I have a dog patient- 13 y/o SF Goldendoodle with a history of what I have thus far interpreted as damp accumulation combined with Kidney Yin deficiency bony bi. She came in for a tune-up treatment yesterday and I ended up sending her to the local ER for rads d/t suspected pneumonia which was confirmed). When I saw her yesterday her pattern seemed mixed. Pulses fast, superficial, thready and wiry, tongue: very deep muddy/lavender pink with white striped. Ocular discharge, crackles on auscult of central ventral lung fields. Super elevated HR and RR, normal temp. In terms of shifts with acupuncture- the wiry aspects of the pulse improved with tonification of BL18, but the pulse became more toneless at that point (still fast and thin). Needling (t) of GB 34 and BL40 resulted in a much more balanced pulse- improved tone and width and depth. Also needled ST36, LI10/11 and LU 1 and did aquapuncture with B12 into GV14.
My question is general in terms of combining damp draining formulas with CHJLGMLT and XCHT formulas. At our previous visit 2 weeks ago with a focus/goal of helping her in terms of energy and arthritic issues, and I was drawn to use CHJLGMLT for her d/t her heat signs, the time of year and given that her pulse at that visit also was improved by needling GB34. She had previously been on SMS alone which I chose not to discontinue (given her historic damp signs- white coating on tongue, slippery pulse, cysts/lipomas, ear infections and ocular discharge). I added the CHJLGMLT in with the SMS, but now I wonder if that combination is counter-productive in terms of energetics. It is so hard for me to grasp the subtleties in prescribing esp when combining formulas! She did develop pneumonia in this recent time frame, but I believe it was an infectious variety since a "friend" dog of hers also was tx for acute pneumonia 7 days ago.
I would love 1) some guidance on what to use herb wise for her at this juncture and 2) any pearls of wisdom you could share in terms of maybe how I can better sort out treating patterns like this with combination formulas.
Hope you can make some sense of all that! Thanks as always for your time and wisdom :)
Kelly