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Sheba 1999 - 2013




We had a cat, Sheba, who was hit by a car at not quite a year old, resulting in urine and bowel incontinence due to nerve damage.
The veterinarian at the emergency animal hospital told us that if Sheba didn’t urinate on her own within a few days, we should euthanize her. Unfortunately, Sheba was still unable to urinate on her own after those few days - but, we decided to live with her incontinence instead of euthanizing her. It wasn't an easy decision, nor easy to adapt to the incontinence. As time went on, Sheba's nerve damage and incontinence created other health issues that traditional veterinarian medicine didn't successfully resolve. In the meantime I had been doing some research into holistic/alternative/complimentary modalities and I turned to some of them that enabled Sheba to have a wonderful 13 years of after-accident life, in spite of her 'special needs'. The modalities I used included: Classical Veterinary Homeopathy, Reiki, craniosacral, flower essences, herbs, acupuncture and chiropractic.

The most dramatic confirmation of holistic modalities and their effectiveness is when Sheba was about 10 years old and she had uncontrollable, (by traditional medicine), constipation. The constipation was caused by a flap of internal tissue that drooped down into the anus area and feces would collect in a pouch that the extra tissue created. This full pouch would block any further feces from making its way out. The local vet needed to digitally extract the feces once to thrice a week. At that point I was very concerned about Sheba’s quality of life and finally planned to euthanize her. As difficult as the decision was, I had promised Sheba and myself that I wouldn’t keep her alive if she suffered. I felt her terrible pain from the constipation, the many trips to the vet, the treatment and her demeanor showed she was to the point of suffering. Thank goodness, a friend suggested a homeopath veterinarian and the vet chose the perfect remedy first time around, resolving the condition right away. Sheba never had that same problem again, although did have occasional constipation due to slow bowel motility that I treated with diet, herbs, chiropractic and acupuncture.

Sheba also suffered with idiopathic cystitis occasionally.  The homeopath suggested a remedy which worked like a miracle. Whenever Sheba started the symptoms of an oncoming attack of cystitis, I would administer the remedy and it would stop the attack in its tracks. This happened many times, so cause and effect were very obvious. I continued to use homeopathy as an important component of Sheba’s care until she eventually passed.

Going the holistic route isn't easy, since there are far more traditional than holistic veterinarians available - the efforts of the AHVMF will change this over time. There is so little research done on holistic modalities therefore so many traditional veterinarians don't take them seriously. I've had my own wonderful results with holistic modalities and truly appreciate that the AHVMF is doing research & education to bring these tools to light for other pet owners and veterinarians. BTW, I also used holistic modalities for my recently deceased 18 ½ year-old cat, and now for my two younger ones. I believe in the AHVMF's work so much that I have the AHVMF as a beneficiary in my trust.

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