Lola is a 4 month old foal. She has not really been lucky up till the day of the consultation and you can tell by looking at her. Although she has the normal height for her age, she is skinny, has a poor coat, feels dehydrated, has red marks on her hoofs and walks with a rather unsteady gait.
At first her mother did not want to know of her young foal. The owners had to constrain her when Lola wanted a drink of mother’s milk. After a week, she would tolerate the foal but never showed any real interest in it. As if that was not enough, she then produced a poor quality milk which was too thin.
She is not a friendly horse; she has a tendency to chase the other horses or foals when they come too close.
In such circumstances it is not surprising that health problems arise. At the age of one month Lola developed a diarrhea that never really disappeared regardless many attempts for treatment with conventional techniques. Her stools are still more like cow pads. Her perineal region is soiled with dried faeces. She runs a temperature but has a very, very good appetite. She is dull, she never really plays with the other foals (who ignore her now) and, although she always stays close to her mother, the other day she followed one of the other mares out of the field, thinking it was her mother. She never realised her mistake.
There is also a round lump, the size of a plum, at the base of the larynx. This could well be a swelling of the thyroid gland.
The strangest observation was the error Lola made in following one of the other mares.
Mind, Dullness, children
She was eating well, had diarrhea and poor condition.
Stomach, appetite, ravenous, diarrhea during
There was this lump in the throat, this was an unusual concomitant. I used the rubric:
External throat, Swelling, cervical glands. (It seemed too restrictive to choose for swollen thyroid gland).
This repertorisation produced the following grid:
| calc. | iod. | lyc. | sulph. | zinc. | agar. | bar-c. | bar-m. | calc-p. | carbn-s. | |
| 1. | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 2. | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 3. | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
When I add Mind, ailments, from grief, Iodium does not appear in the runners up and Zincum receives a 2 degree qualification.
I choose for Zincum for the lack of ‘expression’ in this foal. There are no signs of fears or any particular social behaviour. There is nothing. She just eats, stands with her mum and has diarrhea.
Always remember that it is not always the remedy that has the most points in a repertorisation that wins. Always check on the unusual remedy in a repertorisation. In every respect homeopathy is about what is unusual, unexpected, bizarre or strange.
She receives one 30k dose on the day of the consultation. 14 days later her coat changes and the diarrhea disappeared. At the end of the summer she is as well, strong and as happy as all the other foals. The owner commented how surprised he was that Lola improved with so little medicine after he had spent all this money on conventional medicines.
A few comments on the remedy.
When zincum ‘expresses’ itself it is usually a little over the top (convulsions, jerking, ticks, delirium, aggressive) otherwise the remedy is associated with (normal) eruptions or physiological processes that fail to break out (or are suppressed). The word ‘expression’ is used to illustrate both physical symptoms as well as behaviour.
Marc Brunson explains: one of the prime uses of Zinc is in the building industry: zinc is used to ‘cover’ parts of the roof (windows, corners) for protection against the rain; this is not a very special role and illustrates somewhat the problem of the zincum patient. Zincum is not ‘allowed’ to express itself in a more gratifying role and often has not a very good opinion of itself. The metal is also too ‘soft’ to allow it to take a resisting shape; this illustrates the lack of character.
