View Question

Pododermatitis

by ericahawker - December 9, 2009

Hi Steve--

Thanks so much for the skin seminar you did for VBMA. It was awesome! I know you covered all of those herbs in our basic seminar but the way it was organized and the chart comparison at the end was very helpful.

Anyhow, I am reviewing several of my skin cases that haven't improved and have one that I am still not sure about.

The dog is a 4 yr old FS Boxer that has had moderate erythema and pruritus on the undersides of her feet for about 5-6 mths now. No response to traditional Western meds. She is overweight, lethargic and recently aggressive with another dog. She likes lying in the sun, has a great appetite, low energy level and occasionally dreams and is a deep sleeper. She originally was on Purina One, then switched over to Wellness Core. I am in the process of switching her to Innova Evo food.

Started her on San Ren Tang because her pulse is deep and slippery and tongue is dark pink, slight lavender. No improvement after 2 weeks. So I switched her to Si Miao San. After 2 wks, pulse and tongue are the same and pruritus has improved somewhat. I then changed her to Qing Ying Tang (as you can see I am impatient and this was before the skin teleseminar!). I talked to her owner the other day and no changes yet. I remember the comment that you made that if the patient doesn't respond to SRT and you think it should then use SMS and Chu Shi Wei Ling Tang together. What do you think?

Thanks again!
Erica

by ericahawker

December 9, 2009

Forgot to mention--on most recent recheck--mild erythema on undersides of feet, tongue is dark reddish, muddy and pulse is still deep and slippery.

Erica

by naturevet

December 10, 2009

Hi Erica,

Harkening back to that lecture, if an animal definitely has a slippery pulse, then this means cutaneous blood flow is ample (i.e. there is no vasoconstriction). If we're seeing that in an animal with skin disease, then it would suggest the appropriate strategy is to move blood away from the skin (i.e. introduce vasotone), to reduce the inflammation. You did that with SMS, and were rewarded with improvements. QYT, CSWLT and SRT have the opposite effect, and so I wouldn't expect as much in the way of benefits from them.

If you wanted to cool the dog even further than SMS achieved, you'd be looking at bitter cold formulas like Hoxsey or Long Dan Xie Gan Tang or modified LDXGT (aka Long Dan Er Miao San).

It all hinges on the pulse. If you're quite certain about its lack of tone, then that's where I'd go. Now that the dog is on QYT, though, you might as well confirm the above logic is correct for this case. If it is, and if the pulse really was 'slippery', then I would hypothesize that QYT doesn't help much.

Let us know how it goes!

Steve

You must be logged in to reply

CuredCases.com