Question:
Although you've mentioned alternative remedies before, I just wanted to offer you another anecdote in support of them.I adopted a 2-year-old female cat who, according to the shelter, had incurable chronic conjunctivitis. We also discovered that she had regular seizures, about once every six weeks. After having blood work done and rejecting anticonvulsant medications because of her age and the infrequency of the seizures, I decided to try a holistic approach.For two weeks I regularly washed her eyes with a tincture of eyebright (an herb), and the "chronic" conjunctivitis cleared up right away; she hasn't had it in the four years since. With regard to her seizures, we gave her pulsatilla and changed her food to PetGuard and, over the past four years, the spells have almost disappeared. In fact, it's been over 10 months since her last one. I'm not certain that my approach to her seizures is the actual reason she has improved, but it certainly didn't hurt her.
A.C., San Francisco, CA Jul 18, 2004
Answer:
Holistic veterinarians seeking safe and effective alternative medicines have found that the herbal extract of eyebright does indeed work wonders on inflamed eyes. But I do not encourage home remedies without a veterinarian's oversight and prior diagnostic examination. Many cats with chronic eye problems have feline leukemia or immunodeficiency disease, the eye infection/inflammation being secondary. So simply treating the eyes will not help in the long run in those instances where there is a deeper cause for the cat's chronic conjunctivitis.As for the epilepsy, a change in diet may help, but a determination of food ingredients is called for. The effectiveness of herbal and homeopathic remedies can be difficult to determine since improvement in the animal's condition may be coincidental, hence the need for rigorous clinical trials. Moreover, none of my textbooks indicate pulsatilla for treating seizures in cats.
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