A bowel nosode for a lame cat with diarrhoea

Moko, a six year old desexed male Ragdoll cat, first came to my surgery in November 2013 with persistent pain and lameness that had been slowly getting worse over the last two months.

His owner thought that the pain was originally in the front legs but the back legs are now affected. The previous vets had done blood test and X-rays but were unsure as to a diagnosis. The bone density is normal. He has also been treated by a veterinary chiropractor but he screamed in pain during that treatment; it has made him worse. He used to charge around like a maniac and would sometimes hit the walls; his owner thinks he may have injured himself.

Another cat in this multi-cat household was sick at the time this began. Moko stole some chicken in spicy sauce before he became lame and got black diarrhoea from it. They then had to confine him to a different area of the house.

Because he seemed to have generalised pain the veterinarians thought that he may have thiamine deficiency or taurine deficiency, so he has been given taurine supplementation along with spirulina, vitamin E, coenzyme q10, calcium phosphate 260mg daily, kelp and psyllium husks, as well as probiotics if there was diarrhoea. He is always hungry; whatever he is given, he always runs to the kitchen to see what else is on offer. He is basically on a raw food diet. He may steal food from the kitchen if he is not being watched. He is clever at getting into things and places where he is not meant to be. He gets diarrhoea from spicy food but loves pepperoni and strong flavours.

He is now unable to jump upwards – this symptom began suddenly. He will put his front feet up and then lift the back feet up, one at a time. He seems unable to arch his back or to stretch his back legs out. He looks stiff as he walks. He loses his balance when he turns a corner because of stiffness in the back legs. When he warms up, he improves, and he will cry out on first motion in the morning. The evenings can also be a bad time. He may cry when he is lifted up and makes a high-pitched cry when putting weight on his front feet.

He likes to be warm and will sit under a lamp for the warmth. He likes to sleep under bed covers, head and all, for a long time. He sleeps on top of the radiator even if it is very hot. He does not mind the summer heat.

There is a pink flush on the skin of his face which comes and goes. His owner must clean his eyes several times daily due to a red-brown discharge, which dries in the corner of his eyes. He has had scabby red scaly sores in the temple area, and feline acne around the mouth and on his chin. He will sometimes sneeze and try to clear his throat, a dry and raspy sound; this takes place about once per week. He has been tested positive for caliche virus in the past. He has had gum disease, starting at two years, and has had several teeth removed. The gums now look purple-red with inflammation around the base of some teeth.

When he was six months old, he had a fever and was given some antibiotics for a cough. Apart from that, he was a healthy kitten and had no issues fitting into the household.

There are several other cats in the household and he appears to be equal boss with one of them. They sometimes growl at one another. Moko is allowed to sit on the owners’ lap. He will roll on his back and whimper if the other cat hisses at him. He urinates more than the other cats and will spray on walls if he is locked inside. He does not like using litter trays, preferring to go outside.

He loves cuddles and craves affection 24 hours a day. He is the happiest cat you will ever meet: playful, mischievous, inquisitive, fun-loving, and affectionate. Everybody who meets him wants to take him home. He becomes nervous and introverted when strangers come to the house but eventually he may roll over in front of them. He has some slight fear of thunder and shakes a bit with nervousness here at the surgery, especially on being examined – he will bite to escape.

He had been treated previously with Bryonia and Calcium phosphoricum with no improvement. At this first consultation, he was treated with Phosphorus LM1 daily.

After two weeks, things had not changed and he was given various remedies over the next eight weeks, all without any deep healing: Sepia, Chamomilla, Rhus toxicodendron, Tuberculinum and Ruta.

He now gets diarrhoea with any food changes and has begun avoiding company (perhaps to avoid being hurt). Stiffness is worse in the evenings. He began to prefer sea foods, especially smoked salmon. There were some clear tears from the right eye and he became more thirstless. At my clinic, he was a curious cat, wanting to get into everything, but if prodded or manipulated he would quickly get very angry and attack and hiss. He was now more hunched up in the back but was still trying to stretch out. If his neck was stretched out, it would hurt.

He returned to the veterinary specialist who did more X-rays and blood tests. All was normal so no diagnosis was possible. A full body MRI and multiple joint taps with culture were proposed.

The stiffness was bad the whole day now and was worse if he exerted himself too much. The diarrhoea was increasing despite prescription foods (Hills ID and Eukanuba Intestinal). The stool would often have mucus and some streaks of blood at times. He was trying to get warm. The pink flushing of the face was more marked. He was now given Dulcamara 30C twice daily. This gave some improvement and the owners elected to wait and not have further tests done for the time being.

Dulcamara did not seem to improve him any further after ten days, however, and so on January 10, 2014 he was given a dose of the bowel nosode Sycotic co 200C.  Within 3-4 days a change came over him; he gradually began to improve. Dulcamara was continued and week by week, he gained strength and vitality.

This email was received from the owner on February 27, 2014: “Moko is doing fantastically well. He is a whirlwind of energy and I'd say he is running at about 110% at the moment. I feel he's making up for the months he was ill! He is running about the house, jumping up on the kitchen worktops, getting himself in to all kinds of mischief as he used to. I have the old Moko back. He no longer has diarrhoea. I'm still giving the probiotics just to make sure, and I'm weaning him off the ID food (he's become slightly addicted to it). He is such a happy boy now. He has not learned from past mistakes, though, as he still begs us for spicy food whenever we are eating it!”

My feeling is that Dulcarama was the simillimum in this case but Sycotic co seemed to enhance the healing and allow it to cure.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Ragdoll Katze; Claudia Scheller; CC BY-SA 3.0