I'll try to give you some answers from my experiences with both the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet. Some people, maybe you, maybe not, but definitely me, have a low tolerance for high carb foods, such as pasta, white rice, potatoes, breads, sweets, and even things like fruit juice. If I eat some of those, my blood sugar spikes and I want to eat more and more of these foods - therefore, weight gain. If I eat a small portion of whole wheat bread and a small portion of the whole fruit (with fiber - not just the juice) the body has to work longer and harder to digest the "good" carbs and my blood sugar doesn't spike high. Atkins has you eat enough meat, eggs, salads, and lower carb vegetables to fill you up and make you feel satiated while keeping the carb count to 20-30 grams per day, which is very low. On this plan I felt great and had plenty of energy and lost 22 lbs. in 2 months, but couldn't maintain that strict way of eating. South Beach emphasizes the "good" carb foods like, whole wheat products, brown rice, beans, and less saturated fat in meats, butter, and cheese. I've lost 11 lbs. in 6 weeks doing the SB diet and feel that it is a healthier way of eating that I can stay on forever. SB does get a little confusing at times; they have updates where they add foods that previously were not on their list of foods to enjoy; some foods they promote are hard to find in all areas or are expensive. For myself, I'm sort of combining the elements of Atkins and SB. I make my own Whole wheat bread, stay away from lots of processed foods, and those chemically toxic bottles of Diet Coke/Pepsi/Mt.Dew/etc. - sorry, but I had to say it! I do put real butter on my morning toast but don't have any butter the rest of the day. I use olive or safflower oil in cooking. I start each day with 1 or 2 eggs with turkey bacon or my homemade lean sausage and I have a cup or two of coffee each day. I usually have a small portion of fruit during the day, but not eaten all at once. I take nuts and cheese for my snacks and keep dinner to a protein and salad or vegetable. I try to drink a lot of water each day and have just discovered that I like Crystal Lite diet drink mix - but I add more water than is called for as I like them weaker. And I don't drink it exclusively all day. My job provides me way more walking and physical activity than I want. I'm also dealing with menopause - which I thought I was completely through - arrrggghhhh! But I'm not on hormones and don't plan to be. When I used to eat too much of a high carb food like potatoes, I would feel like a big couch potato - no energy at all. When I stick to protein and vegetables, I feel better and have more energy. It just takes a while to get completely away from our old eating habits. I've said I'm going to post a big sign at home and at my office that says "REMEMBER HOW GOOD LOW CARB FEELS!" Hah! You might want to do some internet searching and read up on low carb diets in general and Atkins and South Beach in particular. This seems to be more than just a fad now - companies are investing in making low carb products, fast food restaurants are adding low carb menus and....Krispy Kreme doughnut stock has recently gone down!! LOL! If you have other questions, I'll be glad to answer if I can. Teresa

vitamine C is helpful in allowing the body to process the iron that is in food. Be sure you are getting enough of both. As a person gets older, it's harder for the body to absorb the iron in food. That's why it is so important to eat a balanced diet with meat, vegatables and fruits. Iron can be found in the green leafy veggies like spinach, turnip greens, kale, and collards. Also, Beans, asparagus, cauliflower chard, celery, egg yolk, oatmeal, beets, cabbaage, dates, raisins. Lots of food have iron. It's just a matter of the body being able to absorb it. A book that I have states that for the utilization of iron, copper is needed in the diet. It also says, "Because only a fraction of the iron present in food is absorbed, it is necessary to provide from 15-30 mg of iron in the diet to be certain that 1.0 to 4.0 mg will be absorbed" Some cereals have been iron enriched. You may want to check out some multivitamin suppliments. However, there is the possibility that iron taken this way will be constipating. PB

My 6 yr old dachshund began bleeding from her mouth so we took her to the vet who initially diagnosed her as gums bleeding as her teeth were due for cleaning along with an abscess. She continued to bleed some from her mouth thru the night and on the following day she was brought in for teeth cleaning. On the day following her teeth cleaning, we again noticed blood at her mouth and now in her urine. She was drinking some water and she ate a little but then vomited some blood so once again we brought her in to the Vet and was advised that she likely had been poisoned or had an autoimmune disease and that we ahould bring her immediately to LSU Veterinary Hospital. Got there, stabilized her and diagnosed her with ITP and kept her in ICU overnight. Less than 12 hrs later, received a call that she died as her bleeding could not be controlled. This occurred over a 4 day period.

Well, first of all, that platelet count is not that worrisome (or worriesome at all, actually). Most platelet counts result from a machine doing automated tests and do not alert a path review unless that platelet count is indeed what I would call low (less than 50,000)... or dangerously low (less than 25,000). I have even gotten platelet counts back at 15,000 with a comment about clumping platelets that did not warrant an alert. Platelets like to clump and that makes their numbers impossbile to count in automated systems. So those counts wouldn't even be worth mentioning normally and I would not lose sleep over them. You can always have a CBC with platelet count along with a specific path review done if you are still unconvinced. You certainly would not ever see symptoms of bleeding with platelet counts that high... even with counts as low as 20,000 the incidence of bleeding is probably rare, though it could occur more easily with trauma than it would with a normal count. Below that you would probably see problems. If his true count (non-automated) consistently registered below 50,000 to 75,000, then I would persue other diagnostics to see if there is some other disease causing a problem (poisoning, blood parasites, drug reaction, cancer etc.). Lower numbers would be more worrisome and associated with immune diseases, overwhelming infection, inflammation etc. But your dog's counts are no where near these levels. If you still want to follow up on your dog's lab work, an internal medicine specialist is where you would want to go (very commonly available around here, but rare in some areas of the country). Secondly, bladder infections are NOT common in laboradors (or any dogs for that matter at a young age, though they do occur). As a veterianrian for over 26 years now, I think I have seen 2 bladder infections in male lab puppies... one with a ton of bladder stones, too. Female puppies get bladder infections a lot more often (less distance to bladder from the outside world) but still, I would not say it is common, and certainly not more common in labs than other breeds. I asked the vets I worked with (I work at a large hospital in California) and few can think of any lab puppies they have seen with bladder infections (most had never seen a male lab puppy with a bladder infection). But it does happen sometimes (obviously). The diarrhea problems (not spelled diharrhea by the way) have many potential causes, but it sounds like you are on the right tract to having them worked out. They can be very frustrating as there are so many reasons for diarrhea and many require different treatments and not all treatments work. As they mature, most dogs eventually settle down and get over it as long as there is not some glaring problem that has been missed.