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Hemangiosarcoma (splenic) In A Dog

by Dreudog - May 7, 2018 View Case Report

Hi Steve and group,

This dog's history:

Acquired as rescue. Is shy and dog reactive. Occ. vomiting, which seemed to ^ in fall, better digestive enzymes. Patellar lux surgery 2012, partial RACL fall of 2014, no surgery. I met her Nov. of 2014 and Rx'd Xiao Yao San, which caused her nausea to ^. She has mostly lived on high end kibble + scraps. Did not see her again until 1-10-18 , 3 weeks post splenectomy.

At that exam:
- sweet quiet
T: pink, dry
P: deep, some then, sl. feeble
soem crepitus, pain on flexion of partial RACL side .

It seemed that all signs pointed towards TBO, so I started her on CHJLGMLT (50) g + dang gui (30g) + san qi (30g) @ 1.0 tsp. TID per either your recipe or Erin's (50 lb dog). (I suggested 1.5 tsp). Also Li jun zi tang , Yunnan Bai Yao, inositol, Vit A & D, CAS Options. Is now feeding cooked raw.

On rechecks, plus tended to remain deeper, had a bit better tone. Gums pink, and. palp normal.

Last week on an unusually warm day, she had an apparent hemorrhage. (fairly sudden onset of lethargy restlessness, pale mm, ^ resp. rate. On exam, her mm were pale pink and sl. cool, pulse thready, she was ~ 25% off her usual energy level per owners, but continuing to eat. HCT 19.4, reticulocytes 432 (normal 10-110 on this machine). They had given the YB red pill the PM prior, and she seemed to stabilize the the nite.

So we are losing the battle, 5 months out.

I usually have trouble correcting pulses on these serious cases; they often improve, but just never seem to approach normal. Does that likely mean the formula Rx is not quite right? Too little herb?

Should I be looking at other TBO herb like XCHT? Could she have a heat pathogen w/ the bleed on a much warmer day? Her pulse rate is always normal to sl. slow. I don't see anything "excess" about this dog, other than her fearful reaction to other dogs.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Cathy L

by naturevet

May 7, 2018

Hi Cathy,

The ability to use Dang Gui where before the dog was nauseous on Xiao Yao San does suggest that there is a Shao Yang disharmony there, so some derivative of Minor Bupleurum seems called for

The pulses, however, seem quite weak, implying the concomitant use of a tonic. You're going with Liu Jun Zi Tang and the Dang Gui, yet the weak pulse prevails, so something is not quite right here. Whatever the reason, the CHJLGMLT, which internalizes the pulse, may not be as good a choice here as XCHT. The latter is also less draining and drying to a depleted dog.

You can pair XCHT with Si Wu Tang, or even Modified Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang, to continue the focus on Blood tonification. If you use the latter, you can recruit Curcuma into the fight. Whenever you feel a tumor is breaking through the barriers herbs are imposing, it's always important to introduce something new, while not necessarily chucking out what has gotten you this far (5 months being a respectable survival, as the typical statistics go). Using Modified XFZYT would accomplish this for you. Alternatively, you could add E Zhu to Si Wu Tang, and go that route.

Using augmented SWT may be the best choice. Given the coldness of the dog on the unseasonably warm day, I'd say the problem there may have been one of the Blood being scattered, rather than the Blood being heated. In spring, Blood is trying to move peripherally, and if it is insufficient to fill the vessels, it will become scattered and cease to flow effectively, causing collapse. More vigorous tonification thus seems called for, which SWT devotes more real estate to. If you added Huang Qi (Astragalus) to the formula, you'd invoke different anti-cancer mechanisms, possibly thwarting the tumor growth, while boosting Blood tonification. I'd suggest using 60g Huang Qi and 40g Si Wu Tang, and double dosing the dog (i.e. using a full dose of 100g XCHT with 18g added San Qi, and a full dose of the Huang Qi-Si Wu Tang mix).

Still on the subject of Qi tonification: the mushroom mix you're using doesn't contain Coreolus, or at least it is not the main ingredient. Coreolus (Yun Zhi) in particular seems needed. So I'd order Yun Zhi and use it rather than the CAS Options, unless my information is wrong.

As to dose, your current level suits a 30 lb. or less dog. If it's over that amount, you need to bump your doses up. I'd do that anyway, by using full doses of each of the formulas above.

Lastly, we try to use Vaccinium (Bilberry extract) in our HSA cases. I believe ATTH has some. It has specific action against HSA as well.

Hope all that helps!

Steve

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