Edward De Beukelaer, DVM

<-- Interviewed by Elaine Lewis

Edward, I've been to your website and was impressed; you seem very accomplished! Would you like to be our next Homeopath in the Hotseat?

Yes of course! fire away.

Great! OK, Edward, prepare yourself for a stream of thought-provoking, challenging questions! Question #1. Who are you?

Ough ... well.

I'm sorry, that wasn't a very good answer. Let's try this, what is your name, or, alternatively, what do you do?

My name is Edward De Beukelaer and I graduated as a 'normal'(?) vet in 1986 in Belgium (Flemish speaking part of Belgium -- like the Dutch language). I spent 18 months in the UK (Wales) before moving to France where I worked for 13 years in mixed practice. In 1990, out of frustration with lack of possibilities to offer to clients, I discovered homeopathy--first through reading a book, which I did not understand; but, it made me realise there was something else out there.

I then enrolled in a 4 year course in Paris organised by a group of homeopathic vets. I discovered a strange mixture of unicist, pluralist and complexist homeopathy and quibbles between the teachers. It was all very exciting and I felt there was something really sound I was learning but I could not sucessfully use the 'different prescription techniques' I was taught. I must have been very motivated because most of my colleagues who started at the same time abandoned the courses before their finish.

After these four years of homeopathy, I floated in nowhere-land for 18 months until I enrolled in a school in Belgium (CLH- French speaking). Many of the first year students were in the same boat as I was. But this time things started to make sense and my first successful prescriptions arrived soon! The technique I learned there was based on the Synthesis repertorisation (in English, to the disgust of many of my French colleagues) and ideas from Masi but watered down to a usable veterinay/human type of homeopathy. (3/4 of the school members are doctors 1/4 are vets). The head of school (Marc Brunson) is a vet who keeps a low profile but is a regular speaker in all French/Spanish congresses in Europe and Canada. His concept of using what is peculiar in the substance to create some understanding of the remedy (now very much represented in Vermeulen's Prisma) has been very helpful to kickstart my grip on remedies.

Three years ago I moved to the UK where both my wife and I lost our hearts. I have taken on the occasion to establish myself as a classical homeopath.

Because I need to feed the family (5 children), I still work conventionally in a practice while my clientele slowly increases. In a way I like to keep in touch with conventional medicine. It has its own merits and can be used if this is in the interest of the patient. In my case, the patient cannot choose which type of medicine is presented to him. At the same time, this allows me to introduce homeopathy to people who are coming for conventional medicine. Although it is difficult to turn them completely alternative, successes make good publicity for the homeopathic cause. I am not against the use of conventional medicine (what really gets me cross is the widespread abuse and lack of respect). I am quiet happy for people to continue giving medicines to their animals until my prescriptions have proven that they can take over. This makes it more demanding on my prescriptions which I consider a good exercise. (Never forget: find what is strange, rare, peculiar, original in the patient, never forget, never forget, never...)

I don't use much other non-conventional techniques. Homeopathy gives me enough to study, filling my evenings (and brain). Also, a good homeopathic prescription is often sufficient to help the patient if basic hygienic conditions are ok.

I discovered the Hpathy.com site a few months ago and take some pleasure in posting the odd comment.

So you're a vet, then. Now Edward, I imagine you must feel at a disadvantage sometimes, as the Repertory is written for human beings; so, are you forever asking yourself, "Where do I find this animal symptom in the repertory?"

Yes and no. Although in veterinay homeopathy we listen to the owner, it is important to create a situation where they speak out freely so we can use exact words and phrases like in human homeopathy. In many cases it is only possible to use the mind symptoms as a confirmation or differential between other remedie(s) that have been selected based on modalities of physical symptoms. I think the trap of mental symptoms is the same in veterinary as in human medicine. I also make use of a thematic repertory (Loutan, Swiss homeopath, in French very Masi orientated and difficult to read but sometimes helpful following original remarks from owners). Recently I used Lac lupinum for a dog (with succes aparently, wait and see). The owner repeated at least three times during the consult that her dog had the look of a wolf when his occasional agressive/wild/strange behaviour/attitude came to the surface. He is normally a very well behaving, well educated golden retriever. Nothing very interesting came out of the consult. Because a similar disturbing wildness is present in one side of his family I thought that a milk remedy may well be of some use in this case. It is unusual for people to say that their dog has the look of a wolf where this animal has had a normal education. Since there was nothing else I thought this was worth a try. (I will let you know if the remedy works for more then a year, seriousness obliged.)

Anything goes, as long as you look for the unusual and rely on good sources.

Fears, sensitivities, "ailments from" can often be used. When characteristics like 'anger' anxiety and 'restlessness' can be modalised this can come very handy as well. Alternations and other modalities always come handy. Generally (I) we don't use too many symptoms and search for the symptoms that stand out for any particular reason.

To illustrate the above I will have to make some publicity for myself: I have put a book together titled: Homeopathy. What to expect? It is written for the general public and contains an introduction explaining homeopathy. The second part will be more interesting for you: It is a compilation of 101 veterinary cases already published in French by 17 different homeopaths which I translated into English to illustrate the workings of classical (veterinary) homeopathy. Some of the cases are real gems. (I hope it will be out in the next following weeks.)

Can we shift gears and talk about my son, Larry, (a German Shepherd)? Larry died in 1988. He was a real sweetheart; the whole neighborhood loved him, but he had a strange trait: he did NOT permit rambunctious behavior between two adults! For example, if you and I were to laugh real loud and I were to slap you on the shoulder, Larry would leap up, run over to us and bark sharply, as if to say, "Stop that! You can't do that! That was very bad!" And you would stop, needless to say! Another thing about Larry was, if you wanted him to do something, you had to ask politely! "Larry, would you please lie down? Thank you." And I would always have to explain to people that you had to have manners or Larry wouldn't like it. Actually, come to think of it, you couldn't even hit yourself! If you laughed and slapped your own knee or leg, he wouldn't permit that either. So, how would you translate this idea into repertory language and do you sometimes feel that animals aren't being well-served by not having a repertory of their own?

I will start by noting that the case is a little short (just to be on the safe side...) but let's see what we can use:

First: Larry is a German Shepherd: they are bred to control and keep order. Therefore part of his behaviour is normal. What is less normal that he even interferes when people get on well. This allows us to use 'dictatorial' (you said he is a real sweatheart: this increases the value of the rubric as a contrast). Second rubric we could use is 'flattered desired to be'. One could also use sensitive to rudeness (although this does not reflect exactly what happens but may give some ideas) and sensitive to moral impressions. I would not use 'mildness' because this is such a common symptom. A series of remedies come up: Aur-m-n, puls, sulf, med, lycop, pall and Nux. Based on the short text I go for nux v (although I would seriously consider pall). The fact that he even does not tolerate you slapping your own knees seems rather important, making the case for nux. (this needs to put into context to his general education.) (one dose of Nux v 200 ?)

One thing that is really important is not to select the first remedy that comes up in your repertorisation when using mind symptoms. Repertorisation is there to give you ideas. Although, one rule that seems to be relatively valuable is to always consider 'small' remedies that show up amongst polycrests.

It also depends on the species: the more they have spent time with humans (are close to humans) the more they seem to 'copy' us. Dogs and horses have very good mind symptoms, cats and cattle are a little more difficult, and so are rabbits and sheep.

Physical symptoms are very similar to human materia medica. We obviously lack the coloration of the skin and all the sensations but at the same time 'menses' can be used for 'heat' in animals although this does not reflect the same time in the female cycle.

You can use your imagination: if the symptom you want to use in the repertory 'reflects' what happens in your patient, go and have a look! One nice example is a case of diabetes in a dog that did not show the normal weight loss one always sees. My colleague (Marc Brunson) used Rectum, diarrhea, weakness without, to find Phos acid that turned the dog around (without insulin). Another rubric like 'homesickness' can be used for an animal that does not like any sort of change. It is the 'modality' that primes over the symptom.

I don't think we need a veterinary repertory. Such a work can certainly be of benefit (I think there is a project going on). But because of the amount of (tried) information there is in our repertories it would be silly to disregard them in veterinary medicine.

Separate veterinary and human homeopathy would be a mistake. I have so many times experienced how we can learn from human prescibers and how they can learn from us.

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