Broccoli and Blankies

Sheba loves her veggies, particularly broccoli. When I finished giving her all the broccoli tops I was left with this big, thick stalk and it seemed like such a waste to toss it out. 
After some champion google searching, I found that the stalk has just as many vitamins and minerals as the tops and has tons of fiber. Yay! As a special treat I've started giving Sheba the stalk to chew on like a bone and she loves it. All the fiber also helps to clean her teeth. 

This past weekend I went to my mom's to house-sit. When I got there she had the sweetest little surprise for me. She's a talented quilter and whipped up a little Sheba blanket! Sheba and I did a photoshoot this morning.

So cute!

Supplements

In my last post, I wrote about a couple books I had gotten on dogs/holistic living/cancer etc. In this post I want to talk about the supplements I have decided to put Sheba (in addition to her Fish Oil) on based on the information I got from The Natural Vet's Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs by Veterinarian Shawn Messonnier. 


Burdock Root - This is a supplement used to boost the immune system and help cleanse toxins found in the blood. It also works as anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Burdock Root (according to the book) will not effect her chemotherapy treatments and is considered very safe. 


Astragalus membranaceus - or simply "Astragalus" contains powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants are those terrific free-radical scavengers, meaning they hunt free-radicals that cause cell damage. Astragalus is also thought to boost white blood cells, this is very important. In a week or two Sheba will head back to the vet to check her white blood cell count, the chemo can lower them heavily, leading to infection or a compromised immune system. 


Turmeric Powder - Turmeric is that strong spice that gives curry it's bright gold-yellow color. Along with dying food, Turmeric has been used for centuries as a medicinal spice. Turmeric's antioxidant content helps protect the liver, and works as an anti-inflammatory but more importantly Turmeric has been found to slow cancer growth in Lymphoma as well as other cancers. It also induces apoptosis (cell suicide) a good thing for those mutated cancer cells. Learn more about Turmeric here. 


Rather than buying the Turmeric supplement, which was rather expensive, I bought organic Turmeric powder which was much cheaper (and I can use some too!)




Costs
Astragalus Supplement (100 caps) $12.00
Burdock Root Supplement (100 caps) $8.00
Organic Turmeric Powder $5.00


TOTAL: $25.00 + tax