Sometimes you are lucky enough to have a nice spontaneous anamnesis. This has then to be worked out and can help you save a lot of time.
Case presentation
On a Sunday evening as an emergency case, I saw a muzzled male German shepherd dog, a 5 yr old military guard dog. He is very emaciated, a moving skeleton, looking very sick and very old, but reacting quickly and vividly.
Questions and answers
My questions provoked short but precise answers (in bold) :
What is the matter? —- He vomits. What? — Undigested food. When? 2 – 3 hours after eating. Since when?—- Weeks How is his appetite? —– Never satisfied.
But he is so emaciated. —— He eats 3 times a day. The other dogs only once.
Thirst ? —– Normal. Stool? Urine?—— Rather strong odor ! Anything else ? –No !
Clinical observation
Meanwhile I started to pet the muzzled dog. When my hand reached the coccyx, the dog reacted, turned suddenly around and tried to bite me. His driver remarked then : A fortnight before, it was the head one couldn’t touch.
Repertorisation (Kent’s Repertory, indian edition)
The symptoms :
1 – Vomiting undigested food 2-3 hours after eating. (p. 537) What a wonderful and very rare symptom with only 2 remedies : Kreos+++ and Sulph+
2 – appetite. Ravenous, (p.478) Kreos++ Emaciation (p.1357) : Kreos++. Two objective symptoms of less worth that can be taken together.
3 – Pain coccyx, (p. 912) : Kreos+++ touch aggravates (1407) : Kreos++ . Two other rubrics of less value, but they allow me to confirm a remedy choice.
Repertorisation
Results and follow up
One day later the dog was fit again : He behaved normally and didn’t vomit anymore. Two weeks later, passing before the military base, I could see the kennel and heard that the wood of his kennel had been painted with Crésyl, that contains Kreosotum and that he began losing weight at that time. One year later the dog was still fit, but was in another shelter where no kreosotum got used to protect the wood.