Re: EXTREME allergies

[Lena]

Hi Junie,

Allergies are one of the most frustrating problems to work with. If she is that bad with open sores and bleeding I would highly encourage you to talk to your vet about adding in some western drugs if you are not already. I often times have animals on antihistamines and/or steroids while we are treating them with herbals.

Herbals are difficult because you do sometimes get symptoms coming back up as you “peel away the layers of the onion” and it can feel like things are getting worse. The very severe animals I have worked with successfully with herbs, it usually takes us about a year to get them to a fairly stable place (just occasional flare ups that we can control easily) That being said I have also had a few animals that any herbal I put them on made them severely worse and the only thing I could figure is that they were allergic to the herbs also and we just needed to go back to the standard of western medicine. It could be that is the case with her.

Hoxsey can be very damp and heat clearing but does not provide any digestive support. It sounds like she has an underlying digestive issue (aka leaky gut). Clearly if it is causing vomiting, diarrhea and trembling it does not sound like the best herbal for her. And as much as I like all my itchy animals on raw, if she is having diarrhea she may need to be on a good home cooked or canned grain free until her gut is more healed.

The animals I treat successfully I feel like I need to see every 2-3 weeks for the first few months to check pulse and tongue and check in with their people and make sure we are going in the right direction. We switch and change dosages of herbs often. Sometimes things get worse and if it for a few days I usually let it go and it gets better after that, if it is longer than we change herbs based on tongue and pulse. Usually in cats have found Qing Ying Tang is the most successful for severe itch and is much more gentle on the gut then Hoxsey. I have had some cats that just needed Qing Ying Tang. I don’t know your cat so it may not be the right herbal for her.

What you need is a very good herbalist who you feel comfortable with and can have lots of communication with. I would recommend using western drugs to make her more comfortable in the process. It will take awhile but the animals that I have good communication with their people, compliance of giving medications, and a willingness to work with me for 6-12 months I can get to a good quality of life about 85% of the time. And yes many of these are hairless and bleeding.

How do you find someone?

See if there is anyone on this list in your area. It is going to be much better if you can find someone in your area.http://www.vbma.org/US%20members.html

If you absolutely can not find anyone in your area you might want to consider Dr. Basko

http://www.drbasko.com/site/ . He is a great herbalist and nutritionist and does phone consultations.

Best of luck

Lena

http://www.vbma.org/US%20members.html