Milk thistle vs slippery elm bark? (miranadobe)

    • Moderators
    • Gold Top Dog

    Milk thistle vs slippery elm bark? (miranadobe)

    Our search function here bites.

    Milk thistle is good for...?  Calming the stomach lining and easing the liver?  What else?

    slipper elm is good for....?  Anti-inflammatory properties?  Also calming the stomach lining?  I've forgotten!

    My very good friend may or may not need advice on mitigating the impact of steroids on her dog, whom we've learned has a bulging disc in her spine.  If she responds to the steroids and physical therapy, they will see what steps to take next.  But I'm just confused in my current state of shock/disbelief about the circumstances to get my brain in gear and remember which homeopathic options are used for what.  I realize many are used for a WIDE variety of things... but I thought this thread might be useful to discuss what herbs are used for what.

    Thanks Callie, jennie, Jewilee, et al, since I know you're the ones who will likely respond.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Milk thistle doesn't do anything for the stomach -- it's primarily a "protectant" for the liver.  It also has some pretty good detox properties for the liver.

     Given in HIGH **herbal** doses (literally like 5-10 times the normal 'human' doseage and beyond -- a doctor will actually make it into an additive for IV therapy) it helps also protect the kidneys. 

    (Billy is walking proof of that.)

    The bigger guns 'herbal'/alternative detox is SAM-3 -- given together they work AWESOME to mitigate damage from the really harsh steroid & steroid-like drugs.  Just milk thistle alone is usually sufficient for day to day stuff including heartworm prevention, antibiotics and that kind of stuff "de-toxing"

    Slippery elm -- it's kinda the silcon of the herbal world -- superb at coating the stomach/gut/digestive tract to help move something thru that is troublesome.  It is an **incredible** anti-inflammatory for the gut AND for the lungs.

    Also - for disc stuff there is NOTHING better than acupuncture.  Seriously -- and there are Chinese herbals with anti-inflammatory properties we can't even begin to touch.

    If you look at most any lung/bronchitis type herbal stuff it's always got slippery elm in it.  So it's an awesome ingredient for a cough syrup and even taken orally to help reduce lung inflammation in a whole host of situations.

    So to sum slippery elm up it coats & soothes the lungs/gut/digestive tract and reduces inflammation.  To a lesser degree it also will help protect against some harsh stomach irritants like nsaids.

    NONE of these are homeopathics.  That's a whole different realm and there *are* superb homeopathic detoxes -- HEEL's detox kit is awesome for humans and dogs -- but the dose is far lower for a dog.  But homeopathics are SO different I'd talk about them in a whole different thing.

    Feel free to email me about it --

    • Gold Top Dog

     Acupuncture is AMAZING for spinal issues. Seriously. Emma went from not able to walk, at under 2, to living SIX YEARS, with epilepsy, spinal arthritis, a pinched nerve, and a bad hip. Amazing, amazing. It also kills migraines, completely, for me.

    • Moderators
    • Gold Top Dog

    calliecritturs
    The bigger guns 'herbal'/alternative detox is SAM-3

    Callie, is that SAM-3, or SAM-e?

    • Gold Top Dog

    my bad -- SAM-e.

    the SAM-e I like the best for the dogs is Cell Food SAM-e.  It's a liquid rather than caplets (most of them are enteric and don't really dissolve well in dog tummies/small intestines).  If you go to the Cell Food website you can get a locator for who sells it near you.