Simon King wrote:
Dear Simon,
I work mainly with seizures in felines but of course the same
principles and remedies apply as in people. I see many cases as I have a
special interest in Feline Infectious Peritonitis and the Neurological
form of this invariably involves seizures. I also see them where there
is toxoplasmosis in the brain - and I currently have one case which has
both these syndromes behind the seizures.
The next most common area is a new syndrome I am seeing with
alarmingly increased frequency in cats - involving huge amounts of pus
in the head that initially attempts to drain out of the eyes but then
the head may burst literally in the center between the eyes, (repeating
in a cycle) and this syndrome is accompanied by seizures, especially eye
pendulum seizures intially, and progressing to paralysis of rear half as
well as full body seizures. It is frustratingly unresponsive to
assistance from pyrogenium, gunpowder, Tarent-c etc along with
repertorized remedy - and I've had most success with Bell initially but
it tends to recur in cycles and Bell does not resolve it - it needs some
other remedy after that, repertorized and variable by case as one might
expect.
Repertorizing the seizure cases can indeed be challenging, and I do find
that sometimes a seemingly well chosen remedy will not act, despite
perhaps one or two peculiars being a great fit for example. So one has
to go back to the drawing board on a regular basis when that happens.
There is also a need to really customize the dosing in seizure remedies.
I tend to use the constitutional type to help with this as otherwise you
can miss your dose size a little and it will seem to miss by a mile. For
example in my current case the cat is a colch constitutional type and as
I know that constitutional type quite well, I am aware they tend to
over-react to any chemicals, smells, etc, and they also tend to be more
likely to be super-sensitive to remedy dosing amounts.
So I started the first remedy for this cat by using a dilution cup
(1/2 teasp aqueous remedy in a cup of water, 3 stirs, no succussion) and
a two drop dose as a test dose. This was sufficient remedy to stimulate
a response - where a cat with say a Calc constitution can take a usual
dose straight from the aqueous remedy succussed bottle.
A wide range of potencies has been useful in seizure cases I've
seen. I'm currently using Plb 10M in one case, and Bell 30C in another.
I do not currently have a case using LMs, and rarely use them. In the
animal work I get, it is really hard to use LMs due to a time factor -
the FIP disease moves too fast to mess about looking for the right LM
potency, and nor does the client have the time or know-how to acquire
them and then make them up. (I consult by email only so stick to what I
can teach the client to do in a timely way.)
A frustration with the current case involving toxo and neurological FIP:
My chosen simillimum is Plb, and it fits some of the peculiars, and I
worked up from 30c to the current 10M with it. The seizures initially
were about 8 a day, violent so that the cat was thrown around about a
yard from the starting "leap" for 2 minutes at a (timed) stretch, always
foaming copiously at the mouth and bleeding from biting the tongue and
losing bladder control.
We rated these a "10" on the severity scale.
Gradually (since Oct last year) the seizures slowed to 4 days apart with
a 8 rating, at which point there seemed no real progress, and
repertorizing with help from another homeopath brought up Agar looking
like a sure fit (Especially after a seizure involving running full tilt
through the house and crashing into the washing machine) but it did
nothing, and I reverted to Plb. Now the seizures are 5 days apart and
about a 6 or 7 rating.........
Except - once on 30 Dec (full moon) and once on 9 Feb (new moon) he had
a whole lot - 8 seizures on each of those days - then went back to the
generally lengthening gaps between them, with maybe a "size 6" seizure.
I am tempted now to try Artemesia vulgaris, though I hesitate as I can
not find as much about this remedy as I'd like (I have 220 rubrics in
Radar to go by). We'll see but meantime the Plb strategy is helping very
slowly. He's always HAPPY on the Plb, which is my main "guiding light"
here. Brain Toxo and FIP are individually usually quickly fatal, so the
progress is encouraging in the circumstances with both present but this
poor "honourable gentleman" type kitty has had enough seizures!
So this is and has been my most challenging seizure case to date.
I do not suppose I need to mention the propensity for seizures to be
affected by moon phases? Any vet clinic will tell you they have to dish
out the phenobarb in quantity at full moon for example - and the smarter
clients with epileptic animals stock up before full moon.
Another finding that is fairly consistent is that seizure cases are slow
to heal, very slow. This is not a surprise as nerve tissue is very slow
to heal too, and takes a few months at least. I know this from various
paralysis cases I worked with - even with homeopathy, the nerve repair
takes considerable time - several months.
That is so, despite supporting them with nerve nutrients such as
magnesium (either in chloride or gluconate form) and Vit B6, and low
dose nerve repair remedy such as hypericum lotion applied topically on
the head (or in the area where the nerves are damaged in the case of
paralysis).
I'm not sure what you are looking for Simon and hope this is part of it.
I've had a longish list of seizure cases due to my FIP interest so if I
can provide more input, please let me know.
I only once ever had a people seizure case - and apart from high
magnesium and B6 supplements, I did find a simillimum that worked like a
charm - but I do not remember which remedy it was. It was an odd case in
that the seizures were unusual (one-sided, fully conscious with about 1
second aura warning, several times a day lasting about a minute or two
with immediate complete recovery - with grand mal ones about once every
few weeks triggered by stress.) I do remember that the remedy was chosen
mainly on the mentals - she had been locked up as a teenager in a mental
ward (by her parents and their GP) for 6 months with no contact allowed
with anyone in any way other than the shrink for daily "therapy" - for
"pretending" to have seizures as they did not show as expected on brain
scan; and she had serious muscle damage as well from the uncontrolled
seizures for those 6 months.
Before homeopathy (used at about age 28) she needed very high doses of
tegretol (8 a day) and rivatril (2 per night) to get even the level of
control I saw at the start of homeopathy.
I am a great believer in the principle that the mentals point to the
right remedy more than anything else. Challenging in cats - but still
relevant. In the Plb case with toxo/neuro-FIP I used
MIND - AVERSION - everything, to - morning
MIND - SHRIEKING - convulsions - before
MIND - RESTLESSNESS - convulsions - before
MIND - APHASIA - amnesia, with
MIND - STUPEFACTION - convulsions - after
MIND - STUPOR - convulsions, after
I also considered that Plb has (per Phatak) "often with violent side
effects of very changeable and incoherent character".
Namaste,
IRene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."
