- Joined
- Feb 20, 2018
- Messages
- 42
I've recently been working with my cat, Blitzen, who has had a probable relapse of pancreatitis. As someone who is pretty high strung, every time one of my cats or rescue fosters gets sick, I get sick with worry. Pancreatitis can lead to very serious issues, even become fatal, so I needed to act quickly, or did I?
After some thought I wanted to put this out there to help others who may feel the same way when dealing with an acute health issue. Dr Jeff and I spoke about this the other day and here are our notes.
1) Take a minute. It's OK to take a breath and gather your thoughts before you do a thing (like race to the allopathic vet or ER)
2) Look at the specific symptoms (especially BEAM). Blitzen was depressed, hiding, curled up with belly-pain. He was not eating and had vomited white foam, so I knew that was probably stomach acid.
3 ) Look at the context. Blitzen had been acting weird the day before he stopped eating, vomited and got depressed. Was more going on before the major symptoms appeared?
4) Do as much of the home exam as you are able: I took Blitzen's temp, I checked his gums and did the skin test for dehydration. I gently examined his body for injury or skin eruptions because he has very reactive skin. Although he was hydrated and was slightly feverish, I gave him subQ fluids because I have a set up at home.
5) Write it down as soon as you notice the problem. I kept notes about time of day, food I offered, if he ate, if I gave him a remedy, what it was, if he responded. This helped me know how many days he wasn't getting enough calories and if there was anything he would eat (a bit of raw liver and deli ham).
Per Dr Jeff: Use the CIE system and think if this is truly an acute problem
CIE= context + interpretation —>Empowerment (uses symptom clues)
I syringe-fed Blitzen some bone broth, blended liver and some pro-biotics. Nothing very challenging. Just something to get in his belly, but I also knew that we were approaching day 4 of him not eating so I made an appointment to get him to our allopathic vet.
[Dr Jeff: if this is a chronic problem was there a trigger]. I'm not sure what the trigger was in my cat's case, but I'm still trying to sort that out. Blitzen had been mounting my cat, Freya frequently the day before this happened. e.g. inappetance, depression, hiding, mounting other cats]
I'd been warned this could be diabetes (from my allopathic vet) or just a flare up of the pancreatitis . One of these may have been the underlying cause which resulted in internal imbalance
That said, (Dr Jeff) the diagnosis is just a classification of internal and external symptoms. You CAN do both (anything that supports healing including drugs or other allopathic treatments)..which is what I was feeling guilty about. I knew that giving Blitzen Cerenia would probably help him feel better and maybe get him to eat, but was I "cheating" on homeopathy doing that? I have to understand and find the balance of modalities because I ended up doing both.
But it left me with a question-I avoid antibiotics with my cats, but I use Strongid to de-worm our kittens. I have used other de-wormers without much concern, but I would never give them certain meds because of how toxic they are or how they only stop a symptom, but don't solve the underlying issue. from Dr Jeff: Bottom line is getting the body to heal so avoid toxins and anything that slows healing.
We need to have a reference for traditional "medicines" and their toxicity. I think most of us understand that steroids are a very bad idea unless we're at the end of our pet's life, but within that range how do we make the best choice of options to integrate what we learn here with what our allopathic vet might suggest?
After some thought I wanted to put this out there to help others who may feel the same way when dealing with an acute health issue. Dr Jeff and I spoke about this the other day and here are our notes.
1) Take a minute. It's OK to take a breath and gather your thoughts before you do a thing (like race to the allopathic vet or ER)
2) Look at the specific symptoms (especially BEAM). Blitzen was depressed, hiding, curled up with belly-pain. He was not eating and had vomited white foam, so I knew that was probably stomach acid.
3 ) Look at the context. Blitzen had been acting weird the day before he stopped eating, vomited and got depressed. Was more going on before the major symptoms appeared?
4) Do as much of the home exam as you are able: I took Blitzen's temp, I checked his gums and did the skin test for dehydration. I gently examined his body for injury or skin eruptions because he has very reactive skin. Although he was hydrated and was slightly feverish, I gave him subQ fluids because I have a set up at home.
5) Write it down as soon as you notice the problem. I kept notes about time of day, food I offered, if he ate, if I gave him a remedy, what it was, if he responded. This helped me know how many days he wasn't getting enough calories and if there was anything he would eat (a bit of raw liver and deli ham).
Per Dr Jeff: Use the CIE system and think if this is truly an acute problem
CIE= context + interpretation —>Empowerment (uses symptom clues)
I syringe-fed Blitzen some bone broth, blended liver and some pro-biotics. Nothing very challenging. Just something to get in his belly, but I also knew that we were approaching day 4 of him not eating so I made an appointment to get him to our allopathic vet.
[Dr Jeff: if this is a chronic problem was there a trigger]. I'm not sure what the trigger was in my cat's case, but I'm still trying to sort that out. Blitzen had been mounting my cat, Freya frequently the day before this happened. e.g. inappetance, depression, hiding, mounting other cats]
I'd been warned this could be diabetes (from my allopathic vet) or just a flare up of the pancreatitis . One of these may have been the underlying cause which resulted in internal imbalance
That said, (Dr Jeff) the diagnosis is just a classification of internal and external symptoms. You CAN do both (anything that supports healing including drugs or other allopathic treatments)..which is what I was feeling guilty about. I knew that giving Blitzen Cerenia would probably help him feel better and maybe get him to eat, but was I "cheating" on homeopathy doing that? I have to understand and find the balance of modalities because I ended up doing both.
But it left me with a question-I avoid antibiotics with my cats, but I use Strongid to de-worm our kittens. I have used other de-wormers without much concern, but I would never give them certain meds because of how toxic they are or how they only stop a symptom, but don't solve the underlying issue. from Dr Jeff: Bottom line is getting the body to heal so avoid toxins and anything that slows healing.
We need to have a reference for traditional "medicines" and their toxicity. I think most of us understand that steroids are a very bad idea unless we're at the end of our pet's life, but within that range how do we make the best choice of options to integrate what we learn here with what our allopathic vet might suggest?
