First, my apology for the second email you got about the newsletter that seemed almost a duplicate. I am just not that techno savvy.

 The purpose of this newsletter is to empower you to keep your animals healthy - and yourselves healthy, too. This newsletter is sent to people who have requested it and can be shared as long as attributed to me. 

  WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT? 

I would love to print letters that you would like to share with other holistically oriented animal partners.  Send what has worked for you, what you have done that did not work as well, and wonderful stories about your animal family. 

FEBRUARY 2013 INDEX

1.      Classes

2.      Holistic Perspectives

3.      News

4.      Monthly case

CLASSES

May Homeopathy
Finally I am teaching a completely series of homeopathy for animals classes - on the West Coast. Mark your calendar, even though the details are not yet in place.

1.      Where? Vancouver , British Columbia.

2.      When? May 2013

11 - Sat - Introduction  

1. 7 Keys to True Health
2. Feeding the best
3. Vaccination issues
4. Evaluation of response to any treatments
5. Healing modalities you can do yourself, including homeopathY
6.  Creating a healing team to add in other modalities

12 - Sun - Introduction to Homeopathy for Animals

1.  History
2.  preparation of remedies
3.  Basic principles
4.  Overview of case taking, case analysis, potency selection, evaluation of response.
5.   First aid remedies

13-17 - Beginning Homeopathy for Animals

1. 13 - case taking,
2. 14 - Repertory study - how to use this human oriented book for animals.
3. 15 - case analysis, remedy selection, material medica & potency selection,
4. 16 - evaluation of response
5. 17 - Review the whole process - with your cases

d.      20 - 24 Advanced Homeopathy for Animals

          Topics s till to be determined. This course will be tailored to the people who register for it. We will work with your cases, and with the areas of trouble you have. We will review all the basic steps. Dr. Willow Moore, a Naturopathic Doctor and Chiropractor, will teach a few days, bringing an entirely new depth to the class.

Please contact the course organizer, wonderful Jane Bowers, at jebowers@dccnet.com
Or email or call me.

Harrisburg, PA - June date TBA - Kristin Acri is scheduling an introduction to homeopathy. If you live in this area, let her know what classes you wish, and she will schedule them. Kristen.acri@gmail.com

Baltimore area holistic classes - check out www.AnimalReikiAlliance.com

2. HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVES

Key to health - Review of responses to treatment - cure, palliation and suppression

Your dog has diarrhea. Do you give herbs, conventional anti-diarrhea drugs and anti-biotics, a homeopathic remedy, Chinese herbs, fast, essential oils, flower essences or something else?

Your cat has been scratching her ears for a week. Do you assume it is an ear infection, or mites, or do you go to the holistic or conventional veterinarian for a diagnosis? Once diagnosed, do you follow herbalist Juliette de Baircle Levy's ear mite protocol, Dr. Pitcairn's nutritional and herbal protocol, give a constitutional homeopathic remedy, use acupressure to boost the immune system, or a treatment from the internet that many people report has helped dramatically?

Your stiff horse has been seen for a chiropractor for 6 months, and while there is some improvement, you can only ride him at a walk and trot. Since he is better, do you continue with this treatment, or select a different approach?

As you read this newsletter and peruse its links, read books and talk to fellow animal guardians, some of you may become very confused as to what really is the best approach to health for your animals.  Some of you are very clear about your choices until an illness occurs and your current approach is not working. Then you are faced with multiple choices.

Evaluating how your animal responds to different foods, environments and treatments is the most challenging aspect to health care. We have been so trained to focus on the current problem and be satisfied when it is resolved that frequent reminders of how we become ill and how we heal are needed to keep us on track. Don Hamilton's Homeopathic Care of Cats and Dogs has two great chapters on this, the Healthy Animal's Journal has a few pages, and most holistic books address this issue. The case examples in the newsletter in 2013 will also help review evaluation of response to treatment.

The most important evaluation makes complete common sense - does your companion feel better? Is there increased energy, willingness to go on longer walks, jumping on high places, going up steps easily, etc. Is your companion emotionally stronger? Does she smile, wag her tail more, wiggle like a puppy, purr more, want petting and grooming, play well with others, etc?

If limping stops, but overall there is worsening or no improvement, the treatment or lifestyle choice is not the best. If limping is better, though not completely resolved, yet overall there is improvement, continue on this path, maybe adding in something else.

The curative goal happens when the susceptibility to illness is eliminated or changed so the animal remains healthy-or becomes healthier. Animals treated successfully usually stay alert, agile, interactive and relatively symptom-free until they have a final illness and die within a short time. This is a goal worth striving for.

Now we will be specific about possible outcomes to treatment.

There are a few responses to giving a remedy: nothing, worsening of current problems, partial response, palliation (temporary help), suppression (more serious diseases appear), and curative response.

CURE
A curative response will first have the animal feeling a bit better and maybe some of the symptoms will resolve. A few days later, the symptoms may worsen, yet the animal still feels great and the symptoms will resolve. Old symptoms from the past (this is why you must keep a journal to track symptoms from the first moment your animal joins your family). These will be mild and short lived if they really are a curative response. There will be an increase in overall energy level and well-being, even as old symptoms recur and more superficial ones appear. Treatment will be needed less and less often and, once cured, no further treatment will be needed unless there is severe mental or physical trauma, or continuing environmental or diet effects weakening the animal. 

Karen Cohen speaks on what to look for in horses for a cure with homeopathy (this would apply for other treatments as well). "When the correct homeopathic medicine is administered, there will be a response that will reverberate on all levels. Physical health can be restored and the emotional state of the horse is balanced so stress and fear is minimized and well-being is enhanced." http://hpathy.com/veterinary-homeopathy/cases/classical-constitutional-homeopathy-for-horses/

 PARTIAL CURE
Some symptoms get better, but not all the way. If using homeopathy, it is probably the wrong remedy. "On the basis of the presenting symptom I prescribed Kali Bi 30c one dose and she had a bad aggravation of the salivation for a couple of days. A month later the excessive salivation had reduced considerably, but she was still a bit frothy round the mouth and was still gassy and distended and very hot. Although there was improvement I did not feel there was complete healing."  A month after a dose of Argenticum nitricum all symptoms had resolved. http://hpathy.com/veterinary-homeopathy/cases/jack-russell-with-slimy-saliva/

 Another example of the search for the correct remedy is presented by Dr. Peter Gregory. Read this for how a close but not similar remedy will cause the horse to respond partially - http://hpathy.com/veterinary-homeopathy/cases/from-local-to-similimum/

 The same applies to any treatment. If your cat has a rodent ulcer on the lips and you try Reiki, and the ulcer heals but he still vomits hairballs and has trouble jumping onto the bed, it is a partial cure and additional treatment, maybe chiropractic or TCVM is needed.

A 12 year old cat was diagnosed with liver cancer and the veterinarian strongly recommended euthanasia. The cat slowly improved with a few doses of homeopathic Phosphorus, then developed a huge blister under her chin and other skin issues which did not bother her at all. She ate well, played more energetically than in a long time. Since feeling better is a sign of cure, waiting was the best course of action. Over the course of a week, it resolved completely. She lived another 5 years, dying at 17 years.

PALLIATION
Palliation is a temporary help, when a treatment must be continued to prevent the symptoms, and there is no evidence of increased well being, or the symptoms quickly resolve yet return, unchanged, or slightly more severe, weeks or months after the treatment ceases. There is no return of old symptoms (the energetic house cleaning that happens with a cure). There are certainly times it is fine to palliate, at least temporarily.  Treatments need to be continued at the same frequency (chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, HTA, flower essences, steroids, antihistamines, thyroid medication, etc.) indicating they are merely addressing the symptoms, not the underlying imbalance in the quantum field.

Too often we settle for palliation and that can shorten life spans and joy of living. When an itching dog is given antihistamines, and there is no improvement in the overall health, and the itching starts right after the antihistamines stop, that is palliations. If there were no early warning signs and the dog was healthy in every other way, and the itching did not return, then this palliation was fine. If the itching returned annually, always to be helped by the antihistamine, this palliation is not bad, but you are missing a chance to improve health at a deeper level.

Isis, a Bengal cat, had chronic coughing since 6 weeks of age that was non-responsive to conventional treatment. The coughing continued, sometimes being helped by the drugs, though nothing helped her low energy. That is Palliation. She continued to weaken, so that when her vaccines were continued (vaccines should not be given in the face of this ill health), had to be admitted to the hospital for oxygen with a severe asthma attack. She was eventually cured when the owner sought homeopathic care.

Giving remedies for weeks or months is usually an indication you are not curing. An exception to this may be when there is severe tissue pathology, like a case of congenital renal aplasia in a Belgian Malinois still under treatment by Glen DuPree - http://hpathy.com/veterinary-homeopathy/cases/a-case-of-congenital-renal-aplasia-in-a-belgian-malinois/ (This so demonstrates the power of homeopathy.)

 Boo was an 18 year old chow, who had always been holistically treated. Now she was incontinent, dribbling every time she moved and soaking the bed pads and diapers at night. Various integrative treatments, including acupuncture, Reiki, flower essences, drugs, chiropractic and Bowen had not helped. There were few other symptoms. She was active, ate well, had only a little matter in the morning in her eyes, definitely preferred warm weather or heating pads and was grumpy (new) with the other animals. Carefully prescribed homeopathic remedies helped lessen the amount of dribbling and night incontinence, but it would return when the remedy was stopped. Combining some herbs and using a very low potency twice a day of the remedy kept her dry as long as they were continued. She stopped being grumpy but the eye discharge and craving for warm persisted. We helped, but could not cure her completely. At her age, this was acceptable, though they continued to try other options.

SUPPRESSION
We want to avoid this. The symptoms rapidly resolve (which makes the untrained person happy) but the energy field is weakened and we see more serious ailments. There is no general improvement, not return of old symptoms and at some point the animal presents with a more serious illness. The challenge is that if an energy field is weak, it may take months to mount the new illness, so we do not recognize the connection. You could then confuse suppression with palliation, as symptoms quickly resolve with no overall improvement with both responses to treatment. A cure or moving towards cure is our goal, so if that is not happening, try something else.

We frequently see suppression when using conventional medicine and call it side effects. A dog given steroids for bad arthritis develops liver disease. A cat treated with drugs for feline endocrine alopecia develops diabetes. A horse treated for diarrhea develops laminitis.

A dog treated with homeopathy for itchy skin of years' duration stopped itching in 10 minutes (too short a time for true healing), showed no other positive changes and in a week began to growl and bite the children (more serious illness). A new remedy was given, the aggression stopped and the skin slowly became less itchy over the next few weeks and months.

 DIRECTION OF CURE
One indication that a cure is happening is that new symptoms appear from top to bottom, inside to outside, and in reverse order of symptoms. This is referred to as "Hering's Law of Cure. An animal may have an itchy eruption, be suppressed with steroids, and progress to IBD or asthma. If this patient is experiencing a curative response, the asthma resolves first, then there will be diarrhea, maybe even severe, along with general increased well-being. As the IBD resolves, itching or other skin symptoms may appear, again along with well being. This is an example of disease symptoms disappearing in the reverse order of their occurrence.

This is only one clue of the healing response because it can be confusing. If a rescue dog had very severe ear problems before you welcomed him into your home, and you begin treating him for very severe interdigital pyoderma (infection between the toes) you may think you are suppressing when the toes clear and the ears become horrible (cure should move from top to bottom). Yet this was an example of reverse order of symptoms, so was a clue of healing.

MOST IMPORTANT
We are back to the first clue - Does your companion feel better, physically and emotionally?

PRACTICE
the best way to understand this is to practice, so I invite you to submit a brief synopsis of your animal's health progress and I will post them on the blog. You state if cure, partial cure, suppression, palliation or nothing happened after each type of treatment, and I will comment on your evaluation. One or more will be included in future newsletters.

3. NEWS

1.      New enforcement of DEA policy limits ability of veterinarians. In October 2012, AVMA began to work with DEA to make an exception about where controlled substances can be used (needed for euthanasia, some anesthesia and large animal work). California has begun to enforce the rule that says you have to register the place a controlled substance is used. Certainly does not work for mobile vets and large animal practitioners. This is a great motivator to treat your animals curatively from day one, as they will be less likely to need controlled substances.

2.      And another reason to pursue holistic health practices (some that can come from your own garden) - a tax has been levied on medical "equipment" such as scalpels, IV tubes, etc. This was not intended for veterinarians, but we buy from the same source, so are getting the tax. Keep your animals healthy!  Keep exploring how to do this!!

 

4. February case
Baby was a 9 year old cat who licked her belly raw. Each time she was given a long acting steroid injection it would heal and the hair grow back. At first it happened once a year, then more frequently until now she needed injections every 6 weeks. She had no other major illnesses, though was beginning to act her age, having less energy.

Next month I will give you the answers: Is this cure, palliation or suppression. What would you have done the first time she licked herself raw? Could you have done something to prevent even the first occurance?

Next month we will review feeding the best diet, now that you can evaluate which diet actually makes your animal feel the best!

Rest of topics for 2013
April: Homeopathy - the power to deeply heal - and a reminder to come to Vancouver BC for great classes in May.
May: End of life - death can be a wonderful new door; hospice care
June: Parasites - benefits of them as a clue to health; Heartworm, fleas, ticks
July: Preventing future health issues by using the early warning signs
August:  Vaccine update
September: Dental health - multiple approaches
October: Chinese Food therapy - individualizing your animal's diet
November : New technologies - ozone, hyperbaric chambers, laser, stem cell therapy
December : Detoxification for horses, dogs, cats and people.

Each month I will present a case for you to decide if the treatment was curative, palliative or suppressive and why. Send me your answers and I will comment on them in a future newsletter.