Re: Kill the Worms!/pitiful dewormed cat

[Guest guest]

Dear vache920,

This is in reply to your message 13793:

Yes and no. Yes, I've had colleagues who routinely

traveled to disease- and parasite-ridden locales.

Yes, I'm glad they were careful to take the

medications provided for them, especially once

we saw what sometimes happened to those who had

not. There is nasty stuff elsewhere that we don't

often see in the USA. So far.

But no. While I wouldn't ignore the danger of

infestation in a foreign environment, neither

would I, at home, believe that prescription drugs

are enough to end a infestation that is chronic.

Why? Here are three arguments.

1. In this list we are concerned about

_parasites_, not just worms.

One drug or a handful of drugs won't kill all the

species of worms we harbor, much less the

multitudes of other unwanted organisms. Many

parasites are less vulnerable at some stages of

their life cycles than others; some encyst

themselves in all sorts of hard-to-reach places

other than the bowel. So even in targeting

particular species, we need to balance the drug's

toxicity - which it must have in order to be

destructive - against the sustained intake needed

to kill the little creeps.

2. Established medical practitioners in the U.S.

are closed-minded about a lot of things, including

worms.

Tending to rely on pills, they are less inclined

to look for something comprehensive. If they don't

find parasites in one fecal smear, they rarely look

any further. Those of us who aren't satisfied with

this prefer an " alternative " approach similar to

what householders use in trying to stave off rats,

ants, fleas, flies, silverfish, and roaches. Aside

from specific remedies for urgent situations, what

we mainly do is try to maintain an environment

inhospitable to vermin in general. That is exactly

the strategy most people on this list are trying

to follow in their internal environment.

3. There's such a thing as too much success.

(That is, be careful what you wish.)

A neighbor adopted a cat that had been found

crying in a dumpster. Assuming that a feral animal

has had little or no health care, when he took it

in for treatment, he of course agreed to the

standard deworming medicine. One morning soon

after, he woke to find the cat, half smothered,

disgorging worms from its nose and mouth. The poor

thing was going berserk. Not yet having had a

chance to adjust to its new home, it never

recovered from this additional trauma and lived a

short and fearful life.

In other words, it had a healing crisis. Similar

ordeals have led to one of the tenets of

" alternative " health care: never attempt a one-

shot cure for a long-term condition.

All the best,

Carole-Sue