Page 13 - Spring 16

With the help of a bit of air by Edward De Beukelaer, UK
An 11-year-old bitch is admitted in emergency. She suffers with severe acute pyometra, she is in terrible pain and hypothermic. She is almost collapsed with it. She has had 3 litters in her life and had very few problems over time. She vomits green bile.
She is spayed in emergency. The uterus had burst, the abdomen needed washing out. She recuperates well the first day but the second day she remains in hypothermia and because of signs of peritonitis and very painful abdomen, she underwent an ex-lap again. The abdomen is full of bloody liquid and there is much fibrous reaction everywhere. All is cleaned up and flushed. A draining orifice is created from the abdomen to the skin.
She does not improve and she becomes anaemic and remains hypothermic. She refuses all food and continues to vomit at times. She is very lethargic and cannot stand. Pyrogenium, Belladonna, Arsenicum album make no difference. Then she is given Carbolic acid 30 one dose (the remedy for post operative shock from abdominal surgery) and the
downward spiral is stopped. Within 2 hours she starts taking a little food. Her temperature remains too low but she can walk to go outside. It is noticed that when she is outside she seems better. (Her owner said, she has always been like this: she would prefer to be outside than come indoor. She is very sweet but she is such a stubborn animal, she does what she likes).
Even though she is hypothermic she picks up every time she goes outside. 12 hours later, she receives one dose of Carbo veg 10M, and within hours her temperature is normal again, her mucosae become more pink and she eats better. All other treatments are stopped. Over 3 weeks, she recovers completely (the abdominal fistula closes and all the adherences in the abdomen that could be palpated a few days after the surgery completely disappeared).
Five weeks after the surgery, her arthritis becomes a problem again. Before the surgery she had been taking NSAID's on a regular basis to control the pain. She had become like a pup again and did not stop playing and annoying the other dogs and had become disobedient again.
But the arthritis in her metacarpal joints started playing up. One dose of Carbo veg 10M and the pain in the joints disappears overnight. Two months later she starts limping again, this time the Carbo veg 10M only helps for 2 days. She is then prescribed Carbo veg 8C, which she needs every 2 -3 weeks to stop her limping (feed-back 8 months ago).
This case illustrates a few things about dilutions. The 10M dilution is a very good dilution in severe acute disease, when the choice of remedy is accurate. To continue benefitting from a remedy on chronic conditions, especially when the patient in general is very well, it is often rewarding to use a lower dose of the same remedy. Usually between 3C and 11C. The story of what dilution to go for is another one. I have been using Jean Lansmanne’s (Belgium) work to help choosing, which dilution to go for depending on what part of the body is affected. It is too early to write more about it but for those, who master the French language, they can buy his books (Un pas vers la comprehension des dynamisations homeopathiques.).
Book Review by Malene Jørgensen, France
Practical Handbook of Veterinary Homeopathy
Healing Our Companion Animals from the Inside Out Wendy Thacher Jensen
The target group according to the author is clearly enlightened animal owners, who want to know more about homeopathy and the way it can help their beloved pets. But in my views it is so much more.
This book is not for the average pet owner, who wants to have problems solved as quickly as possible without needing to know too much about the process. It will probably answer most if not all the questions, any pet owner would ever have about homeopathy as a subject but it also describes the process and especially the differences in the consultation process, diagnosis and treatment compared to conventional medicine. It is very thorough and
richly illustrated by case examples, which are being revisited throughout the book to illustrate the explanations of subjects within the realm of homeopathy. The author has with the book’s 10 chapters covered a lot of ground with at times difficult subjects from What is Health, Provings, The Complete Symptom, Posology and The Second Prescription through to more general subjects, such as Preparation of Medicines, The Intake Interview and Timeline. The last chapter describes briefly the important subject of Supportive Care including Are Vaccines Safe?, BARF and End-of-Life.
At times I think this book might be beyond most pet owners abilities or even desires of knowledge about homeopathy. Subjects such as Case Analysis, Concomitants, Repertorisation and Second Prescription might not be even relevant to them. But what it clearly does is to describe the process and not least the difficulties, the homeopathic vet faces every time, we have a case, describing the thought process and decisions and the dynamic of analysing the response from the patient and what to do next. Some of these subjects, I feel, often take homeopaths years to master and to burden an owner with this sort of information might not be necessary.
Having said that, the target group for the book may well be beyond pet owners. I think veterinary homeopathic students or even ‘new’ veterinary homeopaths will find a lot of information here, which can help them understand homeopathy more easily. Here they will find complicated subjects explained in plain English with examples in spades and that is not a bad thing, when you take on such a huge and at times complicated area of veterinary medicine.
I hope this book will be a tool for many wanting to be introduced to the subject, we all love, and however you choose to use it,
it is written in a way that makes it hard to put down, even if you think,
you know it all.
11