Chronically Special

 For helping dogs blow their coats, especially ones that aren't regularly bathed or groomed, washing at the beginning of the season and most of the way through is very important. My dogs have always been farm dogs and have great farm dog coats that self maintain for the most part. They also tend to be double coated, so the undercoat becomes an problem come shedding season. At beginning of the shedding season we bathe the dogs so their coats are freed up from any built up oils and dirt. This allows the hair to shed out well and not become matted. I usually bathe them once more at the end of the season to finish out the shedding, so I can one final good clean to remove the worst of the hair. During the time in between vacuuming regularly, especially places they lay or rub on, and brushing will help keep your house a little more fur free. For the actual bathing I prefer to do a shampoo first. I now use  Isle of Dogs Silky Oatmeal Shampoo . It is a very concentrated formula, so I'm

 Having muscle pain is nothing new to me. I grew up with my mom using Bengay and she now practically bathes in it. "Great for your sinuses!" She often quips if you mention her version of perfume. I personally only use Bengay in the winter if I'm going to be going outside, since any form of icy will make me so cold.  Now a days, I typically use  Salonpas's deep relieving gel . Salonpas, however does best on small areas because its hard to move around on the body without getting too much on.  A friend introduced me to  Amish Origin's Deep Penetrating Pain Relief Greaseless Cream . A little goes a long way and its extra spreadable. No aspirin in this one, but it does a nice job. It feels and smells a lot like Bengay, but is closer to a liquid. It actually reminds me the most of a creamy version of a horse liniment we use at the barn. I use  Voltaren gel  on anything that is swollen or freshly hurt to a decent degree. It is an NSAID, so you are not supposed to use a l

 There are a  few  articles I found that were really great for learning about low histamine diets. Between the articles and some SWAGing (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) I have come up with some pretty decent connections that have helped me greatly in finding triggers. SWAGing is obviously not ideal, but when you are dealing with a rare disease I find you either learn to do it or flounder. *Side Note: I was introduced to the term SWAG by this  Tiktok video . I fell in love with it* My mast cell activation syndrome causes me to be on a low histamine diet. Finding decent information on a low histamine diet is extremely hard because most articles absolutely stink. They rarely have reasons why something is on the list and when they bother breaking down the list into categories they often are conflicting. I love the  Medical News Today article  I found on it because they actually do a nice job covering the scientific reasons for food histamine intolerance issues. It is technically an article on