Esophageal Conditions

Hi, this is Rita Hogan, and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog.

Through an herbal lens.

So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hey, this is Rita. Thank you for joining me on my podcast Adventure. We are going to be talking about dogs and the esophagus today. We had a special request to cover some of the issues of esophageal kind of conditions, and so we're going to get into that shortly. First, let's take a look at Adored Beast Apothecary's new product, the wolf. So the wolf tincture is a probiotic. It's an ancestral species. It has turkey tail mushroom in it as a prebiotic, and it's really a genetically unique strain that, you know, helps give diversity to the microbiome, which is what the microbiome is all about. Well, we'll do a episode on the microbiome and we'll maybe possibly try to get Julianne, Julianne Lee, who's the owner of Adored Bees Apothecary, on here to talk about some of these, like, some the ways to get gut diversity. But this probiotic, it has different strains in it that aren't found in a lot of other probiotics. Like, and I'm going to murder this as far as pronouncing it, but it has Limo, Selectobacillus reuteri and Levy, Lactobacillus brevis and Enterococcus faecium. These are ones I don't see in a lot of probiotics at all. And these types of probiotics reduce inflammation. They're really powerful antioxidants and they help balance the immune system and they work against pathogenic bacteria, which is, you know, is what the game's about, bringing bacterial diversity to your dog's microbiome. And of course, yours can really help strengthen the gastrointestinal tract and it helps strengthen the gut lining. But one of the things you wanna know before you use this product is one, it needs to be refrigerated after you open it. And two, I think it falls into the slow, slow, slow and steady kind of dosage. So, you know, you don't wanna just start off with the maximum suggested dose there. I would literally give like one drop and then work up to two drops and then work up to three drops and slowly increase it over time so that your dog's gut can get used to it. Otherwise you could get some diarrhea So I mean, if your dog's got that, you know, that just cast iron stomach, you know, maybe you can go a little faster. But I always recommend that slow and steady wins the race with most things when it comes to healing. Check it out. I sell the wolf in my store. Or you can go to adoredbeastapothecary.com either one. And it's also, you can Google it too and find it at different areas across the the web. And, and then at Adored Beast, you can also find their retailer section. Okay, so let's get into it. Let's talk about esophageal issues. So your dog's esophagus is, well, it joins your, it joins the mouth cavity, right? And then it goes down into the stomach and it's basically from the throat to the stomach. It's tubular and it's full of sticky mucous membranes. And it also has these smooth muscles in it and it has vascular tissue which is full of veins. And the smooth muscles kind of work the food through the esophagus and bring it into the stomach. It's a one way situation. And it has a little thing called the gastroesophageal sphincter. And that's kind of like a door that shuts and doesn't wanna open. Because when your dog's stomach content get into the esophagus, it can wear down that mucous membrane with the acids and we don't want that. But sometimes dogs regurgitate their food, which is disgusting, we all know. But if the food that's going down the throat, which is also known technically as the boldest, if it goes down the throat, it's too big, your dog will regurgitate it back up, chew it again and then swallow it again. And hopefully that's a for sure thing and it's not coming back up. Yes, I gag. I don't know about you. My face winces. It's gross. It's disgusting. I feed raw, so it's even more gross. I remember in my kibble days when dogs regurgitate kibble, it was disgusting. It was full of mucus. But it's even worse when it's raw food. So it doesn't happen a lot with raw food, in my opinion, but it does happen and it's normal. It's normal for dogs to regurgitate their food and eat it again. I know your face might be wincing along with mine. Ish. So the things that we want to talk about is that like how did, how does esophagus or esophageal issues, how does it play out in the dog as ecosystem? Right. What are some issues? What do we want to talk about? And the esophagus has lymphatic drainage. And I'm not sure if we talked about the lymph system on this podcast, but if you don't know what the lymph system is, it's one of the most important systems in your dog's body. Take a peek, Google it, look it up. Super important to stimulate the lymphatic system. But that's another conversation. But it's important to know that the esophagus does have some lymphatic drainage and it also is tied in with the nervous system. It's actually part of your dog's vagal system, which is the vagus nerve, super important nerve in the body. It runs through the esophagus. And the vagus nerve is part of your dog's parasympathetic system, which governs relaxation and digestion, heart rate, breathing, you know, important things, mental health, anxiety, stress. These are all vagal nerve kind of like things that the vagal nerve governs. The vagus nerve is really essential for understanding your dog as a whole. And the vagus nerve in the portal vein, which I believe I've talked about before, the portal vein is kind of how your dog's liver and gastrointestinal system speak and communicate and exchange things like nutrition and toxins. But it's important to know how these things function. As a holistic herbalist, I would say esophageal conditions are not that prevalent for me. I've dealt with quite a few of them. Cause I've been doing this a long time. However, it's not like the bulk of my issues like arthritis. Arthritis is a big deal. So not very common for me. But I know it's very common for veterinarians. I know that if you're dealing with an esophageal problem, it's very relevant and common to you. Esophageal problems are often misdiagnosed. I think one of the symptoms or one of the characteristics for all esophageal conditions is regurgitation. And that can be mistaken as vomiting. So it's really important to understand the difference between vomiting and regurgitation. And regurgitation happens before the food gets to the stomach, and vomiting happens after the dog gets to the stomach. And the contents are gonna look different because when food gets into the stomach, you're dealing with acid in an acidic environment. So the Food's gonna be broken down a lot more than just food that's been regurgitated. Other esophageal issues that are really. That are more common is, you know, if your dog swallows a foreign object or if they have trauma to the esophagus, like collars can cause trauma to the esophagus. And also things can be congenital, which means that they, you know, are inheriting those issues. So, I mean, I think that when you look at treatment, I don't treat disease. I just balance it out. But when you look at treatment, diet is involved for sure, and then there's some surgery and some medications out there. I am not equipped to speak about those things. However, I can talk to you about herbal solutions for some of these things that you can. Some herbal support regurgitation. Let's just cover that first. So dogs can regurgitate their food, like I said, pretty much anytime. And it's normal. But if it happens a lot, you want to be considerate of that. You want to understand, like, okay, why is my dog regurgitating all the time? And that's when you kind of see that there's an issue there. All right, so regurgitation doesn't really involve, like, heaving, like vomiting does. Yeah, it's gross, but usually it's normal. Again, usually it's normal. It's when it's chronic, and that's where your dog can't keep hardly any food down for more than a few seconds. That's not normal. And you want to see your veterinarian for a diagnosis for sure. It's not something you want to try to deal with at home. Chronic regurgitation can be really acidic if the stomach gets involved, and it also can be caused by acid reflux, which we will talk about in a couple sessions from now. Burping. I've had people mistake burping for esophageal issues and burping reasons for burping can really range from, like, emotional upset to lack of hydrochloric acid and excess fermentation in the gut as well, and also inflammation. So you want to kind of rule out the acid reflux. And that's just a kind of like a misplacement of enzymes. So after you rule that out, you can look at things like esophagitis. And that happens when your dog's esophagus gets irritated or inflamed. And it can mimic acid reflux because it kind of involves that backup of acid filled, like, gastric juice because of the inflammation and stomach acid can really degrade that mucus in the esophagus and it makes it difficult to swallow. So too much acid can also cause like temporary bleeding. So your dog could cough up a little blood and we're all gonna freak out about that and pain because of ulceration, esophagitis. I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that correctly and I do apologize. But it can happen when dogs vomit excessively or regurgitate excessively. And it also can happen when your dogs consume something that's quite irritating, like trying to swallow a whole turkey carcass or something like that if your dog's big. And sometimes it can also be cancer driven. So that's why it's really important to go see a vet. I think symptoms include coughing, like a persistent cough or difficulty swallowing or excessive salivation. And it could also affect weight and it could reduce your dog's appetite for sure. So I do recommend getting a veterinary diagnosis if this is what you're suspecting your dog is dealing with. A vet can really help confirm any type of like suspicions you're having or put your mind at ease or figure out what's going on. And most. If it is inflammation, it can be treated at home with a. Like, you can use herbs like slippery elm bark. You can mix in some goldenseal or marshmallow root. You wanna. I definitely would use slippery elm and marshmallow root as an infusion to get kind of like a thick goo. You just kind of. You add really hot water and make kind of like a gruel with it and then add some goldenseal. You can use a tincture like, add like a dropper of goldenseal to mix in. And some. I like licorice fruit or Oregon grapefruit. And you just kind of mix those together and you can put that in the throat and you just kind of syringe it into the throat to help bring down inflammation. And I'd probably do that two to three times a day. And of course you're only going to give size appropriate amounts of that mixture and you can put it in the fridge and it'll last about three days. Another thing that we deal with with esophageal issues is esophageal stricture. And that is just a narrowing of the esophagus in general. It's usually caused by something underlying like trauma or again, inflammation. And it can also be caused by cancer. It does mimic other issues like regurgitation, acid reflux and esophagitis, which we just Spoke about. But again, this is why you want to bring your dog to a vet when it comes to esophageal issues, to get them to figure out what's going on with your pup. And then one issue that I deal with a lot in the esophageal kind of spectrum is mega esophagus. And that kind of is self explanatory. It's when the esophagus gets stretched out and it's more common than you would think. It affects certain, you know, it can affect certain types of dogs. There are certain types of dogs that are congenital, that have like a predisposition to megaesophagus. Those are like German shepherds. I think Labradors are predisposed Pomeranians, Yorkshire terriers. I see it a lot in Yorkshire terriers, German shepherds, mini schnauzers, big schnauzers, and very specifically, I think it's the wired fox terrier. I believe I could be wrong about that, but I pretty sure those are the breeds that are in that lineup. So megaesophagus, again, stretches out the esophagus. The esophagus kind of starts collecting things, right? It needs help with the food, needs help to reach the stomach. And it doesn't have that smooth muscle motility that's causing the peristalsis, which means that peristalsis is just kind of like a muscular movement that brings food through the digestive tract. And when the muscles stretch out in the esophagus and tissue damage happens, it makes everything worse. So you get like gagging, you get excessive coughing, you get salivation, you can get regurgitation. And also, I think assimilation does decline and you can get weight loss. And so you have to learn how to deal with megaesophagus. It's. It can be difficult to treat, but some herbal protocols, I think have proven successful in helping manage or balance out this condition. One of the dangers of megaesophagus is aspirated pneumonia. And that's when food gets into the lungs. And we don't want that. We don't want food or stomach acid to enter the lungs. It is not good. It's life threatening. It's not something you want to deal with at home. You need an emergency vet for this or your vet, if they're available. Coughing, gagging, fever, nasal discharge, like rapid breathing and wheezing are some of the symptoms of aspirated pneumonia. And you want to go to the vet right away. So megaesophagus at home, a lot of it includes like this Special chair. It's called a Bailey chair. And you want to get your dog to sit up in it, and you're gonna feed your dog in this special chair. That helps the food go into the stomach more naturally. I mean, it basically ensures your dog's gonna be sitting up right, and it's gonna allow water and food to get into that esophageal sphincter so that it can close and then it's over. They can digest their food. All is good. Sometimes you have to adjust the food itself, and that is either liquidize it or get it to a consistency where your individual dog is okay with eating it. For those of you that have taken my Energetics course, megaesophagus really falls under the tissue state of relaxation. The foundational cause can be unknown, but it can be related to genetics or muscle conditions or nervous system afflictions. Megaesophagus usually occurs, I would say, definitely in younger dogs. You start to see it, and it can actually occur in puppies. Although not as prevalent, most of the mega esophagus cases I've worked with have been congenital. And also I've dealt with some that have had. That have been cancer based on. And trauma to the throat is definitely one of the reasons why it develops. And also Addison's disease can be a contributing factor to megaesophagus. You wanna look and try to find out the root, but relaxation, which is just too relaxed. Tissues needs to be addressed. And that's where herbs come in. So slippery elm, which is neutral to cooling. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out my energetics course on canineherbalism.com Slippery Elm is almas ruba, and it's, again, neutral to cooling. It makes a gruel. And it's called. In herbalism, it's called a demulcent. Okay. That it's slippery, it's thick, and it's cooling. And it's great for megaesophagus because it can help the food pass through the esophageal tissue, and it also brings down inflammation. So when I use slippery elm for mega esophagus, I recommend that you use the powdered bark infusion, making kind of like a gel or a syrup. And then you just stir enough powder into hot, like, almost boiling water. And to make the syrup or gel, let it cool as it thickens or as it thickens, it will cool. And then you can syringe it into your dog's mouth very gently and slowly, and that's really going to help. With bringing that food down. It's going to add, it's going to add, it's going to assist the mucous membranes basically. Aloe vera is another kind of anti inflammatory that helps heal the mucosa in the esophagus. You want to make sure that you avoid using the rind of the aloe as well as the yellow latex because that can cause spasm and you don't want to use that. You want to use the, like the liquid. I like George's aloe vera. It's a commercial formula. I've used that for years and years and years. I'm thinking I don't think aloe vera is genetically modified. But don't use anything with genetically modified aloe or any kind of ingredients in it. Like citric acid is genetically modified for the most part. And that's going to bother. So you don't want to add things that have citric acid in it. I'm not sure. I don't think George's added citric acid when I used it a long time ago. I haven't used it in a while. So you just want to check. But find a nice holistic commercial aloe vera juice or if you're good at it, you can make your own. Another herb is calendula. Calendula officinalis is its Latin name. Calendula is nice and warming. It's for dogs that are more cool. It warms the core and it helps heal the mucosal tissues in the esophagus. It also helps with astringency so bringing down some of that relaxation. And it's an anti inflammatory so it helps tighten and disperse inflammation. For this I would use either a hot water infusion, letting it steep for a good hour with calendula flowers or, or you could use a glycerate or even glycerin mixed with a tincture. But you want to use a glycerate so that it has that coating property for it. It's going to like coat the. It's going to coat the esophagus when you give it to your dog. And I would give about one teaspoon for every 20 pounds of puppy. Another one is chamomile and it's nice and cooling. It is an anti inflammatory. It's calming to the stomach lining. It's an antispasmodic which, you know, brings down spasms. We don't want the stomach sphincter to spasm. It also helps helps with acid reflux or chronic regurgitation. And you're gonna use it as a tea, which we call an infusion in herbalism. Cause it's gonna be steeped a little longer than a tea. Standard infusion, 2 tablespoons of herb to about 8 ounces of water. So that's kind of a very strong infusion. And you give one teaspoon for pretty much every 15 pounds of your doggies weight. And I would do that two to three times a day. Licorice is neutral. Pretty much any dog can can use licorice as long as they tolerate it. It's sort of like slippery elm. It's going to be deglycerized licorice. You can get it in a nice glycerate. It helps heal mucous membranes. It's an anti inflammatory. It's very soothing. Like most demulcents. It's going to help with acid reflux and really bring down spasm in the esophagus itself. And you can mix licorice with other herbs like slippery elm. Or you can mix it with chamomile or calendula because it is nice and neutral for long term use more than eight weeks. Definitely use the deglycerized licorice powder. That way it won't affect your dog's like sodium potassium balance. And if using licorice, sometimes it can cause diarrhea as well as slippery can. Anything that's kind of really slippery can cause more loose stool. You want to cut back on the dosage if it's causing a problem. I don't necessarily use licorice when dogs have like heart disease or diabetes. You want to be careful of that. Just check with your veterinarian to see if that's okay. Another herb that is like slippery elm is marshmallow root and that's Althea officinalis. It's cooling, it is demulcent. It helps heal esophageal tissue. It will coat the esophagus like slippery elm and it can really help irritate tissues. I like to use marshmallow first over slippery elm because slippery elm can be endangered and it can have really unethical sources. So I would try slippery or try marshmallow root first. And you can also get marshmallow root as a glycerin. But I highly recommend using a making a decoction which is like an infusion with the root. You simmer it on the stove until it gets a little thicker. But I've also used the chopped up root with almost boiling water. It does develop. It gets thicker and then again you syringe it in your dog's mouth. I like to do it prior to them eating, and then I do it about two to three times a day. A warming herb that helps bring down pain for dogs with esophageal issues is meadowsweet. Sometimes it can be a little on the cooling side. It just depends on the dog. I've seen it kind of neutral to warming or neutral to cooling, like right there in the middle. It's definitely good in a formula. You can use it by itself. You don't want to use it if your dog is allergic to salicylic acid, because it has salicylic acid in it. It's not safe for kitties, but it's really well indicated for acid reflux, for excessive burping, for pretty much all esophageal issues. It helps the stomach, it helps bring down pain and intestinal irritation. You can use the dried herb as a standard infusion. You can use it as a tincture. But I would mix it with glycerin for esophageal issues. And again, I would try to help coat the throat and help bring down pain in the esophagus, like 1 teaspoon per every 25 pounds of weight. Homeopathically, I like to use Kali carb, which is Kali carbonicum 6x or 30c, 200c for dogs that have slow motility in the esophagus. So this is really well indicated for megaesophagus irritation. Mucus in the morning is good characteristics of calicarb, so you can use that. And remember, just keep it away from liquids for about 30 minutes. If you give your dog that remedy and just see if it works, you'll know if it's gonna start working, you know, probably within the first week of using it. One last remedy that I like for esophageal issues is Fig phytoembryonic therapy or GEMO therapy. The phytoembryonic is like a 1 to 20 or 1 to 10, and that is the dilution for the herbal liquid herb to menstruum, which is the solvent which is used in extracting the constituents out of the herb, or the 1 to 200, which is what I call the gem of therapy. And that can be found in a lot of places. It is more homeopathic. Either one, I find works well, or you can mix the two. But fig really kind of decongest the entire gastrointestinal tract. It's good too, for activating the vagus nerve. It helps the smooth muscles work better in the Esophagus, it's just a really good remedy to add to your esophageal regimen. Again, you wanna start out low and slow. So low in dosage and slow in bringing up the dosage. So I would start with a couple drops of either solution. The 1 to 200 or let's just say the 1 to 20. Both of those you can find in my store. The 1 to 200 is under gemotherapy and the 1 to 20 is under phytoembryonic therapy and you can also the 1 to 20 you can't find a lot of places but the 1 to 200 you can just google ficus gemotherapy and it should come up and you can find those other areas where you can buy those. But I really love both of those solutions for megaesophagus and any type of esophageal or gastrointestinal issue. Fig is pretty neutral to cooling. I've used it in all dogs except for dogs that are really extremely cold. So it's pretty well rounded and versatile. So that is your esophagus lesson for today. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, email me, go to my website k nineherbalist.com Click podcast from the dropdown list and just email me. Let me know what questions you have. I'll answer them here on the podcast and we can have a conversation over the distance Right before we close. I would like to tell you about my other sponsors product. That's realmushrooms.com if you are new to the podcast and don't know what realmushrooms.com is, it is a source for fruiting body mushrooms that are hot water extracted for the most part and awesome. One of the products that I carry in my store by Real Mushrooms is their mushroom Relax pet shoes. And I try to feature different products each podcast. So that kind of gets you familiar with what your options are. You can purchase them in my store. You can google it. Real Mushrooms, Relax chews and find a store that kind of suits you. Or you can go to realmushrooms.com and purchase from their website. So the relaxation shoes, I found them highly effective. I tested them before I started carrying them in my store. They are good for stress travel, you know, kind of interruptions to the normal routine. They just kind of take the edge off. They have lion's mane mushroom extract in there, valerian root powder, L Theanine, L Tryptophan, catnip, lemon balm, passion flower. I would say it's a pretty like energetically balanced, kind of neutral to neutral to warming formula. It has some, you know, it's a chew, so it's going to have a little rice flour in there. It has some natural bacon and chicken flavor. The vegetarian based, some lecithin from sunflower, flax seed, a little glycerin because it's, it's soft, it's a soft treat. And some chicken liver. I mean, I think all chews have fillers. I don't think you can really make a chew without having a base to put the ingredients in. I do want to say that valerian root can have a paradoxical effect. And you want to make sure. Well, not make sure, but want to observe that if your dog gets more excited on this chew, then it's most likely the valerian root that's happening. Some valerian root can cause certain individuals to be hyper versus relaxed. And if that's the case, then this chew is not for you. And if that happens and you purchase it from my website, I am happy to give you a refund as I'm sure realmushrooms.com will too. Will. Will do that also. You just have to let them know Next time on our full length podcast we are going to talk about acid reflux. We've had some recommendations for that or requests and I am going to fulfill that request by talking about acid reflux and probably some other stuff. So check that out when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals. 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The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or healthcare provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only regarding any products I may suggest the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any product.