As a general rule, potencies of 12c and above are used for acute cases, normally under veterinary supervision and guidance as proper diagnosis and prescription can be crucial.
Chronic conditions are also treated with high potencies as they are considered to have gone ‘deep’, and high potencies are also used when the disease or symptom can be rooted back to previously unresolved disease.
Understanding homoeopathic potencies
Higher potencies are usually associated on an emotional level with trauma or deep seated emotions so are used after trauma or bereavement. Lower potencies are less powerful but broader in their action and therefore more likely to be of some benefit even if they are slightly ‘off target’.
High and low homoeopathic potencies of the same remedy can have different effects, for example the remedy Hepar Sulph, recommended for abscesses, aids the discharge of pus at low potency but is used at high potency before pus has accumulated or the infection come to a head. The same applies to Urtica Urens (nettle) which depresses milk flow at low potency and stimulates it at high potency.
Although Hahnemann always suggested that, after the initial dose, subsequent doses should only be given after its affect had worn off, this is only possible where symptoms are obvious such as runny nose or eyes for example. In something less easy to discern, such as pain management, homoeopathic remedies should be given frequently for sudden onset, acute or severe cases (one tablet or drop per hour or more frequently for the first six doses in an emergency) and less frequently for long standing or chronic cases (one tablet or drop one to three times per day).
Acute cases or the acute stage of treatment should only last for two or three days. Chronic cases often require treatment over weeks or even months. With chronic cases it is not uncommon for the space between doses to gradually increase so that the condition is maintained on one tablet per day and then one per week, per month and so on until it is only used if and when symptoms remerge. In all cases treatment should stop as soon as symptoms cease.
From an article first written for Fur & Feather Magazine
