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Re: [RC] Herbal Mix & Eucalyptus - Maryanne Gabbani

I don't know how smart their owner is actually. We just realised today that our donkey will have to be exposed to free floating virus activity when collecting the forage from the far field and there is nothing that we can do about it. The track there is too small for the jeep. What can you do? I don't know that a real quarantine is actually even possible in Egypt with all the horse/donkey cart traffic that is the base of the transport food chain here.

The herb mix is in kilograms. Each item is one kilogram.  Herbs are fairly inexpensive here.

Anise seed
Fennel seed
Nigella Sativa seed
Fenugreek seed
dried chamomile
dried eucalyptus leaf
dried thyme

optional: echinacea and I've been told that echinacea should not be given for more than 2 weeks at a stretch.

Fenugreek is traditionally added to feed here for nursing mares to improve the milk, and Nigella Sativa is a small irregularly shaped black seed that is often put on bread. It has a slightly bitter taste and contains some pretty amazing essential fatty acids. It is also a powerful mucolytic and the oil from the seeds is used against allergies, chest congestion, asthma and so on here with excellent results. Chamomile is calming and eucalyptus is commonly used in cold and cough preparations. The thyme that we have here is not the type of thyme that is used in the spice cupboards in the US. Zataar, as it's called here, is a type of wild thyme that is used as an herb in cooking and as an antiseptic herbally.

Dosing: we are giving a coffee mug per horse, half mug for yearling/foal mixed with the evening soaked barley, bran, ground flax seed, and live culture yogurt. The horses looked a bit askance at the additions the first evening but by morning the feed bins were licked clean. better than usual.

Traditional Egyptian medicine uses herbalists extensively and the attar or herb shop is important in any neighbourhood. One time I went to one for a neighbour who had a mare with a very sparse tail and mane. I explained the problem and was given some oil for her food and to rub into the affected areas that contained, among other things the oil of arugula seed, oil of lettuce seed and some other odd things. My neighbour was happy...I can't say how effective it was.

 I can testify as to the effectiveness of Nigella Sativa. It is a bloody miracle for people with allergies and asthma. They sell the oil in capsules in the pharmacies here and a couple of those will fix you right up. I'm allergic to mold and mildew and I recall one Christmas when I came to see my son in college with my daughter and we stayed at his frat house, using friends' rooms while they were off visiting families. Frat house....cleaning...not in the same universe, much less sentence and I'd forgotten my Nigella capsules. I walked from 60th Ave to 116th on Broadway stopping in at every health food or vitamin store on the way and no one had even heard of Nigella. I managed to get some eucalyptus oil that helped enough to keep me alive while I was there...I was suffering from terrible headaches. I was so happy to come home to my attar and have never traveled without the capsules again. A lot of people who have horses with respiratory problems toss a handful of the seed into feed for the horses.

Maryanne



On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 6:09 PM, Don Huston <donhuston@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Maryanne,

Could you post your recipe please?
The Aussies had a terrible time clearing up EI. Your horses are very lucky to have such a smart owner as you. Wishing you and yours a safe recovery.

Don Huston


At 01:22 AM 7/13/2008 Sunday, you wrote:
I spent about an hour yesterday afternoon chatting with neighbors, friends, vets and so on to see how things are going. The good news is that fatalities are very low, at least here in this area. As Dany Barbare told me, "Death in the case of influenza is almost 99% surely due to negligence and stupidity."  If you are on top of things and catch it quick with supportive therapy, like IV fluids and such, the horses are not happy but they pull through.   In the pyramids horses are coughing all over the place and no one is giving them rest so I expect fatalities there. We have a couple of "pyramids" type stables here as well and they don't see any reason to stop working. In fact one guy said to send him the clients that I'm turning away. Why don't I think that I will?

Gossip (always interesting even when you don't know the people personally); Our equestrian federation president (FEI no less) informed on stable owner who runs a jump stable that this isn't EI. It can't possibly be. It's heat stroke....during one of our more reasonable summers...and if it's heat stroke why are the cases coming from Alexandria where he is based? Much cooler down there. Our one FEI vet informed a breeder that "the worst was over". Hmmm. I don't think so. If that is the case why is his phone not answering?

Facts: Most of the responsible stables in this area have locked down and are clean. The hot spot down the road has owners waiting until they get the all clear to be able to move their horse anywhere but there. I had to call the stable owner (who incidentally was NOT there) to tell him to order his grooms to keep the  horses INSIDE the stable walls and not walk them along the roadway to dry them off after bathing. How stupid can someone get? 

A vet friend of mine working at the EAO (the government stud at El Zahraa) went to work yesterday and found that overnight there were 80 horses sick and this morning the numbers have gone up. He got no sleep at all and they are trying to work with herbal remedies for the cough and such because medications for 500 horses is pretty much out of budget. I'm sending him our herbal mix. It certainly can't hurt and herbs are not nearly as expensive as meds. One of the best things herbally is eucalyptus and the EAO has huge trees all over the place. They are sending cultures to the university for testing and we all are hoping for the best. Our testing facilities are not the best, as I well know. I was taking Eleanor Kellon's nutrition class and sent samples of my forage to the Ministry of Agriculture for analysis....seemed like a good idea at the time. My results for  my forage indicated that all my horses are dead of selenium poisoning and since I'm still having to feed them, there is problem somewhere. Now I have to find another place for the analysis since I wrote to the head of the testing unit and never even got an acknowledgment of the email, much less an answer.

Think kind thoughts for the horses of Egypt.

Maryanne


--
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx

Egypt Face to Face
www.alsorat.com
Weblogs:
Living In Egypt
miloflamingo.blogspot.com
Cairo/Giza Daily Photo
cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com
Turn Right At The Sarcophagus
haramlik.blogspot.com
Da Moose Is Loose (a blog for kids)
mstroud.blogspot.com
Photos of Egypt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/

Don Huston
donhuston @ cox .net
SanDiego, Calif




--
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx

Egypt Face to Face
www.alsorat.com
Weblogs:
Living In Egypt
miloflamingo.blogspot.com
Cairo/Giza Daily Photo
cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com
Turn Right At The Sarcophagus
haramlik.blogspot.com
Da Moose Is Loose (a blog for kids)
mstroud.blogspot.com
Photos of Egypt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/
Replies
[RC] EI update, Maryanne Gabbani
[RC] Herbal Mix & Eucalyptus, Don Huston