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Unable To Urinate On Own In A Dog

by CorinneC - September 14, 2022 View Case Report

Stitch is a 3yo MN French that became acutely painful and paraplegic mid-August 2022. He went to Boundary Bay for surgery with the hope that he would return to function. When I first met him end of August he had no deep pain in either hindlimb and no proprioception. He was able to lift his hindend with ease and drag himself around. He was unable to urinate on his own and needed to be expressed to relieve. He was defecating but did not seem aware and would just defecate where he lay. His tongue was a relatively normal one - perhaps slightly more lavender and swollen at its base but pink, moist, and normal edges. His pulses were of decent tone. I performed acupuncture (and have twice weekly since) and started him on XCHT (clear Shaoyang disharmony with acute intervertebral inflammation and paraplegia) and SRT (in the hopes that he had an obstruction from Damp Heat in the lower burner causing urinary retention).

5 weeks later and the owners are still expressing his bladder. He dribbles a little and goes to peepads like he "knows" he needs to go. He is still dragging himself around, no proprioceptive changes, I think some deep pain on RH side, and a new twitch started 2 weeks after surgery in his high hip/flank region - surgeon couldn't explain what it was? He is still very BAR. When left alone now he defecates and urinates in his pen area indicating some separation anxiety. His tongues is about the same but his pulses seem deeper and slightly more wiry (deficient) to me.

Please help me with this boy! He is so lovely and has such a will. After acupuncture treatments his pulses improve but I can't determine if any particular points help. I do many BL and GB points each time as well as GV. I've done electroAQ the last two treatments but still no big changes.

With the increasing sep anxiety I am definitely wanting to add a Blood tonic, but I'd prefer your expert advice before I move forward.

Thanks in advance Dr. Marsden! BTW, great incontinence webinar!!!
Corinne

by naturevet

September 22, 2022

Hi Corinne! Sorry about the delayed reply here! I haven't been receiving notifications when people post case questions.

The first thing to do is needle BL 40. If the pulse becomes much less deep and wiry, then you need to start using Du Huo Ji Sheng Tang (DHJST). It will start providing the Blood tonifying effects you're looking for.

If sedating BL 40 doesn't help, needle GB 34. If the pulse improves, then the dog is still in the Shao Yang stage of disc disease. I find I have to add 12g Gui Zhi and 15g of Bai Shao to Xiao Chai Hu Tang (XCHT) to resolve this stage, which then requires a few weeks of formula use. After that, DHJST often does the trick

Give that a try and let us know how it goes!

Steve

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