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Referred Nerve Pain

by lsargent - October 11, 2009

I have a 13 y/o f/s field trial border collie who has had chronic problems with her right shoulder. Radiographs were never able to discern any bony lesions and now she is licking in-between her 3rd and 4th digits on the right side and supinating that foot so it appears more flattened than the left. She has non-repeatable discomfort in palpation of distal carpus, flexion of the digits and palpable atrophy of the supraspinatus on the right scapula. When herding, as she still has the urge to do, occasionally will stumble on the foot, apparently as if experiencing CP deficits, but will correct after stumbling.
Her tongue, while too long to fit in her mouth since a pup, is dark red, deep crease down the center, with creases on either side of the center; cranial half is dark red and appears dry although when in a clinical setting she drools. I did not check her pulses.
One other pertinent peice of information, she had fractured one ofthe phalanges a few months ago and when a splint was placed, it rubbed a stoma on the point of the right elbow. We have tried everything to heal that stoma and now the owner keeps a child's shirt on her to keep it clean and I was thinking of using a laser on the area, surrounding the dragon with needles, both dry and with traumeel did not change its status.
This may be a stupid question but can laser be okay to use when it appears we have excess Heat or is it deficient Yin? Any combinations of herbs that can assist in reducing the suspected tingling this old girl is experiencing in her toes?

Thanks in advance,
Lois

by naturevet

October 12, 2009

Hi Lois,

Laser is fine for any injury, regardless of the Chinese medical diagnosis. No problem there.

Definitely in these peripheral nerve cases I find chiropractic to be an imperative. Any neck pain?

St. Johns Wort is a default prescription for peripheral nerve injury and impairment. It's latin name is Hypericum. Either homeopathir or tincture form can work.

Lastly, given the tongue appearance, and the chronic wound, I would say the dog has significant Blood stasis. If the dog is cold, I'd look at Xiao Huo Luo Dan. If the dog is hot, which I get the sense it is, then Xian Fang Huo Ming Yin is a good option.

Hopefully that gets you started.

Steve

by lsargent

October 13, 2009

Thanks, Steve,

No neck pain and only has trouble on extension of the shoulder. I will try the herbal formula and hypericum and keep you posted!

Lois

by lsargent

November 11, 2009

Xian Fang Huo Ming Yin was the formula that I put her on and now her toe nails on the affected foot are separating from the nail bed. While this may be related to the original injury, could it possibly be related to the herbal combination? Primarily this involves P4 & 5 on the right forefoot and P4 on the right rear foot. She appears to be pain free and happy, but this is disturbing to both myself and the owner.

Thanks in advance,
Lois

by lsargent

December 2, 2009

Xian Fang Huo Ming Yin is the herbal formula and I just received an email from the owner that all the nails are splitting. We just took the nail from P5 as it had completely separated from the bed and there was no bleeding.
Since nails are governed by the Liver, could this formula be elucidating some underlying pathology? Her tongue is much improved, she does not appear painful except for these darn nails that are separating from the beds! The owner is calling it her castenets.

Help, I'm confused, should we stop the herbals and see what shakes out?

Thanks,
Lois

by naturevet

December 2, 2009

Sure, Lois. Go ahead and stop the formula. For dogs having nails separating from the nail bed as their chief and only problem, we've had good luck with Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang. So that can be a formula to try to stop the problem with, if discontinuing XFHMY doesn't correct it. Again, I've never had anyone cite this as a side effect of XFHMY before, so I'm not sure the problem will go away when the herbs are stopped. Please continue to update us and let us know what happens.

Steve

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