Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs

Author: Don Hamilton

ISBN number: 978-55643-295-8

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Price: $20-$25 incl.

Number of pages: 482

The American veterinarian, and later homeopath/vet, Don Hamilton, wrote, in my opinion, a wonderful book about the homeopathic treatment of pets: Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs. Unfortunately, this book has not yet been translated into Dutch. Why exactly is it such a wonderful book? It does not only describe regular and homeopathic treatment, but also the results of these treatments. Probably the most impressive aspect of this book, is that it is based on his own practical experience, both as a regular vet and as a vet using only homeopathic treatment for animals. The result is a pretty voluminous book, 482 pages to be exact, but it gives the reader value for money. The theoretical part of the book is captivating, sharp and well-aimed. In one of the chapters he describes the aspects of vaccination, quite a controversial subject these days. It takes him 31 pages to come to the conclusion that, based on his own practical experiences with vaccinations, vaccinating does not contribute to the well-being of animals. Using statistics, Hamilton demonstrates that a drastic decrease of cases with measles, whooping cough and polio had already begun, before they actually started vaccinating human beings. His final conclusion is therefore, don’t vaccinate, because it is harmful. I think this is quite a thing to say for a former veterinarian, especially when I look at the ease with which many of those vets pump all these pets (and livestock) full of vaccines.

In the United States, the subject of vaccination is up for discussion. In the Netherlands it is not yet, but it definitely will be. Can vaccination cause problems, he asks himself. It might prevent certain diseases in the short term, but the meaning of this prevention method is unclear. Might these diseases not be necessary for some reason, do they have certain advantages we do not understand? And furthermore, it is a fact that vaccination leads to weakening of the genes and therefore of the common resistance of a whole group. A bit further in the book he draws the following, strong conclusion: “Vaccination is the replacement of an acute disease by a chronic disease”. In another chapter he makes an analysis of the objections to regular medication, again based on a couple of years of experience. He relates this to the way regular medical science looks at a disease. Conventional medicine searches for the cause of a disease outside the body: bacteria, viruses, molds, fleas, worms, etc. With the use of clear examples he explains how the conventional method does not cure a disease, but at best stops it for a while, whereupon the disease aggravates or a disease of deeper organs originates. This eventually made Hamilton so disappointed with the conventional method that he decided to turn to homeopathy.

Further in the book he pays attention to good nutrition: raw meat, preferably organic, and bad nutrition: dog biscuits that in some cases contain the most horrible ingredients, like pieces of the flea collars of the dead cats and dogs that were processed in the food. Subsequently he gives a description of the homeopathic treatment of several ailments. At the end he gives a description of a number of important homeopathic medicines.

This is a solid book, that basically describes the treatment of mammals (and therefore human beings), with the only difference that mammals always have an “honest” response to homeopathic treatment. I have only one negative comment to make. He lacks knowledge of Hahnemann’s Organon and Chronic Diseases. He blames this on the fact that there wasn’t a clear English translation available until recently. Here he must have overlooked Robin Murphy’s “Commentary on Organon of Medicine”, published in 2004, in which the full text of Hahnemann’s “Organon of Medicine,” 6^th edition, is present. This must also be the reason he attributes, by mistake, the most comprehensible argumentation about illness to Kent. The complexity of Hahnemann’s Organon is not determined by a translation though, but by understanding. This is why he, unfortunately, misses the connection with Hahnemann’s method of disease classification, although he comes close sometimes. At a certain point he explains the continuation of a tumour (dissemination to the kidneys) after the removal of a breast tumour, by the homeopathic principle of suppression, which I believe is questionable.

For the last 15 years I have been interested in literature about the homeopathic treatment of pets, and I believe this book really stands out. Don Hamilton is a ‘hardcore’ colleague, who does not only treat animals with homeopathic remedies, but also links this to a clear and obvious understanding of the essence of homeopathy. He is a clear observer who draws conclusions from his bad experiences with conventional veterinary science. That is something I have not encountered very often. Most veterinary homeopaths treat animals with the so called double-method: both a regular medicine and a homeopathic medicine, which leads nowhere with regard to one’s understanding. Although I am not a veterinary homeopath, I believe it is easy to conclude that “Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs” is an absolute must-read. All we need now is the Dutch translation.