Ben's Story of Homeopathic Treatment

Ben came to me as a 2-year-old Collie who started life normally. He was an active and friendly puppy, full of fun and mischief. The first clue that something was amiss came when Ben was just five months old. He began vomiting, almost on a daily basis, no matter what kind of puppy food he was fed. When Ben was a year old his veterinarian noticed an even stranger symptom. When he was at the clinic to be neutered, the veterinarian noted that Ben's teeth were encrusted with tartar, highly unusual in such a young dog. Ben's teeth were cleaned while he was under anesthesia for surgery, and he was sent home without complications. Within a day or two, however, Ben's entire mouth erupted with bleeding ulcers. It was a rare reaction to the cleaning, the veterinarian thought, and Ben was put on a course of antibiotics. Without success, other courses of antibiotics were used. None of the antibiotics made much of a dent in the blisters.

Then steroids were started, and the mass of ulcers went away almost immediately. But a lot of other things started! On the day Ben received the steroid, he would get hot all over, and seek out cool places to lie down and pant. On the "off" day, he often acted as though he was cold, and would lie in sunny, warm places. He would also seek affection and cuddling on the days he did not receive medication. He hadn't displayed these preferences prior to being put on the medication. Ben started swallowing constantly, as if he had excess saliva. A well-mannered dog in every way, suddenly he started chewing and eating all kinds of strange things in the house, including soap, newspapers, plastic bags, cotton balls and cotton swabs. He began to have an offensive body and mouth odor that smelled as if he had rolled in something very dead, and constantly burped, then swallowed as if excess saliva or food had come up with the burp. His ears were excessively waxy and itchy, requiring frequent cleaning. He then became incontinent, urinating uncontrollably, and lost energy. As a pup, Ben used to go on regular two-mile walks with his owners, but now he was unable to go even a half a mile without becoming exhausted. He began dragging his left hind leg, although the veterinarian could find no injury to the limb. He started snoring. He had a tremendous thirst, drinking up to a gallon of water per day -- a real problem, considering the incontinence. Also, he was ravenous for food, but vomited often. The veterinarians who saw Ben did further tests and attributed his problems to autoimmune disease. They didn't offer much hope for his future. When they decreased the steroid dosage, the blisters would immediately flare up in Ben's mouth, and when the dosage was increased, his other symptoms were aggravated. Ben's regular veterinarian seemed to be resigned to the fact that the dog was doomed, even though he was just a few months short of his third birthday. His owner reports, "The vet told us, 'You know, if the kidneys are going, you might have to put him down.' The family felt the veterinarian cared and was doing what he could, but they  got the feeling that they should just get another dog.”

The homeopathic perspective is that Ben can totally be healed. Though he may have been born with an energy imbalance, the vaccines, anesthesia, teeth cleaning or something unknown triggered the body’s energy field to produce severe symptoms (conventionally called an autoimmune response). His energy field was very sensitive to the steroids and in trying to return to health developed the other 18 + symptoms. 

The key symptom that must be covered by the homeopathic medicine for Ben at the moment is the bleeding mouth ulcers. The other symptoms help narrow the choice from 7,000 to one. [To learn all the rubrics, remedy choices and progress, click here to buy the case report].  

Within 1 month of homeopathic treatment, Ben was off steroids, much improved and very happy. As is often the case with deep illness, he needed several years of monthly evaluations and changes of remedy or potency before most symptoms were resolved. 

One way we evaluate the effectiveness of homeopathic treatments is that the individual feels great even when symptoms are still present. Another is that new symptoms are considered part of the healing when they are further away from the initial symptoms. Ben’s mouth ulcers were the initial severe symptoms, and the final set of symptoms we needed to resolve were severe ulcers that developed around his anus. A third guideline is that symptoms move from the inside to the outside, and he showed that as well, when the vomiting, craving eating weird things, ravenous appetite, urinary incontinence resolved before the ears, skin odor and the final skin ulcers by the anus. 

Understanding how healing progresses is your main job when working with a homeopathic veterinarian. I recommend Don Hamilton’s Homeopathic Care of Cats and Dogs, chapters 2 & 3 for understanding how individuals become ill and heal. DeBeukelaer’s Homeopathy: What to Expect  has 101 cured cases, some as severe as Ben, to inspire you. 

I heard from the owner 1- 2 times a year until Ben was 13 years old, when he died fairly suddenly.

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