Dog kennel cough is also known as canine cough, infestious tracheobronchitis and bordetellosis. A dog’s windpipe and upper bronchi become damaged and irritated as a result of an infectious microorganism. Dog kennel cough has been found to be caused by both a bacteria and/or a virus.

Nature Of Dog Kennel Cough

The lining of the windpipe and bronchi of a dog suffering from dog kennel cough are damaged by a bacterial and/or viral infection, exposing nerve endings which become irritated when air passes over them as the dog breathes in and out. This causes the primary symptom of the illness, a dry, coarse, hacking cough which the dog usually develops within about a week of the initial infection.

Severity And Duration Of The Disease

The majority of dog kennel cough cases tend to be mild and aren’t detrimental to the dog’s overall well being. Typically it does not present a fever or cause loss of appetite; however the cough presents itself throughout the day with the dog coughing every few minutes. Most cases will clear within one to three weeks without using medication, though antibiotics can often speed the healing process.

Transmission Of The Disease

Dog kennel cough transmits much like the human cold. The germs that cause kennel cough is carried in the air and inhaled in the air by other dogs. This causes the infection. This is common especially in dogs that are susceptible to the microbes. Even though any dog anywhere can be affected by this disease, it is common when there are multiple dogs infected in a kennel.

How to Treat Kennel Cough

While antibiotics are sometimes prescribed to treat a case of dog kennel cough, most dogs recover on their own. However, as the illness is accompanied by a persistent and bothersome cough, a veterinarian will often recommend cough-suppressing drugs to help the dog deal with that.

The symptoms of kennel cough are similar to other respiratory diseases. It is important to have the dog examined by a vet when these symptoms are shown. Some dogs have a small chance of getting kennel cough if they are not normally in contact with other dogs. There are vaccines that will prevent kennel cough. In the event that the dog will be in contact with other dogs, it is advised that the vaccine be administered at least a few weeks before the event.

What to Do About Kennel Cough is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

Mutual funds have been around for a long time – since the early 1970’s they have increased in popularity with each year – billions and billions of dollars are now invested in mutual funds, making them one the most popular investment vehicles.

A Popular Type of Mutual Fund – Index Funds

Although mutual funds can be sorted into a number of different categories, one of the most useful types of mutual funds is the index fund. This type of fund is very popular and widely held and for good reason.

Index Funds for Low Fees

Index mutual funds are a kind of mutual funds that select a wide variety of stocks and securities with the goal of matching the returns of a well-known stock market index. Some mutual funds are intended to match the Standard and Poors 500, while others are to match the return, which is the up and down of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The advantages of index funds advantages

Index funds have several advantages, two of which I’ll discuss here. One is that the average expenses of index funds tend to be lower because index funds do not require active management.

If a manager is controlling decisions on buying and selling particular stocks to get a higher return, this is called active management. An actively managed fund has a large turnover of equities resulting in significant costs. A fund that is actively managed requires a manager adept at stock trading. An expert manager, therefore, would garner a salary that is equal to his or her experience and skills.

And, active management requires that a fund manager be hired who is an expert in stock picking and trading. Such a manager, of course, requires a salary commensurate with the manager’s ability. Index funds, by contrast, require no active management. The stocks are chosen, often by a computer program, to match the return of the index with the least possible trading and virtually no discretion necessary on the part of the fund’s management.

Another advantage of index funds is related to previous one. If you choose an index fund, you can know that your fund will not be among majority of managed funds that regularly under perform the stock market as a whole.

So you get the advantage of lower overall fees charged by the mutual fund investment company, and the advantage of having your investment perform just about as well as the market index which it tracks. Next time you are shopping for an investment vehicle, give index mutual funds some thought.

Mutual Funds – Index Funds for Low Expenses and High Returns is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com

The best way to address sugar cravings is.. one moment, I shall get back to this soon.

Meanwhile, let me ask you a question. Does sugar prolong the life of cut flowers? To answer this question, I did a few unscientific tests. I thought it was just another urban myth, but to my surprise, the answer seems to be ‘yes’ – for some reason, a few teaspoons of sugar seem to prolong the life of cut flowers by a few days. I was later told that adding too much sugar has an opposite affect on cut flowers – they die earlier.

So how about us humans? Does sugar intake have such effects on people? You must be asking yourself what this has to do with ‘best way to stop sugar cravings’. Hiding in your foods in many forms and names sugar proves to be quite tricky. Sure, it is possible to use techniques to better control sugar cravings, but what difference does it make if we do not know sugar exists in a given food?

According to some estimates – the average American eats 74 pounds of added sugar each year, which is about 23 tablespoons a day – while others estimate that we eat more than 150 pounds of sugar a year. Either way, it is much higher than the human body needs – about two teaspoons of sugar at any one time. It is no wonder overweight and obesity are at its highest levels in U.S. – you need to be a “sugar-detective” just to learn all these other names for sugar: Cane juice, caramel, corn syrup, dextran, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, molasses, raw sugar, refiner’s syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sucrose, and yellow sugar – - and this is not even a complete list.

These quick tips are given by Taste for Life magazine concerning how to combat cravings for sugar. You should steer clear of Processed Carbohydrates which include white pasta, white rice, and white bread. These are converted to blood sugar quite rapidly which proves disruptive to the body’s metabolic balance. Avoid adding sugar to drinks or cereal. If you must use a sweetener try the sweet herb Stevia. Whenever possible, attempt to eat whole foods.

Other foods, such as fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains do contain some natural sugars, but they also include dietary fiber and essential nutrients to help stabilize blood sugar. A good guideline to follow is the more natural the food, the better. For example, instead of orange juice, have an orange. The orange not only contains less sugar than orange juice, but it also provides more nutrients. Natural sweets, such as juice, should be diluted with water.

If you love granola, add unsweetened whole-grain cereal and nuts to reduce your sugar intake. Beware Of Fat-Free Labels. These foods actually contribute to health and weight problems. What the labels don’t tell you is that these products contain more sugar – sometimes two or more time that found in the “regular” versions.

Stopping Sugar Cravings is a post from: The-Writers-Block.com