In Our Hearts

Newton

Newton is a 1-1/2 year French Mastiff. He is huge and huggable. Newton suffered from chronic skin problems since he was six months old. The lab had cultured Staphylococcus and yeast and Newton was on long term antibiotics, alternating with strong anti-fungal medication. Although he seemed fine when he was taking the medication, as soon as he was not on them, he was irritable and his skin erupted again making him scratch. His human companion was just about pulling her hair out also. She didn’t want to keep Newton on meds all the time, and she was concerned the over-use of antibiotics was damaging to Newton ’s immune system.

When they came to see me, Newton had just completed a round of medication. In taking the history, I found that in addition to skin troubles, Newton ran very hot — panting most of the time, was restless at night, and drank large amounts of water. Newton also had experienced “growing pains in the forelimbs” during his first year. His human mother kept him on ascription to curtail the pain. Newton had huge amounts of energy followed by crashing out. He was a lover, easy going, good natured and a clown.

When a Chinese Medicine practitioner examines an animal and takes a history, she is looking for patterns of imbalances that correspond to those of Chinese Medicine, which is different from western, conventional medicine. The patterns involve and include emotions, environment, mental and physical imbalances.

In examining Newton using Traditional Chinese Medicine techniques, he had dried skin patches on his back and over his rump, along with little “skin bumps” without open sores. His tongue was very dry and his pulse, (which I feel on the inside of the hind thighs) was really thin and small. These three signs – dry skin, dry tongue, thin small pulse all told me that there was some kind of “fluid” deficiency happening within his body. The lack of moisture (which in Chinese medicine falls under two categories “yin” or “blood”) made him easily hot and thirsty.

Add to this, the return of symptoms following a course of antibiotics, I felt the problem stemmed from a deficiency of fluids, either Blood or Yin. In order to successfully treat Newton, we had to use herbs that built up his fluids and assisted in their circulation. In essence, we had to get to the root of Newton’s problem in order to sustain a lasting result.

We started Newton on a Chinese herbal combination that I tailored for him to cool the skin, and support the blood and yin of his body. We also included herbs to help calm him which supported and nourished his heart and circulatory system. This permitted more blood and fluid to flow to the rest of the body including the skin.

His human caretaker used acupressure massage points with Newton, along with the herbs. Within one week, Newton began cooling down and he slept through the night. He panted now only after exercise and his coat began to get glossy. From then on Newton was a new dog!