Neck and Shoulder Pain in Dogs, Treat with Minor Bupleurum, Free the Sinews, Xiao Chai Hu Tang

Symptoms of Neck and Shoulder Pain in Dogs
Dogs with neck or shoulder pain often walk stiffly and don’t turn the neck far enough right or left to reach the flanks. These dogs may have difficulty eating from a dish on the floor. Many resist having a collar put around the neck and may even bite when the family approaches with a collar. Some dogs with neck pain will carry a front leg off the ground because the nerves that go to the front leg travel through the neck C6-C8 vertebrae; we call this “root signature.”

 What Helps? Minor Bupleurum, also called Free the Sinews; Benefit Hips and Knees; Open Liver Channels

Dogs with neck or shoulder pain may benefit from one of the three TCM formulas with Bupleurum: Minor Bupleurum, which is also called Free the Sinews, Benefit Hips and Knees or Open Liver Channels. The formula Benefit Hips and Knees is Minor Bupleurum with Gentian added. Gentian helps with muscle spasm, fever, and digestive problems. The formula Open Liver Channels is Minor Bupleurum with turmeric added. Turmeric ( Curcuma longa) is from the ginger family and helps with inflammation, arthritis, pancreatitis, cancer, diabetes, and pancreatitis.

 Benefit Hips and Knees and Open Liver Channels are two excellent formulas for dogs with neck or shoulder pain due to disc disease. In addition these formulas help dogs with problems in the hind legs, especially the knee (stifle).

Because Benefit Hips and Knees and Open Liver Channels help with inflammation, they benefit dogs with neck or shoulder pain who also have IMHA or immune mediated haemolytic anemia, lupus, or Lyme’s disease, and kidney infections like pyelonephritis or glomerulonephritis. Open the Liver Channels also helps dogs with neck or shoulder pain who have lymphoma or chronic active hepatitis.

 Minor Bupleurum or Free the Sinews, Xiao Chai Hu Tang, is also helpful for dogs that don’t have neck or shoulder pain, but have necrotizing encephalitis, pneumonia, or seizures. It helps dogs with collapsing trachea, which is very common, or Addison’s disease, which is fortunately rare.

 My own Shetland Sheepdog benefited from receiving Free the Sinews, Xiao Chai Hu Tang for the last two years of his life when he had significant arthritis, hypothyroidism, and Cushing’s disease.

 Tongue and Pulse

Dogs that benefit from Free the Sinews, Open Liver Channels and Benefit Hips and Knees (Xiao Chai Hu Tang) have deep pulses that are hard to compress. Their tongues may be normal color or lavender with stagnation.

 Contraindications

Xiao Chai Hu Tang helps dogs because it moves, tonifies and expels wind. It should not be used in dogs that have extremely high blood pressure.

Danger in Herbs from China

For over a thousand years, the Chinese have made wonderful herbal formulas, but in the last 50 years, they have succumbed to poor farming practices and I no longer trust products made in China. I prescribe Minor Bupleurum, also called Free the Sinews, Benefit Hips and Knees, or Supple Spine for my clients from companies that manufacture TCM formulas in Canada or the US.