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Veterinary Homeopathy |
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Case Histories and Stories-- Karen Cohen, D.C., CCH |
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| One Lucky Chick
I held the little bird in my hand and watched sadly as it weakened, its neck drooping and its pupils becoming dull. My daughter, frantic and in tears, pleaded for me to do something. “Mommy. What about Arnica?” “Okay, I said, Get my keys.” On my key ring was a little vial containing high potency Arnica 1M. I really did not think that Arnica was going to help this mortally wounded chick but I pried open it’s teeny beak and forced a couple of pellets in. To my utter surprise I watched the chick’s pupils go from cloudy gray to shiny black over the next few seconds. In a minute it was trying to raise it’s head and start to peck for food.
I cleaned the wound with Betadine and carefully placed the chick back under the warming light with a little pile of food and a jar lid of water. I told my daughter that the chick would probably not be alive the next morning. The next day the chick was alive. It was just lying on it’s side eating the food that was within reach while the other three chicks bounced all over the place inside the cage. Within days the other chicks began to show feathers. Little mahogany pin feathers pushed out all over their bodies. The injured chick was still lying in one place and was still covered only with brown fuzzy down. A day or so later the other chicks showed further feather development. These beautiful chickens have red-brown feathers with a bright white circle and a black dash on every feather, which gives the appearance of being covered with thousands of flowers, hence the name Mille fleur. The injured chick still had no feathers. In two weeks the three chicks were sporting brown feathers with black and white flowers and the injured chick was just beginning to be able to balance on its legs and move around. Its wound had dried and contracted and was now barely visible. Three days later he was bounding around and within the next 24 hours this chick went from having no feathers to being fully feathered to the same point as the uninjured chicks. It was almost as though we could see the feathers growing out by the hour. This was a lovely illustration of a known phenomenon: as long as the energy and economy of the chick was being used in the healing of the wound, there was no energy for the development of feathers; as soon as the healing was finished, the feathers rapidly emerged—two weeks of feather growth was condensed into two days. This same pattern can be seen in human babies that are born prematurely. These children lag behind other babies of the same age, but at a certain point they leap forward and catch up developmentally with children their age.
My mind swam. What homeopathic remedy would I administer to a human who was oxygen-starved and had changed color? I tossed two pellets of Papaver sominiferum—the homeopathic preparation derived from parts of the opium poppy¬—into the water of the vase. This is the remedy that is frequently helpful for babies that have been deprived of oxygen in the birth process. Almost instantly the fish righted itself and its fins returned to life and began rhythmically flapping. This fish lived for a long time, but in the next few weeks after the incident its fins developed holes and deteriorated and sloughed off and then re-grew. This indicated that the blood of the fish had been drawn to the interior to save the nervous system and the outward fins had become ischemic (blood and oxygen-starved) and the tissue died and had to be replaced. This is exactly the same mechanism that occurs when humans are submersed in freezing cold water. The blood goes to the brain and interior organs to spare these critical parts from oxygen deprivation.
As a professional homeopath I never give myself a homeopathic remedy. I go to a master homeopath who I trust and has the objectivity and experience to observe my case accurately. In 18 years of homeopathic study and practice I have only taken remedies on my own about four times. This is a story of one of those times. On a fall day I trailered my trusted Arabian for an outing to a park for trail riding. I was pulling a two-horse slant load trailer, accompanied by a friend who was trying out a “rescue” horse. This little horse had suddenly and unexpectedly become wild and injured a few people in the past, but now he was being re-released from a sanctuary to see if he could make it in the real world. We went on a very pleasant 15 mile ride and then put the horses back into the trailer and drove home. I unloaded my horse from the trailer and then as the other woman went to use the phone I heard her horse stamping in the trailer demanding to be released. I calmly re-entered the trailer and talked to the horse, untied his halter and released the butt bar. The horse immediately cow-kicked at me and as I fell down I saw hooves pummeling me from above. When this stopped the horse remained standing still in the trailer. I did not lose consciousness but I found myself on the floor of the trailer, bleeding from the head and noticing a wound on my right index finger; I was swiftly going into shock. Drenched with sweat, I saw green and yellow dots and could not rise or speak. Moments later my friend discovered me and was surprised when I hoarsly croaked, “Get my keys.” I indicated that she should open the vial of Arnica 1M and toss some of the pellets into my mouth. Absolutely instantly as the pellets became wet on my tongue the sweat dried, the stars vanished and my head cleared, and I felt completely calm. I was driven to the hospital where it was discovered that I had a head wound and a crushed finger. Surgery was performed to mitigate the damage to my hand and 60 stitches were placed in my scalp. When I woke up at 1 AM that next morning to be released to go home I noticed that my left leg was unstable and seemed to crumble under my weight. Two days later I had an MRI on my knee that revealed the strong possibility of a torn anterior cruciate ligament. There was no bruising on my leg and very little swelling. Of course it took 2 ½ weeks to get an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for evaluation of the knee. Over that period of time my knee began to feel better and more stable daily and when the day of the appointment arrived I found myself wishing that the surgeon would perform a physical evaluation of my knee before reading the MRI. When the doctor entered the room he immediately said “Oh Good. I see you have come with your films. Well let’s palpate your knee first.” Sigh of relief…… He gently cradled my knee and examined for play and instability and then looked at the MRI. He pointed out that the film indicated an absence of the ligament but the physical palpation showed some stability indicating to him that the ACL structure was still encased in its capsule so he recommended a period of 3 months of bracing to see if the ACL would scar down and remain functional. He also pointed out that the film showed the shaft of the femur (thigh bone) was completely filled with blood from the hip to the knee—all this without any outward sign of bruising or swelling. I was so thrilled with the thought that I might avoid surgery that I confided something to the doctor that I had not mentioned to anyone else. I asked him to examine my neck for whiplash as I was experiencing intermittent numbness in my left arm. He simply asked, “Has anyone performed and x-ray of your neck?” He took the film and returned to the room in five minutes with the news that my neck was broken. The upshot of this story is that every part of my body healed perfectly with the exception of the index finger; it had sustained 12 small fractures. My knee became stable without surgery and I can run and jump without pain. My neck healed swiftly and all neurological symptoms disappeared. It is clear to me that the use of high potency homeopathic Arnica taken at the time of the injury prevented shock, bruising, swelling, and other possible serious ramifications of this serious accident. Over the years I have treated numerous riders on an emergency basis at the time of injury and have observed the power of Arnica to prevent shock and alleviate trauma. These riders have healed quickly without significant bruising or suffering long-term effects of their injuries. High potency Arnica should be in the possession of anyone who rides or handles horses. For this reason the Horse Homeopathy Emergency Kit contains professional quality high potency Arnica 1M, which cannot be obtained from your local health-food store, to be used for the horse and rider. ----------------------------------------------- Karen Cohen, D.C., CCH |
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After
much searching we obtained four tiny bantam mille fleur chicks.
They were kept in my 7 year old daughter’s room in a “Havahart”
cage that was wired closed to form a home for the chicks. On the
second day one small chick got too close to a wire end, pulled away
and tore a large piece of its skin off. The wound was larger than
a quarter and comprised about 1/6 th of the chick’s body.
In
1989 a dark red Beta fish lived in a vase in one of my chiropractic
treatment rooms. Children who visited the office loved to watch
him gobble bits of freeze-dried worms. I turned away from my patient
to grab a hot pack and noticed—no fish. The fish had jumped
out of the vase and I found him about two feet away from his home.
I gently picked him up and was about to carry him to the toilet
for a watery burial when he twitched weakly in my palm. Almost reflexively
I tossed him back into the vase where he sunk like a stone, lying
motionless on the bottom. I noticed that his color had gone from
red to blue.
