| HOW TO BEGIN
While the real healing power of homeopathy lies in prescribing
for the chronic disease problems that we will speak of later, it
can also be very useful for acute problems and to evaluate the health
of animals treated with other modalities. Spend a few hours following
these steps and you, too can be putting those little sugar remedies
into animal’s mouths.
1. Study. Read the notes in this lecture. Take
an overview course or two (Drs. Chambreau, Epstein, Young and others).
Buy some of the books written to help you select remedies for animal
problems. Even they will tell you about the more in depth prescribing
and you can begin to study the elucidating principles of homeopathy.
Hamilton, Day, McLeod, Hunter, Westerhuis and Wolff cover the philosophy
as well as therapeutic materia medica.
2. Decide what category(ies) you will be treating
and study ahead of time.
a. Learn some remedies to help with routine problems
in your practice such as slow recovery from anesthesia, nervous
or panicked individuals, traumatic injuries, prolapsed rectums,
dystocia. While you will individualize some, you are prescribing
more on the condition. If the animal doesn’t respond well,
you will now realize that you have not individualized well enough
and will seek homeopathic coaching or treat conventionally.
b. Choose which remedies you want to start prescribing,
and study them, so you will
recognize a patient needing a particular remedy, regardless of the
illness.
c. Choose what conditions you want to treat, write
out all the symptoms you have seen in many animals, choose 2-10
remedies that most fit the generic problem, and learn some of the
differentiating characteristics of these remedies. This is called
the genus epidemicus approach to homeopathy and is often used to
find the remedies needed to treat epidemics. If the presenting animal
matches one of your selected remedies, you can offer homeopathic
treatment. If it does not seem a clear match, treat the way you
normally would.
3. Order remedies and books. If you are already
sure you will be practicing homeopathy for many years, you can save
money by ordering kits of remedies, better books and programs.
4. Be clear on how to evaluate the response to a remedy
and how you will decide to wait, repeat the same remedy or choose
a new remedy or potency. Remember that waiting is usually the best
thing to do.
5. Learn obstacles to being able to stay healthy
or to be cured. Vaccination, nutrition, emotional and environmental
factors can hinder a cure, as can a client who demands that symptoms
go away fast and cannot be patient. The vaccinations seem the most
harmful, so read the many articles and books available. Definitely
do not vaccinate while an animal is under treatment – vaccine
inserts do say “for use in healthy animals only.” Nutritionally,
a fresh diet is ideal - raw meat and bones, grated or pureed vegetables
and fruits, and maybe overcooked carbohydrates.
Once you have done your homework (studied, ordered a few books
and remedies) you are ready to treat your first case. Even from
the beginning, train yourself to look at the whole animal, not just
the presenting complaint.
1. How is the animal acting now? Ask the owner how she normally
acts when not sick.
2. Notice any odors, discharges, and temperature of the skin on
torso and extremities.
3. Perform a complete physical exam and record all findings quantitatively.
Do any diagnostic procedures indicated by your in-depth physical
exam.
4. Characteristic symptoms are ones that make you hesitate,
that do not fit the picture that is contrary to what you would expect.
Examples include gastritis that is better from eating a large meal,
itching eruption that gets better with scratching, a lameness that
is better with exercise or better from cold damp weather, or symptoms
that occur periodically (every 7th day, every 4PM, annually), etc.
They make you say, “What? Really?”
5. General characteristics (traits) of the patient include:
temperature preferences, moods and personalities, affected by seasons
or weather conditions, mental aberrations, tendency to discharges,
swellings, suppurations, appetite tendencies. If the acute diarrhea
has occurred after a change in the weather from warm to cold, you
would be able to narrow your remedy selection.
6. Common symptoms that will not be as helpful in the remedy
search would be itching red skin, vomiting hairballs, food or clear
froth, being a "nice" animal, blood tests, stiffness,
liking a certain brand of food, description of the tissue pathology,
etc.
7. List all the symptoms with their quantification.
8. Use the abbreviated homeopathic veterinary books, and/or my remedy
and disease notes that follow, to select the closest match.
9. Decide on potency (probably the only one you have on hand) and
administer the remedy.
10. Schedule a follow-up appointment, even if this is your own or
a staff person’s animal. Be sure to write down what you do
and why.
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