Do drugs cure diseases or do they merely suppress symptoms?
What happens when you suppress symptoms? Will new symptoms appear? Will they be worse? Is that what we call side effects?
What can I give my patients that doesn't have side effects?
Those were some of the questions running through my mind. I’ve been practicing conventional veterinary medicine for years but I was starting to question my effectiveness as a veterinarian, as a doctor, as a healer. Was I really healing or was I merely suppressing symptoms?
And when you start to question ideas, concepts, and practices, your mind opens itself up to new possibilities and new theories. That’s how I discovered homeopathy. And that’s how my veterinary world of treating animals changed...for the better.
Homeopathy, as I learned and continue to study, is about healing, about curing the dis-ease. It’s about valuing the individual patient with an array of symptoms. It’s about being able to decipher the concomitants and peculiarities to create a picture of the patient in my mind, and to then be able to find a homeopathic remedy specific to this particular patient at this particular moment with these particular symptoms creating this particular discomfort.
Homeopathy is NOT about prescribing an herb, a probiotic, or a “natural” drug.
Homeopathy is an evidence based scientific method of treating a dis-eased patient by looking closely at the totality of the symptoms as well as the reason WHY this patient has fallen ill.
Haven’t you wondered why some animals get sick and others don’t? In a litter of puppies some grow up strong and healthy and live way into their teens, while others are weak, riddled with recurrent ear infections, skin problems, and mobility issues. Some pets in the same household are strong and vibrant while others are always visiting the vet.
Some of these differences can be attributed to nutrition...and if your pet is eating processed food, expect to visit your vet often. But even if the nutrition is the same, the preventative maintenance is the same, all other environmental influences are the same, animals (and people) will get different dis-eases and respond to treatments differently. Why is that???
It’s because each patient is DIFFERENT!!! and should thus be treated differently. This is what homeopathy does for the patient….individualized medicine, not disease based medicine.
For example, Sophie (a 9 week old German Shepherd puppy) was playing with her much older and bigger Labrador sister. The Lab plows into Sophie, who tumbles across the floor, gets up and is now holding up her front left leg. She cries a little but is back to playing, because she has three other legs that are just fine. She continues to limp on that left front leg for days and the owner seeks veterinary advice.
Maggie, on the other hand, is a 9 week old German Shepherd puppy who is playing with her much older brother Jack, a Jack Russel. They tussle and run around the back yard chasing each other. All of a sudden Maggie cries a little and holds up her left front leg but goes back to playing. She continues to limp on that left front leg for days and the owner seeks veterinary advice.
Both clients have 9 week old puppies with lameness issues in the left front leg.
When seeing their conventional vet, both pups have xrays taken of the front legs which do not show any abnormalities. They are both started on anti-inflammatories, neuropathic painkillers, probiotics, and antibiotics for 14 days. This is called disease or diagnosis based conventional medicine.
After the 14 days, the limp has not resolved and both owners seek the advice of a veterinary orthopedist who diagnoses the pups with Osteochondritis and recommends further diagnostics with possible arthroscopy. Again the thought process of diagnosis based medicine.
Fortunately, both owners also bring their pups to me for a homeopathic consult. I take a detailed intake to determine the differences in the pups, because with homeopathy I treat the patient NOT the dis-ease. I don’t care if the pups have been diagnosed with Osteochondritis Dissicans, Inflammation in the joint, or “Puacchicu” Joint Disease. I care about each patient’s personality traits, environmental influences, and peculiarities. Based on my findings I prescribe a different remedy for each pup.
A week later both pups are back to playing without any limping.
Moreover, the homeopathic remedy did not suppress the symptoms, did not cause any side effects, and did not negatively alter the microbial gut flora.
I’m happy to know that I have upheld my Hippocratic Oath of “primum non nocere” (first do no harm).
Leave your questions, concerns, or confusions in the comment section below. Want to have YOUR pet seen by me? Contact me through my website.