Page 17 - Autumn 16

Tom Farrington
Ronit Aboutboul
and life experiences, and how the person and animal mirror one another. Ronit also shared her volunteering experiences in Costa Rica, working with ‘Save A Gato’, and teaching them how to use homeopathy with their rescued animals. This improved animal health and allowed the rescue to eliminate antibiotic use.
Judith Webster finished our day with two cases of Anthracinum, a TB and a Cocker. Both cases probably were triggered by a spider bite. Anthracinum was an unfamiliar remedy to many of us, and Judith came to it by noting the severe pain and distress of the patients, coupled with the swelling of the wound. This led to a general discussion of the possible effect of widespread Clostridial vaccination on the food supply, as well as a more esoteric exploration of severe pain as a manifestation of the bitterness/deeply hidden grief of the anaerobic organism at being supplanted by the aerobic biota. It was Judith’s first congress presentation, thank you.
Friday night was the traditional BAHVS barbecue, opening the social aspect of the Congress. The grilling was outdoors, but the chilly weather kept us indoors. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces at
the Congress, though a few of us did not recognise Jack Hoare at first with his new hairstyle! The membership does appear to be keeping well; must be the homeopathy... We were all delighted to see a number of new faces this year as well. Lise Hansen brought many of the graduates of the Danish course with her. They are an outstanding group in homeopathic knowledge, and are also lovely pleasant people; what wonderful additions to the BAHVS family!
Sara Fox Chapman recieving the Churchill cup from Jack Hoare
SATURDAY
Mani Norland started Saturday morning on a cheerful and optimistic note with his presentation of the largest UK research project into homeopathy, instigated by 4 Homeopathy. Please do visit the 4 Homeopathy website at 4homeopathy.org to learn more about the efforts funded by this group of organisations, which includes the BAHVS. This research project aims to increase the effectiveness of communicating homeopathy to the public, and the initial thrust of the project was to find out who uses homeopathy and other modalities, and what the public perception is of homeopathy. The research indicated that there is a certain group of people that are highly unlikely to change their mind, so efforts to reach people should be aimed at more open-minded consumers. It also confirmed how far Homeopathy has come in the last decade, and explored how we can continue to communicate better with the general public.
“Vet-Spare those Gonads!” was the title of a lively presentation by Sara Fox Chapman, who guided us through the changes in thinking from the 1970’s that all dogs should be neutered, to the present day, and the various options now recognised by the American Veterinary Medical Association, including the gonad sparing options of vasectomy and hysterectomy [see article elsewhere in this issue; Ed]. The changes have been the response to clinical observations over the intervening years, of health issues in neutered dogs, specifically joint problems, behaviour issues, and
malignancies. Sara explained the lack of gonadal steroids results in adrenal stress, which then shows in the animals’ weakest system, so varies between breeds. There is more information on the Parsemus Foundation website, and through the Facebook group ‘Ovary Sparing Spay and Vasectomy’
After tea, Lise Hansen presented some of her Westie skin cases. Lise has reliably and repeatedly cured chronic atopy cases in her practice. She explained that skin cases are basically healthy individuals that are exteriorising the problem on the skin. You have time to correct this, as it is not a fatal disease, but you have to keep the owner working with you. Lise begins by establishing a reasonable time frame for improvement, only treating constitutionally, and proceeding carefully in removing obstacles to cure (vaccination, certain supplements) to avoid antidoting or confusing the case further. Lise receives the case, performing a short and simple repertorisation, rarely using skin rubrics. Owners keep a diary, and return at monthly intervals until cure. Lise illustrated her approach with interesting cases, including her thought process of remedy choice. I (SFC) am not keen on skin cases, even though I have reasonable success, and I found this a particularly refreshing presentation. I realised that I don’t like skin cases because the owners are so anxious, and establishing the time frame should help with that.
Misha Norland spoke eloquently for the rest of the afternoon on chronic disease to one group of delegates. He began by exploring the energetic nature of remedies: ‘the word is the thing’. Misha then showed how themes in provings reflect the nature of the proving substance and how the Bach essences illustrate the intuitive knowledge inherent in plants. From this we moved to the first of the ten hermetic truths: “as above, so below, as below, so above”, or ‘a universe in a grain of sand’. Misha discussed the concept of health as homeodynamism rather than homeostasis. From there we moved on
Danish members – ‘wonderful additions to the BAHVS family’
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