Anxiety Cases

I have just rescued a cute 7 mo old Whippet mix from the shelter. She has separation anxiety and is very hyper. She also pees everyday on the tile floor in my kitchen. Consequently she is not permitted in any other part of the house as she has peed on the carpet in my bedroom and my office. Can you recommend any herbs to help with Rosie's anxiety and hyperness.  And how do I handle the deliberate peeing, even after she has been outside to go potty.   Thank you.

Dr. Steve's Advice - it's important to get Rosie's urine checked for a bladder infection. They are very common in young dogs and are a common cause of the 'deliberate peeing' behaviour you're seeing.

Once you've ruled that out, I think the easiest safest approach is to use a combination of Lift the Qi (Galvanex from Gold Standard Herbs) and Harmonize the Qi. These are both Kan Essentials formulas and can often be found online, such as on Amazon, if your vet won't carry them. If your vet is game, ask them to get the Natural Path equivalents: Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (Ginseng and Astragalus) and Xiao Chai Hu Tang (Minor Bupleurum) as the granules can be a little stronger than the pills or tinctures. If your vet is not interested, though, then get the Kan products.

The use of the two formulas together constitutes a shotgun approach to urinary incontinence, since it treats almost all the various physiological events that can cause it. It hopefully will work for you, and reduce the separation anxiety to boot. You can also use them in tandem with any antibiotics to help bladder infections resolve faster, while helping protect against dysbiosis.

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Hi! I'm new to this group. I recently joined because my 4.5yr old Westie suffers from extreme anxiety. I saved her  from a puppy mill at 2months old. I socialized her when I first got her. As she's gotten older I noticed she was getting fearful outdoors. I've tried many things CBD, calming chews, hemp chews herbal medicine and trainers. Nothing seems to help her. I'm at my wits end

Dr. Steve's Advice - it's important to make sure an animal acting fearfully has no hidden sources of pain, like chiropractic fixations especially. Your animal may act normally even when these are occurring, because they can avoid aggravating them as long as they move carefully. In uncontrolled situations, however, like outdoors or around other dogs, careful movement is not a given, and they know it. So they become anxious that something could happen and they could experience pain as a result.

In fact, any undiagnosed medical condition can have your animal not feeling confident, and anxious in new uncontrolled situations as a result. If your dog hasn't been to the vet in quite a while, now is a good time.

Processed foods can also contribute to anxiety, by interfering with the normal synthesis of tryptophan, depending on what is in the food. They also make the microbiome less diverse. If the wrong species end up growing in the gut, they produce metabolites that can greatly heighten anxiety in animals and people. So think about giving a fresh food diet.

There are many herbal formulas in Chinese medicine that can dramatically and quickly improve anxiety. A visit to a local holistic veterinarian can help you choose the one most likely to help your dog.

If you don't have a holistic vet in your area, consider trying Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) by Gold Standard Herbs. For dogs with severe anxiety, it can be especially helpful

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We rescued a GSD about 3 months ago, he is approx 10-11 months old…Finnegan is his new name. He has had a crappy start in life; neglect, abuse and who knows what else.  He has settled in nicely with us in the house and our other dog and 2 cats but as soon as we take him out of the house, he is overcome with anxiety and becomes reactive to vehicles, other animals and sometimes people. We have been working with a trainer to help work through this…it is an incredibly SLOW process…kinda breaks my heart! Along with his reactivity issues, we are struggling to help him gain weight. Initially he was skin and bones…he started to fill in abit with his new diet consisting of raw/whole food diet and a ton of treats but he seems to have stalled out. His ribs are easily seen as well as his coccyx bones…he is definitely too skinny still.  He was treated for worms when he first came to our home (never tested to confirm if he had them), we did end up recently having him neutered 3 weeks ago to help with some of the behavior issues to have the hormone variable out of the picture. Our vet is aware of the issue that Finn isn’t putting in much weight and feels that it may be due to his anxiety and as he works through this and after his neuter she expects he will start to gain weight. Is there anything you can recommend we try to help this guy along with getting some weight on?…

Meet Finn!…

Dr. Steve's Advice - usually when a dog can't maintain its weight on raw, it has a more 'carb dependent' body economy. Adding cooked barley or oats to make up, say, 1/6 of the food in the dish usually is enough to have them start gaining weight.

The behaviour extremes are also likely to benefit from that diet change. More carbs supports certain species in the microbiome that otherwise vanish on pure raw diets. A happy more diverse microbiome means more normal body functioning, from the GI to the immune system to the joints to the brain. Recent research has uncovered not just a role of the brain (and cortisol) in affecting the microbiome, but a crucial role of the microbiome in fostering normal brain development while relieving tendencies to anxiety and depression.

To speed those changes along and foster an ideal bacteria community in the gut, talk to your holistic veterinarians about giving you some Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (Ginseng and Astragalus) and Xiao Chai Hu Tang (Minor Bupleurum). They should rapidly reduce that tendency to over-the-top anxiety and hypervigilance that happens when the dog is off your property.

Hope that helps!

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My lab has severe anxiety and especially with thunder. I have tried everything you can imagine to help. None of it is fast acting. My husband will be getting a new job and not working from home. The problem is a thunder storm. Once he was in his crate and there was an unexpected storm.....he lost 4 teeth trying to get out. If he is not in the crate and nobody is home, he will destroy the house trying to escape. I'm just grasping to straws in hope of a magic answer.

Dr. Steve's Advice - for severe anxiety in dogs, probably the first thing to try is Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) by Gold Standard Herbs. It's not like a drug where you use it only when you need it. The idea behind the product is to more permanently remove the phobia. If he is anxious at any other times, you may see improvements there as well. Once he is less anxious, he will be more amenable to whatever behaviour therapists might try to desensitize or re-train him. Hopefully this helps.

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My Layla will be 14 in December. Loves to swim!  Can stay in the pool for hours. My problem is she suffers from some cognitive Dysfunction and pants and paces all around the house a good amount of time. What can I give her to relax?

Dr. Steve's Advice. - welcome to our group. Halscion from Gold Standard Herbs was invented for dogs like yours. Scroll down to the testimonials section on the Halscion page (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436). You'll see reports of how it worked in other dogs just like yours. It's the first thing I'd try.

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This is Diesel, he’s 2 years old and he’s a Lab x Golden mix. Diesel has always been a dog with a medium-low energy level, anxious and insecure. He’s reactive with strangers and noises. When he was around 1 year old we started to think that he drooled excessively and had an inconsistent pattern in his stools, that is, his stools have some shape at the beginning but in the end they are more pasty and at the end of the day, on the walk, after doing a normal poop, he usually has a little intestinal discharge with liquid stools. He did 15 days of metronidazol and the liquid discharged stopped, than started again when he was off of it. I don't see much difference using probiotics because the usual pattern remains even when we’re using it. 

Diesel has always been skinny and sometimes shows low appetite. Now he also seems to suffer from some gastric reflux, burps frequently and eats a lot of herbs on the street. 

We've been investigating.. we did analyzes that came back normal, b12 and normal folates, ultrasound, TLi analysis and cPL Snap (to rule out EPI and pancreatitis). In the ultrasound, the vet mentioned that he has small adrenal glands for his size and weight, which may indicate Addison but she does not think it is necessary to do other tests for now (didn't seem to think it would be Addison from the symptoms). Still, we asked to test electrolytes that come back normal.  

My questions are:

- Could this stool pattern and symptoms above be related to anxiety or is there likely to be some other issue here? Many people say that stress can increase bowel motility during walks but I wonder if that's the case, what can I do to help? Or will it always be like this?

- Could any of these symptoms be related to a malfunction of the adrenal glands? Or is the fact that they are small not necessarily cause for alarm? I don't know if I should start preventing something. 

- We are going to start introducing a raw diet but we have some fear that he also has some food allergy (simply because we don't know what he has in fact) and that we can do worse. What do you recommend to facilitate the transition for Diesel?

Thank you very much in advance.

Dr. Steve's Advice - First, if the Na:K ratio in the bloodwork is <<28 or so, then the small adrenals are an issue and have to factor into treatment. Have your vet check that. Anxiety can likewise factor into the digestive tract challenges, via the brain-gut-skin axis. You don't mention skin issues, but they are a common manifestation of the kind of dynamic you're dealing with. They may show eventually.

Rather than see all these things as causally linked, Chinese medicine views them as concomitant. They are all manifesting as an outcropping of a deeper problem which otherwise remains hidden. In your dog's case, the underlying issue appears to be a Shao Yang disharmony.

Without going into too much detail, the Shao Yang is the structure in the body that regulates digestive tract function. It is like the master control switch for it. If it malfunctions you can get problems like:
- colitis which is often amenable to metronidazole, etc.
- regurgitation
- abnormal peristalsis regulation, such that stools come through faster than they should to create the 'normal at the beginning, soft at the end' look
- resistance to probiotics, which also need adequate mucosal immunity to oust pathogenic bacteria so the probiotics can 'take root'. The Shao Yang partly controls that local immune response

Shao Yang disharmony has other manifestations, too, including adrenal issues (Cushing's, Addison's) and often pronounced anxiety and fear aggression. In short, it seems to be the issue with your dog.

The first step is to treat on that basis, using something like Harmonize the Qi from Kan Essentials, which is a version of Minor Bupleurum. Dose according to the guidelines at https://nphc.ca/using/dosage. If you see improvements, then you can take comfort in knowing we understand the problem well, such that a diet change can likely be made safely, as long as it also addresses the same diagnosis.

Diets that treat Shao Yang disharmonies are real food meat-and-vegetable diets, containing sufficient carbs and fiber to feed the probiotics being administered. You'd need at least 15% vegetables, beans or fruit mixed with the meat portion to provide that support. Meanwhile, get the Minor Bupleurum going and let us know what happens

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 Hi Dr. Steve, so happy to be in this group.

Around the time my daughter was born 3 years ago, my dog Blue started struggling with incontinence issues - leaking when he is resting. He also started drinking a lot of water and had dilute urine. Our vet at the time run a bunch of tests for Cushing's, Diabetes, Kidney Disease, etc., he saw an internalist specialist and couldn't find anything so called it an anxiety-based behavior (he's struggled with separation anxiety since we got him at 2).

In the spring of last year, he was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and level 1 heart mumur and put on thyrotabs. He started to get back to a healthy weight, but since has started losing even more muscle mass and now weighs less than when we got him as a pup.

This year has been his hardest year with a few benign cysts removed, a stay at the ER vet for raisin ingestion, and what seems like pain in his back and hips. Most recently, I found a mysterious puncture wound on his side, where he got some blood work and fecal test done revealing his Amylase and PSI levels are high, liver enzymes are low, but other than that, everything, including kidney and thyroid looks OK. The vet wants us to do an echocardiogram and ultrasound of his abdomen but I just can't afford the tests at this time. The only thing that concerns me about waiting is that his gums have been paler than usual. They go from pretty pale pink to bubble gum pink but never to healthy red. He does have some periodontal disease that he's had since we rescued him. He's been getting slower on our walks and just feels like it isn't right for his breed, despite being 10 but eating, drinking, and otherwise seems himself.

I would love any suggestions you have. Thank you for all that you do.

Dr. Steve's Advice -  

kudos to you for hanging in there with Blue and trying to solve this problem, as it is one of the most difficult ones people for people to tolerate, especially when they have young kids.

Do you have a holistic vet near you? Acupuncture and chiropractic can cause immediate improvements on occasion, while the associated physical exam findings can help sort out which of many potential solutions can help your pet.

Based on the history of stress, strong thirst causing dilute urine, hind end weakness, pallor, pancreatitis, and low liver enzymes, I would suggest you try two different herbal formulas together. If your vet is willing to obtain them, they are Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (Ginseng and Astragalus) and Xiao Chai Hu Tang (Minor Bupleurum) by Natural Path, available from A Time to Heal Herbs in the US and www.nphc.ca in Canada.

If you don't have a vet to support you in this, you can sometimes find the Kan Essentials equivalents of Lift the Qi (Galvanex from Gold Standard Herbs) and Harmonize the Qi online at Amazon in the US. Dose according to the guidelines at https://nphc.ca/using/dosage

The two together will hopefully work well. If they don't, let us know how things have changed. Even if they do help, I would still seek out chiropractic and/or acupuncture for Blue

Hope that helps!

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Hi Dr Steve, newbie here lol. I have a senior foster fail, Trixie, approximately 12 to 13 years old she is a Yorky mix and came to me with chronic ear inflammation and I was told it was cauliflower ear and this is how it was going to be and also bear skin on the back so Cushing’s is suspected but the rescue thought she might be mixed with a breed that did not have hair which is totally ridiculous. But anyhow, we adopted her because vet care was just too hard when she wasn’t ours so since then our vet tried to do a biopsy on her left ear because there appeared to be a mass ( the small piece she removed came back as inflammation) and she desaturated on the operating table and scared the living daylights out of the vet she had to stop the surgery and cauterize the ear put her in an oxygen cage and did an x-ray and said that her lungs were very inflamed. Well she has severe anxiety and I think that had a lot to do with it because she seems to be back to normal with us and also her liver enzymes were elevated she is now on Denamarin which has helped with her liver and Zyrtec for allergies . She constantly licks her paws and scratches so hard that she leaves marks on her body even if I keep her nails trimmed and she rips open the left ear, it’s a constant battle we have used every surgery cone possible but she still seems to be able to nosedive and rub it on the carpet. I am going to start doing real food for her and the other three smalls that I have I was going to do a recipe from Dr. Becker I also give her CBD and am hoping that you have some recommendations on what to give her to help her with this horrible itch and inflammation in the ear. The Vet even gave her cidapoint injections but they don’t last very long. She is such a sweetheart and it hurts me to see her so uncomfortable and not finding anything to help her. Thank you 

Dr. Steve's Advice  -  

I'm glad you're pursuing a real food diet. That should help a lot. Make sure it contains about 15% fruits and/or vegetables. I would also add a probiotic containing Lactobacillus and/or Bacteroides.

Cessorex (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Cessorex-85g-p647327434) by Gold Standard Herbs should help your dog a lot. It will reduce her anxiety and is curative over time for allergies, which manifest as you describe, with itching, cauliflower ear, facial rubbing, etc. It's the single best thing I know of to cure allergies. It also addresses liver enzyme elevation and pulmonary inflammation, both of which might be factors in your dog.

Here's hoping Trixie has seen her worst days and it's all uphill from here!

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 Hi Dr Steve!
I have 2 main issues with my 3 year old female Maltese x shih tzu Fifi. She has had itchy skin her whole life. I’ve hesitated to go raw as her stomach is very sensitive. She is on freeze/air dried food. Anything (shampoo, sprays, creams) at all you put on her skin she reacts to. The first 2-3 times she might be ok, but then the itching starts. The only reaction her body shows is tiny little red pimple like spots on her tummy and redness around the eyes/chin. And sucking on and licking her paws (she has some hair loss from this). She is currently on a lamb diet, but gets sick of the same thing so I go between a few different brands. Even slowly swapping her, there are a few days where the itching will get a lot worse. 

She also has quite severe anxiety. Shes ok at home but hates leaving the house (shakes and cries in the car, wants to run home when walked). And is never left home alone for very long. She’s on 1/4 of paroxetine daily. I’ve found it helps a little. But also makes her feel nauseous, and trying to get her to eat, can often mean she will throw up bile from an empty stomach. Is CBD oil something you recommend?

Dr. Steve's Advice -  given the lesion distribution on the ventrum, chin and around the eyes, as well as the pronounced anxiety, I would try Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) by Gold Standard Herbs. It works in many ways, including helping to normalize the gut-brain-skin axis so that stress does not aggravate leaky gut tendencies ( often asymptomatic) that cause the skin to be extremely reactive.

Regarding diet, I'd recommend a home-cooked meat-and-vegetable diet for a while, too. Air dried foods still result in significant AGE levels that can promote inflammation. Freeze dried is better than air dried if your dog has to be fed out of a bag

Hope that helps!

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 Thank you for letting me join. My problem is I have an Anatolian Shepard livestock guardian dog. Fabulous dog named Atlas. He has a behavioral issue: he won’t stop chewing a wound on his leg. It started as a tiny little bug bite or wound on his foreleg 2 years ago. He chewed it to a larger wound (little bigger than a quarter) and it continually got infected. We did many rounds of different antibiotics, lidocaine, blue kote, laser light treatment. Eventually it became a cyst that would get fluid filled. We finally had it surgically removed 7/31/21 and he came in the house with a cone to heal. That healed but early on, the bandage created a small raw spot on his foot. Now he won’t leave that alone. It has also healed and fur grown back a few times. When he doesn’t have a cone and he knows we aren’t watching, he will chew it. He will stop if he sees us so he knows he isn’t supposed to. It’s seems obsessive. We have also tried 100 mg. of good CBD oil daily for a month. That seemed to help some of his other anxious tendencies such as only drinking water from one bowl in one spot or being afraid of the wood floor. It didn’t help his chewing. At this point, because this large dog was not meant to live in a small house with a giant cone on, we are on our last straw. I started him on Prozac, 50 mg. 1x day. I’m supposed to double that if no improvement in 2 weeks. If that doesn’t work, euthanasia may be the only option. Not one we take lightly. He’s a great dog both in and out of the house and we have put around $9,000 into this problem over the last two years. Any other recommendations? He deserves to live a good life as a happy, well-adjusted dog. We have his sibling who does not have any anxiety or ocd behaviors. In fact, a bomb could go off and he’d be chill.  I’m desperate to help him and not have to put him down. Thank you. 

Atlas is the dog in the middle.

Dr. Steve's Advice -  hopefully you see a holistic practitioner before you pull the plug here. They have a lot to offer. Sometimes the problem is just neuralgia from a pinched nerve in their neck, which chiropractic might relieve. There are also homeopathic remedies and Chinese herbal formulas that can help.

One that people have found generally helpful to settle dogs down and make them less reactive (including to hot spots) is Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) by Gold Standard Herbs. The herb has the added advantage of helping to regulate the microbiome, which is increasingly being shown to play a causal role in anxiety and depression.

Changing the diet to a real food diet is critical so it will stop introducing AGEs into the system that fan the flames of inflammation; help lesions "actively resolve" by mitigating endothelial dysfunction; and avoiding the post-prandial production of excess inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress that is seen with kibble.

Another thing you can do is to introduce St. John's Wort, which deals with both neuralgic pains that promote excessive licking as well as anxiety. Make sure you use it a few weeks on and then a couple off if you live in a sunny climate.

Lastly, you can source through a holistic veterinarian from Natural Path a formula called Xian Fang Huo Ming Yin (Angelica and Mastic). Mix 10g of that into a few ounces of wound healing salve like one that has Calendula or Echinacea in it, then apply a couple of times a day to the lesion, followed by a light bandage. This will de-inflame the lesion and resolve any secondary infection your dog has introduced by licking it all the time. If you can't find the herbs, at least get a calendula salve.

These ideas only barely scratch the surface as it were, and there are many other things that can be done. You are a long way from having to resort from euthanasia if this kind of approach has not yet been taken

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Dr. Steve, this is my wee Simon. He is 5 years old. My normally robust boi has been losing weight. He eats normally. There have been no changes in food or litter. He has become more cuddly and definitely whiney. He has 2 sisters and all are still BFF’s. During Covid, he did have similar issues. The vet said it was separation anxiety, and it did resolve with some minor changes. Somehow this feels differently and it’s worrisome. Looking for your advice. Happy to visit a vet and would like to know what tests to ask for. Thanks, Dr. Steve! 

Dr. Steve's Advice -  I would start with a routine chemistry panel, urinalysis and CBC, making sure that T4 is tested for as well.

Normally in Chinese medicine, unexplained weight loss indicates Yin deficiency, but that is unusual in cats unless they have issues like diabetes, hyperthyroidism and pyelonephritis.

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Hi Dr. Steve,
I was hoping you could take a look at the attached ultrasound and labwork and tell me what you think.  A recent UA showed bilirubin, blood and protein (each at  2+). UPC of 1.14.   I realize the protein is likely, in part, due to the blood, but she's had mild idiopathic proteinurea (<0.5 UPC) since last year.  Her CBC/Chem Panel are pretty unremarkable except for high Na and slightly low Retic-HGB

The back story:  My Australian Shepherd has been struggling with severe dysbiosis for the last couple of years.  I am on my 3rd round of FMT pills from AnimalBiome; Nutriscan shows many food intolerances except for beef and bison.  Texas A&M panel found SIBO and low normal B12 (she gets weekly injections).
GERD and GI issues started 4 years ago after a a dental for removal of an abscess.  She was on antibiotics pre and post extraction and she hasn't been right since.  She's also fairly itchy, does a lot of paw and vulva/anal gland licking, has thinning dull hair, and occasionally has a bright pink belly and ears.

She is currently on a home-cooked limited ingredient diet (grass fed bison, bison liver, organic buckwheat and pumpkin + eggshell calcium, KAL bone meal, Vit E and D, Adored Beast digestive enzymes, psyllium, Rx Clay, milk thistle, S. Boulardi and FMT pills).  This combination is actually working for her as her stools are firming up for the first time in months.  I am slowly trying to balance  this diet with whole foods (add more veggies/reduce the buckwheat) using Animal Diet Formulator but I have to take it very slowly as she reacts badly to many things (diarrhea and GERD are typical reactions to any changes).  

She also has MVD, stage B2 which is stable. She is on Pimobendan.  On top of that, she's a very anxious girl who has GI setbacks every time we have a vet appointment.  Since the age of about 4 years, she's been raw fed, titered/not vaxed, not on flea/tick/heartworm preventatives, clean water, no lawn chemicals, exercise daily.

I just can't seem to get her gut healed no matter what nutraceuticals I've tried (slippery elm, DGL, marshmallow root, aloe vera, L Glutamine, berberine, etc.  

I will say that since we've been on the bison/buckwheat diet, the itching, GERD and GI symptoms have improved dramatically and she actually has an appetite for the first time in over a year so I feel like this diet is the right one for now.

This latest ultrasound and UA threw me for a loop though given how much better she was doing.  I am waiting for an appointment with her Internal Med vet (who is not holistic and doesn't buy into anything unconventional) to discuss these results but she's booked out a couple of weeks.  

The one thing I have not tried is TCM for her and I'm wondering if Cessorex or Halscion might be good options to help with her stress/immune system and gut inflammation.  Also wondering if there are other herbs you would recommend after reviewing her ultrasound and labs.

Dr. Steve's Advice -  You've been through a lot but you have clearly done an excellent job looking after your girl.

The splenic and hepatic nodules, suggestion of renal inflammation, and the success you've finally seen on a real-food-plus-probiotics regment makes me think your idea of Cessorex is a good one. It also has the potential to seal the gut wall, so that your dog is not as reliant on B12 injections.

Check the urine again in about two to three weeks after starting Cessorex to ensure the UPC ratio is about the same or lower again. Meanwhile, watch for further reductions in itch and a sustained improvement in the stools and GERDs tendencies.

Cessorex may help with the stress experienced at the vet clinic, too, but if it's not quite enough, you can roll in Halscion

Please let us know how things go. I have lots of other ideas besides, but this seems likely to work

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 Hello Dr. Steve… I have a five year old Maltese with a history of resource guarding. I got him when he was 16 weeks old and I was his fourth placement. I had him neutered just before six months old (he was marking and I didn’t know better then) and it was days after he was neutered that he began RG and bit a family member. He continued RG with my other 2 dogs, one in particular, and she’s always remained a bit timid around him. I hired a trainer and learned to read his cues and implement some management, and as he matured his episodes were less frequent but never fully resolved. He’s an anxious boy and gets very nervous when we have company or when he’s taken out of his environment (anywhere other than outdoors). These situations put him over threshold and given the chance, he will become aggressive and attack.  Fast forward to this past September, he went in for a dental and had a few teeth removed.  In the weeks following his dental, his RG has been at an all time high. He’s very random and inconsistent and even our new trainer is perplexed as he’s not a  “textbook”. RG. We had 5 episodes in 7 days’ time so I booked him in with my vet to discuss adding something systemically to see if we can  manage his anxiety and better work with him. She started him on Calming Care probiotics and CBD oil. Five days following the start of those, he had a focal motor seizure.  He’s never had one before. I took him off both the CBD and probiotics to monitor for a couple weeks and will try again if he remains seizure free. My question is this: both times he’s had anesthetic, his anxiety and RG skyrocketed. (He never even guarded prior to his neutering and I’m told puppies don’t normally RG). In the past I’d read about the long term neurological and behavioural effects Acepromazine can have on dogs. Can you shed any light on this?  While my vet nor her associate believe the CBD oil is what triggered the seizure, both have recommended ceasing for the time being. Is it possible his aggression/RG are connected to a seizure?  I’m at a bit of a loss and feel like there’s something more going on with him. I just started him on Long Dan Xie Gan Tang to address his anxiety. He’s on a fresh food fully balanced diet with a high grade Omega 3 and hemp hearts. Any suggestions you have would be so much appreciated! 

Dr. Steve's Advice -  your pup is likely Blood deficient from a Chinese medical point of view. Unless you used the Natural Path or Kan Essentials version of Long Dan Xie Gan Tang, the formula may not help, but you can try it and see. The formula treats an Excess of the Liver, but in your dog's case, I think there is a deficiency.
When it is adequately suffused with Blood, the Liver in Chinese medicine is associated with confidence and compassion, which are both ways of going out and engaging with the world. It is balanced by the Lung, which is the organ of internalization, withdrawal, pulling back and drawing boundaries.
Blood deficient dogs have a deficiency of confidence, which can be aggravated by neutering, since in Chinese medicine, the sex hormones are a form of Essence, and Essence is needed to generate Blood. Just because your dog is neutered, though, doesn't mean we can't get his Blood levels back up, but you will have to lean on a real food diet and herbal medicines. If he is on a kibble or canned diet, you will be fighting an uphill battle.
When dogs lack Blood and confidence (or "Wood"), the Lung becomes relatively stronger. An increased tendency to pull back manifests, and other "Metal" behaviours. Because Blood deficient dogs feel so anxious, they try to control their environments and become very frightened when taken out of familiar surroundings. The sense of lack leads to resource guarding or avarice, out of fear they will never "have enough".
As for the focal motor seizure, Blood deficiency is a common cause of them. So I don't see this as related to the anesthetic or the CBD, but rather this underlying cause which has been present for many months.
Here are the steps I would take:
1. Change the diet to a real food meat-and-vegetable diet ASAP. It should eventually be curative as long as he enjoys eating it and appears to easily digest it.
2. If the Long Dan Xie Gan Tang doesn't work, and he has zero digestive issues, get a hold of Liver Support Formula from Kan Essentials. It strongly nourishes Blood and should also reduce the seizure tendency. Note that the intent of LDXGT is to weaken the Liver, not nourish it, so it could actually make him feel a little worse, unless you're using Kan or Natural Path. I guess keep an eye out for that happening.
If he does have GI issues, then try Kan Essentials' Happy Wanderer instead. If he needs anti-seizure effects but is on Happy Wanderer, get a hold of Calm Repose from the same company and use it at the same time.
You can obtain all these from Aleksandra Topic by following the instructions she provides here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1158575954706282/posts/1420037418560133/
3. Make sure he is not hypothyroid, a common condition associated with Blood deficiency, which the above formula recommendations will help correct, but perhaps not be able to address it fully. Also make sure he has an omega 3 fatty acid supplement to help support normal mentation
4. If herbs and diet don't help, make sure his jaw is not out of alignment, secondary to the dentistry and acting as a cause of pain and anxiety. It's a common issue, and vets are not at all trained to assess for it or treat it. Try to find a veterinary chiropractor who can take a look

I'm confident you can solve this problem in your dog, but it will take some time. Training won't be immediately helpful, until you see signs he has started to settle down, at which point he will be more cognitively capable of 'learning lessons' and not just reacting or panicking

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 Hi Dr. Steve, we adopted an 8 yr old Boxer 12/2021 with cataracts.  Hoping we could get her surgery but after ERG testing her retnas aren't where they are supposed to be so not a candidate.  She sees shadows and will eventually be completely blind.  She's happy and healthy so not too worried about her adapting.  But sometimes at night she seems to get a little agitated or stressed (breathes/pants and stares at the ceiling/wall).   I think she might be getting frustrated from not being able to see.  She is perfectly fine other than that.  Loves to play fetch (flourescent toy).  Lab work etc is normal.  I've looked at calming treats, cbd etc but not sure which one since there is so many out there.  Do you think that might help her?  Even looked at the calming collar.  Thank you! 

Dr. Steve's Advice -  your dog is very cute!

There is a possibility that your dog's restlessness has nothing to do with visual deficits and may just be a manifestation of middle of the night insomnia that affects so many dogs.

One of the easiest things you can try that may help is Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436). It is an anxiolytic, and the middle of the night is sometimes when anxiety hits hardest. It also aids in cognitive dysfunction, which can show up first as middle of the night restlessness. It's inexpensive and safe, so I'd suggest giving it a try. If it helps, but not quite enough, adding in CBD might take her the rest of the way. Melatonin can also be used with it (and the CBD)

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 A friend of mine referred me to your FB page so I wanted to reach out and ask your opinion on my dog Rayne.  Rayne is a healthy GSD that I have had since a puppy.  She is what I would call "sensitive" to certain situations which will cause her anxiety. I have worked very hard to make people and dogs not important to her to control any reactive tendency's.  She does have a fear of thunderstorms and sometimes noises (planes flying overhead, etc) can make her "react" or worry.  I do dog trials with her and had to stop agility trials due to her becoming over aroused so much that she won't work. I also do K9 Nose Work and have worked a lot on controlling the arousal so she can calm down and search. The biggest issue is she seems to not be able to handle stressors in layers.  She can handle certain things, but when you pile on strange noises, busy places, thunderstorms, gun shots, or even if I am anxious than she can't settler her self even with the smallest thing. 

My vet is an intregrative vet and has put her on Shen Calmer.  She has been on it for almost 6 months.  I did see a more calm look in her eyes after she started taking it and she would have a moment before any negative reactions, but it really has not taken much of the edge of especially if there are more than one stressors.  It has not nothing for anything major like thunderstorms.

Would you suggest adding Halscion along with the Shen Calmer or is there another option for her.  My vet also added Xanax for thunderstorms, but that really does not work and I would prefer to fix/help balance her every day anyway.

She is healthy and her last bloodwork was good.  She is feed a 100% raw diet and does not seem to have any allergy symptoms.

I appreciate your help/advice.

Thanks!

Dr. Steve's Advice -  your dog is ridiculously handsome! Lots of focus there in the photo!

I like your idea of trying Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436)    to reduce that excess reactivity when the "stimulation pile gets too deep". Many dogs with Rayne's level of reactivity have a Heart Fire that is driven by a Shao Yang disharmony. Shao Yang disharmony is diagnosed when Yang (or power) doesn't move smoothy in and out of the body core. If it gets trapped inside or outside, it can end up delivering too much power to the head. In a worst case scenario that can produce seizures. Otherwise, it can cause extreme reactivity.

I would give it a try. If Rayne responds well, you probably don't need the Shen Calmer. Even Rayne getting worse would be a helpful change, because it will point us toward another formula to use instead. So either way we are going to figure this out. More than likely, though, Halscion should settle Rayne down. Let us know how it turns out!

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 Hi Dr Steve 

I have a 5 month old lab. He’s being trained for a service dog. My problem is he gets car sick every time we take him some place. I have tried Benadryl and a OTC motion sickness pill for dogs and it hasn’t worked. Do you have any recommendations that I can try?  

Thank you

Dr. Steve's Advice - you can look for a homeopathic remedy called Cocculus indicus. Try 30C strength and give a few doses, about every 30 minutes beginning an hour before you leave, with the last as you're getting the car. If he is not otherwise anxious, it may help.

If this is part of an anxiety disorder, you can try Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) from Gold Standard Herbs. Use it for a few weeks to see if he is gradually more settled and less upset in the car. If so, continue until the problem is resolved.

With either approach, desensitization might help, such as by starting with shorter distances in the car that aren't long enough to make him sick, then going progressively further as you rack up car rides that are without incident

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Hello!

I need guidance please, I hope this isn't too long.   I have a 9 year old dachshund, Lola, that has us stumped.  Our next step is to scope her, but I'd rather avoid that.  A little background, I'm a first career vet tech/asst since 1995 (I was 14) and a later in life (grad in 2015 at 35) human RN.  I went on medical leave for back surgery in late 2020 after working the whole pandemic (NY) as a hospital float RN.  They ended up firing me 2022 (non compliant with their new mandates, couldn't place me because I had some restrictions due to my health... I couldn't wear a mask 12+ hours straight anymore, etc).  So I went back to working with animals just a few hours a week.  We adopted Lola in 2020 at the age of 6 after her owner passed away.  When we got her she was a little overweight and her hair was very thin, especially on her sides.  She also had severe separation anxiety, she would pee at the bottom of the stairs if I went up, she would pee at the door if I went out, etc.  We put her on prozac 5mg QD, claritin 5mg BID (that's how it worked best for her), and melatonin 3mg bid.  Her hair grew back nicely, no more itching, eventually about 95% housebroken.  Fast forward to late last year, Lola started with a dry cough and increased reverse sneezing (which she had always done occasionally) but no acute illness and the other two dogs are fine.  Then early this year she started with massive bouts of sneezing with thick mucousy nasal discharge usually white in color.  We put her on hycodan bid, which helped the cough a little.  We did a round of clavamox, no improvement.  We did two weeks of doxy with a touch of improvement but then regression.  We did respiratory swabs and she came back positive for Mycoplasma so we did a longer round of doxy with no improvement.  We did a fungal swab of her nasal discharge which was negative.  We did a dental, no rads, pretty routine no extractions (she had prior extractions).  Her chest xray is clear, no obvious collapsing trachea.  We did a skull and open mouth rad which we sent out for interpretation, the radiologist suggested the pattern looked fungal but again the fungal swab was negative.  She is acting herself other than an increase of accidents in the house (no uti), which might be behavioral because our puppy (1yo dobie) irritates her and she gets a bit spiteful.  She is still having these big sneeze attacks with thick discharge and occasional coughing (not chf like), almost like a cat would try to cough up a hairball.  Up until about Feb the were all on S.D. dry and canned (every vet I worked for sold it......), but I transitioned them all to a complete raw diet (with a consult with well known vet nutritionist as well).  She has been off traditional flea and hw meds for a few months and last vacc were maybe 2021.  She was spayed at the age of 4.  I'm at a loss for this cough/sneeze/snot situation.  I tried immune boosters like colostrum, trying switching to regular zyrtec, tried quercetin, probiotics, but I'm not getting anywhere.  She's likely due for labs to check her cbc/chem/t4, but they'll likely require those to be scoped, which I don't really want to do (and our office doesn't do that, she'll go to the specialty center but I do trust them, the Dr used to come travel to us to do our complicated surgeries before he opened his own practice).  Any suggestions of things to try would be much appreciated.  I work for a conventional dvm but am personally very open to holistic and integrative therapies.  Thank you for what you do and for reading this far!  If you need them I have screen shots of her rads.  I would like to provide her med list but want to make sure that is allowed?  She is on both natural and OTC and Rx meds.

Dr. Steve's Advice -  sorry about the delayed reply! it sounds like there may be something similar to what leads eventually to COPD (in human terms) going on in your dog. Not enough to create the cardiac complications or radiographic changes as yet, but enough to have unresolved upper airway inflammation, with the mucous being produced passing up into the nose as nasal discharge. If you're seeing it coming out of both nostrils, then given the cough, that is the likely source. An infection may be the trigger of the chronic inflammation despite a lack of response to antimicrobials, if the immune system is a bit depressed. The separation anxiety at the time of adoption and the inappropriate urination now suggest stress may be the cause of that immune suppression, which would explain why ordinary immune stimulants haven't helped.

Rather than jumping into a scope, you can test whether the above is going on by having your practice order from www.atimetohealherbs.com Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang (Persica and Carthamus, Natural Path) and Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (Ginseng and Astragalus). These will come as powders. Dose according to the table at https://nphc.ca/using/dosage. The BZYQT should ideally be Natural Path's, but use the Evergreen version they offer in the interim. If this advice is on the right track, you should see a lessening of coughing and nasal discharge over the next few weeks.

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Hi Dr. Steve,
I’m the founder of a retired research beagle rescue, BeFreegle Foundation based in NY. My organization works in cooperation with research labs who give us their dogs when the studies are complete. They are all purpose bred beagles.
(To everyone in the group, no hate please. We only focus on from the day they come home to us forward. The FDA mandates that animals be using in drug and device trials prior to humans. Many in research are working with the FDA to adopt alternatives. They don’t like using animals anymore than the rest of us. If you’ve ever taken a drug or had a procedure done it’s because of animals. We are doing our part and have found over 350 of these precious creatures forever homes. And are expecting 29 more in late spring, early summer. It’s the most rewarding unpaid job I’ve ever had!)
We have a wonderful network of fosters who help the dogs become acclimated to their new world. As with all dogs their personalities are vastly different. More often than not there are a few in every group who have severe anxiety. I don’t blame them. We’ve taken away all that is familiar and placed a whole host of new expectations on them. Everything is unfamiliar and new to them. We get them up to date on their core vaccines. (Unfortunately, that is unavoidable.)
It’s all a tremendous stress on their little bodies. We do give them Ellevet CBD capsules as needed as recommended by my beagles acupuncture vet. With mixed results. Most of them have a great fear of walking on leash. Every new sound causes a startle response. It’s heartbreaking.
Since they would often vomit in their kennels in the van from the lab to our place I started them on nux vomica with tremendous results. My team has begun to realize that my use of homeopathic remedies actually works.
My question to you is. What else can we be doing for them to help them with their anxiety and fear? I’d love to start them all on some homeopathic remedies as soon as they arrive and continue to help them ease into their new lives.
Pictured is Rowlf, one of our Muppet babies from a recent group of 10 beagle boys who arrived 2-1/2 weeks ago. He’s with me currently and terrified of everything outside. I’ve been working with him to get him to walk on leash with mixed results. My wish for him is to be relaxed enough to want to explore outside on his own. I give him bully sticks to chew on to help relieve his anxiety. Rowlf has started running silly zoomies in the house which makes me so happy. He’ll get there. They all do.
Every one of them do eventually learn how to dog. Some of them take longer than others.

Dr. Steve's Advice - kudos to you for rescuing dogs out of the labs and trying to give them a happy home. I can't see anyone in this group doling out hate speech for that.

I'm guessing the main driver of the dogs' anxiety is that they are mature dogs thrust into completely foreign settings, as you suggested. Meanwhile, they don't have any of the socialization that most dogs enjoy from a young age to draw upon as they navigate their circumstances.

This issue is common to rescues in general. Since I've worked with many rescues, I eventually came up with Halscion (https://goldstandardherbs.com/products/Original-Halscion-85g-p647327436) to help their anxious dogs, and it has since found its way into the Gold Standard Herbs line of products. I would suggest trying it here.

Halscion has a dual effect of reducing reactivity by normalizing adrenal gland output; while at the same time supporting normal prefrontal cortex circulation patterns and activity that are needed for dogs to actually observe their circumstances and learn from them. The more extreme the stress, the quicker Haslcion seems to work. It's safe to use in all your dogs as a matter of course.

The other big thing to address is diet. Many processed diets can be low in tryptophan and other ingredients needed to make calming neurotransmitters. Feeding a real food diet that is not restricted in protein in any way can help anxious dogs get the nutrition they need to make the neurotransmitters that make them feel more calm and confident.

Hopefully this helps you out! Let us know if you try the above and how it goes!

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