I know I should post this on the vet site however, this site gets more hits. I am a student of homeopathy and have little to zero experience with animals.

The situation is a seven year old cat has sarted getting seziures. First, before a seziure the cat will look over his shoulders as if something is behind him. The fur sticks out, the tongue darts in and out. He gets hot. and will move around in tight circles.

The owner has the cat on phenol barbitol, which did not help to any degree. The cat was then put on potassium bromide in conjunction with the other med. His response was that the seziures stopped. However, he is not himself. He will pace in circles.

I gave the cat Hyos 30c. His personality came back. But the owner has continued with the medication. The cat is now having seziures in a lesser degree. I think at this point the seziures are not the organic disease but the direct result of the medications. Kali br in the Materia medica list the same symptoms as what the cat is going through. The continued medications are an obstacle to cure in my opinion.

My question is how to proceed at this point. Stop the meds immediatly? Give the Kali Br. to reverse the effects of the crude medicine or start the Hyos again.

Thankyou for any help

craig, this is a problem that comes up in practice for human patients too.
with reference to organon para 7 and its footnotes, and para 52, as a homoeopath i think the way to act with integrity is to advise that you cannot treat the case unless medication is stopped.
stopping the medication might have risks and so it is a choice for the owners to take, perhaps in discussion with the vet.
only if the medication were stopped could you get a clear picture of the natural disease.

Thank you. It is good to have the confirmation.

Craig,

"Delusion someone is walking behind him" has only one remedy, calc-carb.

"Runs in a circle before convulsion" has only one remedy--causticum.

"Tongue,protruded during convulsions" has only Lachesis

"Aura, restlessness"-arg-n, bufo, caust.

There's a slight edge here for causticum, with what few symptoms we have.

Snoopy

Dear Krista,

I have NO idea! It would probably be best to have one of the many acute prescribing books for animals, which can be ordered at www.minimum.com

Snoopy

I hope no one is offended when I ask why one would use these symptoms when selecting a possible remedy for the cat. Having seen a lot of animals pre siezure, siezure and post siezure, these symptoms are common place, quite frankly I can't think of one animal who didn't display all of them. I guess what I'm asking is in a chronic situation are these the symptoms we would put on the top of the list when selecting a remedy? Just asking as my experience has been with acute, sometimes viral based siezures. Thanks

I don't think my question was stated clearly. I do have a number of the "animal homeopathy books" but I rarely consult them anymore. They can be a useful guide and sometimes help to simplify a chaotic picture but they do not go past the basics. I have used remedies to halt acute siezures but not chronic. My question however was why we would place importance on symptoms like paranoia, circling, tongue protrusion and restlessness when these symptoms tend to be present in siezure activity anyways (ie body reaction). Would it not be more important to explore causations and traits/habits not necessarily affiliated with the siezures?
Thanks

Hi Craig,

I would suppose that the symptoms exhibited before, during and after seizure would be a helpful guide in selecting a remedy, taking the entire picture of the remedy that includes the most prominent seizure behavior.

There are many other symptoms that can occur such as involuntary urination and or stool, biting objects or themselves, twitching skin, falling always to one side or the other, hyperactivity, loss of consciousness, unresponsiveness to touch or surroundings or over responsive to the same, panting, drooling, vomiting, dashing off madly before/after seizure, fixed pupils.....the list goes on and on. I've seen cats where you can see and feel what looks like an electric/pulse like current throbbing on the side of their face just before a seizure. Not every cat nor every seizure has all the possible symptoms so those remedies that have one or more of the keynotes would be remedies to consider and investigate further.

Most of the time, finding the origin is not easy and we are left to work with how the cat now appears, whether from a prior infection or from trauma. Some think a thiamine deficiency can be a cause. Or excess tinned/canned food, flea collars and insecticide poisoning.

I had a cat who had suffered severe head trauma when he was found. The entire one side of his head was crushed completely flat (he was in a coma for days and took about 8 months to regain most of his movement) yet he had no seizure symptoms until a year later after he was anesthetized for neutering. (I should have known better than this even if the vet didn't.) We were never able to completely stop his seizures but could reduce them from 10 to 15 per day to once every 5 to 7 days. When he did seize, I found that immobilizing him tightly lessened the intensity of the seizure. (A word of caution about this if the cat has biting as part of the seizure symptoms. I had to use my foot behind the neck and over the shoulder to apply pressure holding him down because he could not be touched.....at all, anywhere, at anytime....other than directly behind the head/neck area.)

Macleod states that many animals are resistant to treatment but goes on to suggest considering:
Bell.........unconsciousness, dilated pupils, throbbing pulse
Cocc.....long term cases, come on with travel or unusual movement
Cic V......unusual neck symptoms
Stram........falls to one side, especially left
Agar.......preceded or followed by incoordination leading to exaggerated stumbling movements
Plum Met.......heavy metals/brain disturbances, weakness of muscles, bluish-grey skin/mucus membranes
Cup M........cramping/restrictive movement
Also to be considered: Absin, Zinc M, Arn, Nat S, Bufo, Op, Tarent H, Ign, Oenanthe C, Art V, to name a few.....using a complete symptom picture.

Hope you can help your friend's cat. Those seizures can be terribly hard on the caregiver as well as the poor animal.

(Craig........next time you see my old Abraham relative.....please give him a nod from me!)

__________________
Sometimes on Earth, you can find something that resembles a little piece of Heaven. And sometimes on Earth, a little piece of Heaven can find you.

Good info gpm, I've printed it for future reference. That anastesia is nasty stuff, we've had our fair share of strokes, heart attacks, siezures and of couse FIP after an operation. Speaking of FIP, Sugar didn't make it

Krista, thanks. And I know about your little Sugar girl. I'm very sorry. Life just plain darn stinks sometimes. I feel so badly for you and for Bettina, whom I know has had a rotten day today, too. These little furry things have no idea how indelibly they imprint our lives, with their little lives.

As for the info in my former post, I've been advised it is not of any value, that Mcleod was not a good vet homeopath, so you (and Craig) may want to disregard it. Mostly I was addressing actual epilepsy as opposed to the passing seizures brought on by trying to take an animal off cortisone or things like idiopathic vestibular syndrome. I do apologize if it was bad information.

I was absolutely overwhelmed when a vet recently made the remark "you do understand that when we anesthetize for spaying, we may activate latent disease". I couldn't believe my ears. That an allopathic vet should say such a thing was a wonder. It's very true but I just didn't think the mainstream vets had any idea that this was the case. We (and I know you do, too) see it all the time....disease appearing after the mandatory spay/neuter. Catch 22, isn't it? Save the feral (or homeless), neuter the feral, kill the feral.

__________________
Sometimes on Earth, you can find something that resembles a little piece of Heaven. And sometimes on Earth, a little piece of Heaven can find you.