Let me tell you a short story about one of the most significant turning points in my herding experience that made me dive headlong into natural medicine. There have been multiple other experiences, but this was really one of the biggest.
In probably my third year of owning goats I had a favorite doe named Hally. We had been having a really rough spring with the weather and our kids were all getting pneumonia like crazy. I was literally treating them day and night trying to keep them going and the whole ordeal lasted for nearly 3 months before whatever the 'bug' was finally worked its way out of my herd. Hally also started coming down with it towards the end of this period and by this point I was totally beat, so I decided to try the anti-biotic (Resflor-Gold) the vet recommended for pneumonia. She went into anaphylactic shock in about 30 seconds. To say that this is a horrendously violent and gut wrenching thing to see an animal go through is probably not even telling you how awful it really is when they start seizing and screaming. We knew nothing about what we were doing at the time so we called the vet (bracing ourselves for the fact we were probably going to have to put her down) and he finally got here after 2 hours only to tell us (to our surprise and skepticism) that he thought she would be fine. Even though she was still having seizures. He gave her a couple of injections that I can't recall what they were supposed to do and said to keep an eye on her, but she passed during the night...
This was one of the biggest turning points in my pursuit of natural methods. I did not EVER want to get stuck again with nothing I could do and a vet 1 hour away. With what I know now from experience, I am confident I could have handled her mild pneumonia case without the anti-biotic. If I would have had my current experiences with the power of cayenne pepper at the time I may have been able to stop the reaction, or at least had a better chance than waiting helplessly for the vet to arrive. The typical drug for this reaction is epinephrine, but unless you have it on hand when the reaction starts it is too late. Even if I had known about epinephrine ahead of time I wouldn't have been able to get it as I searched high and low after this incident for a vet or breeder that had it and would sell me some, but few had it and no one would sell any to me. Herbs don't always work, but neither do drugs. In this case it was BECAUSE I gave a drug that she died. It's not like I gave her an herb or drug that just failed to stop the pneumonia and the pneumonia took her, it was specifically what I gave her that actually took her and I still live with the guilt of that today. I determined two things after this. 1) I had to gain more independence from vets that are an hour away and can't help me in an emergency. 2) I had to learn to use products and methods that are safe for both the immediate application AND the long term health of my animals. I did learn and now I am very grateful that I have because my herd is doing better then ever and I have so much more peace of mind knowing that I am not completely dependent on some one else and that I am not harming my animals in any way. Yes, I cannot always save my animals with herbs (and neither can the best vet with the best drugs), but I know I am not going to hurt my animals specifically because of a product I give them, whether that is acute harm like it was for Hally, or chronically from long term side effects. Now that I have studied and tested natural methods for a number of years I am confident that herbal products are at least as effective as their counterparts and that they are absolutely better for the animal's long term health in my personal experience...but that's my opinion and I encourage you to do your own research! Only you can be responsible for your own animals and their health. There is so much more I would like to share about my observations and research that backs up the efficacy of natural medicine and the deficiencies I've noticed with conventional medicine and vaccines, but for now I am going to just leave you with Hally's story and keep focusing on writing the info that helps you get a plan together for your own herd management.
So all that to say, if I can help you along your journey into natural medicine in any way, feel free to reach out and ask. If you have met me in person then you know that I tend to be a somewhat reserved and quiet person, but please don't let that stop you from asking me anything. I am always willing to answer questions and while I am far from an expert I am happy to share whatever I know freely. My goal is to be a reliable resource for people to learn from and I try to pour as much knowledge and, most especially, personalexperience into everything that I share. To keep learning go to our resource page where I have compiled many different links and where I have put several of the articles I have written. You can also subscribe to my newsletter if you like which is where I share the most valuable information.