Marvin – a sick puppy

You know that type of case – with almost no symptoms and no reason (acute or chronic?) for occurring, the patient can’t speak – so, your average homeopathic nightmare!

This is why we love HFA. It is such a helpful system for finding accurate, deep and fast acting remedies – and in this recent case – the first remedy tried.

Marvin is a 7-month-old Border Collie/Cocker Spaniel cross puppy. He is super friendly and quite hardy. He was neutered at 5 months and had a few doses of Arnica and was bouncing around with no need for the painkillers advised, straight after leaving the vet surgery. He eats well and plays with his 4-year-old companion Border Collie non-stop. He is very happy and hardy and has never showed any sign of illness at all. He eats a raw Barf diet and has an excellent appetite.

So, last week, when he didn’t bounce out to meet us first thing in the morning, it was unusual. But he seemed ok and nothing else was amiss until he was offered some food. Usually, he would gobble it up, but this morning, he wasn’t interested. He got in his travel box and curled up and slept for a while. We kept an eye on him but there was nothing else happening. A couple of hours later he had two small vomits on the deck – watery and slightly yellow. His large dinner, the previous night, had obviously digested.

With this type of case – human or animal – unless you have already treated the patient and know which type of remedies suit them, and most particularly, what their dominant miasm is, there is nothing to do but watch and wait. Another two hours and there was no change, he didn’t want anything to eat but occasionally took some water from his drinking bowl.

We decided to first work out his miasm. We had discussed what it might be previously, but as he had never needed a remedy, a proper analysis hadn’t been done. How do you do a dog’s facial analysis? We have only done a few animals over the years, but apply the same strategy as we do for people; shape and size of features, allocate each obvious feature to its relevant primary miasm (psora Y, sycosis R, syphilis B) and see which of the three primary miasms is dominant – or two if they are close – or maybe even three – if within one feature of each other.

Here is Marvin’s facial analysis –

NAME – Marvin – 7-month-old puppy

DATE – 15^th December 2019

	YELLOW (psora) Y1	RED (sycosis) R3	BLUE (syphilis) B5-6
01	Ears position	Nose shape	Teeth- very sharp (not seen in photo)
02		Single line	Ears size
03		Bridge shape/distance	Forehead shape
04			Eyes position
05			Eyes shape
06			Asymmetry?

 

We felt comfortable the miasm was Blue (syphilitic miasm). The photos were taken the next day as while he was sick, he didn’t want to sit up.

 

The symptoms were vague, so we decided to start with Merc Sol 200 in water and see what happened next. The remedy was made up in a glass of water and stirred – an eyedropper was used to administer the dose. He would only allow it to be splashed on his nose. We gave a dose about every half hour.

In the first hour, there was no real change, although he did get up and have a big drink of water.

In the second and third hour, he slept quite deeply (especially for the afternoon). At 4 ½ hours, we were considering our next option, when he just stood up and walked over to be patted. We gave him some soft food and he ate a little and took some milk (he never has milk, but we figured it might be nice for his stomach). Soon after, all his energy returned. He started playing and then had a small dinner which was soon topped up to his usual larger-sized dinner as he wasn’t struggling at all. All the meat and bones were eaten and he began to frolic with his big sister.

He slept through the night with no issues and had another 2 doses the following morning as he seemed slightly more tired than usual. Then from mid-morning, he was the same bouncy, healthy dog we are so used to. And completely well from that point on.

Note 2023 – Marvin has been sick* a few times and every time a dose of Merc 200 and he is back to normal within a few hours or less.

*A more severe incident was one evening a year later. On arriving home around 10.30pm after a dinner out (the dogs had been left in the garden), Marvin acted very strangely on our arrival. He jumped into the driver’s lap as soon as the car door was open – although loving a pat and closeness, he had never done this before. On walking to the house from the driveway, his back legs collapsed and he began to stumble. We were unaware of what could be wrong but suspected a possible snake bite. He was examined but nothing could be seen although with his thick hair a bite would probably not be seen. At that time of night, no vets open within 3 hours and we knew it was too long for anti-venom treatment to be effective. The best thing to do we decided was to keep him comfortable.

By 11pm he was in a coma. Not responsive but breathing and we settled in for a sad night. A glass of Merc 200C was made up and a drop placed on his nose at regular intervals. Sometimes every 5-10 minutes and sometimes longer but at least a few times an hour. At midnight one of us went to bed and the other stayed to watch him and keep dosing at intervals. Around 1.30pm he opened his eyes and after a minute stood up with wobbly legs. He made it to the door and was let out onto the deck. He took a drink from his bowl, walked down the steps to the grass and urinated. He then made his way back to the deck and wanted a pat. On coming inside again, he went back to sleep. Dosing was continued every 30 minutes or so and then less often as the watcher went to sleep too.

At 5am he was checked and happily woke to accept a pat. He was put out with our other dog at around 7am and had another drink, a toilet stop and played a little then lay on the deck in the sun. Marvin was watched all day and although more sleepy and sluggish than usual, he ate all his dinner (never misses his dinner!) and on the second day was totally back to normal.

Six months later. We saw Marvin and our other dog Jazz rough-playing in the same front yard and Marvin tumbled into a tree trunk and hit his head badly. It then occurred to us he probably had a head concussion the night of his coma. It must have been severe to not be able to rouse him but he showed no sequelae to the incident from the moment he came to, a few hours later.

Marvin’s “constitutional” remedy is only used once or twice a year. The concussion was the most major incident but every positive outcome from being “normal” sick to this accident has reminded us of the incredible privilege it is to know and use Homeopathy effectively.

This is HFA Homeopathy in action. The facial analysis tells us the miasm and then we have only a few remedies that will match the case. Easy to choose and fantastic results – a reminder how wonderful and universal Homeopathy is and how the structural shape of the face is also universal.