Caldella

If the ingredients are more natural as well, all the better. The cruelty-free and safe for sensitive skin, however, are musts. I don't wear heavy makeup and am mainly looking for a subtle one to smooth out the skin tone on my face. Not really interested in eye shadow, lipstick, mascara, etc.

If skin type helps: I have very fair, sensitive skin. My main issues are inconsistencies in color on my cheeks (since I'm pale, and minor changes are more evident) and darkness under and inside my eyes. The skin on my nose has a tendency to get flaky, but I also can get excess oil sometimes. I burn instead of tan.

Our horse had an allergic reaction late last week and was prescribed a very short-term steroid treatment (1 dose, 1/2 dose the next morning, then 1/2 dose the morning after that) to combat it. We've had highly unusual weather here all summer, and from the vet's comments, it seems many horses around are requiring this as they react to the equally unusual plants/fungi/insects/air quality issues that have arisen recently from the weather. Our horse's symptoms from the reaction are gone, and he is now about 1.5 days after his last 1/2 dose.

When we went to see him today, he was in a rather pushy, antsy mood. We brought him out to the arena to walk him around a little, and he was actually kinda out of control for him. We noticed after his running that he also seemed to be shaking a bit - it almost looked like his shoulders were having muscle twitches. The temperature is cooler today than it's been in a long time (high of 45 with low sustained winds), so we put a light blanket on him and brought him back inside. The shaking stopped after a few minutes, but he was still pushy and eating his food with a /lot/ more determination than usual. He typically eats his hay very casually and seemed downright ravenous this evening. I noticed on Friday that he'd eaten all of his hay, too, which is unusual for him. Since he is largely pasture-fed in the summer, he usually only picks at hay.

I've tried looking up if this pushiness/appetite/temperature sensitivity can be from withdrawing off the steroids, but everything I can find regards long-term usage. Does anyone have any short-term experience with steroids to provide input? If it is from this, about how long can we expect these "withdrawal" symptoms to last? Thanks!

Anyone had any experience with this or have any advice?

I'm in my early-to-mid twenties, and I've never had chicken pox (I think). My brother is in his late teens and has just come down with it. Both of us were supposedly vaccinated some years ago, but apparently the time between the chicken pox vaccines is nowadays listed as about half the time we were told at first - obviously we're no longer immune.

His version has been extremely minor, as it was caught early and treated with strong anti-virals. He does have numerous blisters and is itching like a madman while he heals, but he hasn't had the bad fever or other severe symptoms often associated with the pox. Which brings to light the second part of this:

I've had two viruses in the last two weeks. The first seemed to be some sort of stomach flu, with nausea and a low-grade fever for about 48 hours. The second developed just last weekend, with stuffed up sinuses, runny nose, and a sore throat (perhaps a low-grade fever, but I couldn't tell). My sinuses are still not 100% today, and I'm still coughing. I've also had some acne-like breakouts on my face in the last couple months, but I associated them with my menstrual cycle. The one spot I had the longest actually looked more like shingles than normal zits or chicken pox... but it wasn't painful at all. None of them did that gross bubbling/blistering thing like chicken pox do, either.

So, my questions are... What are the chances of me coming down with the pox myself? What are the chances that I'm immune to it or have already had it without being aware? Should I still consider vaccinations in the future?

This summer and fall have been rough on my family, myself especially. While working through a spay and neuter program for our local feral cats, we inadvertently became involved in kitten rescue to help the ones abandoned by their parents or sick. As most people who've raised young kittens knows, that's a pretty heartbreaking business. We lost half of the 8 total we took in. In the midst of all this early this summer, I also lost the last two of my old-girl Betta fish. A couple months ago, my one rabbit had a serious urinary tract infection. Being late on a Sunday, I took her to the emergency vet. They kept her in the back room too long while handling other serious cases brought in, and she died of a stress heart attack. Now just last week, I lost my second bunny to reasons unknown. She stopped eating last Thursday evening and, despite our efforts to help her, passed away overnight.

At this point, I'm debating whether or not I've sunken into literal depression. I feel like I'm some sort of horrible bad luck. So far as rabbits go, we still have 4 in the house, but they are my mother's and are bonded to and cared for by her. While I really miss having my bunnies (letting them out to run around was my stress relief after work) and have a brand-new cage I was all excited about when I finished it, I'm now terrified to get any new pets.

I know that there are probably people on here with somewhat similar experiences (particularly if anyone's raised livestock like sheep/goats and had to care for a round of babies that fell ill or something). What the heck do you do to get over it? I've debated volunteering at my local SPCA with their buns and such, but animals in shelters aren't always in the best condition just because of the situations they come out of. I think knowing some of the animals there will pass away or have to be put down would actually make me worse, especially because I might superstitiously blame myself if it was an animal I was helping with. I also would only be able to go Friday evenings or maybe Saturdays.

And please nothing about psychologists or anything like that! Besides the fact that I don't want something like that in general (I'm more of an animal-person than a person-person), I don't have the money for something like that. While I'm surviving just fine and can pay for myself and normal vet bills, I've lost a lot of money this year to veterinarians, a car accident, horse boarding suddenly hiking up costs, and other factors.

ABRIDGED VERSION: I've lost a lot of pets since June and am a wreck about it. Seeking advice on ways to slowly recover from the emotional trauma

Long story short, I'm currently trying to get myself started on a graphic novel-style storyline centered around horses. One of them is a fleabitten gray. Unfortunately, while I love gray-coated horses, I haven't known many myself, at least not for more than a year or two.

Basically, I'm trying to determine what age a fleabitten gray horse would, on average, actually start looking fleabitten gray. Since the storyline runs the course of several years, I want her to look appropriate at various ages. From what I've seen, grays start turning a sort of steely color around weanling/yearling age, shifting to dapple somewhere around 5+ years (earlier or later depending on horse), but I'm having trouble finding when the transition from that happens.

Any advice in general depicting the shifting of color would be great. I know the time it takes will vary, but an estimate or an youngest vs. oldest age would be great. Thanks!

I have an almost-5-weeks-old kitten who is currently on Albon treatment for a pretty severe case of coccidia. We've dealt with minor cases before, but this was the worst I've seen. Im' honestly so grateful that she's alive. She was extremely lethargic Tuesday-Wednesday, but she seems to be improving now and has plenty more energy. Thanks to anti-diarrhea medication and mixing baby rice cereal into her food, her stool is a little more stabilized and no longer basically liquid like it was.

I'm mainly looking to see what the next few weeks, months are going to be like for us, if anyone's ever had experiences with bad cases like this. We've read that the coccidia can still be shedding alive for about another week, and diarrhea might still be an issue to get under control after that. Any hints on how long that might last? Will this stunt her growth, seeing how young she is? Anything factual or in the lines of advice besides the obvious things like quarantine and watching her fluids/diet? I'd appreciate if anyone else has any experiences I could learn from!

I live in the mid-Atlantic United States (nowhere near any saltwater), and I saw a bird yesterday I could not figure out despite referencing our Sibley Guide to Birds and its awesome illustrations. The bird was circling over the highway like a hawk, eagle, or vulture does when looking for food. The body and wings were all entirely dark brown/black. The head was white, and the tail was white and a fanned-out shape. The bird was not the size of an eagle, more like an oversized gull, but the coloration and wide wing shape are definitely more in line with a vulture/eagle/hawk. Honestly, it looked like a bald eagle, but it was too small to be one.

Any ideas?

I found this hat at a second-hand/antique store today and couldn't help but buy it (it's going as decoration on my wall with another antique hat I found elsewhere).

Thing is, I've never seen anything like it and can't tell what it was originally intended for. It's a very shallow hat - if I try to wear it, my head hits the top of it, and the whole thing kind of tilts forward until my forehead stops it. If it's meant to actually be worn, someone either has a really wide head or wore something underneath that padded it. And the shape... well, you'll just have to see the pics! The flat up-tilted part is the front.

Anyone have any idea what kind of hat it is, how old it might be, etc.? Since the old sticker inside says, "Festival Madrid," I'm guessing it might have been kind of a tourist-trap type of thing, but the inside doesn't look cheap at all.

Outside:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v366/Nikolr/funk...

Sticker inside:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v366/Nikolr/funk...

Overall inside:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v366/Nikolr/funk...

Our adult leopard gecko, "Sachi" had not eaten voluntarily for a few days, despite the fact that he'd just finished shedding and should've been plenty hungry. Last night, he came out of his hide box and passed a bit of waste, then went back inside to get the rest out.

As of this afternoon, he'd still not pooped, and he was trying to pull it out of him in frustration. My brother thought he might have a cricket exoskeleton stuck or something and thankfully had the idea to soak Sachi to try to make things easier. It worked. Turned out that basically Sachi's entire system had been full of terrarium moss from his wet hide box: one big one that pulled apart into two pieces. End-to-end, they are about eight inches, about as long as him. We're guessing he ate it accidentally with his skin the last time he shed.

Has anyone else experiecned anything like that? Any ideas on what to expect health wise? His terrarium moss was removed from his box and replaced with wet paper towels, and Sachi has a reptile-specialist appointment for Tuesday. I honestly don't understand how he isn't dead now, but he seems okay considering and lapped up a bit of a reptile nutrition/electrolyte supplement he was offered to help recovery from the stress.