Dr. Deva Khalsa
Homeopathy is fun to use and the fact that it works so very well with so many medical problems makes it all the more rewarding. Most of the commonly used remedies are inexpensive and easy to find. They can be found at most Health Food Markets, some human pharmacies, online at a multitude of sites and even at KMart. I suggest you compile a kit of common remedies to have ready and waiting when minor emergencies occur because there's often not the time to run to the store and this stuff always seem to happen late at night or on a major holiday!

Homeopathy has particular rules associated with using it and this can be confusing and put off prospective students. But for many simple and common accidents and illnesses, it can be pretty simple to use.

The first thing to do is to assemble a homeopathic kit to have at home and then buy a book or two about homeopathy. Homeopathic remedies number in the thousands and are made from anything and everything. But you only need to learn some of the rules of homeopathy and have about a dozen remedies to be off and running.

HOMEOPATHY SIMPLIFIED

Here is the straight goods on how to work with Homeopathic remedies.

Homeopathic remedies need to melt on the gums so they should not be hidden in a treat or in food. Our dogs have a built in pouch on the side of their mouth and the remedies can go right in there.

Try not to handle the remedies but drop them straight from the bottle into your dog's cheek.

Remedies come in tiny white pellet or liquid form. Either form can be placed directly into your dogs cheek. It's not important if you give one drop of the remedy or five or one homeopathic pellet or three because homeopathy is an energy medicine and there is typically none of the physical substance left in the remedy. One tiny white pellet could treat an elephant and 10 pellets could treat a mouse.

That's a hard one to digest, if you'll excuse my pun, but people are always worried about how much to give and how often to give. The amount is no big deal and you give it until they get better. If it's not working at all, you stop giving the remedy. We're all just too used to using antibiotics that have to be calculated to the weight of the dog and have a certain time they need to be given. This is simply not the case with homeopathy.

Because homeopathy is an energy medicine the remedies should not be stored next to heavy electromagnetic appliances such as televisions and computers or left in the bright hot sun for a long time.

WHAT DOSE SHOULD I GIVE ?

Unlike drugs, Homeopathy does not work by body weight (e.g., give 500 mg per 25 lbs. of body weight). With Homeopathy, the original physical substance is sequentially diluted and this is why you have the funny numbers after the name of the remedy. Arnica 6x does not mean that you have to give it six times! It means that the remedy has been diluted six times.

To confound you even more, the more dilute the remedy the more powerful it is, so very highly diluted remedies are usually only available to doctors. The potencies most commonly available to you are 6x and 30x (diluted 1/10 either 6 or 30 times) and 6c and 30c (diluted 1/100 either 6 or 30 times).

WHAT MAKES IT BETTER AND WHAT MAKES IT WORSE

Homeopathic remedies are chosen in accordance with how the patient experiences his illness. For instance, one person who has a cold may want everyone in the house at attendance and worrying about him while another wants to be left alone to lie quietly in the dark. Each of these individuals would need a different remedy based on the individual picture they present.

Let's say your dog has arthritis and stiffness. Look that up in a Homeopathy text book and you'll be given a choice of remedies. The specific way the problem presents in your dog will determine the remedy you choose.

For example, look at arthritic stiffness in dogs. Your choice of remedy might depend on whether your dog is worse or better when he first gets up after resting. If he's better after resting, he might need the remedy Bryonia as noted above. I've found that most dogs are stiff at first but after walking a bit they get less stiff after they move around for a bit. Oftentimes these same dogs are worse in cold damp weather. With this presentation you'd likely choose the remedy Rhus toxidendron. Rhus tox, as it is commonly known, is much cheaper than NSAIDs and also much safer to use.

If you were to determine that Rhus tox was the best remedy for your dog, you would simply put a few pellets to melt in his cheek pouch about three times a day and watch him over the next week, noting changes in his condition. If he gets better, you've got the right remedy and if there is no change, there's no harm done. Go back and do a little more reading in your handy books on homeopathy. When you have the right remedy, and you'll know, because there will be improvement.

12 HANDY REMEDIES

You may want to go out and purchase these commonly used remedies to have on hand in case the need arises. They are small and make a great travel kit too.

• Apis mellifica – great for bee and other insect bites. Give every 20 minutes for a few doses after a bee sting.
• Arnica – good for general pain, stiffness due to overexertion, soreness and musculoskeletal injuries.
• Arsenicum album – great for GI upsets from eating spoiled food where there is both vomiting and diarrhea. Give twice an hour for a few hours.
• Borax (the remedy, not the powder) – excellent for fear of thunderstorms and fireworks. Give this at the 6c potency twice a day for a month during the season.
• Calendula (can be used both as an oral remedy and as an external ointment) – use for skin infections or any kind of external infection. It's a remarkable healing agent and a tube of the ointment should always be on hand to apply topically to scrapes, infections and wounds. You can also buy a tincture and dilute it 1/10 and flush any cuts or wounds with it.
• Hepar sulphur – is wonderful to treat painful abscesses anywhere on the body and painful infected anal glands.
• Hypericum – is an excellent remedy to give for any pain due to nerve damage or injuries to nerve-rich areas. I once closed my finger in a window and learned firsthand the wonders of Hypericum. Great for when you cut your dog's toenails too short.
• Myristica – phenomenal remedy for anal sac infections and chronic anal sac problems.
• Rhus tox – for arthritis that's better after moving around, general musculoskeletal injuries, red swollen eyes, skin infections and skin itching.
• Ruta – fantastic for any injury to tendons or ligaments and this remedy has a real affinity for the knee so you would use it immediately after any knee or cruciate injury.
• Silicea – pushes foreign bodies like splinters or foxtails out of the skin.
• Ledum – the first choice for any type of puncture wound, including those from insect bites. Insect bites that require Apis will be hot and red, whereas bites that require Ledum will be cool and appears bruised.

With a small investment and a little planning, you can build your own Homeopathic kit. These remedies aren't that difficult to use and can give your dog fast and effective relief from many common injuries and illnesses.