The Use of Homeopathy in Livestock and Horses

Transcription

1 The Use of Homeopathy in Livestock and Horses National Center for Homeopathy January 3, 2013 Glen Dupree, DVM homeopathyfortheanimals.com

2 Cases Not the typical cherry picked cases that really are designed to wow the program participants but a collection of the cases typical of a farm based practice A good working knowledge of the differential aspects of the common acute and emergency remedies will take you past most cases Some cases will be complete enough and deep enough to necessitate the need for a full intake, case analysis, and materia medica study

3 Cases: Pink Eye

4 Cases: Pink Eye Cow/calf on west coast at weaning time had an outbreak of Pink Eye. The calves were separated with heifers in one pen to be evaluated for replacement stock and the bulls in another to be preconditioned for feeder steers Symptoms appeared in the bull pen first followed by a slighter involvement in the heifer pen Symptoms were common inflammation of the conjunctiva, tearing, squinting, light sensitivity

5 Cases: Pink Eye The producer had taken some classes in homeopathy and had begun treatment with Euphrasia The clinical calves were separated and given Euphr 200c once daily since more individualized assessment was not possible (too many involved, people also harvesting row crops and getting the last hay in) Non-clinical calves were treated with Euphr 30c once weekly as a preventative

6 Cases: Pink Eye In the bull pen, the infection became more aggressive in some of the calves and no longer responded to the Euphr I was called in to help them evaluate the situation and to look for a deeper acting remedy With these calves, the cornea ulcerated and dissolved to Descemet s membrane in some cases, the discharge became more purulent and the pain increased especially in bright light. Also these calves began to show a rapid deterioration in overall condition and health

7 Cases: Pink Eye 1 EYE - ULCERATION - Cornea - destructive 5 2 EYE - INFLAMMATION - Conjunctiva - chronic 20 3 EYE - DISCHARGES - purulent 72 4 EYE - PAIN - light; from - agg. 47 caust. ars. arg-n. con. puls. merc. bell. euphr. graph. sil. sulph. Syph : : : :

8 Cases: Pink Eye Taking into account the general deterioration of the calves in conjunction with the eye symptoms, we opted to treat with Ars 200c daily Ideally we would have used eye patches or third eye lid flaps to protect the ulcerated cornea but there was not a local veterinarian available Calves began to show considerable improvement in both general condition and eye symptoms within a week By the end of the second week, most symptoms had resolved except the residual pathology

9 Cases: Pink Eye In these calves we lost the vision in some but didn t lose any eyes. The loss of an eye would likely have resulted in a reduction of market price but the blindness probably would not.

10 Cases: Cows with a Cough

11 Cases: Cows with a Cough Cows on a small Amish hand-milked dairy developed a chronic cough that had been treated with some success with an herbal combination The herbs had become too expensive to continue since they were not resolving the cough

12 Cases: Cows with a Cough Farmer described the cough this way Non-Productive Only at the morning milking when cows were first made to stand Worse on first motion Worse when outside and resolved when they got into the milking parlor Initially the cough was so hard, it caused the cows to abort

13 Cases: Cows with a Cough 1 FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX - ABORTION - cough agg. 3 2 COUGH - NIGHT - midnight - after 50 3 COUGH - RISING - agg COUGH - MOTION - agg COUGH - AIR; IN OPEN - agg. 63 rumx. ars. phos. bry. ferr. bar-c. nit-ac. acon. lach. nux-v. calc : : : : :

14 Cases: Cows with a Cough On this case I violated one of my basic rules by being influenced by the first rubric that was really too small to be valid. I thought that it was so weird that the cough was enough to cause an abortion that the remedy had to be in there so I had him dose with Rumex 30c once daily. Rumex not only read well for the abortion but also for the modalities of the cough He was left with instructions to call in 7-10 days

15 Cases: Cows with a Cough Finally after 3 weeks I heard back from the farmer who said he cows were still coughing I asked if anything had changed or if the situation was still the same He said there were major changes in that the cows were now only coughing when they were in the milking parlor in the morning. As soon as they stepped out into the open air the cough stopped

16 Cases: Cows with a Cough Based on this new modality we changed the remedy to Pulsatilla One dose of Puls 30c daily had the cough under control within a week and completely gone within 2 weeks

17 Cases: Calves with Shipping Fever

18 Cases: Calves with Shipping Fever Backgrounding operation in the Dakotas that processed head of feeder stock at each cycle Heavy losses to both lost production and mortality due to shipping fever as these cattle were gathered, mixed, shipped across the country, then had everything under the sun done to them upon arrival (tagging, implanting, deworming, branding, vaccinating, dipping, and prophylactic antibiotics)

19 Cases: Calves with Shipping Fever The symptoms were a high fever, profuse clear and ropy nasal discharge, and a persistent cough within days of coming to the facility This was clearly an Aconite case. The manager was told to mix Aconite 1M in a garden sprayer and to mist the cattle in the chute as they were being unloaded and worked initially. This was to be repeated each time the group was worked through the chute

20 Cases: Calves with Shipping Fever He reported over a 50% decrease in the incidence of shipping fever as well as an increased profit from the lower mortality rate and the speed of recovery The ironic part of this venture is that the manager s wife was a practicing homeopath who never realized the medicine could be used in cattle

21 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra

22 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra Dairy cow was a week postpartum and had developed a pyometra from a retained placenta The farmer was going to infuse her with a calendula and saline mix to clean out the uterus after having her started on an herbal mix The cow was less than cooperative moving, kicking, and switching her tail every time the farmer tried to pass the pipette

23 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra At this point the cow was probably in a Sepia state but the farmer didn t recognize it He lost his patience and was determined to pass the pipette regardless of what the cow was doing He succeeded not only in passing the pipette through the cervix into the uterus but he continued until the uterine wall was punctured, releasing the pus from the uterus into the abdominal cavity of the cow

24 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra The farmer called the local vet the next day. On exam the cow was humped up in the back, dull in the eyes with drooping ears, a subnormal temperature, and free pus in the abdominocentesis The vet said there was nothing that he could do and that the cow should be put down This bit of desperation prompted the farmer to call the homeopath

25 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra At this point I didn t think anything could be done to save the cow but we didn t have anything to lose The only one of the septicemia type remedies the farmer had besides Ars (which I didn t think fit very well) was Pyrogenium. This was actually my first choice but I didn t expect him to have the remedy We started twice daily doses of Pyro and within a day or two the cow s temp came up and the appetite returned After several more doses her back leveled out and the vaginal discharge returned

26 Cases: Cow with a Complicated Pyometra At this point it looked to me like the cow had returned to her previous Sepia state We dosed her once with Sepia and infused her with the calendula solution The vaginal discharge disappeared and I lost contact with the farmer at this point.