An Introduction to Homeopathy for Cage and Aviary Birds

by Christopher Day, MA VetMB CertIAVH VetFFHom MRCVS
Summer 2002

Introduction | Homeopathy | Application | Constitutional Prescribing | Nosodes | Injury and First Aid | Psychological and Hormonal Disorders | Summary

Introduction
When we study the vast armory of drugs presently available in modern conventional medicine, we may not realize that the staggering leaps in medical technology, which this range represents, have only taken place in a relatively short time. Most systems of natural medicine are much older, however, and have ''gained their spurs'' by constant use over centuries. The concept which stimulated (and continues to drive) the constant search for ''ideal'' drugs dates from 1906 and the actual weapons from more than twenty years later.

In 1906 Paul Ehrlich, a German scientist and immunologist, communicated his attractive dream of a ''Magic Bullet'', which would attack, selectively, the invading organisms and not adversely affect the patient at all. This may have seemed far-fetched to his peers, for all their medicines were to varying degrees very poisonous but Ehrlich nonetheless pursued the search. He soon realized, however, that his dream of some manufactured chemical having these marvelous properties was at best a little unrealistic. He saw antibodies as being the archetypal example but these were natural substances, manufactured by the body not in a laboratory. Even they have now been shown occasionally to damage the body (in auto-immune disease).

Nevertheless, this seductive dream drove researchers forward, and it must have seemed like a dream-come-true when Penicillin emerged in 1929. Here was a chemical which selectively destroyed bacteria but which was only minimally harmful to a few patients. Since that day modern medicine has produced a vast array of drugs in the search for Ehrlich's ''Magic Bullet''. Many are antibiotics, like Penicillin. Many are agents aimed directly at reversing specific cellular processes.

Despite modern medicine's creditable achievements, however, the ''Magic Bullet'' has continued to evade us but the search goes on. More and more drugs are being tried and produced but, sadly, not one of these creations is totally without side effects. Even vaccination, which is theoretically extremely specific to a given disease, is not considered entirely free of adverse reactions.

Happily, however, most modern drugs have few harmful effects and, of these, most might be classed as relatively minor. The wholesale disasters of ''lethal'', or devastatingly damaging drugs (e.g. Thalidomide) are, thankfully, few and far between. In the veterinary context these side effects are, by and large, considered less important than in the human case, because of animals' relatively short life span compared with human longevity.

Antibiotics are, however, constantly running into bacterial resistance problems, necessitating the continual development of new ones. This is now very topical, in relation to infection of humans by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Growth-Promoting antibiotics are still used, despite this obvious risk. Vaccines for animals, especially those for dogs and horses, have also recently come under fire for their damaging effects on the immune system. Residues of drugs in sporting performers and tissue or milk residues in our food animals are a very real problem with modern drugs, causing large-scale financial losses in the respective industries and possible dangers to the consumer.

In the Organic Farming community, the cost of ''withholding'' times for meat or milk, after drug usage, can be even more devastating.
In the case of birds, special problems present themselves. There are many drugs which are tolerated by mammals but which are lethal to birds. Several antibiotics cannot be used at all, in any species of bird. Furthermore, exotic cage birds are very delicate and easily stressed, so present a very real challenge to those who would treat them.

Homeopathy
Interest has recently focused on alternative medical methods and, more particularly, on homeopathy, the brainchild of another German - the physician Samuel Hahnemann. His work took place over one hundred years earlier than Ehrlich's, and has attracted a significant body of adherents ever since.

Happily, the system of medicine which he developed is highly suitable for birds of all species. The method is totally free of the risk of damaging side effects. This holds good, whether we consider acute or chronic disease, or whether it is mainly a mental or a physical problem.

Hahnemann, rebelling against the heinous irrational medical practices of his day (bleeding, emetics, clysters, poisoning, etc.), devised a system of medicine which treats like with like. He postulated that those symptoms which a substance is able to cause in a healthy body, it can also cure in a diseased body. This theory did not come out of thin air, but arose as a result of an experiment upon himself with Cinchona Bark, the material which gives us Quinine, derivatives of which are still successfully used against malaria to this day. His theories emerged from his efforts to discover how this substance was able to be very effective against malaria, when most of the contemporary medicines in use at the time, for any purpose, were at best ineffective, at worst lethal.

The only satisfactory and meaningful way he could find to research this question, in those days of primitive science, was by taking the substance himself. The results formed the basis of his new medical theories. He found that, on taking the substance, he developed symptoms indistinguishable from malaria. When he stopped taking the substance, the symptoms subsided. This he repeated several times over, satisfactorily to prove cause and effect to himself. He also confirmed this effect in other people. He then studied some seventy other remedies, testing them in students and other healthy volunteers, whom he effectively used as ''guinea pigs''. What he developed was a formidable array of substances to help him combat disease, in a powerful and humane way and totally without side effects.

He later found that his substances became more potent, curatively, and had less power to do harm, as he serially diluted them, subjecting the solutions to succussion (violent mixing) at each stage of dilution. He postulated that the process of dilution/succussion harnessed the ''vital energy'' of the substances. When we study his most frequently used dilutions, we are forced to agree with him, for the concentrations are in fact sub-molecular!

Take, for instance, the 30c potency (and this is not a very high dilution in comparison with some of those used). This is diluted from the original solution by a factor of one hundred, thirty times over (i.e. diluted to the extent of 10-60). A one-in-one-million dilution is only 10-6 (i.e. six zeros); 10-24 (or 12c) has only twenty-four zeros, and is the point at which it is generally accepted that molecular concentrations are left behind. 10-60 is a very long way beyond that!

At these dilutions, it is easy to concede that homeopathic medicines have no power to produce side effects. What is not so easy to accept is that they can have any curative effect at all! Happily, results obtained by Hahnemann and his followers, fighting against typhoid and cholera, the great epidemic killers of the 19th century, give us all the evidence we need. Their results would be considered creditable even in these days of powerful antibiotics and supportive therapy, despite their lack of knowledge of bacteria at the time. Hahnemann's method was strangely simple, in that he selected remedies, for the cure of a patient, which had the power to produce similar symptoms in a healthy body, hence the name ''homeopathy'' which derives from the Greek, meaning ''similar to the disease''.

In any disease, the symptoms noted and used, for the selection of a homeopathic remedy, are not only those obvious ones associated with the disease itself (e.g. diarrhea, cough, conjunctivitis, eczema etc.). They also include all those symptoms which can be detected anywhere in the body, including especial emphasis on any mental symptoms or rare symptoms. This approach, taking into account the environment, diet, the whole patient, its build, temperament and interaction with its environment, along with the symptoms (rather than studying disease as many different named syndromes), is coming to be known as the ''holistic'' approach.

Devised in humans, these methods were put to veterinary use long ago, in that Hahnemann himself lectured in Leipzig on the use of homeopathy for animals in about 1813. Böönninghausen (in Westphalia) used homeopathy on the animals of his large estate, during the mid 19th Century. Since then, veterinary books have been written on the subject in all the major European languages, including German, English, Dutch, Danish, Italian and Spanish.

Application
If we take as an example, for illustrative purposes, the named disease - Coryza - we can illustrate how different remedies may be needed, depending not upon identifying the supposed causal organism but upon the patient's own reaction to the disease, i.e. the symptoms. We must study the individual patient's reaction, not so much the viruses or bacteria. In the same aviary during the same attack (therefore presumably involving the same viral or bacterial challenge in each case), we may need several different homeopathic remedies to match the differing symptoms in the various birds

Pulsatilla would fit the picture of the bird which is shy but not terrified of handling, which displays muco-purulent, creamy or yellowish discharges, with symptoms which vary from day to day and from hour to hour. There is little inclination to take water and there may be variable droppings, swinging from diarrhea to normal. This bird would tend to do better in fresh air, and seem worse in the evening or in a warm room.

Mercurius may be useful if the bird is thirsty, showing diarrhea and discharging a purulent material, which may ulcerate the eyelids. This bird would be very reactive, but dull when undisturbed, and be especially sensitive to extremes of temperature. Its symptoms would tend to be worse during the hours of darkness.

A third type may be represented by a timid bird, who has accumulations of pus in eyelids and ears and very much craves warmth. It will sit ruffled on its perch and shiver in spasms. It will feel cold to touch. This would be a Silica bird. Several other remedies may prove useful in such a context but this is only intended as an illustrative list.

Many more ''concomitant'' symptoms for each remedy may exist in each of these patients, e.g. diarrhea, again each with its own characteristic variations, all needing to be taken into account when prescribing and aiding the choice of medicine. Over and above each of these remedies we could also prescribe the specific homeopathic treatment for the outbreak - a nosode - which may also be used for prevention, prior to outbreaks (see below).

Where groups of birds need treating, this differentiation may lead to the need for various medicines for different individuals in the group. Gentle aerosol administration into their faces, from a manual garden rose sprayer, would suffice. The medicine need not be swallowed. If, on the other hand, a single medicine can be found to be suitable for most of the affected birds in a group, then medication can be administered via the drinking water. This method would, of course, rely on sick individuals continuing to drink.

Constitutional Prescribing
In all cases of chronic disease (in which patient and disease are in long-term uneasy equilibrium, representing the most challenging form of disease) one gains best results by applying what is known as ''constitutional'' prescribing, in addition to matching the presenting symptoms. Constitutional prescribing is the art of extending one's interpretations to include the full holistic approach, i.e. applying the approach used with the influenza symptoms described above to the whole patient itself as opposed to just the local disease symptoms.

It is difficult to describe this concept concisely but suffice it to say that, in following the procedures described in the above example of coryza, because it is an ''acute'' problem, one may or may not arrive at the constitutional remedy. However, the constitutional remedy can be found for the patient whether in sickness or in health. One takes into consideration the bird's disposition, moods, likes, dislikes, responses to stimuli, skin and hair characteristics, build, eating and drinking habits and many other factors, in order to determine its ''constitutional type''. A remedy can be matched to this type which, when used, will enhance the patient's general ability to fight disease, of whatever description, and will provide the best chance of stimulating a deep and lasting cure.

To illustrate this concept, let us look at a recurring respiratory problem in a given finch or parrot, for instance. This is not a disease state in which new acute attacks occur at each occasion but more a constitutional predisposition, of the bird in question, to the disease state, with acute episodes. To match a remedy to the cough, forced breathing, nasal discharges, etc., one might possibly arrive at the remedy Lobelia but, whereas this remedy may produce alleviation, its use may not cure the underlying problem.

One will need, alone or in addition, a deep ''constitutional'' remedy, chosen to suit the patient from the range of powerful and wide-acting ''polychrests'' (the descriptive name given to those remedies which deeply affect all parts of the body). It may be Arsenicum, Calcarea carbonica, Lycopodium, Nux vomica, Pulsatilla, Sulphur or other polychrest. These remedies are described in great detail in homeopathic textbooks, and their ''symptom pictures'' need to be compared to that of the patient, in order to find a match.

Nosodes
A further use of homeopathic medicine, already mentioned briefly, is in the prevention of specific diseases, by the use of ''nosodes''. These are medicines prepared from infective disease material, which has been diluted and potentised, in the customary, previously described manner, so that no substance remains in the solution. There is, therefore, no infective potential in these medicines, nor are they, strictly speaking, vaccines, in which one would expect to find demonstrable antigenic material.

These medicines can then be used in preventive programs, in much the same way as conventional vaccines are used, both prior to and in the face of outbreaks of specific infectious disease. They are, however, subtly different and do not hold risks for the immune system. Examples of diseases, for which there are nosodes, are chlamydia, beak & feather disease etc. There is, at the time of writing, no proof of efficacy of this method in any species. Clinical trials, however, in analogous situations, in farm animals and in dogs, have shown very positive results, which offer great encouragement. Reported failure is also very rare.

In all cases, where any of the above specific infective disease states is actually present, one does not need to be overawed by the fact that a specific named disease is involved. Normal homeopathic prescribing, with or without concurrent nosode therapy, can be very beneficial or may even achieve a cure alone. The principles and method described in the given disease example, for different symptoms in an outbreak, can just as easily be applied to the symptoms of other specific diseases. It is interesting to note, in passing, that ''virus'' diseases may be treated by homeopathy with good prospects of success, whereas conventional medicine has little to offer against these infective agents.

Injury and First Aid
Apart from the astounding effects often achievable by the use of homeopathy in infectious and chronic diseases, it is important also to record the use of homeopathy in injury and first aid. This article will only contain a few examples, in order to illustrate the potential for its use. More notice of the particular pathology of the injury and of the needs of particular tissues is taken in this approach. One is trying to assist the natural healing mechanisms, and this application of homeopathy is very simple to adopt.

Psychological and Hormonal Disorders
Birds are very prone to psychological and hormonal disorders, there often being a combination of these factors present in disease. For examples,

These few examples are but a guide to the usefulness and scope of homeopathy, in so many of the common and troublesome problems in birds.

Homeopathy may also, interestingly, prove of immense value in flocks of chickens, turkeys, ducks or geese, which are intensively reared. However, this is a specialist subject, requiring help from an experienced veterinarian, and is not the main subject of this article.

Summary
One can therefore see that homeopathy, far from being merely a ''first aid'' or ''do-it-yourself'' system of treatment, or a system of ''quack'' medicine, is in fact a complete and very competent system of medicine. It is able to tackle all types of medical problems, from the trivial to the serious, completely without side effects, and with good prospects of benefit in most instances. This accounts for its increasing popularity with veterinary surgeons in latter years, for they are constantly searching for the best form of treatment of disease for their patients.

All patients treated by the author are also put on a clean and natural diet (unprocessed and preferably organic), which has been designed around the evolutionary needs and limitations of each species. Diet is the basis of health and of good medicine.

Homeopathy is a safe, gentle and effective system of medicine, and is used in birds to great effect, in interested veterinary practices. Increasing numbers of veterinary surgeons are undergoing basic training in the use of homeopathy and some are going on to obtain the extra qualification. The fact that homeopathy can provide hope, in many of those conditions for which there is no conventional cure, is a factor which has endeared it to many.

For those readers who are interested in using homeopathy themselves, there is a small booklet available entitled, ''Homeopathy - First Aid for Pets'' (ISBN 0 9520071 0 X) and written by Christopher Day. This does give some guidelines for treatment of pets including a few entries of especial relevance to birds. The same author''s book, entitled ''The Homeopathic Treatment of Small Animals -- Principles & Practice'' (ISBN 0 85207 216 3), also has material relevant to these species.
©© Christopher Day -- updated February 2002

Christopher Day MA VetMB CertIAVH VetFFHom MRCVS
Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre
Stanford in the Vale
Nr. Faringdon
Oxon SN7 8NQ
Tel: 01367 710324, Fax: 01367 718243
www.alternativevet.org