Question Details
Temperature Of Ace Inhibitors
by
Hi there,

I am treating an elderly dog with a multitude of issues, among them protein-losing nephropathy and a new heart murmur of unknown etiology. The referring DVM put her on enalapril and then benazapril, both of which caused severe diarrhea and nearly sent her off the earthly plane. Is this because these drugs have a "hot" constitution, and were too much for this Yin and Qi deficient dog?

Thank you!
Replies
by naturevet
March 12, 2010
Hi Firey One!

(I bet there's a story behind that user name!)

I look at ACE inhibitors as assisting in a moving effect. When an animal is Qi and Blood deficient, herbs that move tend to scatter the Qi and Blood, resulting in collapse (e.g. dizziness, etc.). So a tonic of some kind should help this dog out a lot. So the appropriate herbal strategy would be a Kidney tonifying one. Interestingly, Kidney and Heart problems combined, whether from a western point of view or Eastern, are more likely to put an animal in jeopardy. So there may be some work to do on the heart here as well. You can make a broad start by using something basic like Rehmannia Eight (Ba Wei Di Huang Wan). We'll then need to assess whether that is working well enough, or whether we need some variation on the theme to help normalize renal perfusion, reduce proteinuria, and improve contractiilty. So I can see a need to follow up here, but would start with BWDHW. If we are generally right, the dog will generally improve.

Hope that helps you out!

Steve

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