MINK COATS.
A recent experience brings to mind how veterinarians might profit from nature remedies, a door shut to our modern up-to-date M.D.s of this generation.
A young patient, expert on minks, who had recently experienced what Calendula could do in prompt healing of a cut on himself, told me that a cut mink, starting to bleed, just kept right on losing blood and no measures in his therapeutic pocketbook could save that mink.
All healthy minks are valuable and certain ones with most beautiful pelts run into big money. So he was interested when I handed him a small bottle of granules and asked him to try it on one of these animals now weakening fast from hemorrhage. In a few days his report was that this mink had not only stopped bleeding but had returned to good health and that a second one had reacted in the same manner. The remedy, as you may have guessed, was Yarrow-root with a long record as a hemostatic. This weed, common in our fields, would be available to a wild mink bleeding from an injury.
Among folks living close to nature are many accounts of animals travelling, sometimes a long distance, to a medicinal root or substance for some ailment. So what is to prevent a bleeding mink chewing a little Yarrow-root to stop hemorrhage.
It might be well to recount a few nature remedies useful to and available for veterinarians in a few case histories.
Parturition is made easy by Pulsatilla given two or three weeks in advance and during labour if necessary.
CASE I-We remember a friends dog, for several days under treatment by one of our very best veterinarians and getting no- where. Bloody diarrhoea with severe tenesmus. A few doses of Bichloride of Mercury 2c. cleared it promptly.
By the way, we have seen a case of rapidly eating ulcers of the throat, which was steadily advancing in spite of the best antisyphilitic treatment, clear up under a gargle of Bichloride. Distemper will often yield to Silicea 6x, t.i.d.
CASE II-A Peke, age 5, for two days had almost complete paralysis, much pain and was very cold. No urine for four days and no stool for eight. Remedies: Mag. phos. was given the first three days, then Rhus. tox. and last Nux. vom. In forty-eight hours it swallowed a little fluid with difficulty. By the fourth day the neck, shoulders and front paws were free of paralysis. On the eighth day had a normal stool both hind legs and tail were still completely paralyzed. In three weeks he was running about, carrying his tail correctly. A weak and wasting right leg was the last to clear up.
CASE III-Dachshund complete paralysis of hind legs, trying to get about with his forepaws, dragging hind legs behind. A few doses of Opium soon put him right and he lived for years after with no recurrence.
These three cases naturally bring up the question. “Why different remedies for paralysis?” The answer is that homoeopathic treatment requires strict individualization depending on the symptoms of each case. Reported cases would be much more valuable if the reason for each remedy were given.
CASE IV-Chicken, cholera, dying rapidly. The extreme thirst, diarrhoea and prostration pointing to Arsenic, a powder in the drinking water saved the remainder of the flock.
CASE V-Spitz dog, 3 years old, had much treatment by veterinarian, including Sulphur lotion locally. Exuding fluid glued and matted the hair; also raw spots from rubbing. Graphites 1M dry on the tongue. Itching subsided in a few days. In two weeks all clear and no return of the malady.
CASE VI-A similar case in a 5-year-old cat, covering the entire body. Graphites 1M, one dose, cured her in a month. Graphites gives a good account of itself in eczema, but dont expect it to clear all cases. It wont. In a different individual there may be difficulty in uncovering a remedy to match the case, but if we are smart enough to work it out, the unsightly skin will return to normal and the animal will enjoy better general health, as our cures are made by constitutional adjustment. How often we hear, after a successful prescription, “I am better than I have been for years”.
CASE VII-Airedale, female dog, 9 years old. Involuntary urination during sleep. Causticum 6x. In a few days this botheration stopped.
Strong mental symptoms are tops.
Dogs get homesick as do children taken away from customary environment. Capsicum makes them quite content with their new surroundings.
Children, with acutes, brought to a hospital, frightened at parents leaving, are soon playing with toys after Aconite, which may help dogs in hospitals.
Recently, a friend has his lively young dog wormed by a ved. The shots killed the dog. Vermifuges used everywhere today are entirely unnecessary. Correct the dogs general condition by homoeopathic therapy and there will be no worms.
Mink coats and homoeopathy are both under suspicion by now.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.