Nacho Average Dog Health Coach

05/04/2026

I was inspired to make this video after a client reached out, worried that giving her dog probiotics might actually make his diarrhea and GI issues worse.

She’d been told to try them, but something didn’t feel right to her. She wanted to understand before she handed her dog another supplement.

That conversation reminded me of something I see all the time: you can have the best tools and supplements at hand, but if you’re not using them correctly, or you don’t understand how they’ll work on your specific dog in your specific situation, they may make things worse, or in the best case, do nothing at all.

So in this reel I’m walking you through the five things I wish every pet parent knew about probiotics: what they actually are, what to look for on a label, why one size never fits all, when your dog actually needs them (and when to cycle off), and a few myths that need to go.

If something’s been going on with your dog or cat that you haven’t been able to figure out, and you’ve tried so many things, let’s chat! I’m now at Full Circle Veterinary Hospital in Wappingers Falls, NY on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and would love to help.

You can also book a virtual consultation - link in bio.

05/04/2026

I was inspired to make this video after a client reached out, worried that giving her dog probiotics might actually make his diarrhea and GI issues worse.

She'd been told to try them, but wanted to understand before she handed her dog another supplement.

That conversation reminded me of something I see all the time: you can have the best tools and supplements at hand, but if you're not using them correctly, or you don't understand how they'll work on your specific dog in your specific situation, they may make things worse, or in the best case, do nothing at all.

So in this reel, I'm walking you through the five things I wish every pet parent knew about probiotics: what they actually are, what to look for on a label, why one size never fits all, when your dog actually needs them (and when to cycle off), and a few myths that need to go.

If something's been going on with your dog or cat that you haven't been able to figure out, and you've tried so many things, let's chat! I'll be at Full Circle on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and would love to help.

📞 Call Full Circle at (845)234-4417 to book an appointment, or DM us here.

Looking forward to seeing you!

— Sunny 🌿

05/03/2026

Have you ever stood in the pet food aisle with your phone out, comparing labels, second-guessing yourself, getting nothing accomplished, feeling more confused than ever?

Food is the number 1 thing pet parents stress about, and that gets the most “wait, really?” reactions on in my consults.

What I tell my clients is that you don’t have to overhaul everything. You don’t have to go raw if it doesn’t fit your life.

You don’t have to home-cook every meal.

You also don’t have to stay stuck with the bag of kibble that’s been triggering your dog’s gut for nine months.

In 60 minutes, we can sort:

☑️ What stays

☑️ What goes

☑️ What gets added

☑️ What you can do tonight that costs nothing

You don’t need a Pinterest-perfect feeding plan.

You need a real one that fits your dog, your kitchen, and your bandwidth.

Link to book a discovery session in bio when you’re ready to stop standing in aisle 4.

04/30/2026

I lost my soul dog Nacho to hemangiosarcoma. Then I built a career so other people wouldn't have to ask, "What could I have done sooner?"

If you have a giant breed — a Mastiff, a Boerboel, a Cane Corso, a Dane, a Bernese, a Rottweiler — you already know the statistics aren't on our side.

And you probably already love your dog with the kind of love that doesn't survive losing them too soon.

You don't have to wait for a diagnosis to start doing this work.

A 1-hour consultation focused on longevity looks at:

🐶 Anti-inflammatory diet foundations

🐶Whole foods, herbs, and mushrooms with real research behind them

🐶The lifestyle factors that quietly add up over years

🐶The 2–3 most impactful changes you can make this week

If you sign up,you walk away with a plan and the kind of peace that only comes from action.

If you don't, nothing bad happens today. But "today" is also the cheapest day to start.

Link in comments. I'd love to spend an hour with you and your big love.

04/29/2026

💩 BEYOND THE SYMPTOM (Part 2): What Diarrhea Is Actually Telling You 💩

I know this isn't the most glamorous topic, but if you've ever had a pet with chronic digestive issues, you know how desperate it can make you feel. The vet visits, the prescription diets, the medications that help for a while and then stop working.

What shifted everything for me was learning that practitioners of Eastern medicine have been categorizing digestive patterns for thousands of years.

They didn't just see "diarrhea" as one thing to fix. They saw it as the body communicating something specific, and they got remarkably precise about reading those signals.

The timing matters. Loose stool in the morning points to something different than urgency right after eating. The consistency matters. Watery is different from soft with undigested food. Even the smell and whether there's mucus tells a story about what's happening internally.

What fascinates me is that these ancient practitioners figured out which foods helped which patterns long before anyone understood gut bacteria or digestive enzymes. They observed that warming, cooked foods helped some pets while cooling, lighter foods helped others.

They noticed that stress affected digestion in a very specific way and that certain foods could calm that response. This is so different from the standard approach of putting every pet with digestive issues on the same bland diet indefinitely. That might manage symptoms, but it doesn't ask why the digestion is struggling in the first place.

I've worked with cats who had loose stool for years, and once we identified the pattern and matched the food to what their body actually needed, things shifted within weeks. Same with dogs who'd been on prescription GI diets forever with no real resolution.

Swipe through and see if you recognize your pet's pattern.

Next week: Hot spots and itchy skin. The fire within.

DM "DIGESTION" if your pet has been stuck in the digestive struggle cycle. Next week I'll be in-house at Full Circle- book your appointment today! Sunny 💚

04/28/2026

Yay! So excited to get started next week!

Full Circle is excited to announce that Sunny Gandara, Pet Nutritionist Extraordinaire, will be offering pet nutrition appointments at the office beginning next week!!! If you have ever questioned your pet's diet and have questions, please call the office to schedule a consultation with Sunny!!!

04/27/2026

Tofu's been with me for almost a decade. And for most of those springs, I dreaded the routine: paws she'd lick raw, ears that flared like clockwork, the same antibiotics, the same vet conversation, the same quiet feeling of I should be able to fix this.

Diet was a piece of it. But food alone didn't crack the recurring pattern.

What did: TCVM. Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine reframes recurring "allergies" as a story the body is telling: heat, damp, stuck energy, season + constitution.

When I started building Tofu's protocol through that lens (and bringing it into my work with clients), things shifted.

She'll be 10 in a couple of months. It's spring. Her paws are calm. Her ears are clean. No antibiotics on rotation. No same-vet-conversation. Just a happy and healthy dog.

If your dog has the same recurring story every year, like itchy paws, chronic ear issues, flares that come back no matter what you try, there's a different way to look at it.

And that's exactly what my 1-hour consult is for.

Link in comments. I'd love to bring this lens to your dog.

04/26/2026

Something I have been quietly working toward for a very long time is finally happening, and I want to share it with all of you.

Starting May 4th, I will be the in-house Pet Health Coach and Pet Nutritionist at Full Circle Veterinary Hospital in Wappinger Falls, NY, two days a week, every Tuesday and Wednesday.

For years, I have believed that the future of pet healthcare is not holistic OR conventional. It's both, together, in the same room, talking to each other. Pet parents deserve a team, not a tug-of- war between the two worlds.

And yet, finding a veterinarian willing to truly embrace that model, not just tolerate it but genuinely champion it, has been harder than it sounds. Most of the time, these two worlds operate in parallel and rarely intersect in any meaningful, ongoing way.

That's what makes Dr. Michelle Rocque so extraordinary.

Dr. Michelle, owner and veterinarian at Full Circle, is the kind of vet that gives you hope for what veterinary medicine can look like when someone is brave enough to think beyond the standard of care.

She didn't just say she was open to collaboration; she built a space for it. She asked the hard questions, engaged with the work I do with genuine curiosity, and said yes to something the veterinary world hasn't really seen before: a certified holistic pet health coach and nutritionist with a dedicated, recurring presence inside her practice.

I don't take that lightly because such openness is rare, and I want to recognize it publicly.

What I'll be doing there:

I'll be available for in-person consultations on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, working alongside Dr. Michelle and the Full Circle team to support dogs and cats with nutrition, herbal support, TCVM food therapy, supplement guidance, and whole-body wellness planning.

Think of it as having your vet and your pet's nutrition coach in the same building, on the same page.

To celebrate this milestone (and to make it easy for you to come experience this kind of care firsthand), I'm offering a special opening rate on a 1-hour consultation for anyone who books for my first week, May 4th and 5th only. (Booking link in comments)

If you've been curious about holistic nutrition for your dog or cat, if your pet is dealing with chronic inflammation, digestive issues, allergies, joint problems, or cancer prevention concerns, this is a great moment to come in and see what this kind of collaboration can do.

For Nacho. For Tofu and Oslo. For every dog whose person deserved more options. This one's for all of you.

Full Circle Veterinary Hospital
1609 US-9
Wappinger Falls, NY 12590

Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting May 4th

04/24/2026

The reason your dog’s gut keeps falling apart isn’t because you’re not trying hard enough.

It’s because nobody told you that what’s coming out of their system every day matters more than what you’re putting in.I see it constantly.

Pet parents who switched to fresh food, ditched the cheap kibble, started reading labels, and still can’t figure out why their dog is itchy, gassy, anxious, or breaking out in chronic ear infections.

The missing piece is usually rebuilding what’s been stripped away, and the way most people approach probiotics actively works against that.

A few things worth knowing that don’t get talked about enough:

→ Heat above 104°F kills most probiotic strains. If you’re mixing them into warm bone broth or sprinkling on fresh-cooked food before it’s cooled, you’re feeding your dog dead bacteria.

→ Citrus and apple cider vinegar destroy probiotics on contact. So does carbonated water.

The «healthy» stuff people often pair them with is the worst possible delivery vehicle.

→ Most freeze-dried probiotics need a few minutes to wake up before they hit the gut. Tossing the powder straight into a bowl of dry kibble is one of the least effective ways to give them.

There’s a lot more nuance than the back of any supplement bottle will tell you.

Inside my 3-month program, I walk clients through all of it (and the 30+ page guide that comes with it covers what to choose, when to give it, what to pair it with, and how to rotate properly so it actually works long-term).

If you’ve been throwing probiotics at the problem and not seeing the changes you expected, there’s probably a reason.

Tap the link in bio when you’re ready to figure out what your dog actually needs.🐾

04/23/2026

🔥❄️ BEYOND THE SYMPTOM (Part 1): Is Your Pet Running Hot or Cold? 🔥❄️

What if I told you that the same food that helps one pet could make another pet worse?

This is something I wish more pet parents understood, because it changes everything about how you approach feeding.

In Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, every animal has a constitution. Some pets run hot. Some run cold.

And the food you choose either balances that constitution or pushes it further out of whack.

Signs your pet runs HOT:

→ Seeks cool floors, tiles, shady spots
→ Pants easily, even when not exercising
→ Red or inflamed skin, hot ears
→ Tends toward skin issues, hot spots, ear infections
→ Irritable or restless
→ May have strong thirst

Signs your pet runs COLD:

→ Always seeking warmth, curls up tight
→ Sluggish digestion, loose stool
→ Low energy, especially in cold weather
→ Pale tongue and gums
→ Stiff joints, worse in winter
→ Tends toward mucus or dampness issues

Here's where it gets interesting: foods have temperatures too.

Warming foods: chicken, lamb, venison, salmon, ginger, squash

Cooling foods: duck, rabbit, whitefish, turkey, cucumber, celery, watermelon

Neutral foods: pork, beef, eggs, sardines, sweet potato, green beans

If your hot pet with chronic skin issues is eating chicken every day, you're adding fuel to the fire.

If your cold pet with sluggish digestion is eating raw duck, you're making them colder.

A simple cooling meal for hot pets:

Duck or rabbit, steamed zucchini and celery, a splash of bone broth, pinch of parsley. Cooling, clearing, calming.

A simple warming meal for cold pets:

Chicken or lamb, roasted butternut squash, gently cooked kale, drizzle of coconut oil. Warming, nourishing, supportive.

This applies to dogs and cats equally. Once you see your pet through this lens, feeding becomes so much more intuitive.

Next week: What diarrhea is actually telling you. Not all loose stool is the same.

DM "CONSTITUTION" if you want help figuring out whether your pet runs hot or cold. 💚

04/22/2026

🌍 HAPPY EARTH DAY 🌍

There’s something our pets understand that we’ve forgotten.

They know how to find the cool patch of grass on a hot day. They know when to rest and when to move. They follow the sun across the room, curl up when it’s cold, stretch out when it’s warm. They eat grass when their stomachs are off. They slow down when their body needs it.

They’re still connected to something we’ve lost touch with.

Earth Day always makes me think about this. We’ve built a world of convenience and speed, but our animals remind us that health doesn’t come from a lab or a factory.

It comes from the earth. From real food, whole ingredients, seasons, and rhythms.

The food therapy I practice is rooted in this understanding.

Thousands of years ago, healers observed nature. They noticed that certain foods warmed the body, others cooled it. That some plants cleared heat, others built energy.

That animals, like people, have constitutions shaped by their environment.

This wisdom came from paying attention. From slowing down enough to notice patterns. From respecting that we’re part of nature, not separate from it.

Our pets still live this way. They don’t override their instincts the way we do, push through exhaustion or ignore what their body is telling them.

What would it look like if we honored that in how we feed them?

Real food from the earth. Proteins that match their constitution. Vegetables that support their body’s needs. Less processing, more nourishment. Food that makes sense to their biology.

That’s the work I love doing. Helping pet parents reconnect feeding with nature.

Tomorrow I’m starting a new series called “Beyond the Symptom” where I’ll share how to read your pet’s body the way ancient healers did, and how to use food to bring them back into balance.

Today, maybe just sit with your dog or cat for a few minutes.

Watch how they move, where they rest, what they’re drawn to. They have a lot to teach us if we slow down enough to notice.

Happy Earth Day. 💚🌎

- Sunny (Full Circle's pet nutritionist and Holistic Pet Health Coach)