The Clans have, though the medicine cats, fairly sophisticated knowledge of medicinal treatment. They also have certain limitations that place restrictions on what technologies they can use to prepare herbal treatments of their patients. Apprentices must be taught the ways they can prepare medicine to heal their clanmates.
Simple Preparations
Consumption
The simplest of the ways to make use of herbs is to bid the patient to consume them. It is rare that a single herb would be used to treat more then a single symptom, thus generally speaking mixtures are used to treat a full illness.
Poultice
Another of the simple ways to make use of herbs is to chew them into a paste and apply them externally as a poultice. In most cases it would be a combination of herbs, and in those cases care should be taken to ensure the components of the mixture are throughly combined.
Inhalation
Certain herbs can be used to create inhalant mixtures that the patient should be made to inhale. This is accomplished by firmly crushing the herbs against a flat stone and one’s paw. (In Spartan circumstances the herbs can be crushed through any means possible, such as chewing, but this leads to a messy situation and makes the process of delivering the herbs to the patient more difficult than just pushing the crushing stone under their head).
Complex Preparations
Water or Juice
Certain herbs carry a great deal of liquid in the flesh or under the bark. This liquid can be carefully squeezed and applied to a specific part of the patient. This squeezing is accomplished using the teeth and cause the liquid the drip onto the desired location.
OOC: Impossible Preparations
This section is an Out of Character addition to clarify some things that cannot be done at all. These are official rulings from the administrators, and are the official stance for use in RP. This list is not all encompassing, but should give clear ideas about what is and isn’t possible.
- Powders – Clan Cats lack technology needed to grind a powder.
- Pills – Clan cats lack technology needed to grind a powder, and do not have access to pill molds or capsules.
- Creams, Salves, or Balms – Clan cats lack access to heat for processing, and do not have access to the waxes and oils required to make the cream, salve, or balm.
- Infusion, Decoatation, Extract – Clan cats lack access to heat for processing, and do not possess suitable storage containers.