A Path With Paws

Incontinence may not be life threatening but it is sure hard to deal with. Dog diapers are expensive and messy and many dogs are just horrified when they accidentally pee in the house. As much as we love our animal friends it is difficult to always have to worry what they will leak on next.

The Chinese view of old dog incontinence is fascinating. They see the kidneys as a large black lake with a fiery blue sea serpent that raises out of the water. The fire of the serpent decreases as we age and when it gets low enough the kidneys can no longer hold the urine and it leaks out of the body.

Deficiency in the kidneys also cause many of the symptoms we view with old age, weaker bone, gray hair and poor hearing.

When I treat incontinence, I get to be the snake charmer, circling the burning moxa stick over the kidneys to raise the mighty fire serpent out of the lake water.

With this form of incontinence, the main herb I use is praying mantis egg casings (along with herbs which strengthen the kidneys). These little casings work wonders! I’ve often had clients ask, “can you please make up some more mantis for my dog? She’s been dry since she started them!” In addition I have found that clients like to tell their friends and family that their dog is on praying mantis.

How many of you have jobs where you get to work with praying mantises and mythical sea serpents?

So a little about incontinence: there are two main types of urinary incontinence, not related to disease or structural abnormalities, one in young female dogs and one in older dogs.

I’ve seen a great response with both these conditions to acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatments without the side effects of drugs.

Old dog incontinence occurs in older dogs of either sex and often develops when the muscles that keep the urine in start getting weaker with age or there is a lack of nerve function to these muscles.

Incontinence in young female dogs usually develops shortly after they are spayed. This is not a reason to avoid spaying a dog. Unspayed dogs have many more disease problems including mammary cancer and life threatening pyometra.

Chinese medicine views young dog incontinence as cold that has found its way into the body during the spay operation. Treatments are aimed at warming the kidneys and bladder and expelling the cold. I usually use a heated moxa stick over the kidneys, as with the sea serpent, to chase the cold away and warm this area.

Out, cold, out!

The moxa stick lets off infrared heat which penetrates down into the kidneys to warm and increase circulation to that area. In addition warming herbs are used. The goal with these dogs is to cure them so that they do not need long term treatments, herbs, or drugs.

I love when acupuncture can cure conditions that are not supposed to be curable!

Did you know that we often share the same diseases and health conditions with our animal companions?

I can not count the times that I have been in a treatment room with someone and declared that their cat or dog had say asthma to have them comment, “that’s odd I also am asthmatic.”

Many times it goes beyond just two creatures. I remember telling one woman that I thought her cat had inflammatory bowel disease.

“That’s so strange, “ she said, “because my husband is in the hospital with IBD and has been for the past week and the whole time he has been in there my stomach has been bothering me also.”

Many families may not share specific diseases but related ones. I have found that people with fibromyalgia and lupus tend to have animals with inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and muscle or tendon pain (especially in the back). In Chinese medicine IBD, asthma and back tendon pain are one condition called liver qi constant. This is a disease that gets worse with stress like fibromyalgia and lupus.

When I first see an animal, I often ask their person if they have sensitivities to certain drugs or herbs because it is often the case that if the person is sensitive to something that their animal will be also. People that have strong reactions to acupuncture will often have animals with strong reactions to acupuncture. When people cannot tolerate a certain drug it is often the same for their animal.

So what is going on here?

The first response I usually get is, “Oh no! Did I make my animal sick?”

I don’t think that is the case.

And let me just add that not all people and animals share illness. Just because you had a dog die of cancer doesn’t mean you will and just because you have diabetes doesn’t mean that your cat will become diabetic.

I have definitely given this some thought over the years and have a couple theories on this strange phenomenon. These are from my own experience and I would be interested to hear other people’s ideas.

I think that we tend to attract into our lives people and animals who are like us. Because of this we also attract in animals who share the qualities that make them more prone to specific illnesses.

“But I picked my animal out, “you may say.

Did you really?

How many times was there just something about that one who caught your eye?

“He was just reaching through the bars of his cage, I couldn’t leave him there.”

“There was this one puppy who just wouldn’t leave my side.”

I think they often do as much of the choosing as we do.

I also believe that some animals choose to come to this plane of existence to help us with our experience. What I mean is that they are like our guardian angels in animal form. They come to help us work with our own health and healing and to teach us about grace and love. When an animal shares a disease condition with us they are helping us work with our own illness. In seeing how they work with disease we are able to bear the burden of ours better.

I’ve gotten in arguments with people over this idea because I’ve had people think that I was implying that animals are our servants. I believe the opposite, that they are more enlightened creatures than us and have chosen to help us.

I want to add one more important thought. Sometimes there is an environmental reason why we share disease. By all means if everyone in the house has lung conditions please make sure there isn’t a mold or toxin problems. Everyone knows about using the parakeets in the coal mines. Don’t ignore warnings that there is something wrong with your home.

When we share disease often curing ourselves helps our animals and helping our animals helps ourselves. When I began to work with my own anxiety my dog Jake became less anxious. When I am not taking good care of myself my cat Rudy will stop eating. All I have to do is look at Rudy or Jake to see where my own health is.

Often times we need to work towards healing ourselves to help our animal companions. Healing is not a journey to undertake alone. How amazing that we have these teachers and guilds right in our own homes!

The response of stroke patients to acupuncture, both human and animal, is absolutely incredible. Most of the animals I have treated usually recover or at least significantly improve after one or two treatments. And there is almost always improvement in the half hour between when the needles go in and when they come out.

I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to see an animal recover before your eyes. And all because these little acupuncture needles are stimulating their body to heal itself!

Yet most people don’t know that there is a good option for treating strokes. Western medicine has almost no answers or treatments for improving stroke symptoms and MDs and DVMs don’t often think to suggest acupuncture. Often even if it is suggested it is not right away and with strokes the less time that has passed the better. If I can see a stroke patient within the first few days I have a much better chance of bringing them back.

Please pass on this information to anyone with an older dog or cat. And also to those older human family members. You could save a life!

Just an interesting side note. The Chinese consider stroke to be a sudden rush of wind to the head which then has a hard time escaping the body and bounces around. One of the main herbs I use for stroke is an herb called Bai Ji Li or caltrop fruit. This herb helps to open up the body so the wind can escape and the body can heal. Check out the shape of the fruit. They are pointed to open up holes for the wind to escape through. I love when you can look at an herb and see it’s function!

Here are some of the best beautiful photos of children with their animal friends I have ever seen. This is but one of the series. There is the link Bellflower.elfle. Enjoy!

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
-Tao Te Ching

One of the vets I often work with has told me that the clients we share become more accepting, open, and confident as they work with me. I think half my work is helping people to accept the place their animals are at and being open to whatever happens. Sometimes I wonder how much of these animals’ healing is from this acceptance and not just the acupuncture work I do.

When animals are old and sick, that is the time to cherish them and love them. We don’t have to make everything better. There is only so long we are all given here and that is not a problem we are supposed to solve.

Take the time today to stop for a moment and look upon those you love and who mean so much to you, fuzzy or non-fuzzy. We have but this moment, everything else is just a memory or a future worry.

Much of my work is with older animals and because of this I see many animals pass on. It is always so sad when I lose an animal I have worked with. I try to appreciate the way that I have been touched by being a part of their life. For a fuzzy being to have trusted me to help and included me in their family and circle of care opens my heart.

Think of people, places you have known
Sculpted out of sand
The tide’s coming in and we’re going nowhere
– Jason Webley

From my past notes-
Treating Serena today. She was very resistant, trying to get away and glaring at me. Finally I offered to take her static head energy away but I told her it was up to her how much to give me. She began to calm down and started purring. She was ok with that as long as she was in charge. She also didn’t want me to tell her mom what I was doing. Somehow it was important to her to not only be in charge but to not have me be viewed as the healer. This was about her not me.

When I came to visit her a month ago she was ready to leave. She had this amazing headache and was very open to me removing it because she had given up and just wanted the pain to end. Many times with animals they need to feel what it feels like not to have pain before they can get there themselves. This visit she felt better and was ready to be in charge again.

A few months after I wrote this Serena passed away from complications from her brain tumor. I’ll always remember her as being the spunky blond girl she was, very confident, loving, and opinioned.

Another little dog I work with named Buddy came to see me a couple years ago, in extreme pain and desperation after re-injuring his back and becoming unable to move his back legs at all. He would have happily left this plane of existence at that point. After I was able to work with him and decrease the pain and get a little bit of sensation back in his legs he was a whole new dog. He was ready to live again and he knew he could get better. And he did in happy little steps along the path of healing until today he walks almost normally again. He believed what he felt and used that to heal himself.

Us humans are so focused on words that we don’t often pay attention to the real cues our bodies are sending us. These are the cues I work with when I do acupuncture treatments. We end up with thought patterns stuck in our heads which tell us what we should feel and believe. Many times these develop from what doctors or family members have told us and aren’t even our own thoughts. We tend to believe these thoughts more than the reality of what we are actually feeling. Often these thought patterns are harder to change than to just deal with the pain or disease. In humans, treating chronic pain involves both the body and the mind.

How many times have you been sick or hurt and not listened to your body telling you to slow down or do less? And then ended up getting sicker? Animals don’t argue with what their body is telling them, they just do it. I know I still have a lot to learn about this from the animals I work with.

With animals they believe what they feel so if you show them they can have decreased pain they will respond and believe that with their whole body and not just their minds. Animals don’t get stuck in their heads in the same way we do and because of this they can be present with the current moment and have no attachments to what the next moment will bring.

In my work, I help these animals find the healing energy that is already there. Their bodies know how to heal, but sometimes they need help in finding the way. Once they know the direction to go, they naturally travel there themselves, I just give them a hand to hold along the way.

We are so very thankful to have our fuzzy friend Mel still in our lives. You never realize how fragile life is until you see your dog laid out on the table and know that there is a less than 50% chance that you will never be able to look into his eyes again and tell him you love him. Watching his chest rise and hearing his heart beat but knowing that he is one wrong move away from death.

It was three months ago today that we almost lost our dog Mel to adrenal cancer. On October 29th Dr. Tim Kraabel at Lien Animal Clinic removed a large adrenal tumor and Mel’s left kidney is a three hour surgery. Tim said it was the most difficult surgery of his twenty year veterinary career.

We know that there is still the possibility that the cancer will return but for now we have our friend. He is pretty much back to normal except for the fact that he will no longer eat anything unless it has duck in it. Go figure.

We are also so thankful for having Tim Kraabel’s help. He diagnosed the tumor on a radiograph when both the board certified radiologist and I missed it, and he performed a very difficult surgery most veterinarians would not have been able to do and saved Mel’s life. How to offer thanks for saving a friend’s life? Words can not say enough.

I found this interesting article in the New York Times today Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You. While lately we have been hearing about how a little dirt and animal hair is actually good for us, this article goes one step further in explaining that intestine worms may also be good for our immune systems.

In fact they have found that some intestinal worms actually help people (should be the same for our animal friends) with autoimmune diseases such as asthma, allergies, or even some of the more severe ones like MS, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease. It makes me wonder if some of the rise in autoimmune illness in animals is linked to the routine deworming some of our animals receive. I hope they do more research on this subject!

I found this article today and thought it was fun to see what people are naming their pets. I’ve known many animals with the common names but none with the unusual ones. What’s the most unusually named animal you have met?

Top dog names
1. Max
2. Bailey
3. Bella
4. Molly
5. Lucy
6. Buddy
7. Maggie
8. Daisy
9. Sophie
10. Chloe

Top cat names
1. Max
2. Chloe
3. Tigger
4. Tiger
5. Lucy
6. Smokey
7. Oliver
8. Bella
9. Shadow
10. Charlie

Most unusual dog names
1. Rush Limbark
2. Sirius Lee Handsome
3. Rafikikadiki
4. Low Jack
5. Meatwad
6. Peanut Wigglebutt
7. Scuddles Unterfuss
8. Sophie Touch & Pee
9. Admiral Toot
10. Spatula

Most unusual cat names
1. Edward Scissorpaws
2. Sir Lix-a-lot
3. Optimus Prrrime
4. Buddah Pest
5. Snoop Kitty Kitty
6. Miss Fuzzbutt
7. 80 Bucks
8. Sparklemonkey
9. Rosie Posie Prozac
10. Toot Uncommon

On Mondays, I descend down into the basement to disappear into my world of herbs. Once there I spend a couple hours smelling, touching and tasting, to create formulas to help the animals I work with. As I work I can hear the ancient wisdom of the past herbal masters whispering to me and feel the vibrations of these plants, many which were on this planet before us. To me working with these herbs is like cooking, only I am making up a recipe for healing by harnessing the amazing powers of these living things.

One of my clients is a paralyzed dachshund. Making up a formula for him, I call upon four of my favorite herbs to form a blood tonic. The four are all roots – foxglove, peony, Chinese angelica, and lovage – and are earthy and strong. I love to tea these in the winter and sit on my window seat sipping the strong rich tea they make. I can feel how these herbs work to strengthen me from the inside so that I have the energy to heal. This is what I want for this little dog.

Roots are also very grounding because they come from the earth and they help to hold us to the ground so we do not float away with our thoughts. In China this herbs are cooked up with a chicken soup in the winter to help older people with aches and pains.

Most of these dachshunds have closed channels because of traumatic disc injury. I can tonify the blood all I want but it is like trying to send water down a plugged hose. I add a handful of earthworms into this formula, which the Chinese say get into the blood channels and wiggle them open like a roto rooter opening a clogged drain.

After opening and tonifying, I add a few generous pinches of the light and vibrant orange safflowers to move and lift up these heavy grounding roots. These along with peach seed will help to move the blood down this little guy’s back legs so they can work again.

Finally to work with pain, I add corydalis, which is a powerful mover of blood, and painkiller.

Chinese Herbal Medicine is all about how the herbs work together and most formulas have ten or more herbs. It is an art based on the powers that emerge when these herbs joint forces. No one herb is powerful on its own but together these amazing plants can perform miracles.

Many times I will not know what I am going to put in a formula until I am staying in front of my herbs. Then one herb will just leap out and say, “use me!” Sometimes it will be an herb I am not familiar with but when I rush to my materia medica and look it up turns out to be exactly what I need.

Plants have an energy and a power of their own and often my job is to listen more than to think. When I think too much I come up with a generic formula, which may help, but my most powerful formulas come when the herbs lead the way.

By the end of my day, I am usually covered with herb dust and my nose is full of the many smells and flavors of the herbs I have mingled with. Up the stairs I go once again out to the busy world of traffic and electronics…until next week.

This formula is now available through my etsy store Kingdom of Basil