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I had the great fortune of learning veterinary acupuncture under the legendary Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine specialist, Dr. Huisheng Xie, founder of the Chi Institute in Reddick, FL. The Chi institute works closely with the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, conducting joint western and eastern veterinary medicine clinical trials and providing a TCVM elective rotation for University of Florida veterinary students.
In the field of TCVM herbal medicine, Dr. Xie has pioneered a tumor reducing herbal remedy that works by alleviating what TCVM refers to as “stasis.” In the tradition Chinese sense, stasis includes:
- Blood stagnation (aka, poor circulation)
- Choppy or weak pulse
- Enlargement or nodules of local glands or internal organs in strong animals
- Purple tongue
- Tumors
As a “stasis breaker,” Dr. Xie’s herbal product treats by breaking the blood stasis, softening the hardness of tumors, and clearing tissue enlargements via the unblocking of drainage vessels. The main ingredients of Dr. Xie’s product are:
- Bai Hua She She Cao (Oldenandia) inhibits cell mutation and tumor growth
- Ban Zhi Lian (Scutellaria) clears Heat-toxin, inhibits cell mutation, and inhibits tumor growth
- E Zhu (Zedoaria) purges the interior, breaks Blood stasis and clears masses
- Mu Li (Shu) (Ostrea) to softens hardness and clears mass
- San Leng (Sparganium) purges the interior, breask stasis and clears masses
- Zhe Bei Mu (Fritillaria) to softens hardness and clears nodules
Caution!
This product and other legitimate ones like it should not be used for primary therapy for tumors that are suspected to be or proven to be malignant (cancerous). The dog patient should be thoroughly examined and any tumors or organ enlargements ruled to the best of our ability to be benign (not cancerous) in origin. This means that gross observation of tumor character, fine needle aspiration, and blood work should be performed prior to initiating this course of treatment as a primary therapy tool.
Tumors that may respond to herbal therapy include:
- Fatty tumors (lipomas)
- Glandular tumors of the skin ( sebaceous epitheliomas, sebaceous adenomas)
- Trichoepitheliomas
- Inflammatory skin nodules
- Mammary adenomas
…and a host of other benign tumors.
Ancillary Therapy for Malignant Tumors in Dogs
For malignant tumors, as an integrative veterinary medicine practitioner, my first aim if possible is to surgically remove the tumor, then follow up with this herbal remedy to prevent recurrence or for ancillary therapy if I am unable to get clean surgical margins or for ancillary medical management if a tumor is inoperable.
Unless there are mitigating reasons that prohibit surgery, such as advanced age, prohibitive health conditions, etc., I would not recommend this herbal therapy for malignant tumors as first line therapy.
Dr. Roger Welton is a practicing veterinarian and highly regarded media personality through a number of topics and platforms. In addition to being passionate about integrative veterinary medicine for which he is a nationally renowned expert, Dr. Welton was also an accomplished college lacrosse player and remains to this day very involved in the sport. He is president of Maybeck Animal Hospital , runs the successful veterinary/animal health blogs Web-DVM and Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care, and fulfills his passion for lacrosse through his lacrosse and sport blog, The Creator’s Game.
My dog is a 3 year old bernese with 2 sebaceous cysts, confirmed by needle aspirate. I was told stasis breaker could help with these? My veterinarian is not familiar with Chinese herbs but is open to recommendations.