Homeopathy after a Traumatic Delivery

The story of Pipi below shows how homeopathy can  be used in acute situations. If you have access to remedies at home and a little bit of knowledge on how to use them it is quick and easy to do and can have a dramatic effect.

Pipi the cat is an 18 month old Burmese female. She had a litter not quite a year ago, giving birth to three large kittens. She was a great mum, extremely clean, devoted to her babies and very patient that time.

She fell pregnant again and I became involved in this cats situation when my daughter happened to get caught up in the delivery of the second litter that started early on a Wednesday night. Daughter called me for advice to help deliver a breach kitten and revive it when it was born lifeless. The Remedy Carbo Veg. plus some heart massage did the trick.

She supported Pipi with Arnica, through the process that brought 2 breach kittens and two others alive, as well as a lifeless kitten. Then gave Caulophylum when the delivery halted, while it looked some more kittens were still unborn.
After several hours of labour since the first deliveries, Pipi was taken to the vet as she seemed stressed and there was no progress. A late night dose of Oxytocin was given after X ray confirmation that more kittens were on the way. And Pipi was send home.

By Thursday morning after a night of contractions and no rest to look after her babies properly, no further kittens had been produced. At 8.30 am at the vets again, a C section was performed and one more kitten still alive, was born. Pipi was not prescribed any medication (due to her feeding her offspring of now 5 lively babies) and she was send home.
She seemed to be doing okay but had not eaten and drank only little. She did not pick up her mothering skills to the level she displayed with her first litter. She had not cleaned herself properly and her care for her kittens was also compromised. To make sure the kittens would be okay the family sat up with Pipi through the night.

On Friday the family visited the vet for a check up for Pipi and to pick up Antibiotic the vet forgot to give her. Then yet another visit to replace the wound tape that had come undone from the c-section wound. The family continued to be concerned about Pipi’s condition. It also was becoming clear that Pipi was not producing enough milk for her kittens.
After 6 pm that night Pipi took a turn for the worse; she seemed to have difficulty breathing was panting quickly with open mouth, distressed and had still not eaten and had not drunken all day, she had been in the same spot for a long time, her ears and feet were cold and they were worried.  The vet had been called but could not see Pipi at that time due to being on a call out delivering a cow an hour away. He said there would be nothing he could do and she had been seen during the day with no obvious explanation found for the causation for her situation. He advised that her breathing issue may be from irritation caused by the tube used for the Anaesthetic and that it could take some time to improve.

After not hearing from the family since Wednesday night I received a distressed phone call that Friday night.
However I could not visit Pipi, and the family had no way to get to me. We all felt worried about her and helpless. I advised to use Arnica, Rescue Remedy and Carbo V, as they were the only remedies applicable that they had on hand at that time. We held no great hope for Pipi to make it through the night. However the vet reluctantly agreed to see Pipi late that night after another call. He acknowledged that Pipi’s situation seemed more serious than he had thought. But he stood by his opinion on the breathing issue and that inflammation could be causing a slight blockage. A dose of steroids, pain medication and antibiotic were given and she was send home yet again. Milk powder was taken home to supplement the kittens with. The kittens were fed every two hours by the family during another sleepless night.

Saturday morning Pipi was barely hanging in there, but alive. She was totally lethargic and had not moved much. She did not respond to her kittens and just laid there. Her breathing became increasingly laborious.
The vets could not see her that morning and stood by their opinion on the breathing issue.

I visited Pipi at 11.15am on that Saturday; that was the first time I had seen her myself since this all started on Wednesday night.

When I arrived she was lying on a blanket in the middle of the floor stretched out on her right side. Her kittens were beside her and the family was encouraging them to suckle. Her chest was heaving with very laborious deep breathing. She had her eyes closed. She did not acknowledge me, did not respond to her environment, the family or her kittens. It looked a dire situation; the family was exhausted and extremely worried with the possible prospect of losing their Pipi and also of having to nurse 5 orphan kittens so young.  They kept referring to Pipi’s previous birth and mothering and how different she was now. That she “did not seem to be there”, “she is spaced out” and asked me to please do something. Another visitor came into the room and said “she looks dead” which was odd as her chest was heaving so much.

I assessed the situation and clutching a straw decided on the remedy Opium on the basis of the breathing and the spaced out, non responsive state she was in. I felt that the entire trauma Pipi had been through had resulted in her withdrawal from reality. It was not the delivery nor the c section or an inflamed throat on their own to cause this mother to not connect with her kittens and paralyse her mothering instincts but all of it together had become overwhelmingly benumbing. So much had been done to her that she had no control over, that she had gone into a delayed shock state with ‘Opium‘ picture.
I only had 1 pilule of 30c with me. So I added 1 pilule to a tiny bit of water and sat down beside Pipi and began to administer the remedy drop after drop, applying it on her nose every two to three minutes from about 11.30 am.

The first dose she did not notice but instinctively licked of her nose. The second drop she gave more sign of life. The third one she saw coming as she had opened her eyes and the fourth one she slightly withdrew from. By 11.45 am she was sitting up cleaning herself and licking her kittens. Some minutes later she got up and drunk some water but returning to her kittens as soon as they made a noise. I kept dosing her this way until I felt the response was lasting.
It was an amazing result that absolutely stunned all of us, probably most of all me. None of us had any hope of a happy ending. It would have been so good to have this on video but unfortunately it did not enter our mind at all to film it or take photos.

By that evening Pipi had gone from strength to strength and not once looked back. She had needed a few more doses of Opium when she started to show signs of slipping back into that state. But she had eaten and drunken and used the litter tray, had been nursing her kittens, cleaned herself and her milk had come in.  She was given Arnica, Staphisagria and Bellis Perennis to assist with her healing and all is looking bright for her. Her kittens are thriving.

The family has recuperated with the aid of Cocculus and have enjoyed some well deserved rest. They have decided Pipi should not have more kittens.

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Esther Ritmeester DipHom, RCHom

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