The very first horse I treated was one with liver damage from Patterson's Curse and this was before I had any experience at all, in using herbs to treat grazing animals.
This particular racehorse had been spelling in a weedy paddock and had become very sick indeed to the point that the Veterinary's advice was to put him down.
The trainer was devastated and as a last resort approached me. I thought about it overnight and then made up in a bucket a blend of dried herbs, which in combination would treat the whole of the metabolism to try to heal the liver damage of course, but to do so by bringing all systems back into normal functioning.
A fundamental of holistic medicine is to appreciate that all the individual organs and systems in our bodies do not function in isolation. They work in harmony with their partner organs and systems and in an historical, environmental, emotional and even energetic context.
Anyway in this case, I confidently predicted to Greg that the horse would eat his cupful of herbs morning and evening, mixed in with a little feed, and that the horse would recover.
In fact however, although I did feel confident with my approach and with the herbs I had chosen, I had absolutely no idea whether we would be able to save this animal's life. It had lost 20% of its body weight, was listless and looking terminally ill, even to my uneducated eye at the time.
The horse showed signs within 3 days of recovery, a little more vitality and a return of his appetite. His manure was normal within 10 days and he was gaining weight by this time. In 12 weeks he appeared completely recovered and I was just as amazed as Greg was, and his Veterinary Surgeon.
Although this horse was 6 years old at the time of its recovery, we agreed between us to bring him back into work to see if he was absolutely as well as before.
It turned out that by the time we reached 10 weeks into his preparation, he couldn't perform as well galloping flat-out as he once could. He was not unwell, but just didn't have the spark he used to have. So he was retired, and as far as I know is hacking around now still, 10 years later!
Paterson's curse poisoning is not a death sentence!
