Holistic Care of Sheep part 1
This article is an attempt to explain what a holistic, natural view of raising sheep is and how to incorporate this into your farm, either in part or in full. It is not a replacement for veterinary advice or medical care when needed but is useful to maintain health in a flock so that less intervention is necessary. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. I’m always interested in further information, experiences, etc.
Holistic refers to a view in which the whole body and all its processes is taken into account in health and disease, healing comes from within and is aided by the use of methods that are safe and work with the body to restore health. The body itself is seen to have what naturopaths term a vital force, or life force, the essence within the body that promotes healing, is the basis of growth and life and exits the body upon death. This vital force is seen as essential to health and healing in any modality that wishes to aid the body in the return to health. Animals are also seen to possess a vital force and both humans and animals have a propensity to stay healthy. Health is the normal state and the vital force is in balance, everything is working correctly. If an animal gets proper nutrition, has access to fresh air and plenty of exercise, in theory then, it will remain healthy according to holistic philosophy. Obviously, this is a simplified view since domesticated livestock cannot freely roam the country at will or have access to all the complete nutrition they need in a farm setting without supplementation, but this does not mean that the idea of raising sheep holistically is futile.
Disease, on the other hand, is seen from a holistic viewpoint as originating, not from outside the body in the form of bacteria, viruses or parasites, but from within as a result of an imbalance in the vital force, a weakness that predisposes an animal to susceptibility to an outside force. Without the underlying imbalance, an animal will not get sick. This is the opposite of the Western medical theory of disease and the one commonly held by veterinary medicine. But I will attempt to show that this is in fact a logical idea that can be demonstrated time and again.
For instance, if an animal gets injured, we think the wound must be disinfected to prevent bacteria from growing, perhaps a tetanus vaccine given and a systemic antibiotic injection also. But in fact, the bacteria are not the cause of infection and the wound can heal without intervention if the animal has a strong immune system. The body has defensive systems in place to deal with injuries that keep infections at bay, only if the animal is compromised will an infection occur. A healthy animal with strong vital force will have no problems. The same idea applies to Clostridium and its overgrowth. Clostridium is present in the soil, in the rumen and is a normal part of the workings of a sheep’s digestive system. Only if something causes an imbalance in the system will an overgrowth occur and bloating and possibly death result. Bacteria are seen more as part of a normal environment, their overgrowth at a wound site, in the intestines or as part of skin infections is a result of an imbalance, the bacteria could not “take over” on their own.
Detoxification is a process that is natural to the body and goes on all the time. A by-product of conversion of foods eaten to energy required by the body leaves chemicals that are not needed by the body and must be removed as waste. This is done through the eliminative systems of the body normally and is aided by antioxidants and certain minerals. When something in the body is out of balance, wastes can build up and create a toxic condition that leads to disease. Environmental factors also can contribute to the toxic load on the body, such as drugs, chemical dewormers, summer heat and poisons. This is not to say use of drugs and chemical dewormers is bad but that their use must take into account the overall effects on the body. These, too, will have to be eliminated and place a stress on the body and an animal already compromised (with heat stress or poor quality hay) may have trouble overcoming the added burden. Proper nutrition, added vitamins and trace minerals may help offset these problems and can be used to help an animal regain health or maintain it in times of stress.
I won’t attempt to address what nutritional requirements are needed in Icelandic sheep to maintain good health but I will say that correct mineral mix and minimal chemicals are a must. Mineral deficiencies, especially those that are so low level as to show few symptoms are at the root of many health issues and are difficult to detect and correct. Because so many factors affect trace mineral availability it is impossible to give an amount that is going to be useful for every farm. The use of chemical fertilizers on hay fields not only binds up micronutrients with the heavy metals found as a base in these fertilizers but the fertilizers themselves do not put back in any minerals besides the big three: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Herbicides and pesticides add a burden to the body which then has to detoxify and eliminate the chemicals contained within and this adds stress to eliminative systems: skin, liver, kidneys and to a certain extent, lungs. Acid rain and other environmental pollutants leach and bind up minerals, leaving the soil barren and sterile and mean a farmer must be even more diligent in keeping correct mineral mixes available to stock. The use of pelleted and processed feeds is not as common in small stock as it can be in large corporate factory farms but these processed feeds, in addition to containing ingredients questionable for true health, also have absolutely no vital force. Pasture and quality hay still contain the vital force of the plants (from a more scientific standpoint this can be seen as vitamins and minerals, proteins and carbohydrates still available in their unaltered form) while pellets and processed feeds have no vital force and their nutrition comes solely from fortification with synthetic vitamins and minerals. Although most animals and people can survive on the equivalent of TV dinners, they won’t thrive on this fare.
What about parasites? Again, these are seen as part of an imbalance in the system. A healthy individual will not sustain a large parasite load, either internally or externally. I witnessed a demonstration of this at a farm where one ewe was not thrifty, she seemed thin and did not compete with the others at the feeders, leaving her to glean what she could after the rest of the flock picked out the best. She was covered in lice (and no doubt full of internal parasites) but stood body-to-body with the other ewes who were in robust health. They had no lice, and I did part the wool and check several but she was so lousy that I could see them crawling without even touching her. Her poor nutrition and state of health allowed this where the ones in direct contact with her remained immune since they were in good health. This is not to say that a parasite control should not be in place on a farm, it SHOULD. And herbs, homeopathics and nutrition can be used to maximize the effects.
This begs the question, “What about those animals that through injury or other problems cannot maintain health and need a helping hand from the shepherd?” What are the best means of returning this animal to health and what holistic options are available?
One of the tenets of naturopathy is to do no harm and this is applicable to any procedures done to our animals. Although modern medicine offers what appears to be miraculous answers to diseases, these treatments all rely on the premise that disease has nothing to do with underlying imbalance and can be wiped out without taking into consideration the state of health of the individual or the whole body. Without addressing the underlying cause, no treatment will be ultimately successful and the disease will reoccur in one form or another in progressively more severe states until the animal either dies or the underlying imbalance is corrected. An example of this would be a ewe coughing from some form of pneumonia, an injection of penicillin appears to “cure” the cough and the ewe is returned to the flock only to have the cough return at intervals all season (each time suppressed with an injection) until the ewe begins to lose weight and eat less, succumb to parasites and eventually die. The shepherd may decide she died of parasites and this would be true on the surface but the beginning of the problem would be the cough and injection which effectively hid the real problem, a selenium deficiency. By not recognizing and addressing the underlying imbalance, the problem never was resolved but only changed forms. Was the penicillin to blame? Yes and no, antibiotics only treat the superficial problem of an overgrowth of bacteria and as was mentioned previously, this is not the same as the cause or underlying imbalance. The antibiotic may in fact do some harm by further upsetting the balance of the system, killing beneficial bacteria and placing an unnecessary burden on the body to detoxify the system of a foreign drug and the dead bacteria.
Herbs, homeopathics and vitamin and mineral therapies can all be used to help return the body to health but should be used within the context that the underlying imbalance must be addressed and corrected before true healing can take place.
Herbs should not be used in place of drugs, as though they were simply a safer substitute for a synthetic chemical. Although herbs are generally safe, they can be misused and be toxic and their best use is not one of substitution in a Western medical diagnosis but as a way to further aid the body in its own healing action.
By Alethea Kenney
Further reading:
Levy, J. 1991. The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable. London: Faber and Faber
Coleby, P. 2006. Healthy Sheep Naturally. Australia: Landlinks Press
Kenney, A. 2017. An Ounce of Prevention: Raising and Feeding Animals Naturally. Boreal Balance, LLC
Copyright Alethea Kenney 2022
Holistic refers to a view in which the whole body and all its processes is taken into account in health and disease, healing comes from within and is aided by the use of methods that are safe and work with the body to restore health. The body itself is seen to have what naturopaths term a vital force, or life force, the essence within the body that promotes healing, is the basis of growth and life and exits the body upon death. This vital force is seen as essential to health and healing in any modality that wishes to aid the body in the return to health. Animals are also seen to possess a vital force and both humans and animals have a propensity to stay healthy. Health is the normal state and the vital force is in balance, everything is working correctly. If an animal gets proper nutrition, has access to fresh air and plenty of exercise, in theory then, it will remain healthy according to holistic philosophy. Obviously, this is a simplified view since domesticated livestock cannot freely roam the country at will or have access to all the complete nutrition they need in a farm setting without supplementation, but this does not mean that the idea of raising sheep holistically is futile.
Disease, on the other hand, is seen from a holistic viewpoint as originating, not from outside the body in the form of bacteria, viruses or parasites, but from within as a result of an imbalance in the vital force, a weakness that predisposes an animal to susceptibility to an outside force. Without the underlying imbalance, an animal will not get sick. This is the opposite of the Western medical theory of disease and the one commonly held by veterinary medicine. But I will attempt to show that this is in fact a logical idea that can be demonstrated time and again.
For instance, if an animal gets injured, we think the wound must be disinfected to prevent bacteria from growing, perhaps a tetanus vaccine given and a systemic antibiotic injection also. But in fact, the bacteria are not the cause of infection and the wound can heal without intervention if the animal has a strong immune system. The body has defensive systems in place to deal with injuries that keep infections at bay, only if the animal is compromised will an infection occur. A healthy animal with strong vital force will have no problems. The same idea applies to Clostridium and its overgrowth. Clostridium is present in the soil, in the rumen and is a normal part of the workings of a sheep’s digestive system. Only if something causes an imbalance in the system will an overgrowth occur and bloating and possibly death result. Bacteria are seen more as part of a normal environment, their overgrowth at a wound site, in the intestines or as part of skin infections is a result of an imbalance, the bacteria could not “take over” on their own.
Detoxification is a process that is natural to the body and goes on all the time. A by-product of conversion of foods eaten to energy required by the body leaves chemicals that are not needed by the body and must be removed as waste. This is done through the eliminative systems of the body normally and is aided by antioxidants and certain minerals. When something in the body is out of balance, wastes can build up and create a toxic condition that leads to disease. Environmental factors also can contribute to the toxic load on the body, such as drugs, chemical dewormers, summer heat and poisons. This is not to say use of drugs and chemical dewormers is bad but that their use must take into account the overall effects on the body. These, too, will have to be eliminated and place a stress on the body and an animal already compromised (with heat stress or poor quality hay) may have trouble overcoming the added burden. Proper nutrition, added vitamins and trace minerals may help offset these problems and can be used to help an animal regain health or maintain it in times of stress.
I won’t attempt to address what nutritional requirements are needed in Icelandic sheep to maintain good health but I will say that correct mineral mix and minimal chemicals are a must. Mineral deficiencies, especially those that are so low level as to show few symptoms are at the root of many health issues and are difficult to detect and correct. Because so many factors affect trace mineral availability it is impossible to give an amount that is going to be useful for every farm. The use of chemical fertilizers on hay fields not only binds up micronutrients with the heavy metals found as a base in these fertilizers but the fertilizers themselves do not put back in any minerals besides the big three: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Herbicides and pesticides add a burden to the body which then has to detoxify and eliminate the chemicals contained within and this adds stress to eliminative systems: skin, liver, kidneys and to a certain extent, lungs. Acid rain and other environmental pollutants leach and bind up minerals, leaving the soil barren and sterile and mean a farmer must be even more diligent in keeping correct mineral mixes available to stock. The use of pelleted and processed feeds is not as common in small stock as it can be in large corporate factory farms but these processed feeds, in addition to containing ingredients questionable for true health, also have absolutely no vital force. Pasture and quality hay still contain the vital force of the plants (from a more scientific standpoint this can be seen as vitamins and minerals, proteins and carbohydrates still available in their unaltered form) while pellets and processed feeds have no vital force and their nutrition comes solely from fortification with synthetic vitamins and minerals. Although most animals and people can survive on the equivalent of TV dinners, they won’t thrive on this fare.
What about parasites? Again, these are seen as part of an imbalance in the system. A healthy individual will not sustain a large parasite load, either internally or externally. I witnessed a demonstration of this at a farm where one ewe was not thrifty, she seemed thin and did not compete with the others at the feeders, leaving her to glean what she could after the rest of the flock picked out the best. She was covered in lice (and no doubt full of internal parasites) but stood body-to-body with the other ewes who were in robust health. They had no lice, and I did part the wool and check several but she was so lousy that I could see them crawling without even touching her. Her poor nutrition and state of health allowed this where the ones in direct contact with her remained immune since they were in good health. This is not to say that a parasite control should not be in place on a farm, it SHOULD. And herbs, homeopathics and nutrition can be used to maximize the effects.
This begs the question, “What about those animals that through injury or other problems cannot maintain health and need a helping hand from the shepherd?” What are the best means of returning this animal to health and what holistic options are available?
One of the tenets of naturopathy is to do no harm and this is applicable to any procedures done to our animals. Although modern medicine offers what appears to be miraculous answers to diseases, these treatments all rely on the premise that disease has nothing to do with underlying imbalance and can be wiped out without taking into consideration the state of health of the individual or the whole body. Without addressing the underlying cause, no treatment will be ultimately successful and the disease will reoccur in one form or another in progressively more severe states until the animal either dies or the underlying imbalance is corrected. An example of this would be a ewe coughing from some form of pneumonia, an injection of penicillin appears to “cure” the cough and the ewe is returned to the flock only to have the cough return at intervals all season (each time suppressed with an injection) until the ewe begins to lose weight and eat less, succumb to parasites and eventually die. The shepherd may decide she died of parasites and this would be true on the surface but the beginning of the problem would be the cough and injection which effectively hid the real problem, a selenium deficiency. By not recognizing and addressing the underlying imbalance, the problem never was resolved but only changed forms. Was the penicillin to blame? Yes and no, antibiotics only treat the superficial problem of an overgrowth of bacteria and as was mentioned previously, this is not the same as the cause or underlying imbalance. The antibiotic may in fact do some harm by further upsetting the balance of the system, killing beneficial bacteria and placing an unnecessary burden on the body to detoxify the system of a foreign drug and the dead bacteria.
Herbs, homeopathics and vitamin and mineral therapies can all be used to help return the body to health but should be used within the context that the underlying imbalance must be addressed and corrected before true healing can take place.
Herbs should not be used in place of drugs, as though they were simply a safer substitute for a synthetic chemical. Although herbs are generally safe, they can be misused and be toxic and their best use is not one of substitution in a Western medical diagnosis but as a way to further aid the body in its own healing action.
By Alethea Kenney
Further reading:
Levy, J. 1991. The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable. London: Faber and Faber
Coleby, P. 2006. Healthy Sheep Naturally. Australia: Landlinks Press
Kenney, A. 2017. An Ounce of Prevention: Raising and Feeding Animals Naturally. Boreal Balance, LLC
Copyright Alethea Kenney 2022
Holistic Care of Sheep part 2
These articles are an attempt to explain what a holistic, natural view of raising sheep is and how to incorporate this into your farm, either in part or in full. It is not a replacement for veterinary advice or medical care when needed but is useful to maintain health in a flock so that less intervention is necessary. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. I’m always interested in further information, experiences, etc.
Homeopathics is a term that I have seen applied (mostly incorrectly) to a range of herbal and holistic modalities but for the sake of clarity, I will attempt to define homeopathy according to the tenets set down by the one who developed the system, Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who was disenchanted with the medical philosophy of his time period in the late 1700’s/early 1800’s and began to look for alternatives. He believed that disease was a result of internal susceptibility, the same imbalance discussed previously and as such, saw that medicines that could not touch the life force (vital force) could never really address that imbalance. He developed a system of medicine based on what he called potentizing a remedy. By taking a small drop of herb, mixing it with a set amount of inert carrier and then shaking (succussing) this mixture, he was able to imbue the remedy with the original vital force of the herb. He found that by continuing to dilute a remedy and succussing it at each dilution, he could make stronger and stronger remedies, able to work on the vital force to return it to harmony. He tested his potentized remedies on healthy individuals. The symptoms produced by the remedy in a healthy person were recorded in materia medica and then matched with ill people who had those same symptoms. The remedy could then act to help heal the ill person. The same system can be used for animals, the important part of homeopathy is to match the symptoms of the individual in its diseased state to a remedy. Each individual will manifest a disease differently and so the same remedy may not apply to two different animals that have the same disease, according to modern medicine. An example, a ram lamb has diarrhea and is off his feed, appears to be drawn up in the belly and feels cold to the touch. A search through a homeopathic materia medica shows that the remedy Arsenicum album might be a good choice. However, the ewe lamb in the next pen has diarrhea also but the discharge is yellow, explosive in action and the lamb has a slight rash along her belly. This symptom picture corresponds better to Croton tiglium but a fecal exam shows both lambs have coccidia. Homeopathy takes into account individual variations in diseases so one remedy does not fit all. And although medicine says the symptoms are caused by the coccidia organism, homeopathy (and naturopathy) say the disease is really the result if the underlying susceptibility and must be addressed this way, not by wiping out a parasite but by correcting an imbalance. In a flock situation, for ease of treatment, one remedy that fits the majority of symptoms of the ill individuals in the flock can be chosen and used.
The remedies themselves can be made of any substance, herb or mineral, even ones that are toxic in normal amounts. The reason these remedies are not toxic is the potentization and dilution. A more in-depth look at the making of a remedy reveals this. One drop of a tea of chamomile is diluted in 100 drops of water and then succussed to yield what is described as a 1C dilution. If one drop of the 1C is taken and diluted in another 100 drops of water and succussed it is now a 2C dilution. A standard dilution is 30 C and this would obviously be so diluted as to be almost nonexistent from a logical standpoint. However, the effects come not from the amount of the herb, but from the vital force of that herb. Science has difficulty explaining this and in America, this is seen as absurd because we tend to think “bigger is better”. How could one dose of 200C dilution be effective? But in reality, it is more powerful than the 30C by far and dilutions are chosen based on severity of the disease. The deeper and more chronic the disease, the higher the potency needed while superficial diseases may need only 6X (or dilutions in the 10’s). For the most part, home use should not involve high dilutions and 30C would be the highest considered. Although homeopathic remedies can be made at home using exactly the method described, most people now buy them or order them already prepared as small tablets. Tablets can present a problem when dealing with animals, and the best way I’ve read and tried to dose an animal with a tablet is to dissolve the tablet in filtered water in a clean container and then use a syringe or dropper to place the water in the animal’s mouth. Another option for a large flock in which many animals need treated is to place the liquid in a spray bottle and spritz the animals on the nose as they are run through a chute (all the remedy has to do is come in contact with a mucus membrane to be effective), this idea is taken from “Homeopathy, the Shepherd’s Guide”, Elliott and Pinkus.
What about dose? Again, this is difficult from a logical standpoint. In homeopathy, a dose is a dose. One tablet is a dose for a human, a cat, a sheep or an elephant. The important thing is not how many tablets but the dilution and the remedy chosen. It is also not necessary or even advised to repeat doses often in most cases. The general rule is, if an animal gets a dose and you see improvement (even a slight improvement, especially in the mental state) then do not repeat the dose until the animal either stops improving or starts to regress. So in our example of the ram lamb with diarrhea, if we give one dose of 30C (although in an adult this is not really a critical infection, in a lamb it can be and should be taken seriously) of Arsenicum and the lamb appears to feel better, walks less hunched and sniffs at his mother, we say he is improving and we watch. If he continues to improve throughout the day, do not repeat the dose at all. But if in the afternoon he begins to droop, stops caring about anything around him and just seems depressed, repeat the dose. However, if we give a dose and we see no effect, we can assume we probably chose the wrong remedy and need to reread the materia medica for alternate choices.
The exception to this dose repetition is in a truly critical situation like a severe injury. If a ram gets caught in the fence, struggles until he dislocates a shoulder and then limps over the a tree and lays down, we might try Arnica to help keep him from going into shock, to aid healing in tendons and muscles and prevent internal bleeding. But since this could be critical and he might have ripped a blood vessel, as evidenced by his slowly paling gums and weakness, we could repeat the dose as often as every 15 minutes (or until the vet arrives!). Giving Arnica is not a substitute for calling the vet for emergency care but can help stabilize the animal until help can get there. It may also minimize the trauma and the healing time needed.
Nosodes are a specific remedy (made exactly like the remedies mentioned above) created from a sample of the disease symptom, like a bit of diarrhea or the mucus discharge of a runny nose. These are then used to in inoculate individuals not infected and to treat those already showing symptoms. At first glance, this sounds a lot like vaccinating, but nosodes are made using a symptom of the disease, not the actual disease, and they are given the same way, via a mucus membrane or mouth, while vaccinations are injections into the animal of the actual disease or a synthetic version of it. The best use of nosodes is in a farm situation where an epidemic is starting (it can be either coccidiosis, pneumonia or a more serious threat). Nosodes allow the shepherd the option to treat the flock without the use of chemicals and antibiotics but under more supervised control since nosodes should be created in a laboratory situation and administered under supervision of a vet. While you can in fact create them yourself and apply them, again, advice of a holistic veterinarian is the best option since chances are, you will be dealing with a serious disease outbreak. Neither nosodes not regular remedies are a substitute for good health and farming practices and should not be used as such.
The very best thing you can do if you are interested in using homeopathy is to invest in some books and study them, unless you are blessed to live close to a homeopathic veterinarian. One other point about homeopathic remedies is that because they are potentized vital forces, they can be negated easily with strong odors like moth balls, alcohol, perfumes and chemicals and must be stored, opened and dosed in areas where sharp odors are not present. In humans, diet must be changed slightly so that sharp tastes and odors are avoided while using a remedy (such as coffee or mint-flavored drinks), toothpastes with sharp tastes, etc. But in animals, this is not as critical provided you don’t give a dose and follow it with some oral medication. Just be sure to avoid odors when opening the vials and dissolving the tablets. Use filtered water to dissolve and containers that don’t still smell of dish soaps or chemical disinfectants.
In all the modalities covered in these articles, the best situation is one in which you have a veterinarian studied in natural methods. The second best situation is one where your vet is not adverse to trying new things and will help you monitor the animal while attempting to treat it using holistic methods. The third and scariest option is to go ahead and treat the animal the way you want and keep in touch with the vet or other knowledgeable person. Unfortunately, this is sometimes the only option available but in cases where an animal is not responding, is obviously in need of critical care or you just can’t say for sure, do not hesitate to use conventional treatments. At least you will have a live animal and will have learned some from the experience. And as always, prevention through maintenance of health by proper nutrition and freedom to pastures is always better. In my experience, most veterinarians are not versed in alternatives but will at least monitor the animal so you will know when a situation is critical. The examples above are not intended to be used as treatment advice and are given as one way to use homeopathics, some books and veterinarians use a slightly different method but the basic tenets are the same.
By Alethea Kenney
Further Readings:
Elliott, M. 1993 Homeopathy, the Shepherd’s Guide. London: Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy
Hahnemann, S., Brewster, W. (Ed.). 1996. Organon of the Medical Art. Calif.: Birdcage Books.
Kent, J. 1979 ed. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy. Calif.: North Atlantic
Copyright Alethea Kenney 2022
Homeopathics is a term that I have seen applied (mostly incorrectly) to a range of herbal and holistic modalities but for the sake of clarity, I will attempt to define homeopathy according to the tenets set down by the one who developed the system, Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who was disenchanted with the medical philosophy of his time period in the late 1700’s/early 1800’s and began to look for alternatives. He believed that disease was a result of internal susceptibility, the same imbalance discussed previously and as such, saw that medicines that could not touch the life force (vital force) could never really address that imbalance. He developed a system of medicine based on what he called potentizing a remedy. By taking a small drop of herb, mixing it with a set amount of inert carrier and then shaking (succussing) this mixture, he was able to imbue the remedy with the original vital force of the herb. He found that by continuing to dilute a remedy and succussing it at each dilution, he could make stronger and stronger remedies, able to work on the vital force to return it to harmony. He tested his potentized remedies on healthy individuals. The symptoms produced by the remedy in a healthy person were recorded in materia medica and then matched with ill people who had those same symptoms. The remedy could then act to help heal the ill person. The same system can be used for animals, the important part of homeopathy is to match the symptoms of the individual in its diseased state to a remedy. Each individual will manifest a disease differently and so the same remedy may not apply to two different animals that have the same disease, according to modern medicine. An example, a ram lamb has diarrhea and is off his feed, appears to be drawn up in the belly and feels cold to the touch. A search through a homeopathic materia medica shows that the remedy Arsenicum album might be a good choice. However, the ewe lamb in the next pen has diarrhea also but the discharge is yellow, explosive in action and the lamb has a slight rash along her belly. This symptom picture corresponds better to Croton tiglium but a fecal exam shows both lambs have coccidia. Homeopathy takes into account individual variations in diseases so one remedy does not fit all. And although medicine says the symptoms are caused by the coccidia organism, homeopathy (and naturopathy) say the disease is really the result if the underlying susceptibility and must be addressed this way, not by wiping out a parasite but by correcting an imbalance. In a flock situation, for ease of treatment, one remedy that fits the majority of symptoms of the ill individuals in the flock can be chosen and used.
The remedies themselves can be made of any substance, herb or mineral, even ones that are toxic in normal amounts. The reason these remedies are not toxic is the potentization and dilution. A more in-depth look at the making of a remedy reveals this. One drop of a tea of chamomile is diluted in 100 drops of water and then succussed to yield what is described as a 1C dilution. If one drop of the 1C is taken and diluted in another 100 drops of water and succussed it is now a 2C dilution. A standard dilution is 30 C and this would obviously be so diluted as to be almost nonexistent from a logical standpoint. However, the effects come not from the amount of the herb, but from the vital force of that herb. Science has difficulty explaining this and in America, this is seen as absurd because we tend to think “bigger is better”. How could one dose of 200C dilution be effective? But in reality, it is more powerful than the 30C by far and dilutions are chosen based on severity of the disease. The deeper and more chronic the disease, the higher the potency needed while superficial diseases may need only 6X (or dilutions in the 10’s). For the most part, home use should not involve high dilutions and 30C would be the highest considered. Although homeopathic remedies can be made at home using exactly the method described, most people now buy them or order them already prepared as small tablets. Tablets can present a problem when dealing with animals, and the best way I’ve read and tried to dose an animal with a tablet is to dissolve the tablet in filtered water in a clean container and then use a syringe or dropper to place the water in the animal’s mouth. Another option for a large flock in which many animals need treated is to place the liquid in a spray bottle and spritz the animals on the nose as they are run through a chute (all the remedy has to do is come in contact with a mucus membrane to be effective), this idea is taken from “Homeopathy, the Shepherd’s Guide”, Elliott and Pinkus.
What about dose? Again, this is difficult from a logical standpoint. In homeopathy, a dose is a dose. One tablet is a dose for a human, a cat, a sheep or an elephant. The important thing is not how many tablets but the dilution and the remedy chosen. It is also not necessary or even advised to repeat doses often in most cases. The general rule is, if an animal gets a dose and you see improvement (even a slight improvement, especially in the mental state) then do not repeat the dose until the animal either stops improving or starts to regress. So in our example of the ram lamb with diarrhea, if we give one dose of 30C (although in an adult this is not really a critical infection, in a lamb it can be and should be taken seriously) of Arsenicum and the lamb appears to feel better, walks less hunched and sniffs at his mother, we say he is improving and we watch. If he continues to improve throughout the day, do not repeat the dose at all. But if in the afternoon he begins to droop, stops caring about anything around him and just seems depressed, repeat the dose. However, if we give a dose and we see no effect, we can assume we probably chose the wrong remedy and need to reread the materia medica for alternate choices.
The exception to this dose repetition is in a truly critical situation like a severe injury. If a ram gets caught in the fence, struggles until he dislocates a shoulder and then limps over the a tree and lays down, we might try Arnica to help keep him from going into shock, to aid healing in tendons and muscles and prevent internal bleeding. But since this could be critical and he might have ripped a blood vessel, as evidenced by his slowly paling gums and weakness, we could repeat the dose as often as every 15 minutes (or until the vet arrives!). Giving Arnica is not a substitute for calling the vet for emergency care but can help stabilize the animal until help can get there. It may also minimize the trauma and the healing time needed.
Nosodes are a specific remedy (made exactly like the remedies mentioned above) created from a sample of the disease symptom, like a bit of diarrhea or the mucus discharge of a runny nose. These are then used to in inoculate individuals not infected and to treat those already showing symptoms. At first glance, this sounds a lot like vaccinating, but nosodes are made using a symptom of the disease, not the actual disease, and they are given the same way, via a mucus membrane or mouth, while vaccinations are injections into the animal of the actual disease or a synthetic version of it. The best use of nosodes is in a farm situation where an epidemic is starting (it can be either coccidiosis, pneumonia or a more serious threat). Nosodes allow the shepherd the option to treat the flock without the use of chemicals and antibiotics but under more supervised control since nosodes should be created in a laboratory situation and administered under supervision of a vet. While you can in fact create them yourself and apply them, again, advice of a holistic veterinarian is the best option since chances are, you will be dealing with a serious disease outbreak. Neither nosodes not regular remedies are a substitute for good health and farming practices and should not be used as such.
The very best thing you can do if you are interested in using homeopathy is to invest in some books and study them, unless you are blessed to live close to a homeopathic veterinarian. One other point about homeopathic remedies is that because they are potentized vital forces, they can be negated easily with strong odors like moth balls, alcohol, perfumes and chemicals and must be stored, opened and dosed in areas where sharp odors are not present. In humans, diet must be changed slightly so that sharp tastes and odors are avoided while using a remedy (such as coffee or mint-flavored drinks), toothpastes with sharp tastes, etc. But in animals, this is not as critical provided you don’t give a dose and follow it with some oral medication. Just be sure to avoid odors when opening the vials and dissolving the tablets. Use filtered water to dissolve and containers that don’t still smell of dish soaps or chemical disinfectants.
In all the modalities covered in these articles, the best situation is one in which you have a veterinarian studied in natural methods. The second best situation is one where your vet is not adverse to trying new things and will help you monitor the animal while attempting to treat it using holistic methods. The third and scariest option is to go ahead and treat the animal the way you want and keep in touch with the vet or other knowledgeable person. Unfortunately, this is sometimes the only option available but in cases where an animal is not responding, is obviously in need of critical care or you just can’t say for sure, do not hesitate to use conventional treatments. At least you will have a live animal and will have learned some from the experience. And as always, prevention through maintenance of health by proper nutrition and freedom to pastures is always better. In my experience, most veterinarians are not versed in alternatives but will at least monitor the animal so you will know when a situation is critical. The examples above are not intended to be used as treatment advice and are given as one way to use homeopathics, some books and veterinarians use a slightly different method but the basic tenets are the same.
By Alethea Kenney
Further Readings:
Elliott, M. 1993 Homeopathy, the Shepherd’s Guide. London: Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy
Hahnemann, S., Brewster, W. (Ed.). 1996. Organon of the Medical Art. Calif.: Birdcage Books.
Kent, J. 1979 ed. Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy. Calif.: North Atlantic
Copyright Alethea Kenney 2022