Homeopathics for my dog with anemia?

[JamieUS]

Hi There,

Yesterday my dog was just diagnosed with anemia
possibly caused by 2 growths in her abdomen.
They said the prognosis isn't good especially
since we can't afford thousands of dollars
for surgery or treatment (which I don't
want to put her through). She is 10 and
so afraid, hence her name, Spooky.

I'm thinking of trying homeopathic
medicines to help get her red blood cell
count back up. If anyone has any
information on if it works or at least
helps I would be so appreciative.
My dog Spooky and I spent all day
yesterday at the emergency vet trying to
find the cause of her low red blood cell count.
They wanted to charge me thousands of
dollars to find out and by the end of the
day we brought her home. She is not
suffering at this point but if it gets to that she
will let us know when it's time to say
good bye. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!! . Thank you everyone!!

 

[Finsky]

Oh I'm sorry to hear of your dog's situation.
We had one dog that had serious anemia, caused by cancer/tumour growth in her abdomen. In our case she had that growth for quite sometime before it became noticeable and turned into aggressive growing mode....by which time her blood count was so low that she was barely functioning anymore and there was nothing to be done...we lost her 3 years ago.
I'm afraid homeopathic medicine won't improve her blood count what so ever as in general 'growths' rob dog's body from nutrients, so even without the growth cause...you would need to improve the blood count by feeding & supplements, but they are not going help much now as the growth is depleting them to multiply itself.
I don't want to sound negative, but....if it is not too late for your dog, your only option is treatment from vets (what ever form that may be).
Our dog was never in any pain, the anemia itself made our dog weak & sleepy and she was struggling with any physical activity as there wasn't many red blood cells to carry on vital oxygen around body...towards the end she was absolutely exhausted all the time and would sleep almost nonstop if we would not interfere. The lower the blood cell count gets and the less dog's brain receives oxygen, eventually their brain will shut down and they will sleep away...before that, they will go off from their feet and they are mentally very spaced out/not all there anymore.
So anemia on itself will not cause pain, the other matter is if the growth in the tummy does.
I ain't gonna tell you what is best for your dog...but what ever you decide treatment wise, you will have to be quick about it as things with these things can progress alarmingly quick. Our dog's blood count dropped that low that it was pointless to even try blood transfusion at that point...her body would not have able to take it anymore. Would I noticed something being wrong couple of weeks earlier and we just might have been able to buy little more time for her...or maybe not, you just never know

 

[JamieUS]

Thank you for your reply. Your description pretty much fits to our situation. Sadly. Spooky’s red blood count is pretty low and we are preparing to say good bye to our wonderful dog. I don’t know how you recovered from the loss of your dog because I dont know how I will get through this.

thanks again, your words REALLY helped.

Jamie

 

[Hemlock]

As a decades-long customer of a homeopathic vet, I agree that this condition is not suitable for homeopathic treatment, so save your money. I am so sorry you are having to go through this, and i hope you are getting the real-life help you need as well as our cyber support.

 

[Finsky]

Thank you for your reply. Your description pretty much fits to our situation. Sadly. Spooky’s red blood count is pretty low and we are preparing to say good bye to our wonderful dog. I don’t know how you recovered from the loss of your dog because I dont know how I will get through this.

thanks again, your words REALLY helped.

Jamie

I'm glad that I could be a help. As for ' how you recovered from the loss of your dog'...well, I can tell that in our case, we resulted getting another dog ASAP. They will never replace the ones we loose, but they will help to ease the pain until they can claim their own spot in our hearts.

 

[Richard & Patsy]

I don't understand how homeopathy can work for dogs. It works for humans through the placebo effect, but dogs? Do they believe it's good for them so feel better?

 

[JudyN]

I don't understand how homeopathy can work for dogs. It works for humans through the placebo effect, but dogs? Do they believe it's good for them so feel better?

It's possible the placebo effect works in animals, via their owners. The owner is relieved to have found a 'cure' and feels that they are doing something positive, so is happier. The dog sees that the owner isn't fretting so much, therefore the dog feels happier/calmer. Any natural healing processes in any animal is likely to work a lot better the less stressed the animal is. Or possibly, there's no change in the dog at all but now the owner, who really wants to believe the treatment is working, notices every positive in the dog's demeanour rather than every negative.

We should acknowledge that there are a lot of intelligent, educated people who believe homeopathy 'really' works. Though in my honest opinion they're wrong.

 

[Inka]

Homeopathy can work to increase nutrients missing causing anemia but amenia is not a disease it is likely the result of the 2 growths in her abdomen which is causing it and those two growths have their own blood supply as they need an ever-increasing blood supply to deliver the oxygen and nutrients that fuel their growth, so you are 'feeding' them.
For your information this is some information about anemia/homeopathy Homeopathic medicines For Anemia

Just as a information point I use homeopathy and decided to do some research about 15 years ago at the centre to see what if any difference it made to clients dogs, using Bach flower Rescue Remedy I provided two idential bowls of drinking water one with one without, what suprised me is that the one with RR I had to refill x10 more than the plain water and I changed them around to see if one bowl just happened to be more convient for the dogs, so it was completely the dogs choice to make, many regular dogs I noticed would take a drink from one without and swiftly move to the RR bowl and dogs would queue waiting to drink from the RR bowl

Another interesting bit of research is ivermectin which is a parasite treatment, it is being trialled at the moment as a treatment for covid but also as a cancer treatment, as chemo targets both healthy and unhealthy cells and so is really distructive on the body and really expensive for animal treatment and cancer can 'set in' because of trauma and an operation causes trauma to the body so can encourage its growth and spread unless the vet can get clear margins. Where as invermectin targets only unhealthy cells, as vets are aware of the drug invermectin it may be worth asking your vet about prescribing that

 

[Hemlock]

Flower Remedies are not homeopathic. They are totally different medication systems.

While people who don't use homeopathy claim it's mere placebo effect (placebo is well known with allopathic drugs as well), people who do use it under the direction of a qualified practitioner usually see improvement - and, quite often, remarkable results. As with allopathic medicine, where one remedy does not work, there are usually alternatives that do. As homeopathy works via the immune system, there are conditions it will not help. For instance, it is no good for parasite treatment for, as my vet says, all you get are very healthy parasites!

I have seen remarkable success with homeopathy over many animals and several decades. Best of all is that if a particular remedy doesn't work, there are no nasty side-effects. I have used it on myself too. Placebo has its place, but healing multiple fractures over a short timescale, for instance, does not rely on placebo. Same with skin conditions, and so many other illnesses.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and mine is based on solid experience.

 

[Inka]

Flower Remedies are not homeopathic. They are totally different medication systems.

Homeopathy is a "treatment" based on the use of highly diluted substances... Bach Flower remedies are exactly that

 

[JamieUS]

Thank you for all your replies! They were all very informative. I had a good conversation with our vet about this and spooky’s condition and the plan of action is to recheck her red blood cells next Wednesday to see if they have dropped to a dangerously low number. Which would mean the likeliness of intestinal bleeding from the growths is occurring. There is evidence of this in her darkened stools which we couldn’t see before because she was vomiting and having diarrrah earlier this week. Which was the reason I took her in. On Tuesday her red blood count was only 19% and by Thursday I believe it was 16%. She is not suffering and on medication to try to at least slow the destruction of red cells. I know we are fighting a losing battle because her count was already dangerously low when we went in. I believe the growths had been growing for a long time and were not detected when she had a check up in February when her blood work was good. She’s a biggish dog and 10 years old so the odds are against us and we are preparing to let her go when she lets us know it is time. I was desperately grasping for anything that could save her because knowing she won’t be with us much longer is devastating. I like the suggestion of getting a dog fairly quickly as it would ease the pain of loss and we might do that! We lost our other elderly dog last December and we’ve enjoyed 10 great years of camping adventures with them. I’ve never been on a forum before so I’m glad I found one!! I e never actually had to go through the process of an ill dog so all of your comments have been so helpful!!! Thank you.

 

[JamieUS]

As a decades-long customer of a homeopathic vet, I agree that this condition is not suitable for homeopathic treatment, so save your money. I am so sorry you are having to go through this, and i hope you are getting the real-life help you need as well as our cyber support.

Thank you for this information. I am getting real life support as well as this great cyber support, thank you!