This was an emergency situation and happened on the 24th December 2007 - six of Kerry's goats had Rhododendron poisoning. To best deal with this, I've simply presented the exchange of emails, resulting in the final outcome.
Rhododendron is deadly for goats, and goats should be kept away from it at all costs but, of course, accidents do happen. The symptoms of poisoning include vomiting, excessive salivation, diarrhea, colic and bloating. There will also be weakness, difficulty in standing and the breathing can be affected. As the poisoning symptoms progress, there can be convulsions followed by coma and death. Individuals might manifest slightly different symptoms and these can help in the choice of a homeopathic remedy. My initial choice was Arsen-alb due to its affinity to poisoning and due to lack of individualizing symptoms; this remedy gave a very slight improvement but not sufficient to stay with it. I then moved over to Nux-v, and the following emails detail the cases as they progressed.
(Rosemary) Hope your goats are doing better. For severe nausea with copious salivation and vomiting undigested matter, along with staggering, you might want to consider Ipecac? Another possibility, if the neurological impairment seems ascendant, could perhaps be Agar... Tabacum is another possibility. Or Nux-vomica. It's interesting that, although you're seeing the total picture of Rhododendron poisoning, well described by Vermeulen in Prisma, the focus of the remedy Rhododendron is on different symptoms and systems.
I have had some success using Tabacum to treat nausea and vomiting due to ingestion of a poisonous alkaloid from the nightshade family... so I wonder if there's a potential remedy for the Rhododendron poisoning in the Ericaceae family that includes Rhododendron. (e.g. Kalmia, Arbutus, Gaulteria, Chimaphila -- none of which really fit the poisoning symptoms you've described).
Having gotten this far, I looked up the rubric "Rhus poisoning," curious to see what kinds of remedies come up for ailments from contact with this obvious plant toxin. It's an interesting range of remedies, and obviously, based on analogy, the antidote to a particular poisoning source can come from a variety of remedy sources.
Anyway, I hope you find a remedy that helps the goats that didn't respond to Ars.
Thanks Rosemary for the input. The Ars had gone as far as it could and I tried Veratrum but with no change so I went across to Nux-v yesterday teatime moving one across to Phos late yesterday evening. To be honest I thought that by this morning I would have several dead goats, but the worse two are now tucking into food as though there had been nothing wrong with them. They were the two that vomited the most which I feel has been in their favour – the whole of their shed was completely covered in vomit. My oldest boy Gavy, who is a tall leggy gentle old youth, was the one that I moved over to Phos. He wanted cold water all the time but it was just pouring back up and he is very Phos like in nature. I really did think that I would lose him during the night as he was so bad. He is still very bad and very wobbly on his legs but the vomiting has stopped and the desire for cold water has eased off. I haven’t seen him lie down since yesterday morning; he just wants to stand up all the time. The one who seemed the least affected yesterday is very quiet and I am really worried about her. The other two are middling.
Kerry
(Chris) I hope your goats are improving too, and it sounds as if you've saved their lives, or at least got the majority through the worst of it. I was wondering if you looked at the remedies listed as antidotes to the Rhod proving. In the older texts (Jahr and Boenninghausen), they are Rhus tox, Bryonia, Clem. and Camph. Of these, Rhus is very similar to Rhod in several key areas, although this may be a little difficult to see in your goats because the symptoms you describe are the effects of a gross poisoning which could apply to any number of remedies. I was interested in your comments that your goats have an over-the-top reaction to being ill. Rhus has the restless anxiety, fear of death, even a fear of being poisoned (Boenn), not unlike Arsenicum but with the salivation. Of course there is also the scouring dysenteric-like stools and vomiting, and staggering gait with vertigo in Rhus tox. Bryonia, which is so similar to Rhus in many ways, and has the great thirst, is not restless and when te patient eventually becomes exhausted and is aggravated by motion it has proven useful to alternate between Bry and Rhus - according to symptoms. Don't know how well this would fit the current symptom-complex but maybe something to keep in mind if it ever happens again.
"Thanks for your input. Four of the goats seem fine now and are eating (Nux worked for them) but two are still really poorly. The oldest one, Gavy, had appeared to be improving but is now going worse again with vomit round his mouth and coming from his nose, though I haven’t actually seen him vomiting. His rumen has also stopped working so now I am looking at it all from a different angle. Titchem, who was the fittest and the one that I thought would be most likely to recover easily, is still really poorly but I have hardly any symptoms with her as she only vomited briefly and other than laboured breathing and staying still, I have nothing to go off. I have given her lots of vit C which is supposed to neutralise the poison. I shall take a look at some of the remedies that you mentioned.
I can understand why some homeopaths don’t like doing acutes; give me a chronic any day where I can take my time and I’m not panicking."
Kerry.
(Rosemary) What will probably give the clue for the remedy that might help the other goats could depend on some further observations from you.
Some other remedies you might consider could include Oenanthe and Aconite -- or any remedy with extreme vomiting. (Ant-t?? Bry??)
As to observations:
The vomit around the nose and mouth, Kerry, what does it look like, smell like?
Any abdominal tenderness or swelling? In what area(s)?
How would you describe the difficult breathing of the one goat? What's observable about it?
Any change in their urine or stool (appearance or smell, particularly)?
Any change in appearance of tongue, gums, eyes, or any other part of anatomy?
Thanks for the further input. Gavy is now doing well. Yesterday the symptoms progressed to eructations, foaming saliva round the mouth, sudden bleating cries, twitching and a fear of me coming near him, especially of me trying to give him anything. I gave him one dose of Hyos 30c. Within seconds of the dose, he stood up and walked across to the salt lick, which I felt was a good sign. Unfortunately (or perhaps it was fortunate) I managed to get some of the Hyos on my hand and had a massive aggravation with extreme dizziness and nausea, with me being unable to stand up without staggering all over the place. I took some Bell to antidote it but I have been ill most of the night, so Gavy got no further dose. Checking on him at 5 o’clock this morning there is no vomiting, no saliva round the mouth, no twitching and he is eating!!!! He is replenishing the salt he has lost by taking lots of salt from his lick. I was so sure he was going to die and in such a state when I got the aggravation. Perhaps though, if I had dosed him again, I would have made the situation worse. What a great Christmas present and certainly not what I had expected this morning.
"Now I have Titchem to sort and she is still poorly. I just have laboured breathing and lack of appetite, plus she is just staying very still. The breathing is just shallow and sounds distressed. I always find it very difficult to choose rubrics for the breathing. I did get her to eat a little barley yesterday but only a very tiny amount. I shall jump in the bath and try to bring myself round and then try to figure out what to give her.
Many thanks
Kerry
(Joy) camphor an antidote to Hyos so sniff something with it in if you've got any
spongia, bryonia, stannum come to mind when the breathing is shallow and motion seems impossible
I tried the Camphor (While Dragon Balm) as soon as I realised what was happening. I had got some Hyos on my hand and was so not with it that I didn’t dash and wash it off. I then went straight out for a couple of mile walk with the dogs but could feel myself going worse and worse on the walk. Immediately I arrived back I started sniffing on the Dragon Balm but with no result. By this time the room was spinning and I just managed to get hold of my Remedy Relationships book and saw Bell so took a dose of that. I only had 12c to hand and couldn’t manage to find another potency. Perhaps if I had gone higher it would have cleared it sooner.
Thanks for the suggestions of remedies. I had tried the Bry but had no change. At the moment I am trying Opium as she has no movement of the intestines or bowels. I shall have a read on the other two remedies.
Kerry
Update.
Yesterday Titchem started to eat and I really thought that she was on the way to recovery. She seemed brighter in herself and had some food that I gathered for her from the hedgerows, as well as some hay. Unfortunately when we checked on her again in the early hours she had died. She was an old goat (as are all my goats) and I think that it must just have been too much for her system to cope with. I had given her a home about 10 years ago along with two other goats, all named the Titchems as they were so alike. They had come from someone that bought them at an auction in order to keep them on their allotment, but the council told them they had to go, so they came to us. They were young adults and none of them had ever been in good condition despite everything I did for them. The person that initially bred them mustn’t have handled them as they were always fearful of humans; this happens when kids are not handled regularly from birth.
I only gave brief details on why I used the Hyos on Gavy (who is completely back to normal now and was out grazing yesterday) but I thought some of you might want to know more info on why I went for the Hyos:
The symptoms that I used to rep were:
MOUTH - SALIVA – frothy (eliminative)
STOMACH - ERUCTATIONS
GENERALS - TOUCH - agg.
GENERALS – TWITCHING
STOMACH - THIRSTLESS
I used the frothy saliva as an eliminative as I thought it was so distinctive. These rubrics gave the following remedies:
Asaf, bell, bry, lyc, nux-v, apis, cocc, colch, hyos, nat-m, ph-ac, puls, sulph, ars.
I had read up on some of the remedies already and discarded them as not being suitable but on looking at Hyos it stood out for the following reasons:
Sudden shrieks after vomiting (he actually shrieked after eructations that had lumps of cud in it, so I felt this would still be applicable)
Fluid coming up through the nose (I couldn’t find a good way to rep this though I knew that I had read the symptom somewhere in an MM – if anyone has any suggestions for suitable rubrics then please could you give them)
Nausea
Vomiting
Pain in abdomen (he was obviously in distress in that region)
Constipation (he had gone onto no bowel/intestine movement)
Foaming at the mouth
Twitching
Reading Hyos in several different MM’s it seemed to cover his symptoms. Also it mentioned Hydrophobia and I wasn’t certain whether he was Thirstless or whether he had a fear of water: I would put the bowl under his mouth and his head would go down to the water and then recoil from it. So much with animals is supposition so I obviously couldn’t be certain of this. He was also very fearful if I came near him and especially if I tried to dose him with anything – Hyos has fear of being poisoned; again supposition but a possibility.
Thank you to all those who made suggestions and offered support.
Kerry
(Joy) Dear Kerry, so sorry for Titchem :-( but so pleased for the others. The Hyos was a great choice. I know they are not from the same family(henbane and rhododendron) but it is almost matching poison for poison, well done. Is the henbane actually bad for goats as well out of curiosity.
The fluid from the nose you could cross refer the stomach regurgitation rubric with the best from the nasal discharge (possibly 'gushing'), more vaguely there is 'food, sensation of in post nasal' but the best is 'nose, liquids, come out through on attempting to swallow'.
I think learning to work and think on your feet so to speak is a great learning curve. It means you see the case more exactly and acute cases encourage this but it is good also for chronic cases as well.
Thanks so much for sharing. Best wishes
Thanks Joy. Yes Henbane is also poisonous to goats. Thanks for the suggestions on rubrics. I do hope that I never go through a situation like this again but best to be prepared and it is certainly a lesson that will stick.
Reading the cases that have recently been posted to the list by yourself and Chris has helped me see more clearly with regards to rubrics and symptoms to choose when working a case. I am grateful to both of you for taking the time to post them. It is so easy to read the principles but so much harder to put them into practice, especially in an emergency such as this. Actual cases and how they were worked bring the lessons home much more clearly.
Kerry
