A happy story from my house...
Although this is about a cow, it seems so easy to transpose this
picture onto a human, and since syphilinum is one of those "intense"
remedies that one doesn't read many cases of (at least *I* have not
read many cases of), I thought I would share it.

Some of you might remember about a year ago I wrote about a calf that
had been given to us to see if we could pull her through, because she
needed too much special care for the farm she'd been born on--couldn't
stand without help due to turned-under hooves; milk would pour out of
her nose as she drank (cleft palate?); more or less constant oozing
from nose and eyes; severe and persistent diarrhea; and recurrent
pneumonia. And such a pathetic air... And an odd thing, despite her
"pathetic air", and despite being a "baby"--and the tiny calves are
usually so appealing!--this one was hard to be around; I kept having to
fight off not just pity, but revulsion. But we didn't want to let her
down, and we had good help with the "nuts and bolts" of dealing with
her issues...

Short version--After several failed remedies, I gave her syphilinum 10M
(I think based mostly on pronounced asymmetry of her face, tho other
things seemed to support it too). She did just beautifully--pneumonias
stopped, discharges stopped, and she became a happy, peaceful,
reasonably normal-looking heifer. When she got big enough she joined
the herd, and did very well for I'm thinking about eight months.

Next chapter: I wasn't really surprised when, some months later, she
started to seem not-so-well again. A beginning like hers did not seem
likely to be a "one-dose miracle". But for "technical reasons" I
didn't follow thru with her at that time, just noticed the changes and
kept thinking I *needed* to get her another dose, and see if it would
help her again!
But in the meantime she changed very dramatically. She never did hang
out with the herd--not just lack of interest, but definite aversion;
she avoided them, and they avoided her. She became a huge, dark,
hulking shape, stalking the far reaches of the field--yet with a
strange craving for human attention. When I (and presumably my
husband) were in the pen, she would come straight over, with an air
that I first found touching--poor thing really needs some
attention!--but soon found *very* unnerving, very weird. *Way* too
intrusive, too intense, really made me nervous. (All of our half-dozen
cows are very friendly, and all of them come over for pats, but none in
an even remotely similar way to hers.) And my husband remarked she one
had to be careful around her, because her "friendliness" sometimes
turned to aggression (score one for my "instinct"...).
The other two notable things have been: more-or-less ongoing really
horrible green discharge from her nose (chewed up grass or green snot?
Don't know.), and a just awesomely horrible smell. Cows are not
sweet-smelling, but this one smelled like... well, maybe like horribly
moldy socks mixed in with general filth. Don't know how to describe,
but again, not even remotely like what any of our others ever smelled
like, and a very strong smell!

Last week I got a chance to try again to re-dose. I dissolved a few
pillules and sprinkled the liquid onto a scoop of grain--which they
normally do not get, but they *love*. At least the *other* ones love
it. She gave it a dismissive sniff, and walked away. (Dose? No dose?
Hm...)

But---The next morning, darned if she wasn't in with the group, hanging
out, grazing and swishing her tail with the others, just like a
"normal" cow!! A few days ago I finally got close to her (not so easy,
since she now prefers the herd over me!), and--no smell!!!!! Nothing
at all beyond normal ol' cow smell, and not even much of that. Casual
friendly interest in me, but nothing more--just like the others. This
time I'll try to follow her more closely, and not let so much time
lapse...

That's it so far--I hope this was of interest to anyone, as it surely
has been to me!
Cheers,
Shannon