Acute bloody mucus diarrhea, when to break food fast

[Cyd]

Yestesday morning my dog woke me with urgency to go out & pooped bloody, mucus, orange colored diarrehea. Food has been withheld, she has not eaten in 24+ hours, she will help herself every 2-4 hours to water voluntarily, but consumption amt is typical. For the past 2 days, especially yesterday she has exhibited higher vitality & stamina while walking, which is most productive way she expels 4 month long issue of respiratory/nasal congestion. She had consistent discharging of in process healing of nasal mucus which yesterday for 1st time was more consistently clear, runny interspersed with thicker usual type & gave rise to "runny nose" while walking. Today she seems to have good exercise energy despite 0 food, especially compared to stamina of last week.
She had 1 x productive vomit of small amount of yellow bile yesterday late PM + 1 x attempt approx 4 hours prior. She feels urge to poop approx every 4 hrs. & woke me today unable to wait for me to get dressed. Her lower abdomen is drawn in, she relaxes it when it is held & likes being touched. Was able to get holistic vet appt for Sat., & will get Preop blood panel, only basic shelter blood work was done previously. I think she is ravenous, I am worried about dealing with the consequences of her eating today vs another 24+ hours of only having water. I planned to give plain, boiled organic, mashed sweet potatoes nothing added, that worked very well before, but symptoms were different, I don't want to trigger uncontrollable pooping of unknown quantity & I am uncertain of consequences of another 24 hours without food. Thank you in advance!

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Sorry to hear about Patchouli's symptoms Cyd.

They may however be a really good clue that her internal balance is improving!
Whenever there is an abnormal/new symptom but improving BEAM, that's often part of the healing process.

Fasting follow by small bland meals is perfect!

It's also fine to use any other supportive herbs like slippery elm, marshmallow, etc. or tools to help dampen problematic symptoms.

IMHO, the best holistic actions in this situation may be to wait, watch and support.

 

[Cyd]

Thank you Dr. Jeff for your feedback, it has been a very stressful couple of days, but I have good news to report. My dilemma this morning was whether to continue the fasting or to take a chance with potential for worsening uncontrollable urge to poop. I decided to start giving literally a bite (2 tsp) of the plain, boiled, organic sweet potato, mashed smooth with the skin removed & with a small amount of water added to make a soft, not mushy consistency. She had 5 portions, each increasing in qty, the last one for today being 6 tsp. Patchouli kept me on my toes with a couple of urgent poop requests after the first 2 portions, which were the usual diarrhea absent the blood. There was a break of 7 full hours with 0 bowel movements & tonight she passed a fully formed orange sherbet colored firm stool! She maintained her improving walking pace throughout the day, there were lots of stops for nose-wiping, episodes of ropy mucus, some looked old, today the type of mucus changed from 1 extreme to the other & there was a lot of it. She was/is super hungry but I know from experience that slow & gradual works the best. With Patchouli I felt that it was best to avoid giving any herbs or diarrhea treatments by mouth, she had been taking an herbal extract for allergy relief & I stopped using her oral cleaning gel because her digestive tract seemed so reactive. I felt that the small amount of water for a homeopathic remedy would be well tolerated, I was unsure if addressing the nerve-wracking surprise poop episodes should be top priority. I was relieved that she voluntarily consumed enough water to prevent dehydration. What prompted me to start offering the food as the possible remedy, was my wondering about the connection with the dark orange color of the diarrhea that to my understanding is linked to problems with metabolizing/digesting
fats, possible relationship to pancreas, gallbladder, liver imbalance, & the completely gelatinous composition of the stool being a reflection of a kind of ketosis situation, where the lack of food & continuing activity level was making her body start breaking down its own fat, protein, etc. + the possibility of GI inflammation/formation of mucus w/blood (sign of irritation due to burning?) stemming from too much acid due to prolonged period of empty stomach & nothing moving along digestive tract. It also seemed possible that because over the past couple of weeks her body was becoming more slim & weasel contoured vs stocky & pug shaped, most noticeable in the upper body/back/lungs-chest areas that perhaps her excretory pathways were reacting to breaking down those substances, possibly fats & whatever unknown substances that make up areas of sponginess/inflammation. I decided that maybe the diarrhea was a response to her system operating in high de-tox/rebalancing mode & that a simple source of soothing nutrition might be what was lacking that the right food substance might act as a buffer. For the record, this is the 2nd time that I've had success using boiled organic sweet potato to heal sudden onset acute diarrhea. I prefer using sweet potato instead of pumpkin because it is a root vegetable, therefore more yang & drying vs pumpkin/squash/fruit which is more watery-yin & contains more sugars & has a higher glycemic level. Sweet potato is also rich in vitamins & minerals & satisfies the appetite, it is important to remove the skin, mash completely smooth & to feed organically grown whenever possible. I am planning to keep last minute "emergency crisis" Sat appt with her TCM vet, I am curious to find out if the flow of her water / stuck emotion energy has improved, because I feel like positive changes with her vitality, stamina, behavior & physical silhouette support that possibility & I think it would be good to get a physical exam confirmation of the stressful, scary events of the last few days. Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Cyd]

Update 5/22/21 Vet Visit: We had a fantastic session with the vet. Patchouli's chi & blocked emotion/water energy were enormously improved. Physically, I could feel it by the melting away of the full, rigid layer that used to surround her shoulders & upper back, a loss of body mass that I was sure that was going to reflect in weight/lbs lost, but her actual body weight was unchanged. Also, most of the pain due to the combo of structural/spinal subluxations & chi blockages is gone, I can now press & touch her, even around her head & mouth & she doesn't snap & the mild elbow arthritis is diminished. She has also regularly started to do "Down/Up Dog" full body stretches when she rises to her feet, which is a new behavior & that shows me how relaxed she feels. CBC/Chem panel bloodwork were all normal ranges. A major gift of the scary healing crisis/detox was the visible, tangible, consistent elevation of stamina & vitality. Her current TCM diagnosis is now weak Fire Element, connected to the Heart Meridian, which relates to her reserved, shyly avert-the-eyes with strangers behavior & what most label as depressed compared to the usual happy-go-lucky dog type. This contrasts with her previous imbalanced Water/Emotions energy, which was blocked by Wood-imbalanced Liver energy, when she was a very reactive biter, ANGRY, vigilant & untrusting. She has made so much progress these past 4-1/2 months, I feel like her heart energy SHOULD be exhausted by all of the stress & trauma of new environment, experiences, extreme breathing difficulty, the various phases of healing & me trying to figure things out. Animal communicator consults were extremely valuable to identify the type & extent of trauma in her history to help me understand her behavior & to receive her feedback of appreciation despite her reactive, confrontational behavior. I was very relieved that even with the months of angry-head-snapping biting, major sinus congestion, difficulty breathing & grief trauma that her heartbeat is very strong & heathy. Patchouli is a polite, lady-like, senior, she doesn't bark to express herself & perhaps it isn't her nature to play with toys or to be silly. Now that she seems physically stronger & is able to breathe more normally, I plan to focus on introducing daily fun & games to her. I want to see if teaching her agility-type behaviors, cute "tricks" & introducing sniff & puzzle challenges will boost her confidence, sense of self-worth to restore joy back to her heart.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Fantastic Cyd that she had a great TCM vet visit!

If you would recommend this vet to people in the Jacksonville-St. Augustine area of FL, it would be super if you could share the link to the practice.

Thanks Cyd!

 

[Cyd]

Here is the link: Brentwood Animal Clinic - Jacksonville, FL - Home. Dr. Hightman is also a professor at the Chi Institute in Gainesville & his appointment schedule is: Monday - all day, Tuesday - 1/2 day, Fridays & Saturdays - Alternate weeks in the office, Saturdays -1/2 day. I really like that he does chiropractic, acupuncture & works with homeopathy.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Thanks Cyd!