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Re: [RC] Herbal Mix & Eucalyptus - Maryanne GabbaniI 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:
-- 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/
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