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Non-reactive Alopecia

by doris - March 11, 2010

Hi Steve,

This dog came in to see me one month ago with the typical hypothyroid alopecia--spare , dry and coarse hair coat on the body and tails while the hair on head and 4 legs were normal. Serum T4 test was in the lower-end normal range. The skin was dry, with a bit of dandruff but not inflamed nor with lesions. It never seeks warm/cool environment. Normal EDFU. It's tongue was purple and the pulse was thin, weak and slightly deep. Warm spot was palpable at BL 17. I treat this dog as Blood deficiency and
gave it acupuncture treatment once weekly with these points: sedate BL 40 LI 11, dry needling
TH 5 ST 36 ST 40 SP 6 SP 10 BL 17 BL 20 BL 22. I put it on omega oil supplement and Barf's diet. Also started it on BaWeiDi Huang Wan 2 weeks ago at 1/4 tsp bid ( 3.3kg dog)of human formula.
The dog came back yesterday for the 4th acupuncture treatment, I didn;t see any significant improvement, am I on the right track?

I also have some questions on naking diagnosis:
1) If I can feel the pulse easily at the superficial level but the strongest tone is felt at a deeper level, i.e my finger has to press down a bit to feel the pulse, can I say this is a "deep pulse"?

2)If a dog has cool eartips and paws and hot body, with purple tongue and deep pulse, the Blood is in the interior of the body, will this dog seek coolness rather than warm as its body core is hot?

3) If the animal has a recent injury of a joint and it is warm to touch. I am supposed to do a sedation method with over 15 mins of high frequency stimulation, to deplete the substance P and thus reduce the inflammation. Does it only work with electroacupuncture? or a sedation method of dry needling also work in this way? I am a bit confused that with the dry needling sedation method, will I draw more blood to the exterior and hence increase blood flow to the injuried site and causing more inflammation??

Thank you for your time and advises.

Regards,
Doris

by naturevet

March 11, 2010

Hi Doris,

Nice to hear from you again. I’m glad to see you putting the herbs and acupuncture into practice. Regarding your questions:

1) The depth of a pulse is where you feel the beat the strongest. If you first feel it superficially, but feel it more strongly when you increase digital pressure, then it is a ‘deep’ pulse.

2) The animal you describe with the Blood essentially trapped in the interior of the body may do both. It may seek cool because of its hot body core. On the other hand, I’ve also commonly seen these same animals seek warmth, presumably because in spite of the heat at their centers, the periphery feels chilly to them.

3) A needling approach you can try for acute peripheral trauma is to sedate the distal points near the lesion, and to tonify more proximal points on the same channel, or even at the spine itself (for example, GV 14 for forelimb complaints). This effectively draws blood out of the lesion and directs it centrally, to decongest the site of the injury.

Regarding the hairless dog, I find Bu Gan Tang (Tonify the Liver Decoction) is more reliable in these animals, once you’ve ruled out obvious endocrine causes like hyperadrenocorticism. We can even wonder if the hair loss pattern represents the reverse situation to (2) above, where Yin is on the exterior and can’t return to the interior. A sour herb is needed to redirect Yin internally without damaging it. Bu Gan Tang is sour.

Just a thought,

Steve

by doris

March 12, 2010

Hi Steve,

can you please further explain on the point about the the hairless dog that "the Yin is on the exterior, can't return to the interior", base on which clinical signs indicate this diagnosis? Do you agree that this dog has Blood deficiency as well ( thin pulse, very dry hair coat and skin)?

by the way, the Bu Gan Tang sounds like a commonly used formula but I can't get hold of it in HK. Could you please tell me if I can make it out of single herbs by myself or other type of combine herbs I can use instead? should I stop using BWDHW? I used this on another dog with Hypothyroidism that seemed to help it well though.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Doris

Thank you
Doris

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