What do you do on a cold, wet, winter night? Watch an inspiring webinar on canine cancer of course. Haemangiosarcoma to be exact. Here’s a brief run down of the results. Surgery to remove the bleeding cancerous spleen alone, 6-13% survival to 1 year. Surgery and chemotherapy, 12-15% survive to…
Farewell Old Friends
So my flight got delayed and what better use of my time than to catch up on writing my next blog. This one is a bit special because it is a tribute to all the beautiful souls I have been privileged to have known; have fought the hard battle; to…
Another wonderful conference
The jet lag is finally disappearing and I have had a week to put in place some of the new ideas that have been shared at the International Veterinary Acupuncture Group Congress in Wroclaw, Poland. The sharing of knowledge by my many colleagues was well worth the jet lag. Keynote…
The ‘Chinese’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Charlie Teo looked out at me. It was an episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ and he was in Melaka, part of his heritage and my birthplace. I was intrigued. This world renowed neurosurgeon was talking about how his childhood and his racial heritage had shaped his drive…
Essential items for travel
It’s nearly the end of our time travelling through southeast Asia visiting relatives and seeing the sights. Chinese New Year is just around the corner and Chinatown is a sea of red and gold. My four essential supplements and acupuncture stimulator have proved invaluable. Vitamin C for lack of fresh…
The big ‘C’ word
Yesterday I saw three beautiful dogs that each had cancer. There is no way to make this sound nice but living with cancer can suck …or it can be ‘where’s my dinner’. The most important lesson that I have learnt over the years is that thinking of the disease as…
Veterinary Acupuncture Congress in Cairns
It is the last day of the 43rd annual International Veterinary Acupuncture Congress (IVAS) in Cairns. This is the first time the Congress has come to Australia and it has provided us with a wonderful opportunity to discuss all aspects of traditional chinese medicine with our overseas colleagues. We…
Chinese herbal therapy and Antimicrobial resistance
The Annual Veterinary Conference is being held in Melbourne this week. The first plenary of the week dealt with the alarming and worsening problem of antimicrobial resistance. Our human, livestock and pet populations are all affected but of the 9 million that the government have allocated to this problem, only…
Coonhound paralysis
Acute canine polyradiculoneuritis is more commonly known as Coonhound paralysis. There are a number of theories on the cause of this disease. In North America, dog may be affected by contact with something in raccoon saliva. There are obviously no raccons in Australia but Coonhound paralysis does occur here. The…
What do acupuncture and guy ropes have in common?
Last night while helping some venturer scouts set up camp in my capacity as their unit leader, it occurred to me that tensioning guy ropes for tents was a bit like tweaking the biomechanics of a quadruped with acupuncture, more specifically a balancing technique made popular by the late…