The Use of Homeopathy in Livestock and Horses

The Use of Homeopathy
in Livestock and Horses
National Center for
Homeopathy
January 3, 2013
Glen Dupree, DVM
homeopathyfortheanimals.com
Cases: Mangalitsa Sow with Mastitis
Cases: Sow with Mastitis
A Mangalitsa (heritage lard type hog) sow
farrowed an average sized litter but by the next
day was not nursing them
Her right mammary chain was red, hot, swollen
and very painful. The change happened
overnight
The left chain looked normal
Whenever the piglets would try to nurse the sow
would vocalize then move away from the
suckling pigs
Cases: Sow with Mastitis
Because of the suddenness, intensity, and redness
of the symptoms the sow was given Belladonna
200c
By that afternoon the tenderness and redness had
begun to subside and the sow was letting the
piglets nurse but was still protective of the right
mammary chain
Another dose the next morning set things right
None of the piglets were lost to malnutrition and
the producer did not have to bottle raise them
Cases: Obese Sow with Inflamed Ear
Cases: Sow with Inflamed Ear
The token pig on the Audubon State Commemorative
Area’s “farm” was a grossly overfed, overweight,
obnoxious sow who always had corn in the trough in
front of her (visitors didn’t like to see a hungry animal
according to the curator)
The crew arrived one morning to find this 600-700# sow
running in a frenzy with her head tilted to the side.
When she got up enough speed she would lower her
head and plow the ground with that ear
The ear on that side was bright red and swollen to more
than a ½ inch thickness
Cases: Sow with Inflamed Ear
Much like the symptoms of the previous sow’s udder, this
pigs ear showed the symptoms of Belladonna. She was
also irritable and aggressive if anyone approached her
This “farm” was without facilities to hold or restrain the
pig so we mixed up the Bell 1M in a spray bottle and
dowsed her as she went skidding by
The change was almost instant with her becoming less
harried, the ear losing its redness and the swelling
decreasing
One dose of Belladonna was sufficient
Cases: 4-H pigs with Erysipelas
Cases: 4-H pigs with Erysipelas
There was an outbreak of Erysipelas in the market
hogs at the state fair between the last show and
the auction
Erysipelas is easily controlled with injectable
penicillin
Procaine penicillin has a mandatory withdrawal
time in market hogs of 7 days which means the
animals treated this way would have 7 days more
expense for the 4-Her and that they would miss
the value added auction at the fair
Cases: 4-H pigs with Erysipelas
One family opted out of the conventional
treatment and decided to treat their stock with
homeopathy
On exam we found pigs with an extremely high
body temperature, blackish/purple elevated skin
lesions, no thirst, and the later development of
stiffness in the rear legs
I felt this was a Belladonna case and started them
on a Bell 1M until I could get back to the books
at my office
Cases: 4-H pigs with Erysipelas
1
2
3
4
FEVER - INTENSE heat
94
SKIN - ERUPTIONS - blotches 69
STOMACH - THIRSTLESS
187
EXTREMITIES - STIFFNESS - Lower limbs 117
bell. nux-v. rhus-t. ars. bry. lyc. puls. con. nat-m. op. phos.
480 469 469 460 460 460 460 440 440 440 440
-----------------------------------------------------------------------1: 3 2
3
3
2
2
3
3
3
2
2
2: 2 2
2
2
2
1
2
1
1
1
2
3: 2 1
1
2
1
2
3
2
1
2
1
4: 2 3
3
1
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
Cases: 4-H pigs with Erysipelas
Within 24 hours the fever had broken, thirst had
returned, stiffness was minimal and the blotches
on the skin were fading
By 48 hours the pigs were normal and made it to
the auction where they sold at a premium
Livestock Prescriber’s Caveat
NOT ALL SWINE CASES NEED BELLADONNA
These 3 cases just happened to be good clear cut cases
screaming for Belladonna
They are a good example of how broad the action is in
even our most common remedies and that we don’t
necessarily need to hunt for the small and exotic
remedies
Three vastly different cases, one remedy, uniformly
good results
Cases: Ewe that abandons new born
Cases: Ewe that abandons new born
First time lambing for this ewe on a farm in the Hill
Country of Texas
She didn’t clean or nuzzle the twin lambs as they were
born
As soon as delivery was complete she stood and walked
away from them
If the lambs would come to nurse, she would butt them
away
Sepia 200c twice daily over the next 3-4 days changed her
attitude and returned her motherly instincts
Cases: Heirloom Chickens with
Fowl Pox
Cases: Heirloom Chickens with
Fowl Pox
Farmstead just outside of Austin was trying to
establish a flock of heirloom chickens and
turkeys
Each year with the onset of warm weather and the
pigeons coming out of the city, the flock would
be affected with a condition that resembles fowl
pox although no formal diagnostics were done
Conventional therapies had all failed
Cases: Heirloom Chickens with
Fowl Pox
The birds would develop crusty eruptions around the
eyes, nares, comb and wattles that produced very little
discharge
Most affected birds recovered except the few that
developed lesions in the throat. These had nearly 100%
mortality
On necropsy the dead birds showed an inflamed trachea
and a thick membrane coating the inside of the trachea
and larynx
I was called in at the end of the second season when only
1 bird was left affected and this one showed the
symptoms of deeper involvement
Cases: Heirloom Chickens with
Fowl Pox
1 SKIN - ERUPTIONS - crusty 112
2 FACE - ERUPTIONS - Nose 127
3 EYE - ERUPTIONS - About the eyes
40
4 GENERALS - SEASONS - spring - agg. 52
5 LARYNX AND TRACHEA - INFLAMMATION - Larynx 125
6 LARYNX AND TRACHEA - INFLAMMATION - Trachea 83
sulph. calc. rhus-t. hep. sil. merc. caust. con. puls. bell. carb-v.
790 709 700 680 669 659 630 619 600 589 580
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1: 3
3
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
2
1
2: 3
1
2
1
3
2
3
1
2
1
2
3: 3
1 2
2
1
3
2
1
4: 2
3
2
1
2
1
2
3
2
5: 2
2
2
3
1
2
2
1
2
3
2
6: 3
3
1
2
1
3
3
1
2
2
2
Cases: Heirloom Chickens with
Fowl Pox
We opted to treat the dying bird with Silica 200c
but didn’t expect miracles given the advanced
state of the disease
The next spring 1 month before the historic onset
of problems we began to treat weekly with Sil
30c and continued until a month after the
pigeons were no longer coming to the farm
That was the first year there were no signs of the
eruptions on any of the birds
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
One of nearly 70 horses that were abandoned and
left in stalls and paddocks with multiple horses
in each when the farm owners went bankrupt
This mare caught the eye of one of the rescuers
who took a special interest in her and opted to
treat her privately. Most of the rest of the living
horses were euthanized.
This mare had a body condition score of 1, was
severely malnourished and had a volatile,
uncontrollable diarrhea
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
Conventional treatment with antibiotics and
digestive supports failed to give lasting relief of
the diarrhea
The rescuer then added in other supports like
probiotics and slippery elm
Finally she called a friend of hers who had taken
several homeopathy classes that I had taught in
Michigan
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
A work up on this case strongly indicated Arsenicum as
the remedy. Some progress was made but the results
were temporary
An equine clinician at the local vet school took an interest
at this point and donated her time and medicine to help
the mare. Again the results were less than optimal
At this point the rescuer was seriously considering
euthanasia until she was told I was coming back to
Michigan to teach a case study workshop and that we
would make one final effort, working her case as a
group project
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
In class we redid the intake and made an initial analysis
which again strongly indicated Ars. This probably
meant that although the rescuer had given the mare’s
known history at least twice there was still something
missing
Finally someone asked her if there was any event that
would precipitate the diarrhea now that the mare had
improved to the point where it seemed to be sporadic
rather than constant
She said she could almost guarantee that if there was a
change in weather from hot to cold there would be a
bout of diarrhea
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
Without redoing the analysis, we looked
specifically at the remedies that matched that
modality.
Dulcamara is my typical go-to remedy for cases
that aggravate with a change in weather from
hot to cold
When we read the stool section of Dulc in various
materia medica we saw a description that was
nearly indistinguishable from Ars
This modality was the missing clue to the puzzle
Cases: Dulcamara Mare
The mare was treated with Dulc 200c and began to
blossom. The hair coat regained its shine, the
body condition began to normalize, and the
bouts of diarrhea became less frequent and less
severe
Over the next several doses the mare became nonclinical for GI symptoms
At this point she was found a permanent home
and is living out her old age in luxury
Glen Dupree, DVM
Author, Homeopathy in Organic Livestock Production
Available at:
homeopathyfortheanimals.com