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Overweight 6 Year Old Lab With Multiple Problems

by ROBINSON - November 8, 2009

I am seeing a 6 year old overweight/obese, mn lab. This dog has been large since day one. He has struggled with chronic otitis externa in the past leading to a lateral ear ablation. About 6 months ago, he had a TPLO sx to repair ruptured ACL. He has healed slowly from sx and has developed ongoing skin rashes. He remains in chronic pain. His skin condition improves quickly on antibiotics and his pain is reasonably managed with a combination of Deramaxx and Tramadol. He had a tooth extraction 3 weeks ago and developed a severe sterile cystitis upon recovery. This also responded favorably to nsaids.
He sounds like a Damp Heat case to me but when I saw him the other day his tongue looked fat, wet, with thin white coating and pale lavendar in color ( my interpretation) and his pulses were soft and slippery. He also had active acupuncture points- BL18, BL21 were excess and BL20 was deficient and BL28 was very painful. I am very confused about what TCM pattern(s) that is being presented and how to best treat this dog. I want to use herbs, acupuncture and possibly tcm food energetics. The dog is on a raw food, grain free diet with very poor succes in the weight loss department.

Sorry, about the confusion but I am confused.
Thanks for your insight
Wendy

by naturevet

November 9, 2009

Hi Wendy,

In my book:
the response to NSAIDs indicates Blood stasis

the tongue and weight issues indicate Damp, as do the proliferative lesions of the ear canals

the skin, pulse, and maybe even the tongue color indicate deficiency

Given this mixed bag, the first thing I think of (especially if the pulse was quite thin and slippery and superficial) is Yi Yi Ren Tang. It addresses these various problems (Stasis, deficiency, Damp) as well as expels Wind Damp from the Bladder channel.

I'd also ensure there isn't a chiropractic lesion at the lumbo-sacral region hindering the dog's recovery.

If the pulse was quite broad and slippery, then you're probably still safe to take the plunge with Si Miao San. YYRT, especially if it has a little Ma Huang added (I can do this for you if you're in Canada) facilitates weight loss through increased metabolism. SMS hinders weight gain tendencies by interfering with the mechanisms causing metabolic syndrome.

Hope that's somewhat helpful.

Steve

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