Page 4 - Summer 13

BAHVS President’s letter by Mark Elliott
Geoff Johnson – 23 years in the business.
It seems only yesterday but it is 4 weeks already since the conference at the time of writing this. For me, one of the great things about the conference is that injection of posi- tive energy that carries one through to the next year. And this time we will be holding a one day Spring Meeting as well, which I am really looking forward to.
Being as it was my first Conference to co- organise for BAHVS, thanks to all, who kindly sent in messages of approval for the event – I might even organise another sometime, although for now I’m happy Brendan [Clarke] “volunteered”. I’ve had some great feedback from the Open Day delegates, I’ve spoken to, and whilst perhaps they weren't many, they were important. For those, who don't know: we had representatives from the RCVS [Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons], BSAVA [British Small Animal Veterinary Association] (and that person is involved in Nottingham's evidence base project) and the VMD [Veterinary Medicines Directorate]. The Skeptics were notable by their absence – even those who reg- istered failed to turn up. So its two fingers up to them next time they say, there is no evidence to consider.
All the presentations were exceptional, so thanks to all for their efforts. We will put them
online in due
course. The state-
ment that really
summed up, what
and who we are
though, came from
Geoff, when he
described his on-
going sensation of fun and privilege at being a vet for 23 years and how homeopathy had been a big part of that. It stood out and was noted at a time, when many conventional colleagues are struggling and perhaps they are unhappy with their careers.
A small personal thanks to Arto Thompson for the loan of his cup for the presentations, thanks especially to our sponsors, without whom we couldn’t put on these events and thanks to everyone who came along and made it such fun.
Have a great summer and see you all soon.
Arto who?
A case of Pruritus and Self-Trauma by Chris Almond, UK
I saw this case in early October 2012.
Moji is a 14-year-old, neutered female domes- tic shorthaired cat. She presented with signs of pruritus and severe excoriation of the skin, especially around her face, top of head and neck, although there were also some crusting lesions on the dorsal thorax.
She is very closely attached to the owner and is “very sensitive to everything”, and dislikes the cold. The owner said that “she hides in volatile situations or curls up into a ball”. She is not keen on strangers and hides.
The modalities were that her skin irritation appears better at night, is worse for heat and appears to be better for being outside.
The skin condition seemed to flare up when the owner was staying with her ex-partner, which she described again as a “volatile situation”.
Past medical history included haemorrhagic cystitis, which the owner had treated with Apis and Equisetum successfully. There had been a history of acute eczema following vaccination, when she was young, which had been treated with corticosteroids. Three months before I saw the cat, the owner had used Psorinum to treat
the skin problem. This had reduced the pruritus for a few weeks, but failed to produce a response when the problem returned.
The cat’s diet consists of Burns Ocean Fish dry food, and occasional Tuna. The owner said, “she drinks quite a lot”, but I suspected that this could be related to the diet.
The rubrics I used in the Radar Analysis were: Mind – Quarrelling-aversion to
Mind – Sensitive-external impressions
Mind – mutilating his body
Skin – Itching – raw; must scratch until is External Throat – itching
Face – Itching – Cheeks
Bladder – inflammation
The highest equal scoring remedies in the analysis were Arsenicum and Staphysagria.
The impression given to me by the owner was that she had been in a difficult situation with her ex-partner, to which her cat had been exposed. This situation had triggered the self-trauma exhibited by Moji. Staphysagria has under cau- sations – Ill effects of anger and insults (1). It appeared that the owner had been in an abu- sive relationship that had affected her sensitive
cat. Under the heading Skin there is eczema of the head, ears, face and body, with scratching changing the location of itching (2). Cystitis is also present in the Staphysagria picture and significant proportions of feline cystitis cases are stress related. I decided to prescribe Staphysagria 30c, which was given twice daily for 5 days.
The owner sent me an email after four days stating that Moji had stopped scratching after the first 2 doses, but had vomited after 3 days. I asked her to stop the remedy in case this was an aggravation. The next report was three weeks after the treatment and said that the face and head had healed up well and that there were only a few crusts remaining. I sug- gested a repeat of the remedy as a single divid- ed dose.
The owner is now living in more stable circum- stances, so I am hoping that the problem will not recur. This may well be a case where owner and pet needed the same remedy.
(1)(2) Homeopathic Remedy Guide, Murphy, pages 1656 & 1657.
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