Page 9 - Winter 18

First define the playing field.
• Green Level – That is where we want to be. Good husbandry, lovely living environment, wonderful lifestyle, great diet, happy healthy pets.
• Amber Level – When things have moved away form this, but not yet got serious enough to need veterinary attention.
• Red Level – When things are getting serious and it is appropriate to seek veterinary attention.
The key point being that things never leap from Green to Red. There is a pathway. They go from Green to Amber to Red. Similarly, when they get better, they never go from Red to Green, they go from Red to Amber to Green.
Now consider the support that is given. I teach it this way:
raneous and comprehensive note taking (perhaps driven by the fear of litigation) encouraged me to up my game. Not wanting to do things by halves, I re-wrote the rules myself. Now the notes are much more comprehensive. In a typical check up there will now be a much more mineral like, orderly and complete overview of the current state of play including:
• Owners complaint description
• General state of the animal, condition score, ID chip, diet
• Examination in familiar Kentian style: MM pink, CRT <
2s, mouth & teeth good, nose ok, eyes ok, ears ok. LN fine. Abdo NAD, not pain or mass, HR 100 regular, no murmurs, RR 20 clear, no dyspnoea, coat good, mobility good. T 38.5
• Holistic snapshot: key homeopathic findings such as temperament, generalities & modalities.
• Notes of discussion of issues with owner
• Findings of any investigations such as blood samples,
urine tests, XRays
• PLAN: to include Red Level, Red Flags, Green Level,
Amber Level
• Next check date, followed by the all-important “or before
if worried”.
This really does not take long. I use a lot of prepared mate- rial to copy and paste, then do minor adjustments and addi- tions as needed. Similarly, it does not take long to scan through because I know what I am looking for and because the layout is consistent. I do the occasional comparison with the standard of notes by my colleagues and they have still got a way to go yet to catch up... Our ideal of a well recorded Total Symptom Picture is a standard to aspire to.
What has started to evolve is patient after patient, where there is a well documented, holistically orientated account of the LifePath of the pet, LifePaths where the pets have been gently steered away from the spiral of overzealous Red Level management toward a more subtle approach based on the magic of the minimum dose. As I tell the clients, the better they get at the Green and the Amber, the less time they will need to spend in the Red
Many years down the line my holistic goals and ethics stay just as strong. I feel ever more clear about how I am manag- ing the overall health of the pets. I always engage with owners to be part of the team. It is a combined effort and one with great satisfaction; plenty of ups and downs as ever in practice. But these now feed a deeper experience and understanding of the pets LifePath, rather than being seen as failures.
I no longer feel I am fighting the system rather the system is a subset of a larger holistic goal based on sound holistic principles. Ultimately I work to support the owners in cre- ating the ideal outcome of Optimum Health and Vitality for the pets in their care, which has to be good. n
See page 9 for Cinnamon’s Story – Traffic Lights Assessment
• Red Level – Always consider this first, this is the place where animals die and serious distress or dys- function can occur. Conventional medicine and surgery fits in really well here and can be very useful. Credit where credit is due.
• Red Flags – If there is currently no direct need for further Red Level action, then it is fine to carefully pull back while also putting some Red Flags in place for those “what if...?” scenarios so that you are pre- pared.
• Green Level – Here to review the Husbandry to ensure everything is in order. There may be a need for a bit of adjustment or tweaking.
• Amber Level – With all the above attended to, now look at the range of Natural Medicines, including homoeopathy that may be indicated.
In weaving together a treatment plan, all levels need to be considered and incorporated as appropriate. This does not need to take too long to do.
The other important aspect is to consider how this contin- ues to be monitored over a period of time. For many acute emergencies it may be several times an hour. For less severe problems, it may be daily for a few days. For chronic problems it may be over a longer time scale.
Another subtle shift has been the way that I write up my notes on the computer. My separate homeopathic notes had always been long hand and on paper. But the com- puter-ones for the practice were different. I look back only a few years and I would find things such as:
“Annual health check, going well”
“Lame LF, looks like sprain”
The corporate policy of ensuring/encouraging contempo-
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