From Frustration to Fulfillment: How Josette Reduced High Cell Counts and Mastitis with Homeopathy
Josette Feddes Dairy Farmer & WHAg Livestock Health Advisor
Finding a New Way to Heal
I’m Josette Feddes—a dairy farmer and WHAg Trainee Complementary Health Adviser—and like many others, I started from a conventional place: mastitis outbreaks, antibiotic treatments, cows off their game, and the constant frustration of milk being discarded for days.
What pushed me over the edge? A mastitis case we just couldn’t cure. Some cows spiraled downhill, and I remember thinking during milking, “Where do I go from here?”
Learning a New Language
Then one day in 2014, we had a leaflet arrive in the post. It was about a homeopathy course for farmers. That’s where the journey began – I didn’t know what to expect but the idea of curing animals without antibiotics sounded quite good to me! I remember the first day on the course, I was dazzled with all the information they gave me and while it felt like it all made sense, it also felt like I had to learn a new language
Once I had completed the course, I then had to put it into practice – and that was challenging. However, I thought to myself, “No you have to give it a go as it made sense on the course”. So, the books came into the parlour and notes were taken about different consistencies, colours, smells etc.
Putting It into Practice on a Big Herd
The first case of mastitis I cured with homeopathy was amazing! I felt on top of the world, the milk stayed out of the tank for two days and the cow seemed to have no worries. It was a massive cost saver and I saw the difference in the animals as they reacted to the treatment. For the rest of our time with the herd, we continued to use homeopathy as the first treatment and we had very few problems with the cows. I would read up on the differences between the remedies and tried to find easy to use remedies and combinations to help our workers treat the animals too. When we had cows with a high cell count but no visual signs, we would use ‘ABS’ (Arnica, Bellis Perennis and Silica). These cows often had sustained a blow or kick and the infection was quite high up in the udder and undetected.
You learn to observe: scared cows in the parlour, those with a nervous look? Homeopathy helps them too. Dirty after calving? Slipped on concrete? Eye issues, bloat, calf coughs, scours, abscesses, swollen navel? We treated them all.
These are the usual issues that you will get on a dairy farm and, it is just very nice to be able to help those animals get better and stay healthy.
Over time, reaching for homeopathic remedies became second nature—and best of all, it worked.
Seeing the Results
- Antibiotic use dropped significantly even though our herd size increased by 60%.
- Vet bills were reduced to one-third of what they used to be.
- My confidence as a farmer soared.
I trained our herds-people to use easy remedy combinations too—homeopathy isn’t just for the expert with a kit. It’s practical. It’s empowering. It’s effective.
Working Together, Learning More
I’ve been part of a WHAg monthly support group for some years now. Here we talk about case taking, problems on our farms and how homeopathy can help to get over them and or prevent you from getting them in the first place.
There is a lot of concern about antibiotics and an emphasis on gut health. With a cow being a ruminant animal, you can be assured that antibiotics will affect them. The right diet is very important for cows, so we also joined a group to learn Obsalim which is an observational technique all about ruminant health. It has helped us to really fine-tune their nutritional needs.