Page 4 - Spring 13

BAHVS President’s letter by Mark Elliott
Just as I thought I was going to have a quiet Presidency, with little controversy, the usual hassle arrives in the form of notice of yet another attack on our professional integrity.
One has to ask why do we have to spend so much time defending our position within the profession, and I know some would suggest we were better off outside of it?
However, for good or for ill we have to be registered with
the RCVS to be able to practice. It is there that a new
Science Committee is being formed; which idea started out life interest- ingly as a “Science and Ethics” committee – make of that what you will... At the March Council one of the Professors (10 consultancy appoint- ments to the pharmaceutical industry) announced he would be bringing a paper to that committee on Homeopathy as one of its first considera- tions. We do not know the content of that paper as yet, it may be support- ive but we can guess its direction. Timely therefore that we have been developing our database at www.homeopathicvet.org, and the commit- tee will work to have in place the effective data to be able to respond to this initiative as comprehensively as possible. We can learn from recent experiences of our US colleagues on this and our international links are something to be grateful for.
Why us again? Interestingly Professor Ernst was reported in VN Times in April as stating that both human and veterinary practitioners should learn from how homeopaths communicate with clients. “We need to bring the art of medicine back into conventional practice” he concluded. “Homeopaths are damned good at [patient/client] relationships and we are damned bad”. That same report quoted “The lecture highlighted the need for every kind of practitioner to focus on evidence-based medicine, and that we mustn’t be biased in our reading of literature or undertaking of clinical trials”. “and remember it’s down to client choice...”
So we have little to fear then and the rest have to fear us! Would that bias did not exist then such would be so.
Our Conference grows ever more interesting in light of this. The next few months are going to present interesting challenges but better to put our case now than to die a death
by a thousand cuts as we
have seen in the past.
We have a great line up of speakers at Conference this year to entertain and inform us, and it promises to be a great get together as always, if a little different in format. I look forward to see- ing you in Arundel.
WWT Arundel Wetlands Centre
“Homeopaths are damned good at [patient/client] relationships and we are damned bad”.
Prof. Edzard Ernst, quote from VN Times
BellisPerennisforSoftTissueTrauma bySaraFox-Chapman
Andrew was a 2 year-old intact keeshond under constitutional treatment for loose stools and mucus on the stools.
The stools were changeable, and worse after fatty meals. Andrew is a gentle dog, interested in getting attention, but allowing his larger housemate to push in front of him. He respond- ed very well to Pulsatilla in LM potency.
His caretaker had been putting off neutering Andrew because of his intestinal issues. I sug- gested that she leave him intact, as he has no behavioural issues, but she decided that she would prefer that he be neutered. He did well during the surgery, cold packs were applied to the incision area during recovery, and Arnica 30 C was administered twice in the post-op period. Andrew went home with instructions to give Arnica 30 C once or twice a day if needed for discomfort. Conventional analgesics were
offered, but the owner did not want them. Andrew went home and felt very good. He felt so good, in fact, that he chased squirrels in the back yard the day after surgery, contrary to dis- charge instructions. Later that day, it looked like he had testicles again because his scrotum had swollen; it was now larger than its pre-neuter- ing size. Andrew was walking with his legs spread out, but he was still perky, and the area was not painful on examination.
Andrew received a dose of Bellis perennis 30 C in the hospital, and went home with instructions to apply cool packs to the scrotum and to give Bellis perennis 30 C every 6 to 12 hours until the swelling was significantly decreased, or for five doses, whichever came first. The family lives almost an hour away, and
Andrew’s scrotal swelling had decreased to half the previous size by the time they reached home. One more dose returned the scrotal size to almost normal, and by the next day Andrew’s scrotum looked as it had before he went on squirrel patrol. The caretaker was delighted with the result, and much more careful to restrict Andrew’s activity until his suture removal!
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