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Renal Failure In Hot Dog

by mikemesley - June 9, 2009

Not a sausage on a roll - or as you all might say - a wiener in a bun. Just a dog showing heat signs.

Small dog. Overweight. Pants constantly. Has recently begun to have seizures.
Mild levels azotemia, phosphate mildly high. Cholesterol mildly elevated. Diuresis not really improving primary symptoms which centre around inappetance and lethargy.

My initial thought was TB stasis, but with a pink/red tongue - especially with red tip -and pulse weak, deep, maybe slippery. Acupuncture most effective at SP6, also SP9 and BL20 may have been useful - notably no GB points seemed active - and with long Hx of anal gland issues, pancreatitis, stifle arthritis etc feel Damp Heat predominates in Hx with probable phlegm accumulation causing seizures. How do I reconcile this with mild azotemia and suboptimal USG - 1.018 ish - mild proteinuria, and slightly elevated phosphorus AND Calcium (strange?).
How much is the inappetance due to SP issues v KID issues?

What I was thinking -
BWDHW and some form of SP tonic used simultaneously.

Problem - This doesn't seem to address the probable "Phlegm Fire Harrassing the Heart" issue displayed in the seizures, agitation, and red tongue tip. Maybe SMS is the phlegm clearing, SP tonic, damp draining, heat clearing key we need? Others along a similar vein?

Any suggestions from anyone would be very much appreciated.

by naturevet

June 8, 2009

Hi Mike,

If the seizures are still sporadic, then we can get by without worrying about an epilepsy formula for now and hope they go away. Si Miao San, as you suggested, is a good choice for seizures that are sporadic and uncommon. It leaves something to be desired for renal inflammation, however.

Those points clearly suggest we should be using some sort of Spleen formula for the renal failure. The best one I can think of is San Ren Tang. It's the top choice for Damp Heat and Spleen deficient dogs with nephritis or at least renal azotemia.

So I'd use the two together if the seizures are at all common.

Diet is tricky in these animals. They definitely don't thrive on high carb diets due to their pro-inflammatory effect; high fat diets may aggravate the pancreatitis; and high protein diets may aggravate the renal azotemia in renal inflammation. So the best course is a balance between all three. There's a beef and rice-based renal failure diet in the proceedings of last year's AHVMA conference that I find works okay for these dogs, although you'll have to cut the oil in it a bit. But that seems to work. To purchase the proceedings, you can contact www.ahvma.org. Otherwise, you can email me a fax number and I can try to fax it to you when I get home, but I'm still on the road.

All the best in this case, Mike. With diet change and herbs it has a good chance of doing well I think.

Steve

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