Hello/Intro

[pwdohio]

Just a quick hello to introduce myself to some that might not know us.

Many of you I already know.

I am Barb and live in Southwestern Ohio with my husband Joe, and Sailor 11 yr old Portuguese Water Dog and Jaimee, 7 yr old SP.

I am fortunate to be able to work from home, so the Comrades can't get into too much trouble!  I work part-time.

I don't know what else to say other than when it comes to foods, we have done raw and kibble both, currently on kibble.  When it comes to health, we do titers, we do conventional medicine, and we do alternative Chinese medicine.

Have a great weekend!

Barb
Jaimee & Sailor, Comrades in Crime

[Michael]

Welcome Barb (and Comrades!)...good to see you here! Look forward to your input here as well. I'm personally not too familiar with the alternative Chinese medicine, so maybe you can share some info with us all in time.

[pwdohio]

and we do alternative Chinese medicine

Oops!  Michael,

I may have worded that rather strangly!  What I meant to say is that we use alternative medicine, mainly Traditional Chinese therapies.  I have a vet that diagnoses via pulse, tongue, history, and other clinical symptoms, as well as by lab results you have from your conventional vet.  I just basically follow her advise and give whatever herbs she has put my dogs on.  I use aromatherapy for storms with Sailor.  I have used a few American herbs, and herbal topicals as well on my own but am very careful with that.  A tiny bit of homeopathy, although not big on that field.

Barb

[Michael]

Thanks for clarifying, Barb. I still find it interesting, and would love to know of any good experiences you've had with such.

[pwdohio]

Michael,

The most impressive and quick response I have had with Chinese Medicine was when Jaimee kept regurging her food.  She would eat her meal and then about 1/2 hour later she would be playing with her stuffies and just regurge about a tablespoon of food.  She always acted surprised about it coming up. 

I happened to mention it to my vet when she was here checking Sailor on one visit and she said "I can fix that, and it doesn't matter what is causing it".  She gave her acupuncture that day, inserting the needles around her "ankles/pasterns".  She never regurged again until about a year later.  One more acupuncture treatment and still no more regurging.  It has been at least 3 years at this point.  Needless to say, I was quite impressed.

Sailor's mast cell cancer, surgery on the right rib cage area to remove it.  6-8 months later he had another tumor on his left rib cage area, again, surgery to remove it.  We then put him on Turkey Tail (an herb) to help keep the cancer at bay....it seems to have worked maybe...he has not had it since (it has been about 6 years maybe).  However, one might just say that he was not going to get a recurrence, but seems since he had it so soon after the first one that this might have been his trend.

Oh, our first experience with Chinese herbs and a vet that treats with them.  This was a horse vet mainly, but I took Sailor to him because conventional vets could not seem to successfully treat his tonsillitis.  After 3 different vets (2 different clinics) and 5 different types of antibiotics he still has swollen lymph glands on each side of his neck (huge ones) and tonsillitis.  We finally had his tonsills removed and yet the swollen glands remained.  I found out about this horse vet who was just starting to see small animals and I took Sailor  in to see him.  After giving him a full history on Sailor as he stood and observed Sailor, the first thing out of his mouth was "his tongue is too dark"!!  I could have kissed him!  I had been remarking to the conventional vets that his tongue was too dark...it was never a nice pink, more like a deep mauve heading toward purple.  He couldn't believe how large his glands were.  He then said "to treat the lymph glands you must clear the liver".  He gave us a 7-10-day course of a Chinese herb and at the end of that course his glands had returned to normal size.  They have never enlarged again.  However, the tongue was still dark...

The tongue did not return to normal until about 2 years ago, after about 4 -5 years of Chinese herbs from a new vet that treats with Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture.  About the same time the tongue finally became a beautiful rosy pink for the first time in his life, I noted a change in his disposition and energy. 

I also have two friends that had limping dogs (one was a Cocker and the other a Lab) and both dogs came out walking fine after a session of acupuncture, however, they did have to return regularly to keep it that way.

Barb

[Helen]

Hi Barb

This is all so fascinating!  There is so much to learn about Chinese Medicine. 

It's so nice to meet you.

[zefi]

Hi Barb and welcome. I am fascinated by chinese medicine and have tried acupuncture myself and loved the results.

I bought a homeopathic 'first aid kit' from Greenpet where I get my supplements and I use it for all kinds of things. When Montana was stung by something the other day I gave her Apis (for swellings and stings) but it didnt work fast enough for me - when she got up the next day and her face was twice the size it had been at night I took her to the vet for a shot of antihistamine and cortizone!

I had a friend in Melbourne who had a very sick irish setter - she had thyroid cancer. The vets only gave her about 3-4 months to live. So my friend started her on all kinds of alternative remedies. She's very much into alternative stuff anyway, but she decided at the time that instead of putting her dog through more chemo she would try something else. After all she really had nothing to lose. Well, the cancer went into remission and stayed that way for over a year. It did come back and she had another round of chemo, but as far as I know she continued with the alternative herbs and stuff after that and she was doing well even through the chemo. I havent seen them for over 4 years now so I dont know how things went after that.

[pwdohio]

Helen,

I failed to mention that Jaimee also was being treated by our alternative vet at the same time she was on the prednisone for the ITP.  She was given a combo of Chinese herbs to support her organs while being on the prednisone for the ITP.  That may be why she did so incredibly well through her ITP recovery.  I really don't know.

Zefi,

A friend of mine battled hemangiosarcoma with her boy.  She had his spleen and the tumor removed.  She then chose the alternative route using a mix of homeopathic, raw meat diet with lots of veggies, and American herbs.  He lived about 8 months past his surgery but, it is not believed that he died of the hemangio, rather an auto-immune disease.

I started using Marina Zacharias many years ago.  Today I try to always find a good vet doing nothing but alternative medicine to blend well with my conventional vet, they know about each other and respect each other.  Unfortunately, my regular alt vet that does Chinese medicine is back in school to learn Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture for humans now, so she is very hard to get into - only being home on Sat, Sun, and Monday for appts, then out of town the rest of the week for schooling.    The good news is that we now have a new lady vet also practicing nothing but Chinese medicine now, and she is even closer to me.  Dr. Cathy knows her and has recommended her when I can't get in to see Dr. Cathy.

I feel truly blessed having both great conventional vets and alternative vets.  I don't know if I mentioned it but I have titered Sailor in the past and thoroughly believe in titering not overvaccinating.

Barb

[zefi]

You are lucky to have access to such stuff. Here in Tasmania things are VERY limited when it comes to alternative medicine for animals. Even for some regular stuff. When you need an MRI done on a dog they either have to tee it up with a hospital for humans or you have to take your dog to the mainland.