Oscillococcinum, Epilepsy, Facebook page
At long last, it is time to bring Veterinary Alternatives into the 21st Century! You are one of the proud recipients of our inaugural e-newsletter. If you prefer to be removed from this mailing list, please contact me at any of the above addresses or numbers. These will be infrequent and unpredictable, but probably no more often than once a month. Feel free to share any of the included information with your friends, and if there are topics you would like to see covered let me know! -Doc Sandi
Health News and Products:
Cold and flu season: Yes, it has arrived. While your pets don’t really need to worry about these things, I imagine you do! Many of you already know about my favorite homeopathic cold and flu preventative, but here’s the nitty gritty for all of you. Most health food stores carry the homeopathic remedy “Oscillococcinum”, in a white box with orange and yellow graphics. This remedy should be taken at the first sign of colds or flu, when you just think you may be “coming down with something”, or when you know you’ve been exposed. If you wait until you are sick, it may still shorten the course of the illness but won’t stop it completely as it would if you took it sooner. You can also just take a dose once or twice a week as a preventative. Just tap 2-5 pellets into the lid (don’t touch them with your fingers as it impedes the remedy action) and dump them under your tongue to dissolve. You don’t need to take the whole tube like the instructions say; that’s just so they can sell more product. All remedies are dosed with a few pellets in this way, and taken “to effect”. This means every time the symptoms reoccur you should take another dose, on no set schedule. If your symptoms have not come back, you don’t need to re-dose. I usually only need 3- 4 doses to stop a cold or flu in its tracks. For more information about homeopathics, see www.homeopathyworks.com. The book “Family Guide to Homeopathy” is a simple guide for beginning homeopaths.
Case Report:
Piper is a 2002 model German Shepherd diagnosed with epilepsy in the spring of 2006. She was having multiple seizures about every 10 days when we began acupuncture in June of that year. She receives her treatments every 2 weeks. In 2006, she had seizures 7 times after treatments started. In 2007, she only had 6 over the whole year. In 2008, she had 4 episodes, with the last one on November 14. She has not had one since that time. Is she cured? I doubt it, since it is considered an incurable disorder. However, it is known that having seizures will sensitize the brain to having even more. So it stands to reason that having less seizures overall should make the brain less likely to trigger a seizure. So whether we can consider her cured or not is really immaterial, as what is important is that she is not having seizures at this time. Hopefully she will never have another one, but if she does, at least we know the acupuncture has helped and should continue to do so.
Veterinary Alternatives News:
For those of you on Facebook, Veterinary Alternatives now has a page, and you can become a fan! If you appreciate what acupuncture has done for your pet, please do, as the more people who know about my business the better. I will not post too often so as not to deluge anyone with status reports, but I will try to post a little pet health tidbit every week or two. I also have a web page; the address is above. It’s a little rough yet, but hopefully I’ll be able to improve it over time.
Please remember my business grows mostly through referrals, and anyone who refers a new client gets a 50% discount on the next treatment for their pet. Have a healthy and happy winter!
Doc Sandi
Veterinary Alternatives