Seeking help with sheep

[karenkettlety]

My flock has been exposed to Ovine Progressive Pneumonia (OPP) and one
of my ewes is seropositive on blood testing. OPP is caused by a retro-
virus (like AIDS) and is a slow progressing disease. I would like to
treat my flock homeopathically to halt the spread of the disease,
perhaps slow or halt the progress of the disease in my seropositive ewe.

This link can give you more information about the disease:
http://www.oppsociety.org/about.htm

My flock is under study by the USDA Animal Diseases Unit so I blood
test periodically to see who is remaining negative and who is
converting to seropositive. There is no available conventional
treatment save for culling the affected ewes.

Currently the positive ewe is showing no symptoms. The most common
symptom is somethig called "hard bag" when a ewe lambs and can produce
no milk. The disease is spread by nose to nose contact between ewes.

I'm wondering if a nosode made of the nasal secretions of the positive
ewe could be used to protect the rest of my flock. Could that also be
used to treat the positive ewe?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you might offer. Please ask
any questions so that I may clarify my particular situation.

Gratefully,
Karen

[Jean Doherty]

[PDF]
1 of 6 INDEX to SIMILIA The Journal of the Australian Homœopathic ...
Vol. 11, No 2. December 1998
As if one patient (homoeopathy and a sheep herd) – reprint Greg Bedayn 14
To obtain photocopies of articles listed below, contact your homoeopathic college within Australia,
or the National Library of Australia.
A lovely article about sheep which first appeared in ''The American Homeopath''
Vol 1 Issue 4 38 41
Maybe if you read some of Irene's articles about FIP you would get ideas, Jean

[Dale Moss]

Karen,
I know nothing about OPP or its symptoms, but I think your idea of potentizing the ewe's nasal secretions is an excellent one. Particularly since she is asymptomatic, so you really have no means of doing a good homeopathic analysis. You have nothing to lose by experimenting.
Peace,
Dale

[Karen Kettlety]

It looks like the article is in PDF but I can't seem to find it, or the journal web site. Can you (or someone in Australia???) attach it to an email to me?

Likewise for the American article, but I may have better luck tracking it down.

Many thanks,
Karen

At 09:24 PM 12/13/2008, you wrote:

[Jean Doherty]

I am sorry. I unloaded the index to the journal as a pdf.. I remembered reading this wonderful article. I should have deleted the letters pdf. The actual article is unfortunately not unloadable and is a bit long to scan

[Irene de Villiers]

I looked up some recent research on this virus and see that it also
has a LOt in common with bordetella bronchiseptica (bacterial)
interstitial pneumonia in sheep (a silent killer pneumonia in sheep
and cats - but a relatively mild disease in dogs - kennel cough).

The similarities are:
OPP and Bord-b are both interstitial pneumonias (like TB, these are
infections between the cells, and much harder to treat than
infections inside the cells.
OPP and Bord-b both work using a mechanism involving depletion of
antioxidants in the lower lung. In the case of Bord-b, the
antioxidant destroyed is alpha lipoic acid, and supplementing it is
highly beneficial to both prevent and treat the illness. Antioxidant
levels have to be low to contract the illness. The research I just
read says that this is also true in OPP - that antioxidant levels
have to be low to contract the disease. (NO specific antioxidant is
mentioned, prob ably not known yet. For Bord-b, there is actually a
gene in the bacteria that destroys alpha lipoic acid (needed in the
lungs) directly.

If it was my sheep I would be supplementing with alpha lipoic acid as
a general rule.

Also - I would suggest that you have a nosode made from infected
tissue, which you can then use preventively in the flock, for those
who do not yet have exposure/infection. Maybe 30C or 200C (I'd
suggest both, mainly based on my experience with single nosodes such
as for Bordetella-b)

Research also shows that the virus in OPP invades Macrophages. This
is the same ugly trick used in other nasty illnesses such as the
feline FIP illness and this is associated with very low levels of
Interleukin-2 (I:-2) cytokine in the immune system. My work in FIP
shows that this can be reversed with homeopathy, and there is also a
good supplement which was researched and developed in cats with
feline AIDS (FIV) and which assists in re-balancing the TH-1
cytokines including the IIL-2.
In cats the dose is 1 capsule per day. In people it is officially 3
but in immune compromise actually needs 6 a day. SO somewhere in
there you can probably estimate the dose for sheep. The contents are
plant-based sterolos and sterolins, and the USA brand has rice flour
as a filler. I do not know if the rice flour is okay for sheep, my
knowledge of sheep nutrition is very limited.
If rice flour is a no-no, then you can import Moducare from
South Africa (where it was developed), and it comes in much tinier
capsules so not all that filler. (I empty the SA capsules to avoid
the green and yellow dye - the USA one licensed to Thorne research is
in clear caps)
I'd go for reversing the disease.
I've seen retrovirus (FIV) reverse in cats - so why not in sheep.
I'd suggest a multi-fold approach:

Preventive nosode protocol I would use:
Preventive alpha lipoic acid supplement, say 30 mg twice a day
Moducare supplement - half the therapeutic dose for prevention for
say 3 months
For affected sheep:
As above PLUS:
Matched homeopathic remedy as the main approach.
Full dose Moducare daily (in proportion with 6 caps per 150 lbs body
weight)
High dose alpha lipoic acid (in proportion with say 800 mg per day
for 150 lbs body weight)
Best sheep nutrition you can use, with high protein and high
antioxidant, as macrophage damage is always assocuated with loss of
body protein and fast use of body oxygen.
The recent research this year shows that to contract the illness
requires the virus to reach the LOWER lungs and not the upper lungs.
Good ventilation and lack of crowding can help there. It also
requires a low level of antioxidants - and that is fixable.
Probably will not work on the affected ewe because it fails the Law
of Similars - it needs to be similar and that would be identical.
But is CAN work preventively if there is enough viral material for a
good nosode. Can you not get material from a badly infected sheep
elsewhere, to make a good nosode?

I have found in Bordetella-b infections that using a 200C nosode
during infection PLUS a matched homeopathic remedy, is very helpful,
but that the nosode alone - and the remedy alone - are a lot less
effective. However I obtained the oldest form of Bord-b nosode I
could locate, so that the mutations of the bacterium over time would
make it LESS identical and more similar to an infected animal..

I also find that mixed nosode works way better than single nosode. In
other words if you can get material from multiple infected sheep that
would be better.

I also have a crazy idea to try, due to similarity:
What about trying the Bordetella bronchiseptica 200C remedy in the
meantime? After all it is also interstitial pneumonia (without
coughing), symptoms are similar though not identical, it affects
sheep too, and it "works" by damaging anti-oxidant. It's a lot of
similarities.

By the way - there is a FIV nosode for cats - but I do not see many
similarities of *symptoms* between that retrovirus and this OPP
retrovirus. That said - we DO see that vaccine remedy (or even
vaccine) from one organism tends to help against other similar
organisms despite the diseases having different symptoms. For example
TB vaccine protects against Leprosy - the causative organisms of
these two being very closely related, though the disease symptoms are
not so similar.
So you might consider that aspect too in that both FIV and OPP are
not just retroviruses but both are in the lentivirus category as
well. Just a thought to throw out there....

I would definitely rep the symptoms of the disease - emohasizing any
your affected ewe actually has - to find a remedy that can address
her current symptoms PLUS the ones that could develop.

This is how I went about my work in FIP - some of these illnesses
need a remedy that pre-empts the disease symptoms that are trying to
develop internally, and which can only be detected with fancy tests
(such as cytokine measurement of Il-2 and measurement of systemic
antioxidant levels in the lung - for which we do not yet have a test
for a live animal in this case). Our homeopathy repertories are NOT
up to date, We do NOT have rubrics that describe remedies for CURRENT
symptoms that are present (such as immune system damage) - they ARE
there, it is not as if we are using something not there - and so to
use the current repertories we need to include what those current
cytokine levels PREDICT in terms of symptoms that will eventually
reach the surface and become visible because of those immune system
imbalance issues ..... otherwise they only get addressed when visible
externally - more of less when the disease is in late stage only (if
not too-late stage).

This is not a case of "wait till you see the symptoms externally" to
select a remedy. You need (IMO) to recognize that the immune system
IS damaged and that the symptoms that particular damage is known to
cause, need to be repertorized.

Maybde one day we will start to have rubrics for low level IL-2, and
low level Interferon and so on - but until that is well established
and up to date - we DO have, and can use - the known disease
symptoms produced by those "immune system symptoms" to use instead.
Hence I suggest you repertorize for your ewe including HER known
symptoms plus those known to be caused by the illness.
I find this technique useful in all my work in immune compromise
illness - that and understanding what is going on internally. It
helps to know what cytokine mixups cause what external issues. For
example low IL-2 often causes weight loss late stage in the illness,
but by the time the weight loss actually happens it is the kind that
is due to inability to assimilate food, plus body protein breakdown -
and it is a "too late" aspect in that you can not give the needed
nutrition once that stage is reached. So you NEED to pre-empt it.
It's not really optional (IMO)
Karen, I hope this provides some ideas to consider.

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."

[Tanya Marquette]

irene
what is the supplement you talk about for cats with FIP? you name the south
african product but not the one mentioned above it in your post
tanya

[Chris_Gillen]

It IS a wonderful article from Greg Bedayn about using good old fashioned homoeopathy in near death crisis situations (and even after "apparent death") with the single remedy restoring life and vitality.
I've sent the article on to Karen. Very inspiring what we homoeopaths can do if we just observe symptoms correctly like we're meant to!
Chris Gillen

[Karen Kettlety]

Thank you very much for all that information. Let me digest it all
-- I may be back with further questions.

Gratefully,
Karen

At 01:08 PM 12/14/2008, you wrote:

[Irene de Villiers]

Hi Tanya - I was referring to Moducare. It was developed in South
Africa and the brand I get from there has less fillers is all,
compared to the Thorne brand Moducare in USA.

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."