Homeopathy is a form of health care that uses very dilute substances we call remedy medicine. The remedy is used to stimulate healing in very specific ways by applying the principle of “like cures like”. The patient is given a remedy that gently nudges their system in the direction of the “dis-ease”, allowing the body to heal through the same (or almost the same) particular symptoms of the dis-ease only in a milder form.
Remedies are a very effective way to stimulate the natural protective defenses in the body. Homeopaths fine-tune the use of the remedy medicines to enhance the patient’s own attempts to overcome the dis-ease. [1]
The paradigm of homeopathy is very different from the type of health care most of us grew up using. Homeopathy considers symptoms helpful in treating the patient, kind of like breadcrumbs on the trail that guide the process of care. Symptoms are the best attempt of the animal in their current state of health to adapt to the challenges they encounter in their environment.
Rather than choosing drugs to eradicate the symptoms, the symptoms are considered as part of the unique characteristics of the patient. Symptoms guide remedy selection. Remedy medicine is chosen based on the uniqueness of the patient in order to cure the overall dis-ease, and in the process of cure the symptoms are cured, too.
To help understand this paradigm and learn how to most effectively work with the homeopathic veterinarian, Dr. Dworak highly recommends The Practical Handbook of Veterinary Homeopathy: Healing Our Companion Animals From the Inside Out, by Dr. Wendy Jensen. [2]
In this book, Dr. Jensen clarifies how to interpret the symptoms we see in the animal and evaluate the response to remedy. The book also contains a section on supportive treatments for such things as itchy skin or diarrhea that can be used to support the patient without interfering with the patient response to the remedy.
[1] This information comes from an interesting description of homeopathy by Dr. Richard Pitcairn. His full write-up can be seen on the website for The Pitcairn Institute of Veterinary Homeopathy at https://pivh.org/sfd/what-is-homeopathy/.
[2] The text can be acquired through the publisher at https://www.blackrosewriting.com/nonfiction/practical-handbook-of-veterinary-homeopathy?rq=jensen.
Additional recommended read:
5 Common Misconceptions about Homeopathic Veterinary Care, by Wendy Jensen, DVM, published in Dogster, September 1, 2016.