The Appointment

Yesterday I had a 2.5 hour appointment with a certified veterinary homeopath. Wow!! Dr. F was great. His background is as a traditional vet before getting turned on to homeopathy. My friend, Michele, was awesome - she came for the three hour ride (x2) and appointment. She was able to add bits of info about Ike and keep me company in general.

Ike was stellar - about 30 minutes into the appointment he told me he was ready to go. Went to the door. Looked at the door. Looked at me. He tried this QUITE a few more times to no avail.

The appointment consisted of me walking Dr. F through every incident of Ike's life health wise and his preferences (food, cold space, warm space, etc). It is difficult because the tool CVH use is for humans, so the vet must translate for canine patients. The vet needs to have a good handle on dogs in general and the new patient. Hence the road trip.

I had to create a veterinary treatment history and profile of Ike for Dr. F. Doing so made me realize how much Ike's nebulous symptoms have escalated in the past year. I am nervous about choosing to go the homeopathic route - who wouldn't be - it is a complete unknown to me. However I don't feel like treating Ike for the bouts of GI distress but not understanding what the underlying cause is accomplishing anything. Michele asked Dr. F if he knew what was wrong with Ike. He said of course, he is out of balance.

The skin eruptions (Ike has had some allergy related bumps this year - the last time he had them was in 2005) and GI distress are signs of his energy being out of balance. Who knows, perhaps his reactivity is also a sign. Although I have to say that I find Ike to be more reactive when he is feeling good which means we might have to take our training and management skills to a different level.

I really don't care WHAT the scientific term for what is wrong with Ike is as long as I can find a more efficient way of having him feel good on a consistent basis.

While we were in the appointment Ike was licking his bum, a lot. This is incredibly unusual. He has only done this once before and I made an appointment for him at the vet's office only to cancel it because he stopped (in August of this year). I groom him myself, so I do not think that his anal glands have ever even been expressed. I know the vet never has - he has never scooted, etc. Last time this happened I saw Dr. Anne while it was going on and she mentioned something about the waning moon and parasites. I'll have to ask her about that again. She did preface the statement with, this will sound crazy. Dr. F did check Ike's anal glands and they were fine. He said Ike was just trying to help him choose the correct remedy.

I had my vet office fax down Ike's fasted blood work and Dr. F doesn't think Ike has hyperlipidemia or that I need to do anything crazy-strict with Ike's diet. Of course, given that homeopathy views all disease as variations of dis-ease, i.e. unbalance of energy I am not surprised that is his opinion.

I am starting a blog to track Ike's reactions to the remedies Dr. F prescribes. It is called Ike Homeopathically. The thing about doing homeopathy properly is every little bit of information is important and a reflection of what is going on internally. Since I do not journal, and if I did I would then have to transcribe my notes into either Excel or Word to send to Dr. F, I thought blogging about it would be ideal. I can just send Dr. F the website and keep it updated.

I don't think it will be a very exciting blog to the average reader, but it might interest some of you who are looking for alternative methods to deal with chronic health issues or even typical health issues without the traditional palliative methods.

OTHER TIDBITS

Dr. F doesn't think Ike should be on a joint supplement right now. His feeling on supplements is that they are just natural drugs and mask signs of internal imbalance. Since we are trying to figure out what is wrong with Ike we do not want to mask ANY symptoms that might lead us to the answer. He says to continue with the Vetri Science Canine Plus, BugOff Garlic, and 3V CAPS for now.

Ike's diet has plenty of variety and the right amount of fat so for the moment leave it as is.

We didn't even get into vaccines really. We talked about them a bit and his opinion about the Rabies vaccine is that you should do your best to have your dog as balanced as possible prior to vaccinating them. I plan on titering for all other vaccines in the future. I would LOVE where Bug is so young, to be able to prevent the systematic damage in him that I feel vaccines cause.

Dr. F also feels the fact that Ike consistently loses his pelvis is a sign of imbalance (and I almost forgot to tell him this tidbit!). He expects that with homeopathic treatment Ike will only be seeing the chiropractor once or twice a year. He feels it is beneficial to continue seeing Dr. Anne as needed.

Dr. F also recommended if I purchase one book on homeopathy and animals it be Don Hamilton's Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs. I was planning on having Barnes & Noble order me a copy, but Dr. F had a signed copy I could purchase. Very convenient.

Ike's first remedy is Nux Vomica and I already have a post I need to write on his morning behavior!