Page 15 - Summer 19

A CASE OF
Chase is a 2-year-old Hungarian Visla who developed “hives” on his skin recently. This was not just a bit of a bump here and there but major, major bumps and lumps as you can see in the photos. It had already been present for 3 weeks but had been coming and going a little in that time.
He was otherwise a healthy dog and there was no obvious aetiology apart from a short holiday at the dog sitters 3 weeks ago?
The urticaria were on both sides of the body and were quite itchy. He was also licking at his feet. He normally would sleep in his owners bed and would have his body and head under the covers all night. He will also sit in the sun so is a chilly dog. He tolerates his bath but bathing the skin does not seem to help the urticaria or the itching. He
did get an ear infection after his desexing 3 months ago and this was treated by his local vet with some antibiotic/steroid ointment.
He is a sensible dog here for his examination- obedient and slightly nervous. There is a whitish discharge from his sheath but there was no irritation from this. He is a raw fed dog and he did vomit once 3 days ago.
In the initial repertorisation Rhus tox comes up in first place but we had very very limited useful homeopathic information. The rubrics used were all related too closely to be that helpful. As this had been going on for 3 weeks I was initially focused on giving a constitutional type of prescription and gave a one off dose of Calc-carb 200c. I sent him home with the Rhus-t as a more local remedy to take twice daily in a 6c potency.
These 2 medicines usually go well together, and the weather had been chilly, so I thought 2 chilly urticarial medicines may be appropriate.
Sometimes just making a start with homeopathic treatment is enough to bring out more useful symptoms as the vital force is stimulated.
The skin aggravated the first night, then the second day things were improved a little. Another 48 hours it was in general MUCH WORSE. I said to give the Rhus-tox 6c 4 times daily to see if it helped, however things got worse again and by the third day the owners were thinking of using some conventional treatment.
There was now a new strong modality I could use. The urticaria are WORSE AT NIGHT starting from about 8.30pm.
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