Individualizing vomiting and diarrhea

[Dr. Jeff]

Hi everyone-

As you may know, your pets' individuality is reflected by their symptoms.

And you can use them to help prevent and manage internal imbalances (and dis-eases).

However, general descriptions like vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, eye discharge, etc. don't let you do this.

The details of these symptoms will.

For example, take the general symptom of vomiting.

Is it vomit or regurgitation? Undigested food spit up right after eating can be either!

Click/tap here for the vomiting webinar-course that goes into more detail about differentiating these two.

Also, here are a few other questions:

What is the odor, amount, color, consistency, of the vomitus?

Is it foamy/frothy or contain undigested food or blood?

Are there any triggers for the vomiting like eating, drinking, waking, excitement, etc.?

What's the frequency and timing (time of the day, related to going out or coming in, after defecating/straining)?

Is there retching before or during the vomiting?

How about weakness before/during/after vomiting?

Other ways to individualize vomiting symptoms can be found in a homeopathic repertory like Kent's,

Future posts in this folder will help you individualize other symptoms.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Now here's a ways to individualize diarrhea symptoms:

What is the stool frequency and/or urgency (accidents or needing to rush out at any specific times to poop)?

How about the consistency of it ?

Well-formed and easy to pick up is normal, then comes soft-formed (where you can pick it up but it leaves "mush" on the ground), then pudding consistency (or soft-serve ice-cream), or watery.

Does the stool have an odor different than usual? If it's very smelly, what does it smell like and how far away from it do you have to be to smell it?

What is the stool's color?

Does it contain mucus? If so, is the mucus in "blobs" or a coating over the stool?

How about any visible blood in the stool? Is it bright red blood? Dark blood? Drips, streaks, etc.

Are there any associations or triggers for the diarrhea (like waking up, drinking, etc.)?

Does it come out easily or even shoot out?

Is there any noise like flatulence or gurgling when it comes out?

How about any straining before during or after defecation?

There are other individualizing characteristics in the repertory, but does all this make sense?

 

[maggie_grieve@gmail_com]

Dr. Jeff, Thanks so much. Both of these posts are very helpful in outlining specifics that are helpful to figuring out what is going on and how to address it.

In terms of vomiting, when our dog Libby has a flare up (of what ends up being called mild pancreatitis whenever it last long enough that she has an emergency vet visit and a blood test is done), her appetite decreases first. She doesn't want to eat, or might only want to eat grass or clover. Then, when she does vomit, the same day or a later day after decreased appetite, it is liquid and white or yellow. It is most often in the morning, but not always. Sometimes she only vomits once and other times it will be 2 - 3 times. She has a very limited retching. She isn't weak afterwards, but is quiet. Sometimes there are specks of blood. This was the case after she had an anxious period following a scare of some kind in our yard in March, but there has not been any blood in the most recent episode. If she has several days of decreased appetite, she is lethargic, not playful, but not at first. The only time her vomit was undigested food was when she seemed to have a reaction to meals from a new box of Honest Kitchen Preference. She vomited very shortly after eating those meals and did not retch. So more like regurgitation, if I am understanding the distinctions correctly.

Her primary symptoms with mild pancreatitis are decreased appetite and vomiting. However, when it is active, or whenever her diet changes her stools are formed, but softer and more yellow than brown. In the most recent episode that started two weeks ago, she had diarrhea as the first symptom. this was unusual. It started with her waking up at night and needing to go outside where she had loose, pudding-like, but not watery stools. Then it became watery the next day. As she has improved, her stools became firm again and normal, no mucus, but after a week of improvement she had a formed stool coated with mucus and then several episodes of very loose stools, not sure if mucus or not. She is improving again today. She doesn't strain, but the urgency more often comes at night or early in the morning. She doesn't have any GI sounds.

I haven't been able to take enough time yet to look at possible homeopathic remedies for these specific symptoms, but it is helpful to know how to sort our the information that is needed. I've ordered the probiotics and other supplement recommended so hope to have those early next week. Hope to be on Monday night's Empower session.

Thanks again.

Maggie