Four years into acupuncture school, here’s what changed in how I see healing and patterns, and what it means for your dog’s timeline.
TCVM
How Language Shapes Reality (and How You See Illness)
Russian has two blues. The Aymara keep the past in front of them. Lera Boroditsky’s research shows words decide what we notice, and Chinese Medicine hands you better words for your own body.
Cordyceps for Dogs: Origin, Uses, and TCM Cautions
Cordyceps starts as a caterpillar and ends as a fungus. Here’s how it’s harvested in the Himalayas, what it actually treats, and the one cough it’s wrong for.
Dog Itching After a Vaccine: A TCM Case Study
A rabies booster left one dog fine and the other itching for weeks. Constitution, damp heat, and why the same vaccine needs a different bowl.
Spleen Qi Deficiency in Dogs: How Digestive Illness Progresses
How digestive trouble in dogs moves from food stagnation to spleen qi deficiency, and the patterns it can turn into if left alone.
The Kidney Herb That Made Things Worse, Not Better
Not every kidney herb works the same direction. What happens when the wrong one is chosen, how polypharmacy factors in, and why this runs through your vet.
How TCM Sees Itchy Dogs
Western medicine names the bug behind the itch. Chinese medicine names the imbalance it creates. See the different climates that drive an itchy dog, and what each one needs.
The Six Excesses
Chinese medicine reads an itchy dog as wind, damp, heat, or dryness. See how each Western diagnosis becomes a TCM pattern, and which foods can shift it.
Canine atopic dermatitis: detailed guidelines for diagnosis and allergen identification
An itchy dog is not called allergic until fleas, mites, infection, and food are ruled out. Walk the vet work-up and see where each itch lands on the body.
TCM Wood Element Dogs: Excess vs. Deficiency
A Wood Element dog can be full or empty, and the difference changes everything you feed. Two of my own dogs, same element, opposite care. Excess versus deficiency.
Dog Anal Glands Keep Filling: The TCM Pattern
A fruity smell on your dog’s kiss and anal glands that fill on schedule are often one pattern, not two. How Chinese Medicine reads the center, and what to feed.
Dog Spring Flare-Ups: The Wood Element Pattern
Every spring, Wood-element dogs flare the same way: picky appetite, itchy paws, restless nights, sudden diarrhea. The Shao Yang pattern, and how to support it.