Mia and Her Traumatic Birth
Esther is one of our homeopaths and has another wonderful case of how important homeopathy is with caring for our animals.
Mia is an 18 month old Burmese female Cat. She had her first litter when she was just 12mths old. Although young, she was a wonderful mum, extremely clean, devoted to her babies and very patient with them at the time.
Mia went into labour with her second litter early on a Wednesday night with a bit of an emergency situation. My daughter rang me for advice to help deliver a breech kitten. When it was born lifeless, Carbo Vegitabilis was given to the kitten which helped to revive it, along with some heart massage.
Labour after that became prolonged, drawn out and traumatic. Mia was supported with Arnica to allow her to be more settled. When it looked like there were more kittens still unborn and the labour was at a standstill, she was given Caulophylum. Labour recommenced and she had 5 kittens in total two of which were breech and the last one was delivered by C-section at 8:30 am the following morning.
Between her labour starting and when I saw her on Saturday morning she visited the veterinarian 5 times, and received Oxytocin, had an x-ray done, had her C-section performed, and when her situation deteriorated received antibiotics, steroids and pain relief. But the veterinarian felt there was little to be done and that the difficulties she had were due to the surgery and needed to be overcome with time and each visit they send her home.
At first, after the C-section, she seemed to be doing okay but she did not eat and only drank a little. She didn’t pick up her mothering skills to the level she displayed with her first litter. She did not clean herself properly and her care for her kittens was also compromised. She deteriorated quickly. She started to have difficulty breathing was panting quickly with open mouth, distressed. By 6pm on Friday had still not eaten and had stopped drinking, she had been in the same spot for a long time, her ears and feet were cold. It was then that I received a distressed phone call and advised to give Arnica, Rescue Remedy and Carbo Veg, as they were the only remedies applicable the family had on hand.
We held no great hope for Mia to make it through the night.
Needless to say, the family were frantic. They sat up with Mia through 3 nights and fed the kittens every two hours. They were exhausted and extremely worried with the possible prospect of losing their Mia, and also of having to nurse 5 newborn orphan kittens.
I visited Mia at 11.15am on Saturday. That was the first time I had seen her myself since this all started on Wednesday night. Mia was barely hanging in there, but alive. 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. She had her eyes closed. She did not acknowledge me, did not respond to her environment, the family or her kittens. She was totally lethargic and did not move and her breathing was becoming slow deep and laborious with her chest heaving.
It looked a dire situation.
They kept referring to Mia’s previous birth and mothering and how different she was this time. They said that she “did not seem to be there”, that “she is spaced out” and “she looks dead” which was odd as her chest was heaving so much and pleaded to please do something.
I felt that the entire trauma Mia had been through had resulted in her withdrawal from reality. It was a combination of the delivery, the C-section and an inflamed throat that had caused this mother to diconnect from her kittens. It was as if her mothering instincts were paralysed and she had become overwhelmed and benumbed. So much had been done to her that she had no control over. Mia had gone into a delayed shock state. I could see a clear picture of the remedy Opium.
After clutching at straws, I decided on the remedy Opium on the basis of the breathing and the spaced out, non-responsive state she was in.
I only had one pill of Opium 30c with me, so I added that pill to a tiny bit of water and began to administer the remedy drop by drop, applying it on her nose every two to three minutes from about 11.30 am.
The first dose she did not notice but she instinctively licked it of her nose.
The second drop she gave more signs of life.
The third one she saw coming as she had opened her eyes.
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 drank 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.
The result absolutely stunned all of us as none of us had any hope of a happy ending. Unfortunately it did not enter our mind at all to film it or take photos.
By that evening Mia had gone from strength to strength. 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, drank 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 healing from her C-section. All is looking bright for her and her kittens are thriving.
