Homeopathy

This controversial system of therapy traces back to the work of Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). It is based in part on two major beliefs (Kruger 1974; Vithoulkas 1980; Weiner and Goss 1989; Saxton and Gregory 2005).

The first is that diseased people or animals are best treated with compounds that have properties similar to the signs shown by the patient (law of similars). Rather than suppress the signs of illness, which are in part results of the body's effort to rid itself of the disease process, these same signs should be amplified by the treatment. This is in contrast to allopathic medicine, which generally strives to suppress or alleviate a patient’s symptoms. Thus, for example, “a little fever is good,” because elevated temperature often is detrimental to pathogenic organisms. Always administering drugs that suppress fever may hinder the body’s natural defense mechanisms. The second belief is that substances become more potent with greater dilution. In fact, the most “potent” remedies have been serially diluted by succussion (vigorous shaking of soluble compounds) or trituration (grinding in lactose with mortar and pestle for insoluble compounds) until there may be no molecules of the original compound left in the final preparation (Wynn 1998). In principle, only a single dose of the “dynamized remedy” is needed to activate the body’s own vital forces. This defies scientific explanation.

In some countries, both human and veterinary homeopathy are quite popular, and specific remedies are readily available. Homeopathy may be chosen by the owner on an ideologic basis, in an attempt to avoid using chemical substances such as antibiotics, or on an economic basis. Homeopathic remedies are relatively inexpensive and can be administered by the owner. They do not come with restrictions on the sale of meat or milk and are allowed on organic farms (Hektoe 2005).

Recommendations relative to the treatment of goats are available in French (Anonymous n.d.) and in English (Macleod 1991; Hunter 2004). A list of homeopathic remedies suggested for dairy cows on organic Iarmis (Karrcman 2007) could also be consulted. The possibilities for evaluating veterinary homeopathic treatment by means of placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials and the potential involvement of placebo effects and natural resolution of disease in the perceived response to treatment have been reviewed (Hektoe 2005). Such clinical trials are lacking in goats.

In classic homeopathy, a single remedy is used and antibiotics or other allopathic medications are seen as undesirable because they interfere with diagnosis from the symptomatology. Homotoxicology was founded by

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Source: Smith Mary C., Sherman David M.. Goat Medicine. 3rd edition. — Wiley-Blackwell,2023. — 976 p.. 2023

Homeopathy

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