Heilkunst and the Dairy Industry

By: Gudula Beythien DVHH, DHHP, HD(RHom.) DMH
Dairyfarmer

A dairy farmer’s main goal is to produce milk in an economy-driven market and make money doing it. As in every other area, production prices increase but the product price remains static.
To produce the most milk for the least amount of financial input requires healthy cows, cows that will frequently become pregnant and bear healthy offspring. To boost the productivity of his stock, the effective farmer frequently performs soil testing and feed analysis to maintain nutrient quality.
Any excesses or diminished nutrients in the soil or feed have to be replenished or balanced. This is accomplished by adding fertilizers (manure or chemical) to the soil, and by minerals added to the feed.
It is common knowledge that mineral deficiency will cause cows to become cystic, they won’t come into heat, they retain the placenta after giving birth and they are more likely to get milk fever. Milk fever is a condition where the calcium is drawn out of the cow's bones soon after birthing. This disturbs the balance of magnesium, phosphorus and calcium. The cow is unable to get up, looses her muscle tone in a very short period of time, stops eating and will die if the condition is left untreated. First aid in a case like this would be regiminal.
Depending on the mineral missing in the feed (and generally this will prove to be the same deficiency in the whole herd) an intravenous calcium, magnesium or phosphorus solution is administered. The same solution is also administered subcutaneous to build up the levels in her system. If treated early enough the cows often recover quickly.
These mineral deficiencies are dealt with in a similar way, through simple mineral support - most farmers do it this way because it is cost-effective. An important point, however, is that the mineral has to be precisely adjusted to supply what is lacking in the feed. It is not enough just to purchase a mineral that supplies what the cow would need: it is necessary to provide a mineral that takes into account what is lacking in the feed on that specific farm, in addition to the mineral requirements of the individual cow.

One of the biggest financial drains on a dairy farm is a cow with mastitis. Huge amounts of antibiotics are administered but the disease frequently returns despite their use. The cause of mastitis is environmental pathogens like Staphylococcus, Streptococcus or E-coli bacteria. It can also be caused by an injury that develops into one of the above mentioned pathogens.
And though that is correct, those pathogens are present, as a Heilkünstler we must ask why the cow was susceptible in the first place?
The symptoms of mastitis vary and some homeopathic remedies can help to palliate the condition but none really cured it, until I considered the cause.
I asked some farmers how they dealt with mastitis, what sorts of alternative treatments they used. The idea to treat for the emotional state of the cows came to me following a chat with one farmer who mentioned that he tastes the milk when he gets the feeling that something has changed with a particular cow. When the milk tastes salty (which is the first sign of impending mastitis), he uses regular cooking salt externally as a rub. The salt would diminish the swelling that often accompanies a mastitis.
It was then that I made the connection to Natrum Muriaticum, so brilliantly seeing the law of similars at work, and then went on to answer the question in my mind, “Why Nat-Mur?” There were no physical symptoms describing anything I could relate to the mastitis cases besides the salty taste.
I found my answer in the Mind section of the repertory: Mind, Grief, ailments from.
Everything began to fall into place as I considered how the cow is handled, how the newborn calf is being taken away from the mother, all the stresses the cow is being placed under after birthing.
I started treating every cow and calf after giving birth not only with Arnica, but also with Ignatia, which I later changed to Nat-Mur when I realized how chronic their grief state can be. If there were mastitis cases were in the barn, I treated some with the Strep nosode, some with the Staph. nosodes and others with Nat-Mur. The Nat-Mur cases cleared up after three days of treatment, while the Strep and Staph. cases lingered for eight or nine days before resolving.
I am kind of sceptical if the Strep and Staph nosodes have a lasting effect, knowing that they do not treat the cause, but rather only the very opportunistic pathogen that exists as a result of the cause.
Then to confuse the matter further, I treated an E-coli mastitis (which is a yellow watery kind, very sudden and hot, painful on touch [looking like Belladonna]) immediately on noticing it with Belladonna, and it cleared it within one day with no further reduction in the milk production. That was an amazing experience if you consider that an E-coli infection takes up to one week to suppress if you catch it in time with conventional drugs. It might be the pathic remedy but if I continue to treat the tonic disease behind it I will end up with less and less cases throughout the herd.

And on a financial note:
The veterinary bills have plummeted since the cows on our dairy farm began their homeopathic treatment. The use of allopathic drugs decreases daily as my Homeopathic and Heilkunst knowledge increases.

For me this is a beginning…

Update:
Now two years after I wrote this article for the Heilkunst Journal, I adjusted the treatment of mastitis in my cows due to further learning and observing.
I use the tonic (Tonic and Pathic) remedy, always Nat-m combined with the pathogens nosode (Staph, Strep, E-coli) affecting the cow on first observation and follow if necessary with the pathic remedy.
Often the pathic remedy is not necessary anymore since the cause got cured.
Usually one or two doses are necessary to return the quarter to its normal state. I use the remedy in a dropper and place one drop into the water bowl of the animal in question.