With (currently) 10 cats and dogs, and several bad vet experiences under my belt, I spend countless hours researching and learning ways to safely treat my pets. While I’ve known about homeopathic remedies for a while and how well they can work for cats, dogs, and humans, this experience really cemented how useful they can be in times of crisis and encouraged me to learn even more about them.
For those unfamiliar, homeopathy is best described by homeopathycenter.org as the following:
Someone is suddenly sick
A few months ago, I discovered one of my cats had gotten sick in the garage where several of them had congregated. I wasn’t sure who it was, but by the looks of it, it was due to someone just eating too much food at one sitting. I cleaned it up and thought nothing of it.
A few hours later, I found another large pile of undigested food at the opposite end of the house near the cats’ door. Nobody was acting out of the ordinary, but since anyone getting sick around here is pretty uncommon, finding a second pile of nearly identical undigested food was definitely concerning. Slightly more worried, I decided to be more watchful of all of the cats and at the next feeding time to see if I noticed anything being off with anyone.
Determining who was the sick cat
During the next feeding, my oldest cat KK came in and started to eat. He immediately regurgitated a clear slime along with the piece of meat he’d just tried to eat. I instantly knew who was the one having the issue. My next step was to determine why.
Being around 10 years old and the cat I’ve had the longest, I know KK’s habits. I know he doesn’t go around eating things he shouldn’t and I don’t keep any medications, poisons, pills, vitamins or anything that would potentially poison one of my pets anywhere that they could get into. None of the other cats, who were eating the exact same food, were showing any symptoms or problems.
Thinking maybe KK just had an upset stomach that was repeatedly being upset by him trying to eat, I decided to fast him for a few hours to see if I could get his stomach to settle down. He was content to just nap on the couch as I continued to work and monitor the other cats who were eating and going about their day without any issue.
When fasting and colloidal silver doesn’t work
After a few hours of no food, I decided to give KK some colloidal silver to make sure he didn’t become dehydrated and also kill any potential bugs that might be causing the issue. I administered two droppers of colloidal silver into his mouth and then sat back and pet him for being such a good patient. To my surprise, after a minute or so, he threw up the water.
Seeing KK throw up the colloidal silver really bothered me. It is just basically water, so if he couldn’t even keep water down, I knew I had a bigger problem on my hands. Having never had this happen with any of my cats or dogs before, I immediately began researching what the cause could be.
The remedy that I wish I’d had on hand
As I researched, I determined that the best thing to try on KK was the homeopathic remedy Nux vomica. Homeopathic remedies come in the form of tiny little pills, about the size of BB’s, that can be crushed and the powder put in the mouth of the pet where it is absorbed into their system. It wouldn’t require KK to be able to keep anything down in order to get the treatment.
A recent book I’d purchased, A Healer in Every Home, https://amzn.to/2T69Ym8 has several homeopathic remedies for things like vomiting, surgery recovery, bee stings, accidents and trauma, and several other situations with recommendations for homeopathic remedies. It also tells how to administer them. That book is where I ultimately ended up getting all the information on what to give and how to give it to KK.
Checking the cabinet, I found that while I had several homeopathic remedies for various things, Nux vomica was not one of them. Frustrated, I tried to find a store nearby that would be open late or 24 hours that carried homeopathic remedies. There were none. Nothing else I was finding seemed like a good option or that I had on hand, so I was stuck.
A vet visit to rule out anything serious
Luckily, KK was not showing any other symptoms that were giving me any cause for immediate concern. Will and I discussed the situation and agreed that unless KK showed remarkable improvement and started eating and drinking without vomiting, I’d call the vet at 7:30 am when they opened and take him in to be checked out. Depending on the results, we’d go from there.
Given his age and the fact that in our over seven years together, KK had never had a blood test done, I felt like maybe it was a good idea to go ahead and get one to rule out anything serious.
After staying up with KK until about 5:30 am, making sure his situation didn’t change or get worse, I decided to take a nap until the vet office opened. I put him on a towel next to me on the bed with my electric blanket on and dozed until the alarm went off for Will at 7:20. I then called the vet’s office when they opened and got KK an appointment for that morning.
Before we left for the appointment, KK tried to eat again and immediately threw up. Hating to put him through a distressing 40-minute car ride, I put some Bach Rescue Remedy on his ears to be absorbed since giving him anything by mouth wasn’t an option, and loaded him into the carrier for our trip to the vet.
KK’s blood work is normal
At the vet, KK’s blood was drawn and everything came back fine. The vet and I discussed the situation and I agreed to have KK get some fluids subcutaneously since he hadn’t been able to even keep water down for several hours.
Even though KK wasn’t even really dehydrated, because I didn’t want us to get into a bad situation in case the Nux vomica didn’t stop his vomiting, I felt like it was a good idea for him to get the fluids. After seeing his puffed up little body oozing the liquid, I was even more upset at myself for not having Nux vomica on hand. Having it would have prevented me from having to put my poor sweet cat through so much stress.
In addition to the fluids, the vet offered to give KK the anti-vomiting drug Cerenia. Since I already had my plan for his treatment as long as the blood work was ok, I declined. For anyone wondering, this is what the manufacturer of Cerenia has to say about the side effects of Cerenia: “The most common side effects seen in dogs and cats administered CERENIA are pain/vocalization (injectable), depression/lethargy, anorexia, anaphylaxis, ataxia, convulsions, hypersalivation, and vomiting.”
I don’t know about you, but there is no way that drug with those awful side effects would ever be my first choice for treatment. Instead, I left it with the vet, who is conventional, that we’d just see how KK did that day in case it was just an “off day” he was having and if need be, we’d come back.
Basically, I had my plan, but I’ve butted heads with this vet clinic and another vet I normally see whose day off it was that day, so I just decided to not share my plan for using a homeopathic remedy. Instead, I just wanted confirmation that KK’s issue wasn’t due to some health crisis that needed treatment beyond a homeopathic remedy for vomiting.
I paid the $256 vet bill and then drove over to the health food store and picked up my $7 homeopathic remedy and headed home. In my book, it said that if Nox vomica didn’t work, Arsenicum (album), which is good for food poisoning, and covers watery diarrhea, which I wasn’t sure that KK had, as he hadn’t used the litter box, was also a good option.
Unfortunately, the health food store was out of the Arsenicum, so I chose another remedy they had listed for vomiting, as I wanted to cover all of my bases. According to what I’ve read, homeopathic remedies tend to work quickly if they are going to, so I wanted more than one option to help KK. The health food store is quite a ways from home and I wanted to get KK on the path to recovery sooner rather than later.
Giving KK the remedy
Once home, KK, who was quite hungry by now, rushed past me to the food bowls and began to eat. Even though I’d just spent a lot of money in town, I secretly hoped that he was able to eat the food without any issue.
Unfortunately, as I set my stuff down and headed towards him to monitor things, I saw him quickly regurgitating what he’d just tried to eat. Probably because he was very sad, KK walked out of the room as I rushed to find the Nux vomica I’d just purchased.
Even though according to my book, adding the pills to water and then vigorously hitting the bottle against your hand, known as succussing, gives you a more potent concoction, I didn’t feel we had time for that, nor did I trust that KK would be able to keep any liquid down. Instead, I took two pills out of the bottle, crushed them between a small piece of paper, and slid the powder into KK’s mouth. A couple of hours later, I repeated the process.
For the third dosing, I’d found a small glass bottle with a dropper and followed the instructions in my book on how to make the remedy more potent. Once I had the pellets in the water and the mixture mixed per the instructions, I put the drops in KK’s mouth. To my relief, he kept the liquid down.
About a half to an hour later, KK tried to eat. He was able to eat and keep it down just fine. I was so thankful and relieved, but I went ahead and gave him the drops a couple more times over the course of the evening and the next day, just to make sure he didn’t have a relapse. I’m happy to report that he didn’t and he’s been fine ever since.
Conclusion
I still have no idea what caused KK to vomit every time he ate or drank that day, and whatever it was never affected any of the other cats. Luckily, he bounced back quickly and hasn’t had any more problems, but I will definitely be keeping Nux vomica on hand from now on.
If this post inspired you to learn more about homeopathic remedies, ‘A Healer in Every Home‘ is a great resource if you are wanting to dip your toe into homeopathic remedies. While I don’t agree with everything in the book, like using peroxide on open wounds, and am sad it never mentions using colloidal silver, which I swear by for treating many things, overall, it’s a pretty helpful book. At only 134 pages, it’s much easier to navigate than some of my other books.
In the future, I’d also really like to add the book, ‘Homeopathic Care for Cats & Dogs’, https://amzn.to/2wTrJwp to my arsenal of information on using homeopathic remedies to treat my pets. I’ve read some really amazing stories about homeopathic remedies and as a staunch supporter of any treatment that doesn’t have dangerous or deadly side effects, I feel like homeopathy is another arrow in my quiver of treatment options. UPDATE: I was gifted this book by a very kind friend and follower and it is a very good resource that I’m glad to have.
Sources:
https://www.homeopathycenter.org/what-is-homeopathy
For my list of favorite things I (mostly) own and/or recommend to fellow pet parents and occasionally random strangers, you can visit my Amazon store page here, https://www.amazon.com/shop/savingscatsanddogswhilesavingcash. I’ve included little notes about the products also.
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Thank you for the information, CC. Once again, I learned something valuable from one of your posts and have added the Nux Vomica to my Amazon shopping list. You have been on my mind so much lately. I’ve been thinking of you and Will and praying for peace and comfort for the two of you because of the terrible tragedy of losing Moose. I’ve been hoping that the two of you are drawing some comfort from the wonderful memories you shared with Moose. I just wanted you to know that someone has been thinking of you guys.
Hi Gail,
Thank you for your lovely comment. I’m so glad you found this information helpful!
As far as your kind words regarding Moose, thank you so much for them and for thinking of us. It is still extremely difficult getting used to our new normal, but we are slowly getting there. We so appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness about our loss. It is very heartwarming to know there are people that care so much and understand our grief.
Thank you for this! Going through this now with my 10 yr. old Maine Coon. When they stop eating I start worrying!mCats are so sensitive and quiet about their illnesses. I will get the two books you suggested and wanted to add in case you weren’t aware that white sugar on any wound, except those that are pus filled will disinfect, heal the tissue and close the wound in just a few days (you mentioned the book suggested peroxide-yikes!). I used it for a cat that I found in the road and had been hit by a car. Thigh was torn open, conventional vet couldn’t do much with it and so I took her home and dressed the wound with sugar twice a day. The wound tissue grew back 1/2 inch everyday and in 5 days was nothing but a healthy sliver of a cut. The vet was convinced and used sugar for open wounds for that point on. Thank you for your site, wisdom and post :)
Hi Johanna,
You are welcome! If you need help before your books arrive, let me know! KK is my cat that always seems to have a health issue, bless his heart. He came to me in pretty rough shape and was older than all of the other cats I’ve taken in. I think those hard years before he came to me set him up for a rougher road than the ones I’ve taken in since that were only 2-3 years old at the oldest, so they hadn’t developed bad teeth or suffered any serious injuries, like I suspect KK did.
Luckily, we just had this one incident, but it was frightening, so I wanted to share how I treated it safely, as most vets want to give Cerenia, which I’d never give to one of my cats without trying everything else first. The neat thing about homeopathic remedies is that one remedy can treat many different things. I actually ended up being gifted that 2nd book and luckily, haven’t really needed to use it, but I do like having as many references as possible. :) I also like http://www.drhomeo.com for human (but can also use for pets) recommendations and have successfully used homeopathic remedies on myself a few times.
Thanks for sharing the tip on sugar. Sugar, as well as honey, and also ionic/colloidal silver all work well on wounds and are fine if the animal licks it. I’ve never had a wound that I didn’t have something on hand to treat it, fortunately, but this information may help others who find themselves suddenly needing something, but having limited products available and/or have to be careful about the product used due to possible ingestion.
Also, cats are designed by nature to be quick healers anyway, so just getting and keeping the wound clean, even if that’s just by using warm water (that can have a remedy like Hypericum added), and by providing clean bedding (removed and washed often to keep hair and debris from getting in the wound, and (preferably) a safe, indoor-only environment until the wound is healed, can help wounds heal without much to any intervention, if the circumstance doesn’t allow for much or any medical treatment, like in the case with feral cats. In those instances, there is also the option of adding a remedy (either in powder or the liquid form) in a small bit of food for the animal if dosing by mouth without food isn’t an option.
Obviously, homeopathic remedies are a great option for treating things and are so inexpensive, I hope this information helps not only you, but anyone else who may be considering learning about and/or stocking up on them. :)
Hi. I was going to purchase Nux Vomica for my ckd Burmese male but was put off by it’s ingredients……. Strychnine and brucino, two toxic chemicals!!! I instead bought stomach salts by schuessler…..
Hi Joanna,
While it is true that the seeds from the Nux Vomica do contain Strychnine, the way that homeopathic remedies are diluted and made, the remedy is not toxic. I’m not sure where you got your information, but the only dangers I read about Strychnine were from the use of rat, mole, and other pest control measures. I also read where people who had eaten the seeds directly had issues.
As far as your concern, kudos to you for looking up the ingredients, but in this case, your fear should be alleviated by all the positive information about how Nux Vomica helps so many people and animals without harm. Of course, there are the sites that scream about the poisoning aspect of using any part of the plant Nux Vomica, but I will tell you that there is a flat out push to make homeopathic remedies obsolete. The FDA touts that homeopathic remedies aren’t approved by them and claim they are all about safety.
After losing a dog several years ago to an FDA approved drug that was removed from the market (that had been approved by the FDA) for killing too many people and yet continues to kill hundreds if not thousands of dogs, all with the FDA’s blessing, I give the FDA as much credit for my safety as you could fit in a thimble. The truth is that homeopathic and any natural treatments, like ionic/colloidal silver, cut too deep into the pharmaceutical industry’s pockets, a topic which I have done a lot of research on. If there was ANY proof of danger in those products, I can assure you that they’d be off the market immediately, much to the pharmaceutical companies’ delight.
I have numerous books from holistic vets that have been using homeopathic remedies for years, as well as being a member of several groups where homeopathy is recommended, and I’ve yet to run across a single negative experience by anyone using them. The alternative to using a homeopathic remedy by most is to go the conventional vet route with the anti-vomiting drug ‘Cerenia’, which definitely has some very nasty side effects that I wouldn’t risk with any of my cats.
I’m not familiar with stomach salts and have never seen them recommended for vomiting or anything else, but maybe your cats’ case is different than mine was, which was that he couldn’t even keep water down, so we had an acute issue that needed immediate care.
I hope this information helps alleviate your fears and whatever your cats’ health issue is, I hope you find a cure for him.
How many of the Nux Vomica homeopathic pills do I give my cat? She weighs 8.3 lbs for vomiting. Thank you
Debbie,
If you are absolutely sure your cat didn’t eat something poisonous or rancid, which you wouldn’t want your cat to keep inside and do any possible harm by stopping the cat’s vomiting, which is a protection mechanism, you only need 2-3 pellets. I think I did three just to make sure in case I missed KK’s mouth, he still got enough of the powder to help him.
I only gave KK the powder after he’d gone several hours of not eating (fasting) and wasn’t even able to keep water down. I don’t use any pesticides or mouse/rat poisons around here and I prepare my cats human-grade raw meat, which I prepare by hand, avoiding any possible rotten/rancid meat as is legal for pet food manufacturing companies to use. I also don’t have any close neighbors, so I knew he hadn’t gotten into something somewhere else.
I only mention this because I do see a lot of people in groups with sick animals they are afraid ate a mouse/rat that had possibly eaten poison or even the pet had eaten the poison themselves. The body uses vomiting to expel poison that it eats, so you don’t want to stop it if there is a chance that the your cat ate something it shouldn’t have and is therefore having a reaction to it. If you suspect your cat ate a poisoned mouse or anything else possibly poisonous, I would recommend an immediate vet visit first to rule that out and once you know there is no reason for the vomiting, you can choose to use the Nux Vomica as opposed to the dangerous anti-vomiting meds vets use.
Hi I just stumbled upon you and how Nux Vomica helped your kitty. My cat, Georgie was diagnosed by a vet with IBD. Yet she didn’t have signs like vomiting or diarrhea. She just didn’t want to eat. I have used some of the stuff the vet recommended like martizapine but am always uncomfortable using meds. Someone suggested Nux vomica but I can’t seem to see how many pellets I should give her? She is 14 lbs and I can never get anything down her with a dropper so was thinking of diluting with water and adding to her food/gravy bowl. How many pellets of the 6c should I give & in how much water should I dilute it? Hope to hear back as my girl means the world to me ❤️ Thanks in advance, Donna & lil G 🐾
Hi Donna,
I’m sorry to hear about Georgie’s tummy troubles. I have found the best way to administer homeopathic remedies to my pets is via a dropper from a bottle of diluted pellets.
You take a small glass dropper bottle that is 2-4 ounces and add a few of your Nux vomica pellets. Make sure not to touch them with your fingers. Twist the cap and let the pellets fall into the cap and once you get about three of them, roll them out of the cap directly into the clean bottle. Fill the bottle up with distilled water and wait for the pellets to dissolve. That is usually accomplished in about 15 minutes.
Once the pellets have dissolved, tap the bottom of the bottle against your palm about 10-20 times to activate them and then put about 1.5 tsp. of the liquid in a little bit of wet cat food or mashed sardines. It won’t really have a taste, so your cat shouldn’t refuse to eat food with it in it. I’d give this at least two to three times a day until you see positive results, then you can scale back by a dose until you taper it completely off when the health issue has resolved.
I’m not sure about his helping with IBD as I haven’t tried it for treating that, but from what I’ve read, IBD is something that you need to get to the bottom of to cure, which could mean a few changes, including diet. Here’s an article from Dr. Karen Becker talking about how IBD in cats and how to treat it, https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/06/01/feline-ibd-symptoms.aspx
I hope this information is helpful and you are able to get Georgie back to good health soon.