I have a new patient- a 4 year old FS heeler mix that is suffering from acute severe hepatitis. On discharge from the hosp recently her ALT was 1392 IU/l, AST 420 IU/l tbili 23.4 mg/dl. No bile acids were run, but abdominal ultrasound showed a hyperechoic hepatic parenchyma. She has a mild neutrophilia 12.4 k/ul eosinophilia 9 k/ul, normal platelets. Anaplasma positive but not symptomatic.
Sher left with a feeding tube and broad spectrum abios (enro, metronidazole), cerenia, denamarin and ursodiol. She saw a nutritionist there who put her on a diet of blended eggs, rice, butter, honey and salt, plus fish oil, and one of the Balance IT supplements.
This all started in Oct with a course of Albon and it is a suspected Albon toxicity situation. She was treated in Oct then relapsed in Nov.
When I saw her she still had her esophagostomy tube and was still having intermittent bouts of nausea and anorexia. She had seen a different acupuncturist a week prior to me that had thankfully placed the dog on Benefit Hips and knees. She seems like she could be a shao yang case to me.
At our visit, her tongue was light pink and her pulse was thin and wiry. Her pulse did improve when I sedated BL18 and again with GB34. She has done well with acuouncture, but I wanted to get your take on the situation regarding herbs and food. I am hoping benefit hips and knees is the right choice for now, but question when she will need something else. Or, should I be doing something else now?
She hates her new diet and seems to want meat. According to the o, the nutritionist told her that meat was dangerous for this dog and she could only have egg protein because of the risks of too much ammonia. There is no definitive diagnosis here though and I have a hard time getting behind this perspective 100%, but I don't feel brave enough to buck the nutritionist. I am hoping maybe you can offer some guidance that would help me to liberate the o to start branching out from the egg and rice only diet.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hope you are well and thank you!
Kelly