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Shasta is a 23 year old gelding who has been around. His owner called us out to examine him because she had been unable to put weight on him during the last six months, and because he now seemed to have a skin infection.
When her family started on a new direction some years ago, Shasta's owner sadly gave him up for adoption to a good home. However, six months ago, she went to visit Shasta and found that he had been put out to pasture. She re-adopted him because he did not look well and she wanted to care for her old friend.
Shasta came home and started on a diet of equine delectables, but he just failed to thrive on them. His condition was declining in spite of more than adequate care. The owner could have given in to the temptation to accept the notion that "Shasta is just getting old." But, she decided to give him one last chance and called us out to examine him.
When we examined Shasta we found a horse who looked older than his years. He was quite thin and, though he had been groomed recently, clumps of hair were falling from his coat. He had an unsteady gait and moved slowly, expending no extra energy.
Results of the physical exam explained everything. Shasta had a heart problem as demonstrated by a cardiac arrhythmia and a grade III/VI systolic heart murmur. His "ticker" was winding down. As a result, all his other systems were winding down in a cascade of declining symptoms.
The skin infection was easy to fix, but, conventionally there was nothing to do for the heart problem that the owner was not already doing. So, even though she was a brand new Client, I "bit the bullet" and explained about this "weird test we do" called CRA. (We never know exactly what kind of response we will get after presenting this idea. But, if we were going to help Shasta, CRA was his only hope.)
His owner was skeptical but "played along." We tested Shasta and found several "electrical" reflexes: Master Heart and Right Heart Valve among them. Shasta started on his first thirty day Standard Process protocol, and we crossed our fingers. (Sometimes, nutritional therapy begins too late because too much damage has already been done.)
When we returned for a routine thirty-day recheck, my first thought was "They must have gotten a new horse!" Certainly that brassy gelding in the pasture with glossy coat and head raised high could not be our previous patient. The old guy we met last month would not have been able to trot over to check us out the way this horse did! But when his owner came out to meet us she was beaming! She assured us that this was the same horse. She said that he started showing dramatic improvement within days after starting on his protocol, and that improvements were continuing. When I listened to Shasta's heart, the arrhythmia and murmur were gone!
Phew! We were in time for Shasta. We expect his nutritional needs for Standard Process supplements to diminish over time, but the results are so dramatic that no one is thinking of changing anything until Shasta says he has reached an appropriate point of equilibrium. Then we will consider making adjustments and not before.
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