The Acupuncture Bloat Point! IT SIMPLY WORKS

C.A. Krowzack, DVM

In February of 1998, the Great Lakes Irish Wolfhound Association (GLIWA) held their annual meeting. The meeting is an occasion for fellowship of the members, the club attends to business and also hosts a speaker on a special topic. In the past it has been obedience, therapy dog training, and this year the topic was acupuncture.

Dr. Debbie Mitchell gave an overview of what acupuncture is, its history and its medical uses. Then, using a member’s dog, showed the participants several acupuncture / acupressure points that they could utilize. One point was to stimulate gastrointestinal motility to combat bloat.

This week at my clinic, a GLIWA member brought her wolfhound in for an examination.

During the night Quinn had begun experiencing discomfort. He sleeps in the bedroom with his owners. The husband had worked a long day and was asleep, but the wife was awakened by the restless behavior of Quinn. When she petted him she found his abdomen severely enlarged and hard to the touch. She knew it was bloat, but didn’t know what to do. She is a small woman, and Quinn a large dog. She remembered the acupressure point Dr. Mitchell had shown and began massaging it. Within a few minutes, Quinn began passing “a lot of gas” and his abdomen became smaller and softer. The husband and wife brought Quinn in the next morning to make sure he was all right, and because he had diarrhea.

On examination, Quinn was completely normal. He was not experiencing discomfort upon palpation, and no abnormalities beside the diarrhea could be found. Because she remembered the acupressure point, the wife had saved Quinn’s life.

The acupressure point is on the hind leg. If you start at the hock, on the front of the leg (anterior) you can feel the tibia. Move your hand up the leg along the tibia’s sharp crest; what in humans would be called the shin. As your hand approaches the stifle, or the “knee” the crest becomes very pronounced and then curls around to the outside (laterally). Just inside this curve is a depression. The acupressure point is in this depression. An acupuncturist might insert a needle into this spot, or inject a liquid, but, as Quinn’s owners will attest, massaging also stimulates the point. The gastrointestinal tract starts to contract and move (peristalsis) and expels the built up gas before torsion can occur. If torsion has occurred, massaging the spot will not help.

I don’t recommend this procedure instead of veterinary treatment, but begun early, or on the way for veterinary treatment, can save your hound’s life!

Spotlight on Health - Midwest Wolfhound - Summer edition 2019

Calcinosis Circumscripta

Article by Risha Cupit-Berzins & Dave Berzins

What is calcinosis circumscripta?
Calcium deposits in soft tissue

Where do they occur?
Often in subcutaneous tissue of the hind feet, but they can occur in other areas of the limbs as well as the tongue, lips, and other soft tissues.

Other facts:
Most often they are a single mass, but they can be in multiple locations.
They are often 0.5-3 cm in diameter.
They have a chalky, white appearance when opened up.

Reference:
Tafti AK, Hanna P, Bourque AC. Calcinosis circumscripta in the dog: a retrospective pathological study. J Vet Med A Physiol Pathol Clin Med. 2005 Feb;52(1):13-7.

How to become an expert in bandaging an Irish Wolfhound’s foot

Since he was 1-2 years old, Hubig had a small growth on his right back foot near the large foot pad that we knew was a calcinosis circumscripta. Through a non-related hound of ours from Ireland (Lilagh) and Hubig’s aunt (Ursuline), we had experience with them in the past, both on hind feet. Lilagh’s was surgically removed without much issue, but that was not the case with Ursuline. Her calcinosis was removed when she was 11 months old and she had issues with the surgical site as it never fully healed and would occasionally become infected through her remaining years (she lived to 10.5). Because of the issues with Ursuline, we opted to not remove Hubig’s calcinosis because it was not hindering or bothering him.

However, in early May 2018, when Hubig was 5.5 years old, everything changed as his calcinosis circumscripta was getting larger and had gotten to the point that the skin was very thin. On a walk one Friday, the skin thinned enough that it no longer protected his foot and within a day, there was a raging infection and was oozing a mostly chalky liquid with a tinge of blood. Our floor had milky/chalk streaks all over. We messaged one of our veterinarians, who texted back it should be removed ASAP. The next Monday (May 14), he went in for surgery. Our vet removed the growth and the skin was beautifully sutured together. She put him on 10 days of Cephalexin and we changed the bandage as directed, and his foot looked like it was healing nicely. Each time he went outside, we double-bagged his foot and only kept him in the yard. But then a couple of days beyond day 10, his foot was painful and when we removed the bandage, it was obviously infected; the skin around the incision was inflamed, red, wet, and the sutures had split apart. Our vet put him back on Cephalexin until a culture came back (and eventually placed on Cipro) and rewrapped his foot after removing the non-functioning sutures. He now had a wound that was around 2.5 inches in diameter.

Though it was thought the wound would heal within weeks, the reality became that treating his foot wound would become part of our lives for the next 16 months. The wound was in a terrible spot for healing, being close to the ground and in an area that would flex with walking. His foot was nearly healed a few times during the 16 months, only to have something that caused it to become infected again. As before, his bandaged foot was wrapped in bags to keep it clean when he was let outside into the yard. Despite this, reinfections would expand the wound back to the starting point. He also developed proud flesh that limited healing. Overall, it was incredibly frustrating for both humans and Hubig.

For many months, we worked with our veterinarians and a veterinary wound care specialist to come up with the best way to address it. Under veterinary supervision, we used many different products and medications. Some worked, but often it seemed they tended to only do so for a given amount of time. Others were not appreciably effective. Throughout treatment time, bandage changes seemed to be most effective if done every 36-48 hours. Changing the bandage more frequently often did not allow enough time for healing, as the process of removing the bandage sometimes undid any progress, whereas allowing the bandage to be on for longer periods kept the oozing area too wet.

Over time, we did dry, wet, and wet-to-dry bandages. Various vet wrap, gauze, telfa pads, cast wrapping, and other bandages were used. Collagen products were tried, such as collagen gels/sprays (Collasate) and a few collagen scaffolds. The scaffold made from porcine collagen provided a setback, however, as we found out he was allergic to it but one scaffold from bovine collagen worked well for a time. Also tried were a colloidal silver cream, drying powder, antibiotic ointment (Fura-zone), antibiotic sprays, antifungals (TrizUltra), a steroid/antibiotic combination spray (GentaSpray), Manuka honey patches, and raw Manuka honey.

After wrapping his foot at least 250 times, we have our system in place and Hubig does too. We tell him “get in place” and he climbs up on the ottoman, and often falls asleep, snoring, while we wrap his foot. Since January, we have used the same procedure and while it has taken many months to heal, we generally did not have a setback during this time. I use a gauze pad with a cleanser/antifungal (TrizUltra) to clean the wound/area and then slightly dry. Next, about 3-5 sprays of the GentaSpray is applied to the wound with any excess dried with a gauze pad. I put 1 gauze pad in between the pads of his foot to absorb any dampness and to keep from getting a fungal infection. On a telfa pad, I apply a pea-sized dollop of Collasate on it, place it on the wound and then apply 3-4 gauze pads and wrap cast padding around his whole foot about 10 times. Next, vet wrap is wrapped in the opposite direction that the cast padding was done at least 10 times, checking that it is not too tight. Finally, a small piece of Elastikon tape is applied over the end of the vet wrap to keep it from coming loose. After we are done, we tell Hubig he is a good boy and that we are done, and he gets on the sofa and gives Dave kisses.

Hubig is normally a very active dog, taking part in agility, obedience, rally, and scent work. In this time, he was the very best boy anyone could dream of having. He always left that bandage alone, which was absolutely remarkable. On a couple of occasions, maybe out of boredom, he licked the bandage, but a quick “No. Leave it!” would be enough to redirect his attention, to something that was allowed. He got extra love, ear scratches, and took my place next to Dave at night, watching TV. In all these many months, we trained him in the house, working on scent work and some obedience to preoccupy his mind.

Normally in summer Hubig gets to have dinner with us outside at a favorite local restaurant, and go for Babe’s vanilla ice cream with peanut butter drizzle, afterward, but he’s been restricted from those things as well, so we don’t potentially introduce new pathogens. We have taken him to Babe’s and brought his ice cream treat to the van for him, though. We should be able to let him take a real trip to do both, soon. He certainly deserves the world for being so good through all of this.

GLIWA Board Report 5-21-16 Rescue

mIDWEST wOLFHOUND - sPRING 2016 eDITION

By Robert and Debbie Greene

FINN

It has been a couple of busy months! We were contacted by an owner in Naperville about her 10 month old wolfhound Finn. When she purchased Finn she took him to the vet to find that he had virtually every worm / parasite possible. He was treated for that then got Giardia. Finn had OCD and had surgery to correct it.

We have a 31 page medical file from the vet! $11,000 later…….. The owners / vet said he has IBS and was on a special diet. They were very afraid he would get sick again so they made sure he never touched dirt/grass/twigs to his mouth. They saw him eat grass when we were there and pulled it out of his mouth. He had no fenced in place to run as they lived on a golf course and a fence would obstruct the view. He had only been walked on a leash on the sidewalk so he wouldn’t get into anything dirty.

He has no AKC Papers and hasn’t given us a breeder name. She said they didn’t file the papers. The owners said they needed to re-home him because he had become very aggressive. Biting them and chasing them through the house. They slept with him in their kitchen at night. We met with them at their house and it took three more weeks to get him to our house. Finn He is fitting in well. He is a complete puppy and has had no training except sit, shake and down. He was VERY toy aggressive when he got here and that is in the vet report also. He was banned from playing with other dogs and staff because he wouldn’t play nice. I have gotten him to a point I can now transfer a treat or a stick for an object he is NOT supposed to have. Very confusing for him because baby toys and dog toys look alike to babies and dogs! 95% of the time he is a very sweet dog and a big baby. We are thinking at this point that we will keep him here if things work out.