Page 14 - Winter 16

continued from p11
1994) states:- “Putrid phenomena. Septic conditions; prophylactic of pus infections.” “Marked effect on blood...Ecchymoses and haemorrhages. Relaxed blood vessels, black and blue spots. Tendency to haemorrhage and low-fever states. Tendency to tissue degeneration, septic conditions, abscesses that do not mature. “Thrombosis”. “Great prostration; tired feeling. Discharges are FOUL”. Also “recurring boils”.
Rectal symptoms include “Straining of tenesmus in diarrhoea. Stools; offensive, brown, bloody, putrid, involuntary”. It has use in fevers also: “Febrile symptoms closely related to typhoid Fever; intermittent; typhoid; septic; traumatic”. Its fever state is similar to Baptisia, but this feels ill, while Arnica feels well. This is represented in the rubrics: MIND: Indifference: Fever – during; MIND – Irritability: – sends – doctor home, says he is not ill; MIND: Obstinate- nothing the matter with him, declares there is; MIND: Well; – says he is well- sick; when very. This patient was actually, although clearly very sick, still remarkably well considering just how severe the pathology was when we examined the abdomen surgically. Perhaps this is a clue to us for the use of Arnica in our patients, when the debility seems less than expected given the problem.
In Generals, Arnica can be found in GENERALS: Blood – disorganisation (18 remedies); GENERALS: Discharges- offensive, fetid (10 remedies); various haemorrhage rubrics (including – blood- black; blood-dark; and –tendency to). It is also one of 46 remedies in the rubric GENERALS: Malaria, and one of 108 in GENERALS: Septicaemia. I am sure there are many others, but one more interesting and important one is GENERALS: Septicaemia, blood poisoning- prophylaxis for pus infections (= to prevent this condition) (1 remedy). This emphasises the usefulness of Arnica in any surgical procedure involving dirty wounds, and potential post-surgical infections in procedures, such as pyometra or enterotomy.
Crotallus horridus
A rather contrasting picture compared to the previous Arnica picture! There is a hidden sepsis to Arnica’s drug picture that would be hard to guess from the peaceful beauty of its radiance. Not so with the rattlesnake – this snake oozes menace and danger. Just one look at it would lead you to the conclusion that it would be of use in serious states of health! The toxin is mainly haemotoxic, and bites result in oedema and swelling; considerable and fairly instantaneous burning pains; dizziness and weakness with sweating; and ecchymoses and reduced blood platelets. The latter is reflected in the following Synthesis rubric:
GENERALS; Laboratory findings – Platelets – decreased (9): bell-p. colch. crot-h. iod. kreos. lat-m. lyc. penic. x-ray.
Referring again to Concordant Materia
Medica, it states the sphere of action of Crotalus horridus to include “Low septic states. General disorganisation of the blood, haemorrhage and jaundice”. “Blood decomposition, haemorrhages [dark fluid that forms no clots]”. “HAEMORRHAGES are slow, oozing, of dark thin blood ...”. “Putrid and MALIGNANT conditions. Dark or bluish parts. Septic conditions ...”. “Petechiae. Gangrene.” “Bleeding from all orifices”.
Fever symptoms stated include “Malignant fevers of a haemorrhagic or putrescent character”. Female symptoms include “Uterine haemorrhage and faintness at stomach”. “Puerperal fever; offensive lochia”.
In Synthesis Veterinary Repertory (Treasure edition), extracted from Radar software, Crot-h is also present in the two rubrics GENERALS: Blood – complaints of the (10 remedies) and GENERALS: Blood- disorganisation (18 remedies). Interestingly (and perhaps there are additions made in later versions of Radar), there is only one other snake in these rubrics, which is the ubiquitous Lachesis. It would seem logical that many others should be in these rubrics too. Crotalus horridus is also present in the rubrics GENERALS: Haemorrhage – blood – dark (65 remedies) and Haemorrhage – blood – black (42 remedies).
Dechacords, that wonderful little memory booster of a book, talks of “Adynamic conditions in general, especially low, malignant fevers; great prostration” and “Haemorrhagic tendencies; from any or all orifices”. “Septicaemic states; zymotic [= infectious] or septic poisonings; prolonged suppurations; gangrenous tendencies, discharges putrid; septic conditions of abdomen when pus retained”.
I did not repertorise this case. Arnica was an obvious choice, not only as a routine post- surgery/soft tissue trauma support, but also because of its wonderful action in low septic states as outlined above. I was, however, unsure which remedy to give after this. It seemed logical to give a snake remedy, given
the general blood related issues going on, but which? Perhaps any one of the haemorrhagic snake remedies could have been equally effective, and I must be very honest and say that I could not really say, why I chose Crotalus over, for example, Lachesis, at the time. It is one of those cases, when it was an instinctive prescription rather than an overtly analytical one, and for this I make no apology – we should all be aware of instinctive wisdom, which is too easily ignored. The combination of the very low energy state, and the general dark haemorrhage, made me choose Crotalus horridus. Its specific effect on platelets was unknown to me when prescribed, but would have been additional confirmation of the remedy choice.
Conclusion
So what worked? Was it the surgery? The Arnica? The steroid? The antibiotics? The Crotalus? The fluids? My answer is probably yes to all of these. We always want such clear- cut cases, where there has been a dramatic response by a patient to a single intervention, so we can clearly attribute the improvement to a specific therapy. Crumble was too ill for this luxury. However, my own feeling is that Crotalus horridus was a beautiful remedy for this case, which is why I decided to share it with you. Whether she would have fully improved with this treatment alone, I shall never know. However, she is now a really happy and well dog, and I believe she would not have made such a good recovery from such a perilous state without homeopathy.
12
References
Concordant Materia Medica Frans Vermeulen) (1994)
Dechacords (Arranged by A. Gladstone Clarke) (1925)
Kirk’s Current Veterinary Therapy XV (Bonagura and Twedt) (2014) Radar 10.5.003 (Synthesis Treasure Edition – Vet (F. Shroyens) Snakes- Drawing Power from the Underworld (Peter Fraser) (2009) Synoptic Reference – The First 500 Remedies
(Frans Vermeulen) (2012)
http://coursewareobjects.elsevier.com/