Both champions of Homeopathy, the Matthew's rely on this alternative medicine not only for their own own ills and hygiene cleanliness-or lack there of from the looks of their kitchen with food scraps haphazardly scattered about, or the sharing of their shower space with a trickle of recently hatched baby chicklets which were allowed to nurse in their own, rarely picked up waste, and replenished themselves w/ the scarce amount of grubby H20 left in a water dispenser-but also as a treatments for their livestock's maladies.
According to Blue Shield, Homeopathy is defined as 'a non-toxic system of medicine used to treat illness and relieve discomfort of a wide variety of health conditions.' It's two core principles involve the 'Law of Similars' (where preparation of A homeopathic solution is used to assist the symptoms of B, which would be comparable to those caused by A) and 'Potentization' (a repeated procedure of diluting a set dosage and succussion, aka vigorous shaking). Using non-toxic substances is noble enough and I'm no skeptic when it comes to some of our anti-bacterial prescription practices being a likely source of the increased number of asthma cases; but when Samuel Hahnemann (it's German physician founder) started Homeopathy, while bypassing the Scientific Method, it's hard to swallow as a legitimate practice of medicine.
During my 3-week stay, a half-dozen fowls came down with an assortment of afflictions, ranging from varicose eyelids resulting in temporary blindness, broken lower limbs and unidentified sluggish ailments. The sick birds were brought to a designated infirmary coop or carrier where Mrs. Matthews would pour the same dose of homeopathic medicine into their drinking water and/or place a diluted portion on the affected region. Of the 6, I saw 1 fully recover, 3 die, and 2 still wearily clinging to life. When a 'homeopath' couple permits hatchlings to wallow in bestial filth in the upstairs master bathroom, who knows what microbes or viruses are festering in the fields?
The birds weren’t the only resident animals suffering from misguided treatment. When I first saw the two inhabitant alpacas, Carlos said that the one aimlessly grazing a patch of grass was temporarily blind. After close examination, it’s eyelids appeared dilated, much the same as with one of the aforementioned chickens, in addition to a dark, opaque pair of eyeballs. The same diluted dosage got applied to the infected area of the peculiar, wool-producing, four-legged mammal.
The worst case of animal abuse had to be the hackjob horn removal of Billy, the first goat brought to Harmony. Billy was neutered by the time he became Matthew’s property. In order to pacify a male’s goat customary, aggressive behavior is to dehorn them in addition to castration. By the time he matured, with no female counterparts around at the time, his inherent tendencies were instead directed at head-butting whoever was around when things didn’t go his way. Rather than get a farm animal veterinarian to go about the procedure, Larry attempted it himself. How he went about hacking the pair of cranial projecting bones off, I never figured out. Any information I acquired was gathered thru Carlo’s broken English. Technical talk was lost in translation, and the biting of my tongue became a regular occurrence when approaching some of Larry or Jessica unorthodox ways. Ultimately it was their property, and my position as a beholden guest wasn't to come across as accusatory.
To treat the lacerated area, who knows what diluted solution was placed on it. Commonplace disinfectants, or other chemical anti-bacterial liquids obtainable at the local pharmacy were few and far between at Harmony-after getting slashed. Hydrogen Peroxide was the only one I happened upon; tucked away in one of the laundry room selves. During my stat, Billy suffered through his second worm infestation within the cut away area. The Matthews recommended we place sugar-water on the skull in order to get the worms creep out of the skull. From the previous experience using the same suggestion, Carlos realized it's lack of success. In it's place, we used a common ruminant anti-parasitic spray he became familiar with during his prior livestock work.
Before we began this job one Thursday morning, Carlos informed me that I would perform the role of 'doctor' and was needed to pin Billy down on all fours in the pasture while he applied the spray. Not exactly an easy task. He's a third of my size, but can still put on a fight and found a way to wiggle away from my grip once or twice. Seconds after the anti-worm aerosol dispersed, a few dozen or so, teenie, hair-raising freeloaders scurried away from the skirmishing goat and onto the grass.
Billy was happy, as far as goats go, I assume by the time I left, no thanks to the misguided life-styles of it's possessors, of course. If these folk showed a bit more care and allowed knowledgeable professionals to care for the animals rather than their trial-and-error, in addition to unsantiary, approach on treatment, its reasonable to think that there wouldn't have been 3 dead birds and one wormed goat during my 3-week Buxton, Oregon sojourn.
