Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (49 page)

As a temporary measure I decided to administer fluids under her skin, to help counter her moderate dehydration. While doing so, I immediately noticed that she was very hypersensitive to pain, far more than I would expect. She could not bear being touched at all. At this point, I recognized the similarity between Misty’s condition and the provings of the remedy
Arnica montana
(from
the herb Leopard’s Bane). Among the characteristics of
Arnica
are fever, hemorrhage, black and blue spots under the skin from bleeding, septic conditions, hypersensitivity to pain, and an aversion to touch.

So I immediately gave Misty a tablet of
Arnica
and repeated it every few hours. Later in the day she was much improved. By the next morning, her temperature had dropped and she was no longer bleeding. She was obviously calmer—eating for the first time since becoming ill. Within 48 hours, the only remaining evidence of what had so recently been a life-threatening condition were a few dry scabs where the hemorrhages had been, and she was discharged. She remained in good health. I was quite impressed that such results had occurred
without any necessity to
use antibiotics or other drugs
.

I’m often amazed to see how
rapidly
homeopathic medications can work. I usually find that in acute problems, they restore health much more quickly than drugs, and I have used them to treat a gamut of acute problems from severe infections like parvovirus or distemper to gunshot wounds, bites, punctures, and abscesses. But they also excel in chronic conditions, which are the bulk of my practice—allergies, auto-immune diseases, hyperthyroidism, urinary disorders, appetite problems, behavioral abnormalities, paralysis, skin problems, gum disease, and so on. In short, the whole gamut of animal disease.

A recent example of a more advanced chronic condition is a dog I treated with severe advanced spinal arthritis. Wilkie is an old Lab cross with arthritis of the spinal bones, weakness of the rear legs, and gradual wasting away of his muscles. As often happens with this condition, he exerted himself too much on an adventure and was unable to rise to his feet the next morning. The weakened spine will be easily injured or there will be a small break in the calcium deposits around the bones. In any case, he couldn’t use his legs anymore because of the paralysis and extreme pain. With homeopathic treatment, he has improved to where he can take fairly long walks—even running along at times. The difference in these chronic, advanced cases is that progress is slower, in this case taking several weeks to achieve this much recovery.

Homeopathy works very well with nutritional therapy. An example case that comes to mind is Toby, an older cat whose lab tests had confirmed that he had feline infectious peritonitis—a terminal condition not curable with drugs. His symptoms included repeated vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and swelling of the abdomen. Over a period of several days, my client and I gradually changed his diet to a home-prepared one (as outlined in this book) and increased his vitality through the use of vitamins and thymus gland nutritional supplements. I then recognized an appropriate homeopathic remedy, which for this particular fellow was
Arsenicum
album
(white oxide of arsenic). (Lest this alarm you, let me assure you that, once again, the amount of arsenic in a homeopathic
remedy is less than is found in the food you eat, where it is present as a trace mineral.)

So I gave him one dose, which was followed by a short aggravation of symptoms for a couple of days and then a continued improvement for a long period. Two months later the vomiting began to recur and I gave one more dose. He quickly returned to normal health and has remained stable ever since. On top of it all, his personality improved, so that he is now considerably calmer and steadier, and his weight increased from 6 to 11 pounds!

Favorable personality changes often accompany successful physical treatment. Indeed, homeopathic remedies
can
be used to treat personality problems. For instance, one client’s cat had spontaneously developed a drastic personality change for the worse. Where she had once been friendly, she was now irritable, resistant to being held, and generally standoffish. Homeopathic treatment with
Nux vomica
(poison nut) restored her normal affectionate self.

This improvement of emotional or personality disorders is one of the most exciting aspects of working with homeopathy. Before I was knowledgeable about homeopathy, behavior problems in animals were frustrating and hopeless to deal with. Usually, the best advice available was using drugs like tranquilizers or elaborate training that was time-consuming and not very effective. With homeopathy, that whole picture has changed.

Another example is that of a dog who underwent a Jekyll-Hyde transformation not long after getting a rabies shot. Formerly happy and friendly, he became suspicious, aggressive, and “barky.” Worse yet, he began biting people—hard! Fortunately, I was able to restore this dog to his normal, happy self with one dose of a remedy called
Stramonium
(Thorn Apple). This remedy is used for disturbances of the brain with the above symptoms of suspicion, aggressive behavior, and biting. (It’s used in people that are mentally disturbed and who, believe it or not, exhibit this same behavior.) Unfortunately, we see these behavior disorders coming on after rabies vaccination much too often. Apparently, it causes a low-grade inflammation of the brain in some animals.

What about combining homeopathic therapy with other natural approaches? It should not be combined with acupuncture or Chinese medicine as it is too similar in action, and the two methods interfere with each other. It is compatible with naturopathic and nutritional therapies—as mentioned above in the case with Toby—as well as chiropractic and other manipulative therapies. Some mild herbs can be used with homeopathy, but tinctures of herbs, especially large doses and herbs that affect the nervous system, should be avoided.

R
ESEARCH
IN
H
OMEOPATHY

Even though homeopathy has been successfully used for over 200 years, people will still ask what research supports its use. So it is good to know that considerable research
into the efficacy of homeopathy has been done in modern times.

In a double-blind study of 46 human patients with rheumatoid arthritis, half were given homeopathic treatment and half were given placebos (unmedicated tablets of the same appearance). To rule out the effect of suggestion, neither the attending doctors nor the patients knew whether a remedy or a placebo was being taken. When the results were unveiled, they clearly showed that the treated group had significant improvement in subjective pain, joint tenderness, grip strength, and morning stiffness. All of this was accomplished without any toxic reactions or side effects (
British Journal of Clinical
Pharmacology
, May 1980).

Another interesting aspect about homeopathic research is that the remedies are tested on
people
, not animals. Because important mental and emotional symptoms must be studied before the action of a substance is fully grasped, only astute human observers can note and report these internal events. They are volunteers, and any unpleasant symptoms they develop during the provings go away after they cease taking the substance.

This is a world apart from conventional laboratory studies, where we try to recreate our diseases in animals. From a holistic viewpoint, such research will never solve the problem of human disease. We can and must do that ourselves, by using this tremendous opportunity to study disease processes as they naturally occur in human beings. Although the suffering of laboratory animals is routinely justified as necessary for developing better treatments for humans, the success of homeopathic medicine underscores the fallacy of this assumption. And homeopathy has the capability to treat successfully any of the illnesses that are usually treated by allopathic (Western medicine) drug therapy.

FLOWER ESSENCES

In addition to homeopathic remedies, a similar system to homeopathy is Bach flower essences. Developed in England by Dr. Edward Bach, these essences are used to treat emotional states. Though these dilute infusions of flowers and tree buds are said to act primarily upon the mental state, a psychological improvement often brings a physical one as well. These extracts are given orally several times a day, often for several weeks. They are not the same as homeopathy, however, and act in a different way.

One case in which I used a flower essence involved a dog, Jamie, with a host of distressing symptoms. These included a loss of appetite, lack of energy, unusual behavior, vomiting, collapse, fever, a moist coat, a tense abdomen, and enlarged spleen. In addition, laboratory tests showed that she was anemic, with abnormally shaped red blood cells, an above-normal number of white blood cells, elevated liver enzymes (indicating liver damage), elevated cholesterol and bile pigments, high blood sugar, and so on. The x-rays taken were normal.

Because I knew the family was under stress, I suspected that emotional disturbance was playing an important role. Accordingly, I prescribed one of the Bach flower essences,
Larch
, to be given four times a day for a week. For the first few hours after starting the treatment, Jamie’s symptoms became exaggerated, but she was markedly better by the next day. A week later, her symptoms were gone and have not returned for over a year. In addition, her personality changed. For the first time, she became more playful and outgoing with the other animals in the family. This change has persisted even though the original treatment was for only a week.

I’ve also found the Bach flowers useful in some conditions that developed shortly after a traumatic or upsetting experience. For instance, a woman brought in a cat a couple of weeks after it had been violently shaken by a large dog. He was uncomfortable, irritable, and constipated, with a fever, weight loss, fluid accumulation in the lungs, and a painful abdomen. The most severe injury was a displaced vertebra in the lower back, which I could feel was out of place. It hurt the cat very much when I touched it.

I prescribed the Bach flower
Star of Bethlehem
(indicated for fright after trauma), two drops every two hours. Three days later, the cat’s owner called to say that her cat was quite recovered. The drops had noticeably relaxed her. After a couple of days of treatment, she began stretching by hooking her claws in a piece of firewood and pulling from side to side. Apparently the stretching corrected the back problem. Soon it was difficult to medicate the cat—she was too busy leaping tall fences in a single bound!

The 38 flower preparations discovered by Dr. Bach are compatible with any other system of treatment. They are mild in their effect and cannot cause problems even when “overused.” I generally do not use them with homeopathy, preferring one method at a time. They are quite useful for emotional upsets, after injuries, and where there is a great fear.

THE HOLISTIC ALTERNATIVE

As you can see, some pretty remarkable things can happen when we adopt a new view of the wholeness of the body and mind and treat from there. The success of the holistic therapies described in this chapter depends on the skill of the practitioner, the strength and will of the patient, the degree of support in the environment, the appropriateness of the selected method, and the cooperation of you, your animal’s friend and companion.

This brief survey was meant to introduce you to the many exciting approaches that can help to relieve the suffering of animals. And if we are but willing to extend our mental horizons, how much more is possible?

CHAPTER 15

HOW TO CARE FOR A SICK ANIMAL

I
f your animal gets sick, there are several advantages to caring for it at home, if your family situation allows for seeing to the animal’s needs. First, home is familiar and safe, free of the stress a pet is likely to feel trying to recuperate in a busy veterinary hospital filled with unfamiliar animals and people. Second, if you have the time, you can provide some really useful nursing care at home. Fasting, special nutrition, or meticulous cleaning might not be provided in a hospital, either because these things take too much time or because the philosophy of disease treatment is different. Third, at home you are in charge; alternative
or natural forms of treatment can be used without conflict.

On the other hand, a veterinarian is a skilled professional. Years of training and experience enable him or her to assess the seriousness of a condition and use the proper diagnostic techniques. For conditions that are either very messy to take care of (like severe vomiting and diarrhea) or life-threatening (such as a car accident or severe infection), the veterinary hospital offers support that is impossible to provide at home, including such treatments as anti-shock therapy, intravenous fluids, and surgery.