Applied Zoopharmacognosy teaching schedule 2012

Caroline will not be teaching in the USA this year.

All current training courses are in the UK and Europe during 2012.

For further details please email the Academy: iaz.enquiry@gmail.com

Neurological damage

A young horse had flipped over and landed on her back, her symptoms did not appear overnight, but it shortly became evident that there was serious neurological damage. She dragged her back feet and was not able to move her tail. She was under veterinary supervision. I was called out 4 months after the accident, and the week following my visit, she was due to have a milligram. The prognosis was a years box rest or PTS.

The young horse selected wintergreen essential oil and St. John's Wort (nerve pain) which were licked off the hand. She licked 2ml of undiluted Wintergreen, which,  provided the greatest interest. I also offered it for topical application to C5 on the neck, as it was being applied her eyes softened and she stayed with us for several minutes before walking away. Immediately after its application she stopped dragging her hind legs and there was movement in her tail, which she was able to move slowly back to position when put to the side (previously it would have stayed where it was placed).

Several days after my visit she was taken to her pre scheduled appointment at the veterinary hospital.  The vet noted that it was obvious that her condition had been severe since her toes were squared off and x rays confirmed that C5 was a problem. He then went on to say that the myelogram should be cancelled since he would not want to put a horse through unnecessary procedures when her condition had improved so significantly. He requested for the horse to come back in 6 months for assessment. In the weeks to follow the young horse no longer wanted to ingest the wintergreen but still wanted a small amount applied to C5, she also took dandelion root, large quantities of rosehip shells, some comfrey and seaweed extract.  10 days after my visit, I was told that the horse had been galloping around the field feeling good.

Brain Injury

Self-selection, a personal story by Lucy

Driving down to Bristol for the level 1 practical at HorseWorld in February 2012, I was wondering how I was going to cope. I have a traumatic brain injury which, for me means my brain has to work extra hard to appear to function normally. Today I was driving a 120 mile round trip and would be concentrating all day. It was going to be a real test. I mentioned to Caroline that I may glaze over in the afternoon and not to be concerned.

In the classroom that morning Caroline passed round a tub of liquorice root powder. The purpose was to demonstrate the innate knowledge of the body. If your system needed it then the liquorice would taste nice until you have a sufficient dose. If you didn’t need it then the liquorice would smell / taste horrible, in fact if it smelled horrid you’d be very unlikely to want to put it in your mouth in the first place!

I wasn’t altogether surprised that I liked the taste of the liquorice root – I’d had a liquorice craving for several months. What did surprise me was that I instantly felt more alert and able to concentrate, Caroline then told us that Liquorice nourishes the brain. By the end of the day Caroline noticed that  I had remained alert.

Day 2 arrived and I was surprised to wake up without the usual headache and actually felt OK. We spent the morning in the stable yard before returning to the classroom for the afternoon session. In the afternoon I felt the beginning of a headache and the various sensations that accompany it, so was relieved when Caroline turned her attention to helping my problem. I was offered Carrot Seed oil that I also responded to and armed with a 5ml bottle and a quantity of liquorice root powder, I settled into a spot of self-medication!

As before, the liquorice was divine, that is until about the seventh finger full when it suddenly tasted very bitter. The carrot seed was like eating very carroty carrots and I had 5 drops undiluted before it tasted disgusting. I was already feeling and looking a lot better and the headache cleared.

Most amazing for me was to wake the next day without excessive fatigue or the migraine that usually accompanies it. I wanted less liquorice root than the two days previous.  I tried the carrot seed again but it was absolutely vile. I waited for my body to tell me when I needed a liquorice ‘fix’ and soon it became every other day or even longer. After about a week I had no interest in it at all.

The experience reinforced to me the importance of self-selection and re-offering plant extracts because the body may not need them every day.

CHINA 2012

China went exceptionally well. The media was well represented by Psychologies magazine, Cosmopolitan and China’s largest readership magazine Trends. I was told that the journalists usually stay for 30 minutes, and it would be a compliment if they stayed for an hour. However they stayed for the full 2 days, Psychologies magazine invited an extra reporter along to the second day, which was the practical workshop. The reporter later remarked that she was moved to tears with what she witnessed during the session with a dog that had been shut in a cage  for 22hrs a day for the first 3 years of its life. Cosmopolitan were moved by the partially paralyzed dog that had more movement after the session. My anxious cat, responded as to the book and was asleep in no time, the arthritic immediately showed more activity – so all were very impressed.

                                                         Practical Workshop Bejing

A couple of days later I received a phone call from my host, asking me to prepare 3 outfits for interviews and photo shoots with the magazines (you would have never recognized me with the pink lipstick!). Cosmopolitan were focusing on ‘my life story and the creation of the work’. Psychologies were as the name suggests,  looking at the powerful therapeutic effects on behavior.

My host is a presenter for a national TV program in China, she originally thought of having me on her show, however due to the unpredictable nature of working with animals her producer decided against it.  After the classes she tweeted the main 3 things that she had learnt. 1) - Respect for Animals  2)  - The importance of herbal medicine  3) - That animals are not ours to use and control in the way that people can do to them.

My host was amazed to find 400 tweets responding to this in half an hour, she then answered a question, asking her ‘How do you know if an animal wants or doesn’t want a remedy,' – to which she replied ‘You give it the freedom to choose by letting it walk or turn away from its application’. This evoked 700 immediate positive responses.

I personally found the students in China great to teach, one of whom was a vet, they were open to learning, and showed an immense interest in the subject. My host couldn’t have treated me better showing a great deal of generosity and kindness. She also arranged for me to walk on the Great Wall of China and a visit to the Forbidden City. What an amazing trip and a great opportunity to share this work.

Cat stories and the one of the bear to follow. 

More to follow plus a study on Bears by Sarah Kinson

Feline case study - a broken leg by Diane Budd

 Introduction

Charlie is a domestic liquorice all sorts cat then 2 months old. His owner described how one day they noticed that his left back leg just wasn’t quite right and that he could not jump or walk like he normally would. He also started meowng a lot to get their attention.

They took him of to the vet who did X-rays which showed that the inner leg was bruised but the leg was actually broken. His leg was strapped, put on painkillers and sent home. His owners contacted me to find out how it had happened and also to see what more they could do for him healing wise, so we did a session.

Offered the following

Arnica oil	No interest
German Chamomile	No interest
Eucalyptus	No interest
Peppermint	No interest
St Johns wort	No interest
Yarrow	Very slight interest. Then turns away
Devils claw m/oil	No interest
Hemp seed	No interest
Comfrey m/oil	He literally tried to climb inside the bottle as soon as I opened it. He sniffed and licked like no tomorrow. He could’t get enough of it and really battled to limit it to 3ml. He could have taken as much as he needed; some cats have taken up to 30ml in a day. Guidelines in the book are only there for the untrained.

Outcome

I left the bottle with the owner who told me that every time she appeared with the bottle he would make a run for it and literally “attack” it to get to the oil. This carried on for 8 days after which when offered the bottle and the oil he totally ignored it.  

Charlie went back to the vet a week earlier than he should have as it seemed he was getting frustrated with his bandaged leg and was meowing in frustration.  The vet was astonished at the rapid improvement and could not believe how well and quickly he had healed. X-rays showed all was fine. He now walks with a very slight limp but its hardly noticeable and loves to jump and climb like he used to.

My lesson with Charlie was the simplicity of what he selected – he needed just one thing, which I learnt to honour and respect.

Cats and Primates to follow

Hopefully next weekend I will be posting some informative cat case studies recently submitted by students that I think readers will find very helpful.

I will also be posting my visit to a monkey sanctuary.

Last weeks courses

As always I had such an inspirational week teaching and meeting old and new faces. 

We started off with the two day canine course at Tilley farm, where we witnessed some very positive changes in the dogs that we worked with. The anxious ones left very relaxed and did not seemed phased by anything that had previously upset them. Then there was Hen, a young lab with possible teething problems, she was totally focused on spirulina, followed by arnica powder mixed with rice bran. Interestingly she did not select any arnica macerate, nor was she interested in bees wax or vegetable oils. This perfectly demonstrated that a lab will select only the remedies from our kit that are needed and not be drawn to fatty oils if they are not needed. "It was an absolute pleasure for Hen and I to spend such a time with you.  We love what you are sharing with the world and are enthralled to be a part of that, helping others to help them selves in such a natural, instinctive way. Thank you again Caroline for an amazing six days, I had the best time, and the best little cottage too, a real treat for me.  I also enjoyed Toms lectures please say thank you to him' Tracy.

The next two days were followed by pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, which to some at first seemed quite challenging, however,  Tom (who has since received many emails thanking him for his work in this field) brought the subject to life and showed how its application made sense in our work.'Thanks Caroline - doing the science has actually given me a real sense of confidence when out in the field. When you can tell someone why a particular oil works and is chosen it gives it all so much more credibility' Carly.    "I did enjoy the science  tutorial with Tom, definitely makes it easier to understand than just  reading it from a book! Susan H"

The last two days were spent at Horse World where we worked with some incredible horse personalities. One being a retired Police horse of 17hh who appeared quite unresponsive to begin with, however, once I followed the subtle signs that he gave, it led me to continue with a particular selection of oils. He then became engaged in the whole process, lowering his head, almost to my knees so that I could apply certain oils to his poll, while he closed his eyes. 

A yearling that we also worked with had been neglected and starved. The first day he chose oils to help him relax, which resulted in him finishing the session laying down fast asleep. This was the first time this had been witnessed by any of the staff. When we followed up with him the next day he seemed very calm and relaxed and did not want any behavioural oils. Instead he was very particular in only selecting nettle leaf, dandelion root. His droppings were foul smelling and I was surprised he did not want any bacterial oils such as garlic and thyme. Knowing that bitter almond has killed various strains of ecoli in the lab, I thought I would offer it to him. On this second session, this was the first oil he was interested in, however when I presented clove bud oil to him, he pushed into me eagerly trying to lick the oil from my hand, so I offered it to him and then consumed approximately 0.5ml of the oil. This was followed by lots of yawning and closing of eyes. I since let the yard know of his selection.  "Thank you for a brilliant couple of days last week and especially for taking  the time to look at me too! I'm really pleased to say that I haven't had any  of the reactions I would normally expect - migraine, severe fatigue both  physical and mental - which is just amazing. I can feel when I'm running out of the liquorice root and start to crave it! I'm now having about a teaspoon every other day. The 5 drops of carrot seed I had at Horseworld seems to be  all I needed. I tried it the next day and couldn't believe I ever found it  tasted nice....Lucy"

Tom's Pharmacology tutorial
Photo by Martin Stubbs

Police horse: Imperial
Photo by Jane Satchwell

Pony at Horse World selecting Barley Grass
Photo by Jane Satchwell