- Joined
- Oct 15, 2020
- Messages
- 53
It is my hope, through my cat Darwin's story, that this post can illustrate how homeopathy can be helpful right until the end of life under the guidance of a veterinary homeopath.
Darwin was lucky enough to become the patient of Dr Jeff Feinman back in October 2020 because he had chronic pancreatitis issues and I also suspected a low grade renal disease. He was 14 years old at that point, was clearly lacking energy and looked like he was aging fast. As I was a veterinarian practicing only conventional veterinary medicine at the time, Darwin had received multiple vaccines in his past and was mostly on a dry pellet veterinary grade diet which he did not seem much interested in eating anymore. Eventually, my interest for homeopathy brought me to enroll in a complete homeopathy course (a human course
) and as I'm progressing into the course it became a passion which is what brought me to Holistic actions as I also wish to learn the veterinary side of homeopathy.
Following Dr Feinman's first appointment and advice, Darwin started his first remedy Mercurius vivus and I changed his diet: I started to cook meats for him (I tried the raw diet several times, but he showed very little interest in it) and added vitamin and probiotic supplements to his diet. He gained back so much energy and there was such an improvement in his mental state! As his pancreatic disease improved greatly, his renal disease surfaced more prominently and a change of remedy eventually helped his body control his renal disease as well along with the administration of daily subcutaneous fluids. I will spare many details of his case because the post would be too long, but by the summer of 2021 and after several follow-up appointments he was on Lycopodium and was acting like his younger self again, enjoying the outdoor cottage life exploring and discovering new hobbies, displaying younger behaviors very characteristic of him that I had not seen in years, and his pancreatic and renal diseases seemed under control. I still brought him to a referral center for an abdominal ultrasound at that point and found out that he had multiple masses in his liver. Although the masses were thought to be benign, there were so many of them that he was considered inoperable, and really I don't think I would have wanted him to go through a surgery at that age either.
In the fall, he travelled with us during a 25 day trip in our motorized home from northern Ontario all the way to the Pacific ocean to Tofino British-Columbia and he absolutely loved to travel. In December 2021, he was vomiting blood and becoming anemic, his hematocrit was down to 21%. With Dr Feinman's recommendation to change his remedy to Calcarea carbonica, his body amazingly went from a non-regenerative anemia in December to a highly regenerative anemia later on in January and his hematocrit came back to low normal. He completely stopped vomiting blood. He had also received an injection of darbepoetin and of iron earlier in January at a referral center to help speed the process of red blood cell production.
In March last month, it became obvious that his liver masses were progressing as he developed ascites and his energy went down. The progression and enlargement of the liver masses were later confirmed on another abdominal ultrasound although the liver enzymes remained normal almost until the end. In the last 3 days before he passed away, he was on Arsenicum album and his mental state really improved while on that remedy as he was purring much more frequently and he seemed much more relaxed. Also, his body gained more energy and instead of ascending and descending the stairs slowly one stair at a time he was almost running up and down the stairs without falling. I knew he passed the point of no return when his hematocrit plummeted down to 15% without vomiting blood about 2 days before he passed. I suspect one of his liver cysts might have ruptured and some internal bleeding might have been occurring. Surprisingly, his quality of life remained quite good until a few hours before the end: he was still eating and using his litter box until the evening of March 15th. Although his state was obviously deteriorating, he seemed weak but did not seem to be in a lot of pain and his mental state remained fairly good considering what was going on. But somehow I had the feeling that he was ready to go. A blood transfusion might have been indicated for him, but I felt he had had enough. I did not want to put him through any procedure seemingly invasive at that point and I felt that the stress of a blood transfusion in a hospital setting would have been too much for him and it would have hardly been palliative considering the progression of his liver masses and the risk of more hemorrhage to come.
At 16 years old, on the night between March 15th and 16th, when he felt it was time for him to go, he let out a howling meow and was turning his head from side to side like he was searching for me. Of course I was not far and I stayed up with him as I felt his condition was deteriorating. As soon as I got closer to him he grabbed my hands with his front paws, dragged himself towards me and meowed as if to show his appreciation that I was right there with him, making it obvious that he wanted me to stay with him. Then he rested his head into my hand and peacefully passed away... As sad as I was, I really felt privileged that he wanted to spend his last moments with me.
I am so thankful for all the work Dr Feinman has done with my dear Darwin, all the care and time he spent helping him and teaching me about veterinary homeopathy. And of course I'm also extremely thankful for all the healing his body was able to do with the help of homeopathy until his liver masses progressed to the point where he was no longer able to heal. I think homeopathy greatly improved his quality of life and until the end, I'm convinced that homeopathy played a major role in helping him pass away peacefully.
This forum has been very helpful to Darwin and I in the last 1 1/2 year as I periodically had some questions that needed to be addressed in between our follow-up appointments, so I'm also thanking Dr Feinman and all the team of Holistic Actions for this great service being offered to its members!
Very gratefully,
Véronique
Below are a few pictures of Darwin as he was travelling with us
Darwin was lucky enough to become the patient of Dr Jeff Feinman back in October 2020 because he had chronic pancreatitis issues and I also suspected a low grade renal disease. He was 14 years old at that point, was clearly lacking energy and looked like he was aging fast. As I was a veterinarian practicing only conventional veterinary medicine at the time, Darwin had received multiple vaccines in his past and was mostly on a dry pellet veterinary grade diet which he did not seem much interested in eating anymore. Eventually, my interest for homeopathy brought me to enroll in a complete homeopathy course (a human course
) and as I'm progressing into the course it became a passion which is what brought me to Holistic actions as I also wish to learn the veterinary side of homeopathy.Following Dr Feinman's first appointment and advice, Darwin started his first remedy Mercurius vivus and I changed his diet: I started to cook meats for him (I tried the raw diet several times, but he showed very little interest in it) and added vitamin and probiotic supplements to his diet. He gained back so much energy and there was such an improvement in his mental state! As his pancreatic disease improved greatly, his renal disease surfaced more prominently and a change of remedy eventually helped his body control his renal disease as well along with the administration of daily subcutaneous fluids. I will spare many details of his case because the post would be too long, but by the summer of 2021 and after several follow-up appointments he was on Lycopodium and was acting like his younger self again, enjoying the outdoor cottage life exploring and discovering new hobbies, displaying younger behaviors very characteristic of him that I had not seen in years, and his pancreatic and renal diseases seemed under control. I still brought him to a referral center for an abdominal ultrasound at that point and found out that he had multiple masses in his liver. Although the masses were thought to be benign, there were so many of them that he was considered inoperable, and really I don't think I would have wanted him to go through a surgery at that age either.
In the fall, he travelled with us during a 25 day trip in our motorized home from northern Ontario all the way to the Pacific ocean to Tofino British-Columbia and he absolutely loved to travel. In December 2021, he was vomiting blood and becoming anemic, his hematocrit was down to 21%. With Dr Feinman's recommendation to change his remedy to Calcarea carbonica, his body amazingly went from a non-regenerative anemia in December to a highly regenerative anemia later on in January and his hematocrit came back to low normal. He completely stopped vomiting blood. He had also received an injection of darbepoetin and of iron earlier in January at a referral center to help speed the process of red blood cell production.
In March last month, it became obvious that his liver masses were progressing as he developed ascites and his energy went down. The progression and enlargement of the liver masses were later confirmed on another abdominal ultrasound although the liver enzymes remained normal almost until the end. In the last 3 days before he passed away, he was on Arsenicum album and his mental state really improved while on that remedy as he was purring much more frequently and he seemed much more relaxed. Also, his body gained more energy and instead of ascending and descending the stairs slowly one stair at a time he was almost running up and down the stairs without falling. I knew he passed the point of no return when his hematocrit plummeted down to 15% without vomiting blood about 2 days before he passed. I suspect one of his liver cysts might have ruptured and some internal bleeding might have been occurring. Surprisingly, his quality of life remained quite good until a few hours before the end: he was still eating and using his litter box until the evening of March 15th. Although his state was obviously deteriorating, he seemed weak but did not seem to be in a lot of pain and his mental state remained fairly good considering what was going on. But somehow I had the feeling that he was ready to go. A blood transfusion might have been indicated for him, but I felt he had had enough. I did not want to put him through any procedure seemingly invasive at that point and I felt that the stress of a blood transfusion in a hospital setting would have been too much for him and it would have hardly been palliative considering the progression of his liver masses and the risk of more hemorrhage to come.
At 16 years old, on the night between March 15th and 16th, when he felt it was time for him to go, he let out a howling meow and was turning his head from side to side like he was searching for me. Of course I was not far and I stayed up with him as I felt his condition was deteriorating. As soon as I got closer to him he grabbed my hands with his front paws, dragged himself towards me and meowed as if to show his appreciation that I was right there with him, making it obvious that he wanted me to stay with him. Then he rested his head into my hand and peacefully passed away... As sad as I was, I really felt privileged that he wanted to spend his last moments with me.
I am so thankful for all the work Dr Feinman has done with my dear Darwin, all the care and time he spent helping him and teaching me about veterinary homeopathy. And of course I'm also extremely thankful for all the healing his body was able to do with the help of homeopathy until his liver masses progressed to the point where he was no longer able to heal. I think homeopathy greatly improved his quality of life and until the end, I'm convinced that homeopathy played a major role in helping him pass away peacefully.
This forum has been very helpful to Darwin and I in the last 1 1/2 year as I periodically had some questions that needed to be addressed in between our follow-up appointments, so I'm also thanking Dr Feinman and all the team of Holistic Actions for this great service being offered to its members!
Very gratefully,
Véronique
Below are a few pictures of Darwin as he was travelling with us
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