Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Lac caninum is a homeopathic remedy. It is made from dog's milk. Homeopaths give it most often for a sore throat that moves from one side to the other.
They also use it for breast pain and for feeling low about yourself. The milk is diluted step by step, with shaking at each step. At 30C, the usual strength, no dog's milk is left in the pill.
Trials have not shown that it works better than a dummy pill. Long use in a tradition is not proof that a thing works. This page scores the trial evidence and the traditional record apart.
There is no known way for this remedy to act on the body. Homeopathy rests on two old ideas. The first is 'like cures like': a thing that causes symptoms in a well person is said to treat those same symptoms in a sick one.
The second idea is that the shaking at each step leaves a trace of the milk behind. Chemistry does not support that idea. At 30C no dog's milk is left, so there is nothing there to act.
Any change you feel is most likely down to time, to the care you get, or to the placebo effect (feeling better because you expect to).
Most people take small sugar pellets that melt under the tongue. Liquid drops in alcohol and water are also sold.
Common strengths are 6C, 30C and 200C. The 'C' means the mix was made one part in 100 each time. The number tells you how many times that was done.
Some makers sell it in kits or blend it with other remedies. Read the label so you know the strength you have.
Lac caninum came into homeopathy in the United States in the 1800s. Samuel Swan, an American homeopath, first prepared it. Writers such as Reuben Ludlam then listed the symptoms it was said to match.
Dog's milk also turns up in older Western folk writing, long before homeopathy began. That older thread is separate and says nothing about the remedy today.
It now sits in most homeopathic materia medicas (reference books of remedies). It is well known in that tradition, but it is not one of the most used remedies.
See a doctor within a day if a sore throat comes with a high fever, if one side of the neck swells, or if you are no better after two days. Get help straight away if you cannot swallow, cannot breathe easily, are drooling, or your voice has changed.
See a doctor soon about any new breast lump, a hot red breast with fever, or fluid from the nipple. Get urgent help for the worst headache of your life, a headache with weakness, confusion or slurred speech, or a headache after a head injury.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Lac caninum is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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