Follow-Up on Allure

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your interest in and concern for Allure’s well-being. In response to the curiosity you expressed after last week’s post “An Update on Allure,” I thought I’d take a few minutes to give you a little more detail on my experience with his health concerns.

When I first got him, I didn’t know he had a thyroid issue, but I can look back on photos now and see the enlarged thyroid gland – it looks like a little golf ball on his gullet right behind his jaw. What I mainly saw was a horse with dry coat, straw colored hair, no shine and some seriously hyper-active behavior. I can't really remember the moment that I realized it was a thyroid issue, but from that moment on I began to treat him with great results. Interestingly, when I started giving him Parelli Essentials he made huge progress but then I hit a wall again with him and that got me searching. He looked a lot better, his hair had darkened dramatically, but that little lump was still there and his mane was still a bit frizzy.

I followed advice from Dr. Garland (askdrgarland.com) who I knew through my sister. They had worked together in advertising many years ago in Sydney. So we had a chat, and I started giving Allure the detoxified iodine and Dr. Garland’s two thyroid products – Thyroid Energy and barley green capsules. We started on a regular dose and then increased it according to my reports and Dr. Garland's recommendations. Within weeks of starting this, the golf-ball-sized lump reduced until I could barely see or feel it.

When I reduced his iodine from 8 to 4 drops it was because I thought he might not need so much anymore. WRONG! But the effects took about a month to show up. First, his color started losing depth. Instead of being that rich liver chestnut, he went a kind of orangey-brown. Then the golf ball lump appeared again, and soon after he started losing weight. By the time I realized what was going on, he looked awful and was starting to get a bit lethargic. I felt terrible about it, and as soon as I put him up to 8 drops again I could see the difference.

About 2 days later, he started looking more alert again. Being winter, he's never as dark in his coat as summer, but his shine came back and he's putting on weight again.  He's not 100% yet, but he's ready for exercise now. And his goiter (thyroid lump) has pretty much gone again.

Yours Naturally,
Linda

Allure in Summer 2009, before I reduced his iodine:

Allure in 2003. Note his coat color, the frizzy mane
and the lump just behind his jaw: