shelters and trained them to be assistance dogs for the hearing impaired. That program would have been 30 years old this fall, but instead, it was closed on April 21 of this year.



I spoke to SF SPCA president Jan McHugh-Smith about the closing of the HDP, the SF Weekly article, and the mission of the agency. While she shied away from the term "no kill" itself (as it seems many in the shelter industry are doing these days), she insisted that "We have the same commitment to saving animal lives we always have," stressing that the shelter has an enviable live-release rate of 98 percent this year, and in combination with San Francisco Animal Care and Control, a county-wide live release rate of 84 percent -- somewhat down from previous county highs, but still far higher than national averages.



SF Weekly's article blamed the development of an expensive animal hospital at the shelter as being the cause of what it presented as negative changes at SF SPCA, and McHugh-Smith disagreed. She said that the development of the hospital was necessary for the health and well-being of the shelter animals, not just paying clients of the hospital. She particularly pointed out that disease control protocols – including protecting new shelter animals from spreading disease to the existing shelter population and from getting sick themselves, as well as reducing stress while they are being treated medically and spayed and neutered -- were part of the shelter's animal lifesaving mission and best shelter practices.



She also said that there was public outcry against the construction of the SF SPCA's Maddie's Adoption Center (pictured right) at one time, and yet now, that center is a model for those being built all over the country.



"Sheltering has changed so much in the last 20 years," she said. "Maddie’s Adoption Center was a paradigm shift in its day, and now, it’s the same with the hospital."



She also said that she found it uspetting to hear the SF SPCA called “a kill shelter,” or suggest it’s lost its commitment to animal lifesaving. "I want people to have faith in the SF SPCA," she told me. "We are a model for people to follow, of how to use best practices."



My Tuesday article in SFGate.com will be about the closing of the Hearing Dog Program. I have also posted the complete transcript of my interview with McHugh-Smith, as well as some comments issued by the shelter in response to the SF Weekly piece, here.

Just a round up post, ma'am

Why yes, I have been busy. Thank you for asking!

First, for something completely different: I wrote about fishies for the first time since I moved away from my koi pond! In the Pet Connection nationally syndicated feature this week, which appears in around a hundred newspapers:

Take one fish in a plastic bag, one fishbowl and one child, and what do you have? Chances are you'll soon have a dead fish and a very unhappy child.

But it doesn't have to be that way. The secret of making your child's first fish tank a success is choosing the right equipment and the right fish, along with equal parts planning and patience.

Beginners need to start with the basics, and when it comes to fish, nothing is more basic than water. Without plenty of filtered, aerated water kept at the right temperature, your child's fish will become stressed, ill or may die. That's why equipment, rather than fish, is the most important part of setting up your child's first aquarium.

By the way, that equipment does not include a fishbowl, kthnx.

My editor went out of town, so I snuck some more politics into my blogging at AfterElton.com, in "The Republicans hate us, but will that be enough this time?":

I got into a bloody battle the other day with some idiot on a blog who was pissing and moaning about the California Supreme Court's ruling that prohibiting lesbians and gay men from marrying was a violation of the state's constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.

It's coming at a bad time, he said. He was afraid that having that issue in the news, and a constitutional amendment designed to strip that right away on the ballot, would drive right wingers to the polls and cost us the White House in November.

Of course, he's not insane; that Rovian strategy did in fact work quite well for the Republicans four years ago, and four years before that. And yes, it might work again, although I'm thinking, at least in California, it won't.

But whether I'm right or wrong about that, one thing I do know: anyone queer with a television or Internet access is going to have a few rough months, at least as far as political ads and punditry go. It's gays, guns, and God, and there are people who sincerely believe the last on that list wants them use the second on the first. And this hostility towards us and our civil rights is going to continue to feed the gaping maw of the sensationalism-hungry cable news monster.

Now on to the fluff. Also on AfterElton.com, my interview with the two gay team members on HGTV's new season of Design Star:

It's true that the third season of HGTV's Design Star doesn't have seven out gay male contestants like last season's Project Runway did. But the always-queer-friendly network that gave us David Bromstad is continuing its tradition of gay contestants and fielding a "Team Gay" of two: Michael Stribling, 23, and Matt Locke, 38.

[....]

It's not unusual that two out gay contestants made the cut, and not just because interior design is a pretty gay-male-friendly field. Since its first season, when David Bromstad (Color Splash) became America's first design star, the series has had out gay contestants in every round.

Last season featured Josh Johnson and Scott Corridan, although both were eliminated fairly early in the competition. I asked Matt and Michael how the producers approach the issue of the sexual orientation of the contestants.

(I also recapped the first challenge, again, on AfterElton.com.)

And bringing it all back to pets again, I updated and revised my "Ten Things I WILL Tell You" post into my column on SFGate.com:

For more than 22 years, I've been raising and caring for my pets using alternative and complementary methods. In that time, I've seen dozens of supplements, herbs and nutritional theories hailed as the one true way to pet health, and then fall by the wayside.

After interviewing dozens of holistic vets, following a lot of tips that sounded promising and undergoing a great deal of trial and error with my own animals in the past two decades, I've come up with a list of 10 tried-and-true holistic tips that have worked for my pets as well as many others.

One caution, and it's a big one: Talk to your veterinarian before trying to treat your pet at home. It's one thing to give a gingersnap to see if it helps a healthy puppy's mild carsickness; it's another to think you can treat a pet's violent or chronic diarrhea at home. There is nothing "holistic" about treating conditions without a diagnosis.

I was supposed to be at an event in the East Bay today, but the predicted 107 degree temperatures and my mom's health ruled it out... even in San Francisco, it's in the 90s, and the dogs are huddling at the little air conditioner like they did the last time it was hot. Poor puppers, and poor dogs and people all over this City that's normally "air-conditioned by Mother Nature"; we're just not prepared for this kind of weather.

Can you help the pets of the flooded Midwest?

Sometimes Gina and I marvel at how much the worlds of politics and pets overlap. From Katrina to the pet food recall to shelter reform and legislation, everywhere we turn, there it is: the politics of pets.



Sometimes the intersection is literal. I was reading over on Daily Kos when a recommended diary caught my eye: "Please help our friends the animals in Iowa."



So I clicked. And I read about the sad stories of people who had to leave their family pets and livestock behind, and the good folks who were doing their best to reunite the human and animal family members, and save the lives of the farm animals when they could, and save them from suffering when that was the best that could be done.



And many of those heroic rescuers are from Utah's near-legendary Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.



In the world of animal organizations, everyone has an opinion about everyone else. There is no group that I can honestly say represents my exact views on every subject, and there are a few issues on which I differ with Best Friends. But out of all the "big name" groups dedicated to humane causes, few do as much of the hands-on, glamorless hard work as Best Friends.



Serving as what Nathan Winograd recently termed the "third door" of animal lifesaving, they offer rescue, adoption, treatment, hospice, and life-long sanctuary, according to the best interests of the animals that come into their care. Unlike some better-funded and better-known national organizations, they actually have a facility where they shelter animals in need. And they work on the front lines promoting a no-kill nation, too -- not just in their own organization, not just in Utah, but everywhere.



But this story is about the "rescue" part of their mission. From a story about the flooded town of Oakville, Iowa:

Best Friends Rapid Response manager, Rich Crook, and his swiftwater-trained team were piloting a Hurricane Katrina-tested, 14-foot Jon boat through the town, looking for abandoned dogs and cats.



“It’s a familiar scene,” says Crook, who along with dozens of Best Friends employees and volunteers spent months helping to save 6,000 dogs and cats in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Rich Cook reports on the second day rescue efforts:

We went out on the water at sunrise this morning. We’re doing door-to-door grid searches of the town of Oakville. It’s sad for the people of Oakville. The whole city is under water. So far, we have managed to survey about 30 percent of the town and will have 50 percent completed by this afternoon. We’ll resume in the morning.



Thus far, we are not seeing a lot of companion animals, but the situation with farm animals is dire.



We rescued one mother cat and her two kittens this morning. The first floor was flooded, but the cats were luckily on the second floor. The owners called in the request for help and are coming to pick up the kitties right now.



[....]



We are going to do another cat rescue this afternoon, and we will be picking up any animals we encounter during the grid search.

So even if you have some issues with Best Friends on, say, their (far from extremist) support for some forms of mandatory spay/neuter legislation, see if you can't find it in your heart to send them some love in the form of cash anyway. They've earned it, and the animals of the flooded Midwest need it.



If you – or someone you know – is trying to track down animals missing during the flood, you can check to see if they’ve been taken into temporary care by calling Best Friends Animal Society’s Animal Help department, (435) 644-2001, ext. 4789, or e-mail [email protected].



Read their excellent ongoing coverage of the rescue effort here.



Donate here.



And if you have the qualifications they're looking for, volunteer here.



Other organizations helping animals include the American Kennel Club, HSUS, the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, and United Animal Nations. And of course, if you want to donate to help the human side of the human/animal relationship, give to the Red Cross.

That hormone thing, redux

I'm 49 years old, and in the last year, my hormones have turned on me.

I'm not quite sure when it began -- I started having trouble continuing to lose weight and sleeping at night a year and a half ago, but I blamed it on the stress and sleep deprivation of the period around the 2007 pet food recall, when I was working the (very busy) "graveyard shift" for Pet Connection.

Thank you pet food industry for the midnight "dump and run" media releases.

Although my life should have gotten back to normal last fall, I continued to have problems sleeping -- both falling asleep and staying asleep. I still couldn't seem to lose weight, even when exercising and diarying my food. And then in November, I didn't get my period for two and a half months, then when I did, it was short and weird, and then I skipped another. This after a literal  lifetime of menstrual periods I could set a watch by, or, at least, a calendar. I only even had cramps a couple of times a year, and my PMS was usually a single day of weepiness and irritability.

Now I was irritable for weeks on end, and kept finding things popping out of my mouth before I realized I was going to say them. I was easily pissed off, and easily hurt. I still couldn't sleep, I gained ten pounds despite not changing my exercise or food intake -- which after everything I've gone through in the last 5 years to lose weight scared the shit out of me -- and I felt tired and mentally not myself.

And my periods continued to be abnormal. And while they were nothing compared to those suffered by a lot of women, I was experiencing some fairly bad hot flashes, mostly at night -- seemed to be part of why I couldn't sleep. And the combination of hot flashes and sleep disruption probably were behind my feelings of mental dullness, too.

I went to the doctor (we can have the discussion about our fucked up health care system another day), but she was approximately 13 years old and just shrugged and said it was "normal for your age."

Let me explain something to the doctors of the world: Even if going literally in one month from a lifetime of regular and uneventful menstrual periods to nothing BUT abnormal and unpleasant menstrual periods is common, it's not normal. It simply is not. Not to mention that it's unacceptable; I can't and won't live like that for months or years.

More to the point, I started menstruating at 10 years old. My mother, who started menstruating at 12, didn't go into menopause until she was 53. Women typically go into menopause a little later than their mothers, and the earlier you start the later you tend to stop. So 48 years old seemed a little early to me. I also was concerned about how abrupt and severe my symptoms where.

I tried to convince her to check my thyroid, but she brushed the idea aside. Now, I'm going through the "constantly going back in and complaining" routine we have to go through to get doctors to actually look up from their little "medicine by the numbers" laptops and do something for us, and I'm one of the  pushiest people I know so I'm sure in time I'll get the tests I want (and in the meantime, Kaiser is sucking up fifty bucks co-pay every time they see me and did I mention I pay $582 a month for my coverage?), but in the meantime I took matters into my own hands, and started researching herbs and supplements that might address my symptoms.

Before I go on, let me say this: I personally hate testimonials. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data," my experience won't necessarily have any bearing on yours, this could all be a big coincidence, and I still haven't even pried a diagnosis of any kind of out of my doctor. Consider this statement fully caveated.

I'm a firm believer that soy sucks, so I avoided all supplements that contain it, and after a lot of reading, bought myself a product called Estrotone by New Chapter.

I started taking it in the morning, and that night, after two doses, I was sleepy at 10 PM, sound sleep 15 minutes after getting into bed, and I woke up the next day with the birds, full of energy. I laughed and sang and walked the dogs, all before 7 AM. I felt young again.

Two weeks later, I got my period, and it was a little heavy (my rare periods in the last six months had been so scanty I wasn't even sure they WERE periods) but otherwise normal.

Twenty-eight days later I had a second, perfectly normal period.

Twenty-eight days later, I had another.

All through that time, I felt energetic. My brain felt clear and sharp. My sleep patterns were perfect. My moods stablized, although only about 75 percent.

I still haven't lost weight, and I noticed something interesting: My measurements on my body are all unchanged except for my waist. Hips, bust, neck, arms, legs, all the same; my waist is three inches bigger. All that weight is in my midsection, another indication that this is hormonal.

I'm certainly not saying this is the answer to my problem. I'll continue to try to get my doctor to test my thyroid and, you know, help me. But despite my reluctance to add to the glut of supplement testimonials, I guess I just did.

FDA seizes foods at PETCO distribution center

This just in (why do I suddenly feel like Ted Baxter?) from the FDA... and it's time for Christie's head to once again explode:

Today, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Marshals seized various animal food products stored under unsanitary conditions at the PETCO Animal Supplies Distribution Center located in Joliet, Ill., pursuant to a warrant issued by the United States District Court in Chicago.



U.S. Marshals seized all FDA-regulated animal food susceptible to rodent and pest contamination. The seized products violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because it was alleged in a case filed by the United States Attorney that they were being held under unsanitary conditions. (The Act uses the term "insanitary" to describe such conditions).



During an FDA inspection of a PETCO distribution center in April, widespread and active rodent and bird infestation was found. The FDA inspected the facility again in May and found continuing and widespread infestation.



"We simply will not allow a company to store foods under filthy and unsanitary conditions that occur as a direct result of the company's failure to adequately control and prevent pests in its facility," said Margaret O'K. Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "Consumers expect that such safeguards will be in place not only for human food, but for pet food as well."

Are your pets' foods affected by the seizure? The FDA release continues:

The distribution center in Joliet, Ill., provides pet food products and supplies to PETCO retail stores in 16 states including Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.

What should consumers do who have purchased foods in those states? Well, there aren't any reports of animal sickness from eating the food, but be sure to wash your hands after touching the packages you bought there:

FDA has no reports of pet illness or death associated with consumption of animal food distributed by PETCO, and does not have evidence that the food is unsafe for animals. However, the seized products were in permeable packages and held under conditions that could affect the food's integrity and quality.



As a precaution, consumers who have handled products originating from the PETCO distribution center should thoroughly wash their hands with hot water and soap. Any surfaces that came in contact with the packages should be washed as well. Consumers are further advised as a precaution to thoroughly wash products sold in cans and glass containers from PETCO in the 16 affected states.



If a pet has become ill after eating these food products, pet owners should contact their veterinarian and report illnesses to FDA state consumer complaint coordinators.

While I applaud FDA for taking this bold action, it might be nice had they informed consumers of this problem last APRIL when they discovered it, and let us decide for ourselves if we wanted to give our money to Petco.



How was this allowed to go unreported for two months? How can FDA claim "We simply will not allow a company to store foods under filthy and unsanitary conditions that occur as a direct result of the company's failure to adequately control and prevent pests in its facility," when obviously, they do and they did, since April?



I won't ask how this happened, because I know how it happened. The "small government" people always want to let market forces operate unless, you know, they don't. In other words, letting people know what they need to know to make informed decisions is bad, protecting corporations is good.



And hey, no foreign country to blame this time, either.