Homeopathic treatment:
the need for patience and attentiveness
When instituting homeopathic medical treatment, it is important to remember that we are looking for true, long-term cures, not the masking of symptoms. We see all symptoms as being interconnected, not separate diseases. Therefore diarrhea in a young animal is connected to ear problems as the animal gets older. If a disease has been an ongoing, long standing process it is rare for healing to occur overnight.
How does this affect our expectations and behavior during treatment? We must realize that one of the most important (and most difficult) tasks is having the patience to wait for the body to begin the healing process. We all have a desire to keep out pets from suffering. However, expression of symptoms is a necessary step in allowing disease to move out of the body. You may be used to conventional veterinary treatments in which powerful drugs stop symptoms quickly. While this appears to be good, these treatments may actually be only masking the symptoms while the disease continues to progress, often more quickly and on a deeper level because the immune system has been weakened. Your pet appears to be better, while the disease remains. This typically causes animals to become resistant to conventional medications, and thus require higher, more frequent doses or stronger medications to keep symptoms from resurfacing. In using homeopathic medications, our intent is to aid the body in eliminating the disease using the animal's own immune system. Symptoms often return before a cure can happen, though the expression of those symptoms should be neither severe nor long lasting. We refer to this intensification of symptoms as aggravations or healing crisis. An appropriate aggravation will usually last 24 to 48 hours (occasionally longer), and will then lead to overall improvement in health. Your pet will often feel better even as symptoms worsen slightly. This is a good sign. If the aggravation continues or your pet's spirits deteriorate, the remedy should be changed and we will need to re-evaluate the condition. Our 'cure timeframe' is somewhat longer than the almost immediate changes seen with conventional treatment. You need to be patient and allow your pet the time required to heal. This will vary from situation to situation. The result of this patient approach is the overall better health of your animal without the need for repetitive, strong drug treatment.
During the time of treatment, I ask that you pay close attention to your pet's health and habits. Watch for changes in behavior, eating and drinking habits, urination, defecation, any discharges, coughing, sneezing, changes in habits or personality ... in short, everything. Keeping a diary or notebook would be helpful. I may not need all of the information you gather, but patterns may begin to appear. Homeopathic prescriptions are based upon the overall 'picture' of the individual's reaction to disease. Therefore this information is essential. Without your observation, we may not find the appropriate remedy.
It is helpful to realize that improvement often occurs in stages or cycles, and thus symptoms may get better for awhile and then get worse, followed by another cycle of improvement. It is sort of a 'two steps forward, one step back' situation. True healing occurs slowly, with overall improvements in vitality as well as symptoms.