Festive Fevers

[tx_cowgirl]

First of all, happy holidays to everyone!!! So for the last few weeks, I've been scrambling to finish some last-minute Christmas shopping, putting in long days at work and then rushing off to hit the stores. Check-out lines and wrapping paper and ribbon and lots of money spent on the ones I love(including, of course, each animal). Busy busy busy! All this busy hasn't done me any good apparently, and on Christmas Eve hints of a cold or something were coming on. What I thought were allergies had been hitting me for about a week, but until Christmas Eve I felt fine. But then the sore throat start creeping in, and the coughs, and the congestion, and the general icky feeling. Yippee....by Christmas morning all I wanted to do was bathe in Vicks Vapo Rub, stick a straw in some NyQuil, snuggle up in front of a fire place and sleep it off for a week or so.

But alas, visits with all of the family(on mother and father's side, future sister-in-law's family, AND boyfriend's family) had to be made, gifts had to be passed around, etc. So here it is Christmas night and I'm fixing to suck down some NyQuil and hit the sack. Saturday I go back to work, sick or not, and the the holiday events will slow down...until the first week of January, when I have 3-4 family and friend birthdays. Lol! But all in all, it's been a pretty good Christmas with me and my family.

How was everyone else's??

 

[tigerlily46514]

Tx cowgirl, sorry all the running around has worn you down to fighting a cold! :msncrazy: Does sound like you did do your share of merry making though--what a trooper!!

Hope you are better! DRink tons of fluids, tons, :drunk:add a dab of salt to your foods to increase your thirst if you have no other health probs prohibiting salt (a lil dab IS good for us humans when we fight colds). But Mostly===for that sore throat, GARGLE SALT WATER, hot or cold, whichever you can tolerate easiest, Mix up a full glass, and gargle over and over til the whole thing is empty, every 2 hours while you are awake, and if you get up in the night, gargle a whole glass, or as much as you can tolerate. EVen a half glass is better than nothing if that is all you can stand of it.

Salt busts up the fat in the bacterial cell membrane and kills off bacteria, so it works as a topical antibiotic of sorts, this is way effective if done every 2 hours all day long AT THE VERY FIRST sign of a sore throat.

Or, gargle Hydrogen Peroxide, also every 2 hours, all day long, this is that stuff in the brown bottle that cost about $1, do this!! This also will help your sore throat almost immediately, kills off germs, and also whitens your teeth, is also AWESOME for toothaches, almost like a miracle for a toothache.
Hydrogen Peroxide--h202, MUST be fresh bottle, less than a few months old, or if it is old bottle= it turns back into water-h20.....Yeah, gargling it is NASTY, :dogtongue: it will foam all up in your mouth, and it takes several moments to spit it all out, it keeps re-foaming up, you will think you must have used wrong product, but Hydrogen Peroxide works so well for toothaches and sore throats. This is just what we use in ICU to clean unconcscious people's mouths with, and we cut it half and half with mouthwash for the conscious ones.

Or, you can alternate, peroxide gargle/salt gargle/peroxide gargle, but start gargling right away!!! EVERY TWO HOURS!! Go Tx Cowgirl!!

And eat some garlic, a lot of it. (Yes, you will stink, but that serves a purpose too, keeps everyone else from getting too close, ha ha!! :msngiggle and fluids, fluids, fluids, and then some more fluids. :santa5:
HOPE YOU CAN NIP YOUR COLD IN THE BUD BEFORE IT GETS A REAL STRONG HOLD ON YOU! HAPPY HOLIDAZE!!!

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Thanks for the tips TigerLily! I will definitely try these things, despite the fact that they are reeeeaaallly disgusting. Ugh. But at least I'll feel better. We keep plenty of Hydrogen Peroxide on hand, for us and for all the animals. (If you've ever had horses, they are completely ACCIDENT PRONE and always seem to find their way into messes that involve peroxide, nitrofurozone, lots of vet wrap, and who knows what else, lol!) Mud's also quite the trouble-maker, so plenty of animal-safe first aid stuff is always on hand.

Today I've been getting lots of rest, taking meds, and will soon be...ugh...gargling either salt water or hyrdrogen peroxide. How exciting. I've been sucking down water like it's going out of style all day, so no problem with the fluids there. ^^ Anyway, thanks for the tips and hope your holiday was a good one.

 

[tigerlily46514]

wow, i never knew you can put Hydrogen peroxide on a dog cut? Ha, i learn something every day here!!
Our old dog never got cut, ha, weird now that i think of it...but i got a feeling this won't be the case with my new lil Buddy!!?:dognowink: so that is what i should do for a cut, is put hydrogen peroxide on his cut? (there is probably a thread somewhere on this very topic that i will find soon as i ask you!)

 

[CollieMan]

DRink tons of fluids, tons, :drunk:add a dab of salt to your foods to increase your thirst if you have no other health probs prohibiting salt (a lil dab IS good for us humans when we fight colds). But Mostly===for that sore throat, GARGLE SALT WATER, hot or cold, whichever you can tolerate easiest, Mix up a full glass, and gargle over and over til the whole thing is empty, every 2 hours while you are awake, and if you get up in the night, gargle a whole glass, or as much as you can tolerate. EVen a half glass is better than nothing if that is all you can stand of it.....

Wow, you're handy to know aren't you.

 

[tx_cowgirl]

We keep it around for any situation, horses mainly. When Mud was attacked by the neighbor's dog, it was relatively late at night and I couldn't get the vet on the phone
(later found out he was helping with a birthing mare), I had run out of my other wound care products and all I had was hydrogen peroxide. I cleaned the wounds thoroughly and used the peroxide and never had any issues with it. Her wounds were moderate-severe so it took a while to heal, but we did get it taken care of. =)

Mud's accident prone, and normally her accidents are at untimely hours(holidays, late at night, early in the morning, when a vehicle is in the shop, you name it) so we try to always have these things on hand for all of our animals:

-Vet wrap
-Gauze(careful what wounds you use this on)
-NFZ(introfurozone)
-Scarlet Oil
-Peroxide
-Other wound care products(pet specific)
-Canine aspirin/penicillin and pain products for livestock(NOT for the dogs)*
And any other first aid things that may be needed. It's always good to keep these things handy, but you need to know how and when you use them. (For instance, if your dog has a cut on his nose, DON'T USE SCARLET OIL...it burns like crazy on some wounds. Don't wrap a wounded paw or tail too tightly, but not too loosely either. Don't leave gauze and wrap on for a week at a time, it must be cleaned daily. Discuss a canine first aid kit with your vet.)


Situations like this is where the handling of your dog REALLY comes in handy. If your dog was terrible about having his paws handled and he escaped the yard on a potty break and tore half of his paw off, you'd be in a big pickle. Stand/sit-stays, trust, and handling are of dire importance in these situations. Rusty's an escape artist, and on one of his escapades he caught his belly and "manhood" on the fence but fortunately made it over in one piece. When I found him he was bloody and not walking too comfortably, but because of his trust in me, he let me clean and doctor his wounds. (Yeah, so it wasn't pleasant for either of us, but it had to be done.) The neighbor's dog's last attack resulted in a nasty front leg wound. Despite her panic, she let me get the other dog away and get her into the house and doctor her without getting snippy or even yelping. Her paw was soaked in blood and the wounds were deep but she never once was impatient with me. (Which is mainly because she's just a great dog, but lots of trust and handling sure helped too. ^^) Anywho, now I'm off the topic...just got carried away with first aid. Haha! :doghappy:


*Not that I like to "drug up" my animals, but if it's two in the morning and some bizarre accident happened and I can't get a vet, I'm not going to let them sit in pain.