Lucky pig
When a piglet is treated homeopathically…
Hello everyone! This is Eleanor Pigby.
We haven't been in touch for a while. I'm growing fast, getting a bit more independent every day and I'm bursting with curiosity. Even the swinging doors can't stop my inquisitiveness! Did you know you can push those doors open?! You have to put a bit of effort in – and of course my human gets annoyed about it – but it works!
So one day I was off exploring my human's office and found a video that Joette had sent her.
Have you heard of Dr Liesbeth Ellinger? She's a homeopathic veterinary surgeon from the Netherlands and she spends her whole life helping animals with homeopathy. She also shows farmers how to use it on a farm. I think farmers don't want to give their animals so many antibiotics any more. (If you ask me, that's a good thing!)
You really should watch the video, because she explains it much better than I can (and besides, my hooves make typing difficult… most of the time I press two keys at once).
Video: Liesbeth Ellinger - on homeopathic treatment in pigs (English language)
E. coli in pigs – a homeopathic study
Anyway, Dr Ellinger carried out a scientific study to find out whether homeopathy really works. And guess how she did it? She ran the study on piglets! Yes indeed! Piglets… like me!!!
We don't usually talk to you humans about this, but we pigs are very interested in science. I am always sniffing through my human's paperwork! That's why I think we make excellent study subjects.
Here’s the deal: Dr Ellinger noticed that many piglets get infected with E. coli and develop diarrhoea straight after birth. Normally farmers give them antibiotics to save them. Nowadays, however, farmers want to use fewer antibiotics and are more open to alternatives.
Placebo or medicine?
Dr Ellinger wanted to test whether homeopathy could be given prophylactically! She took 52 sows and split them into two groups: 26 sows received homeopathic pellets (potentised E. coli) and 26 sows received a placebo (a remedy that looks the same but has no medicinal effect).
The really annoying thing about the whole matter is that Dr Ellinger didn't tell the sows which medicine they were given!
That's unfair, isn't it?!
This is called a “quadruple-blind study”. I suppose that's done so the scientific results can't be biased.
So neither the researchers nor the farmers knew which group was fed which medicine; the sows certainly didn't know; and quite obviously the newborn piglets didn't know either.
But the results were absolutely convincing – and rather astonishing.
The sows gave birth to a total of 260 piglets. In the placebo group 63 piglets developed diarrhoea, in the homeopathy group there were only ten. Only TEN!!!!
Can you imagine that? That's pigletastic!
What is just as important: the disease spread much more within the litters of the placebo group than in the litters that were treated homeopathically. There only the weakest animals became ill; all the others stayed healthy!
Farmers are naturally rather sceptical, but these were very impressed and absolutely convinced.
This study had to convince even the biggest sceptics that homeopathy is more than just a placebo effect – it works!!!
Homeopathy works
As Dr Ellinger says in her video: “People who claim that homeopathy can't possibly work – they're simply arrogant. How can you say something can't work just because we don't know how it works? It's simply ridiculous to say that and I find that statement very arrogant.
There are many things we don't know how they work and yet they do. As scientists you should approach things with an open mind and understand them rationally… Are you nothing more than a fundamentalist who needs to prove he's right, or do you want to find out the truth? If you're after the truth, then you should read all scientific publications without bias.”
I really liked the video. Dr Ellinger seems like a very nice woman and I could laugh myself silly at how much she cares about us pigs!
Oh, before I say goodbye, I wanted to tell you another little story. One of Joette's pupils told her about a similar experience with a shepherd and his two newborn lambs. One had already died from diarrhoea and the other was close to death. The pupil suggested giving the sick lamb Veratrum album and guess what happened? The little chap recovered!
The shepherd was so impressed that he immediately asked for a suitable remedy for his aching hip.
If that isn't a great opportunity to spread the good news. As Joette always says so nicely:
“Homeopathy helps! Pass it on!”
By the way: while sniffing through the piles of papers belonging to my human I found lots of information that homeopathy also works in you humans – just as it does in us animals. Isn't that wonderful?
The Banerji Protocols
Joette has, for example, written that one can give Veratrum album 200 in combination with Cuprum met 6 for diarrhoea in humans. She calls it the “Banerji Protocol” from India.
I remember my human saying that there are many remedies one can use in this situation. Dr Ellinger chose homeopathic E. coli. I wanted to tell you that briefly so you know how Joette does it.
And if you meet someone who says homeopathy is just a placebo effect, you can tell them that Eleanor Pigby thinks otherwise!
If that's not enough, you can send them the link to Dr Ellinger's short but fascinating video. Maybe the hard work of my fellow pigs (and Dr Ellinger) will convince all the sceptics to give homeopathy a try.
But wait. Look, the swinging door has been fixed again. I'm going to try it out now.
Take care, until next time…
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Source: https://joettecalabrese.com/blog/this-little-piglet-had-homeopathy/
Photo: Pigby by Joette Calabrese; 556381594 by HQuality
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