I am looking for recommendations about changing or adding to my current herbal regimen.
Pacé is my own beloved dog. 12.75 year old, 85 lb, lean, MN golden retriever with a long medical history of inflammatory lesions--bilateral FCP when I got him at 18 mo and now severe elbow DJD (historically was on YiYi Ren Tang); probably chronic tick-borne that I have not been able to diagnose that led to polyarthropathy (I figured that out when I nearly killed him thinking I had an IMPA and immunosuppressed him, Qing Ying Tang helped here); a torn gastrocnemius on the right (in the muscle, not at the calcaneon); a vestibular episode in 2010 that may have originated in hypothyroidism because though he had low T4 levels for awhile, he did not read the book in terms of clinical signs and I treated the dog, not the lab work and failed to supplement him early on in the process; for the last 1-2 years progressive cp deficits on all 4 feet to the point that he falls when a front leg collapses or when a back leg slips out from under him--I suspect some IVDD/facet djd as he has ventral spondylosis in many places along his spine; marked muscle wasting and weakness to the point that most times I have to help him get his butt off the ground; heat intolerance that I think is compounded by laryngeal paralysis left over from the vestibular episode; last April during a severe diarrhea episode I identified a cardiac arrhythmia which has been deemed to be catecholamine-induced and generally is better with atenolol though I have stopped checking his pulse while walking because it's just too damn scary; and now a very red tongue (has always been pale pink to lavender), and heat and odor emanating from his body when I massage his back along the bladder meridian; he also has many small to medium soft sq masses (lipomas when I check) throughout that have come out in the past couple of years and more recently hard dermal nodules that look like they will be sebaceous adenomas that then become a bloody crust and sort of fall off.
He is taking Kan Essentials, Benefit Hips and Knees, (XCHT) 5 tab BID (has been for several years), and Four Marvels (Si Miao San), 5 BID (has been on some version of Si Miao San most of his life), gabapentin (100 mg BID--trying to gradually increase), previcox (227 mg SID for the last 3 or so years), atenolol (25 mg, 1/2 BID last 6 months), levothyroxine (0.7 mg BID last 7 years).
I am concerned that I am cooking him from the inside out with the changes in heat signs and the development of these masses. The odor is new as are the hard nodules that become bloody crusts. His tongue color change is remarkable. We live in No. California and are coming off a very hot summer with months of 90+ degreesF weather so some of it may be attributable to that but not all.
And this is where my herbal knowledge is lacking--I do not know how to make changes to my regimen easily. I feel like he needs Qi/Yang support (Bu Yang Huan Wu Tang) because he is so weak but am afraid of too much Heat.
I should mention that his Shen is excellent, he loves to greet new people and everyone comments that he looks so happy, his appetite is good, his bowel function very normal. We manage two 20-30 minute walks a day and he sleeps comfortably--a lot. He is getting acupuncture weekly now and still tolerates many (30-40) needles.
Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Kelly