veterinary

[Guest guest]

As I work with pets at times, I have begun to ponder an idea based upon my

experience and one line from hsu ta chun in forgotten traditions of ancient

CM, " the qi of animals is unrefined and their blood is turbid " . He then

mentions a few herbs and strategies to treat animal illness and they all are for

excess (wu-yao, huang yao zi, and variations in dealing with food stagnation

due to different diets). However, he says that one must always consider the

patterns and treat accordingly.

 

when one considers cats with their almost all meat diet, it makes sense that

their blood would be quite turbid. the habits of wild cats tend towards self

induced food stagnation. Lions gorge themselves till they cannot move and

then they lay around for days till they are hungry again. Severe constipation

is a common and deadly problem in elderly cats. with that in mind, I think one

needs to be very careful in applying supplementation therapy to felines.

 

When fed without allowing gorging, the domestic cat's diet is still very

tonifying

and they need it to be that way. It is especially high in foods that contain

yin

essence like fat and protein and thus also easily produce dampness, phlegm

and dampheat.

 

recently after one of my cats had a severe case of constipation that required

veterinary treatment, I started to give some thought to the wisdom of the

supplementation therapies both he and the other eldery cat in the house had

been receiving for what appeared to be their decline of essence. the cat who

had been really sick is now being treated with da huang and his health has

improved dramatically in 2 weeks after months of decline during which he had

received various tonics and wind extinguishing herbs. I first wondered about

this connection with a clean colon when the cat's a health actually

IMPROVED after a bout of antibiotic induced colitis 2 months ago.

 

So I then considered my other even older, yet healthier cat. I noticed this

other cat had been drinking a lot of water recently, something he rarely did.

He also seemed to have gained weight and was bloated through the middle.

At first, I had just noticed the thirst and assumed it was decline of yin again.

He also seemed warm, but not feverish a lot. So for weeks he got yin tonics

with no relief. After the experience with the first cat and da huang, I decided

to

try some on the other. BTW, my vet had already assured me da huang was

safe for cats. I recalled that da huang had shown remarkable effects in

patients with both renal failure and type 2 diabetes (both common in cats - da

huang containing formula are of then the kampo treatment of choice for

excess sho type early onset DM).

 

Lo and behold, after one dose of da huang, I noticed the cat had a large

normal BM the next day, presented with less bloating and he has not

consumed any excess water since. In neither case did I induce diarrhea, only

normal bowel movements. It was not combined with other herbs, did not

cause any side effects and consumed mixed with wet food with no trouble

(apparently the taste does not bother them). I guess this should all be no

surprise as cats use of " herbs " in the wild tends to center around grasses that

either induce vomiting or purgation. If we are really to use nature as our

guide, we should be careful not to anthropomorphize our animal companions

too much.

 

BTW, this is certainly an area where we would benefit from access to chinese

source material as there is not much in any english of any value. I think

several of the books in english I have seen overemphasize supplementation

without due consideration of these matters. However, I think there is little

the

chinese have written about cats so we are kind of in no man's land regardless

with this topic. Since dogs were used as laborers, there may be more on

them. definitely more on farm animals, but those texts on the treatment of

ruminants would tell little about what is unique to the care of obligate

carnivores. However, all the chinese material I have seen does seem to focus

on clearing excess. To be clear, I did experiment for months with mixed

supplementing/clearing formulas, but in both cases it was only when I

eliminated ALL tonics that improvement occurred.

 

Slow accumulation of impacted feces can lead to lethargy, thirst and loss of

appetite in a cat, none of which has anything to do with vacuity as the root.

However the slow onset appears to be progressive vacuity. Treating with qi

and yin tonics will only make things worse.