Homeopathic Meds FROM MY VET!

[Drewbot]

My wife's cat is losing it's hair in clumps.

I'd been to the vet twice:

first they tested the spot and found bacteria present on the skin. (Big deal right?) they prescribed an anti-bacterial/anti-fungal/anti-mite topical gel to apply.

second: they tested for fungus, nothing, so they gave her a shot of antibiotics.

The third time: they tested for mites, nothing. so the vet says, you should try these drops, I think your cat might be 'obsessive compulsive', it is an herbal-chamomille drop that you put in their water. It's supposed to calm them down.

Anyway, I say 'I CAN'T BELIEVE I"M GIVING MY PET HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE"

The vet looks at me and says "Are you serious or joking?"

I say: "I'm serious and joking"

She says "IT helped my two dogs get over separation anxiety"

I say: "Well I'm NOT going home to my wife empty-handed So give it to me"


I feel guilty, but my wife is happy, the cat will probably get better, and we will have to thank the HOMEOPATHIC medicine for the improvement.

Am I wrong for bringing this home to the cat? Or did I do the right thing?

Has anyone else been railroaded into using vetrinarian Homeopathic medicine?

 

[Professor Yaffle]

You say it was a herbal chamomile drop - what indication did you have that it was homeopathic?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

A whole drop in a bowl of water? Definitely not related to homoeopathy.

 

[KingMerv00]

A whole drop in a bowl of water? Definitely not related to homoeopathy.

Unless the bowl is Madison Square Garden.

 

[Drewbot]

You say it was a herbal chamomile drop - what indication did you have that it was homeopathic?

It said "Homeopathic" on the label. It has chamomile and other things in it, I just remember the chamomile tag. It said on the back 6c/10c or something like that. I will go home at lunch and get more detail.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Maybe homeopathy works in animals!

 

[William Parcher]

Why is this thread tagged with "bigfoot"?

 

[Puppycow]

It said "Homeopathic" on the label. It has chamomile and other things in it, I just remember the chamomile tag. It said on the back 6c/10c or something like that. I will go home at lunch and get more detail.

These days it's confusing because they now market herbal "remedies" as "homeopathic."

 

[jasonpatterson]

You should be ashamed for having purchased it. Your vet should be abandoned for having sold it to you. Your guilt/shame is appropriate.

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

These days it's confusing because they now market herbal "remedies" as "homeopathic."

This is a good point. I would be curious if the OP followed up with the vet. Asked if this was really a Homeopathic Remedy or if it was actuall an Herbal Remedy that is labeled to take advantage of the current market. Chammomille as an herbal remedy is a traditional usage but has no scientific backing. A warning about chammomille is possible alergic reactions to it so there is a possible danger, though I have no idea how prevalent chammomille alergies are among cats.

 

[Amapola]

This is a disconcerting trend among some vets. They offer "alternative" treatments, and the practice grows by leaps and bounds. I have several neighbors who buy into this hook, line and sinker. There is a local vet who will do chiropractic manipulations on your horse; many of my friends use her. (I don't except for equine dentistry, which she is very good at.) Others do cold laser therapy, homeopathy, herbs etc. which as far as I can see is simply a way to part money from the owner.

In a way I can't blame them. Becoming a vet is not only difficult it's very expensive. They can have huge student loans they must repay. This vet saw your cat several times, offered conventional therapy, and only then offered the homeopathy/herbal (whatever) stuff.

There is a skeptical vet site that has some good information on it.

My personal belief is that the "alternative" medicine for animals thing has more to do with the owner being one of the Worried Well and transferring this to their pet. Some of the vets out there are taking advantage of this and like I say, in a way I can't blame them.

 

[Drewbot]

I was going to say forget it, but then I thought of the horror I would be put through, when I told my wife that I had nothing for her cat. Then she would have made an appt. she could have gone to, and would have bought it anyway. (rationalizing my decision)

Re: why is this tagged with bigfoot? Must have been a typo, mah bad.

 

[IMST]

This is a disconcerting trend among some vets. They offer "alternative" treatments, and the practice grows by leaps and bounds. I have several neighbors who buy into this hook, line and sinker. There is a local vet who will do chiropractic manipulations on your horse; many of my friends use her. (I don't except for equine dentistry, which she is very good at.) Others do cold laser therapy, homeopathy, herbs etc. which as far as I can see is simply a way to part money from the owner.

In a way I can't blame them. Becoming a vet is not only difficult it's very expensive. They can have huge student loans they must repay. This vet saw your cat several times, offered conventional therapy, and only then offered the homeopathy/herbal (whatever) stuff.

There is a skeptical vet site that has some good information on it.

My personal belief is that the "alternative" medicine for animals thing has more to do with the owner being one of the Worried Well and transferring this to their pet. Some of the vets out there are taking advantage of this and like I say, in a way I can't blame them.

Thank you much for the link. I'm having issues with my vet for my new cats pushing way more than seems necessary and I'm grateful for the resources.

 

[GreNME]

This is a disconcerting trend among some vets. They offer "alternative" treatments, and the practice grows by leaps and bounds. I have several neighbors who buy into this hook, line and sinker.

Actually, if I know the drops being mentioned in the first post-- and I believe I do-- this is an herbal remedy that actually tends to have a measurable (though small) effect on pets. Part of it is indeed the chamomile that was already mentioned, and a few other parts in the drops perform the same type of calming. It's not a strong concentration but it is a concentrate, hence only putting drops in the water or directly on the tongue. The effect it should have on your cat should range between a mild sleepiness to practically nothing at all, depending on how many drops and the resistance to stuff like chamomile in your cat.

These drops-- again, if they're the same as what I've used before on my dog, and I have good reason to think they are-- really aren't much different than a suggestion to a person who is restless and not sleeping well (but isn't suffering a strong medical disorder) to drink some chamomile tea before going to bed. It's a very mild sedative, having less overt effect than tryptophan in turkey meat, and is often effective at easing the jittery edges of nervousness or restlessness without doping a person (or animal) up.

 

[Stout]

I have a cat that is IMO obsessive compulsive and she's literally tearing out her own fur for no damn reason. She's not overly stressed, she has everything she can possibly want and is more than used to getting her own way.

The cat is a 16 year old siamese female, not my cat really but one who just moved in here four years ago for reasons neither I, nor her proper owned can fathom.

I've talked to a couple of vets about this issue and both have said "we could put the on anti-psychotics...but we really don't want to, not for that sort of behaviour. No "alternative" was offered but I am curious as to just how a vet might think a psychosomatic treatment like homeopathy might be effective in an animal whose "unclear on the concept".

This could be an example of your vet trying to "treat' your wife by giving her something that might make her feel that the cat's behaviour is diminishing. Selling hope, if you will.

 

[Drewbot]

Homeopet- anxiety relief
http://www.1800petmeds.com/HomeoPet+Anxiety-prod2144.html

From above website:

More Information:
Brand Name
Anxiety (HomeoPet)

Active Ingredient(s):
Chamomilla, Valeriana, Borax, Cypripedium Pub., Ignatia A., Colch. Verat. A.

What is this product used for:
Fretting, fear, anxious and unwanted behavior from thunderstorms, travel, being left alone, vet and grooming visits, can be helped with this fast acting, non-sedating liquid. Nature's gentle stress reliever quickly promotes a sense of calm.

FROM THE LABEL:

Homeopet LLC, natural homeopathic hp anxiety relief.

Chamomille, Valeriana, Borax

Cypripedium Pub IGNATIA, Colch, Verat A

6C and 30C in 20%

Can anyone translate?

 

[pakeha]

deleted. Wrong forum.

 

[GreNME]

Stout: look into the chamomile drops, or ask your vet if they know about vitamin B-1 powder.

Here at our house, we've employed both, but only under the supervision of a vet who has had a very good history of animal behavior in his academic background. I explained what's in the drops in my previous post, and it's at worst a possible solution that might help and won't hurt. The vitamin B-1 powder is more complex, because what it actually is, as far as the science is concerned, is a component of an amino acid that, when in deficiency can contribute to some problems that often display as behavioral problems. Ask your vet about the possibility of a thiamin deficiency, and whether small amounts of B1 powder (which is essentially thiamin) in the cat's food might help.

As has been explained to me, there are many remedies out there for veterinary treatment, particularly of animals like cats and dogs (who require a higher protein intake than humans), to problems like behavior or activities that resemble behavior problems, but because the science behind them isn't widely disseminated or proprietary (meaning not patentable) the newer methods aren't always as well known. What the vet you mentioned said about anti-psychotics is very accurate-- animals can't communicate the efficacy of anti-psychotics, and as such can't let us know of the effects are too strong or debilitating, and many vets are opposed to turning pets into zombies by attempting to dose them. Many of the remedies like the drops mentioned in the first post are forms of known chemicals that have a measurable and mild reaction that can be gauged without risking debilitating the animal's communicative abilities that it has (which are rudimentary compared to our own). Stuff like the B1 powder suggestion I made has more to do with the diet requirements of many carnivorous domestic animals, because some of the food that's made for dogs and cats is sorely lacking in nutrition-- a dog can actually suffer malnutrition while eating only Ol'Roy dog food, for example, even if the amounts or servings are copious. A cat can suffer malnutrition eating only dog food, because dog food doesn't have enough protein in it to sustain a cat's diet. Ferrets, on the other hand, need even more protein than adult cats do, or else they too can suffer malnutrition. In that, supplements, particularly of amino acid compounds, can help to balance out a pet's diet and have a significant effect on their behavior.

Another thing to keep in mind for your cat in particular, Stout, is that 16 years is an age where it's quickly approaching the end of its life, so some of the symptoms of behavior you're seeing might be related to that. There's no medicine to treat that, though you can explore possibilities like the early onset of renal failure being present, and shifting your cat's food to something that's easier on their constitution, which can help to extend its life while improving its quality of life-- and of the two, I tend to focus more on the latter. There might be a condition that you can do nothing about, however, in which case your options are limited to doing whatever you can to keep the cat comfortable. At 16 years old it's difficult to say, but vets usually tend to not want to take extreme life-preserving measures on pets of very advanced ages because the procedures are often invasive (and thus risky) and quite likely to lower the quality of life, which isn't a positive for the pet itself.

 

[William Parcher]

6C and 30C in 20%

Can anyone translate?

6C = 10^-12
30C = 10^-60 Dilution advocated by Hahnemann for most purposes: on average, this would require giving two billion doses per second to six billion people for 4 billion years to deliver a single molecule of the original material to any patient.

From Wiki

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Aren't all cats obsessive compulsive anyway?

A genuine question from someone who is neither a cat or dog person.