Medicine Cat Herbs:


Alder Bark
Description: Bark of the alder tree.
Location: Grows mainly in boggy, wet terrain.
Usage: For tooth pain.
Effect: Eases toothaches.

Beech Leaves
Description: Large, broad leaves that can be serrated, entire or sparsely toothed.
Location: Grows in almost any soil that is not waterlogged.
Usage: For carrying other herbs.
Effect: None.

Bindweed
Description: Arrow-head shaped leaves with pale white or pink trumpet shaped flowers.
Location: Grows almost anywhere.
Usage: Fastens sticks to broken legs to keep them in place.
Effect: Unknown.

Blackberry Leaves
Description: Leaves from the prickly blackberry bush.
Location: Almost anywhere; they are very handy plants.
Usage: These leaves are chewed into a pulp.
Effect: Eases the swelling of bee stings.

Borage Leaves
Description: It is easily distinguished by its small blue or pink star-shaped flowers and hairy leaves.
Location: Grows best in forests.
Usage: It is chewed and eaten by nursing queens.
Effect: It produces more and better milk. It also brings down fevers.

Broom
Description: Shrubs with small leaves and small yellow flowers.
Location: Grows in forests.
Usage: It is used to make poultices for broken legs and wounds.
Effect: Unknown.

Burdock Root
Description: Tall-stemmed thistle with a sharp smell and dark leaves.
Location: Best in dry areas.
Usage: The root is dug up, the soil is washed off, and then it is chewed into a pulp.
Effect: Lessens and heals the pain of infected rat bites; used to prevent infection of rat bites.

Burnet
Description: Has oval-shaped leaves with serrated edges. Stems grow 50-200cm tall, with large clusters of small flower buds on top.
Location: Usually found in dry, grassy meadows.
Usage: A traveling herb.
Effect: Is said to help stop minor bleeding on humans. Keeps a cat's strength up.

Catchweed
Description: A plant with fuzzy green balls on long stems.
Location: It is common in hedges and other low, shrubby vegetation.
Usage: The burrs are put on the pelt where poultices are.
Effect: Stops poultices from being rubbed off without hurting the skin.

Catmint
Description: A leafy and delicious-smelling plant.
Location: Rarely found in the wild; mostly found in Twoleg gardens.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Best remedy for the deadly greencough, which kits and elders usually catch in the season of leaf-bare. Can also be used for whitecough.

Celandine
Description: Yellow flower with four petals.
Location: Grows better on CragClan's territory, though it also grows on LichenClan's territory.
Usage: Juice is trickled into the eye.
Effect: Soothes damaged eyes.

Chamomile
Description: A small, white flower with a large, yellow center.
Location: Can be found in Twoleg gardens.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Strengthens the heart and soothes the mind. Also given to traveling cats for strength.

Chervil
Description: A sweet-smelling plant with large, leafy, fern-like leaves and small white flowers. The roots are described as being knobby and brown.
Location: In the forest, possibly near waterholes.
Usage: Chewed to extract the juice of the leaves or the root.
Effect: For infected wounds and bellyache, respectively. Can also be used during kitting.

Chickweed
Description: Tall-stemmed plant with fat, almond-shaped leaves.
Location: In the forest, found around very large stones.
Usage: Eaten, such as catmint/catnip.
Effect: Treats greencough, though catnip is often preferred.

Cob Nuts
Description: A smooth brown nut with a hard outside shell. A type of hazelnut.
Location: In, under or near hazel trees that grow in sunny spots.
Usage: Made into ointments.
Effect: Unknown. Can be used to attract prey.

Cobwebs
Description: Long, thin, shiny strands spun into a web by spiders. Very common.
Location: All around the forest.
Usage: Press over wound.
Effect: To soak up and stop (or slow) the bleeding. It may also be used to bind broken bones.

Coltsfoot
Description: A flowering plant with yellow or white flowers resembling dandelions. Grows best in newleaf.
Location: Grows by the waterholes in FogClan's territory. It also grows well in LichenClan's territory near the border.
Usage: Leaves chewed into a pulp.
Effect: Eases breathing or kitten-cough, as well as cracked or sore pads.

Comfrey Root
Description: It has large leaves, small bell-shaped flowers, which are pink, white, or purple, and fat, black roots. Tangy smell.
Location: Damp, grassy places.
Usage: Roots are chewed into a poultice. Can also be lined in one's nest.
Effect: Repairs broken bones or soothes wounds. Also used for wrenched claws. Can be used for itching or for inflammation on stiff joints. Also eases stiffness on wrenched shoulders when lined in a nest.

Daisy Leaf
Description: Thick, dark green, oval shaped leaves.
Location: Almost everywhere.
Usage: Chewed into a paste.
Effect: Eases the pain of aching joints. It is also a travelling herb.

Dandelion
Description: Common yellow-flowered plant with long, hollow stems. After flowering is finished, the flower transforms a sphere made out of hundreds of smaller white florets with seed heads at the bottom that connect to the flower head.
Location: Almost everywhere.
Usage: The white liquid is thought to be applied to bee stings. Leaves can be chewed.
Effect: Thought to soothe and heal bee stings. Its leaves can also be chewed to act like a painkiller.

Dock
Description: Common, large-leafed plant with a tangy smell and taste.
Location: Doesn't grow well in mountains, best in leafy areas.
Usage: Chewed up and applied to scratches. Similar to sorrel. Also can be put in one's nest during sleep.
Effect: Soothes scratches, though can sting when being applied. Soothes sore pads. If placed in nests, it can ease the pain of wounds.

Fennel
Description: Thin, spiky leaves.
Location: Found in numerous places, especially on dry soils near the sea/coast and by waterholes.
Usage: Stalks are broken and juice is squeezed into the receiver's mouth.
Effect: Helps pain in the hips.

Feverfew
Description: Small bush with flowers resembling daisies. Has a sharp tangy smell and small soft leaves.
Location: Grows best along the water.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Reduces body temperature for cats with fever or chills. Also heals aches and pains, especially good for headaches.

Goatweed
Description: Plant with ovate leaves
Location: LichenClan territory
Usage: Given daily.
Effect: Eases anxiety and grief.

Goldenrod
Description: A tall plant with bright, yellow flowers.
Location: Grows well on the GaleClan moors.
Usage: Chewed into a poultice.
Effect: Good for healing wounds.

Hawkweed
Description: Small green plant with yellow and orange flowers.
Location: Near twoleg gardens.
Usage: Eat the leaves.
Effect: Like catmint but not as strong.

Heather Nectar
Description: Nectar found in bell-shaped flowers.
Location: Best grown in shady areas.
Usage: Included in herbal mixtures.
Effect: Makes swallowing easier and sweetens mixtures.

Honey
Description: A sweet, golden-coloured liquid made by bees.
Location: In honeycombs or bees nests up in trees.
Usage: Eaten, or given by moss soaked in it.
Effect: Soothes infections, is a great remedy for smoke-damaged or sore throats, helps cats swallow other concoctions, helps soothe coughing, and gives energy.

Horsetail
Description: A tall, bristly-stemmed plant, referred to with fleshy stalks.
Location: Any marshy area.
Usage: Chewed to a poultice, and applied to wounds.
Effect: Treats infections and stops bleeding.

Ivy Leaf
Description: Leaves from the ivy vine.
Location: Grows in LichenClan's forest.
Usage: By medicine cats to store other herbs.
Effect: None.

Juniper Berries
Description: Purple-blue berries from the dark green, spiky-leaved juniper bush.
Location: Grows in places that are not wet.
Usage: Chewed and eaten.
Effect: Soothes bellyaches, gives strength, and helps troubled breathing. It is also used to help calm cats.

Lamb's Ear
Description: Soft, fuzzy green plant.
Location: Commonly found in the mountains.
Usage: Unknown.
Effect: Gives a cat strength.

Lavender
Description: A small purple flowering plant.
Location: Grown in Twoleg gardens. Can also be found in sunny spots with sandy or gravelly soil.
Usage: Placed under a cats nose and is to be inhaled constantly. Or rubbed/placed on an animals body to hide the scent of death
Effect: Cures fever and chills. Also a herb used to hide the scent of death.

Mallow Leaves
Description: Large fuzzy three-nubbed leaves from a flowering shrub; sweet rose scent.
Location: Grows best near shore, but best collected at sunhigh, when they are dry.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Soothes bellyache.

Marigold
Description: A low-growing flower; yellow to bright orange.
Location: Near water.
Usage: Petals or leaves chewed in a poultice. Juice can be used as well.
Effect: Stops infection. Stops bleeding. Used for inflammation of stiff joints.

Mint
Description: Downy, serrated leaves ranging from green to purple and yellow in color. Flowers are small and white or purple in color.
Location: Around brambles.
Usage: Rubbed on a dead body.
Effect: Hides the scent of death.

Mouse Bile
Description: Foul smelling, yellowish-green liquid.
Location: Can be found anywhere there are mice present.
Usage: The liquid is stored in moss and dabbed onto ticks embedded in pelt.
Effect: The ticks fall off.

Dried Oak Leaf
Description: Round, cartoon-like ruffled leaves.
Location: All over the forest floor and collected in leaf-fall.
Usage: The dried leaves are to be stored in a dry location until the time of usage, when they are chewed into a thick poultice and spread on a wound.
Effect: Stops infection from setting in.

Parsley
Description: A long-stemmed plant with ragged-edged crinkly leaves, Sharp scent, tastes cold and fresh, tastes the same fresh or dried.
Location: Grows best in moist, well drained soil, with full sun.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Stops a queen from producing milk if her kits die, don't need milk anymore, or are producing too much milk. Also used to cure bellyache.

Poppy Seeds
Description: Tiny, round black seeds that are shaken out of a dried poppy flowerhead.
Location: All over the forest.
Usage: Chewed on.
Effect: They can help a cat sleep, soothe shock or distress, or ease pain. Not recommended for nursing queens.

Ragwort Leaves
Description: Tall shrub with yellow flowers. Tastes foul to cats.
Location: Almost everywhere, especially in cool areas with high rainfall.
Usage: Crushed and chewed; mixed with juniper berries, it can help aching joints.
Effect: Treats aching joints and keeps a cat's strength up.

Ragweed
Description: Ragged-leaved plant resembling a fern.
Location: Thought to be commonly found in the mountains.
Usage: Thought to give cats extra strength.
Effect: Like lamb's ear, ragweed gives a cat extra strength and energy.

Raspberry Leaves
Description: Soft to the touch, but with jagged edges.
Location: Found on raspberry bushes.
Usage: It could be a painkiller, or help stop bleeding during kitting.
Effect: Could possibly ease pain, or stop bleeding.

Rosemary
Description: Tall with needle-like leaves and purple flowers.
Location: Near the LichenClan and FogClan warriors' den.
Usage: Put on the pelt of a dead cat to prepare for burial.
Effect: Hides the scent of death.

Rush
Description: It has long narrow leaves and lavender-colored head stalks.
Location: Often grows in infertile soils in a wide range of moisture conditions.
Usage: Used to bind broken bones.
Effect: Helps hold a broken limb in place, such as casts for Twolegs.

Snakeroot
Description: The best remedy for poison, especially snake bites.
Location: Grows mainly in warmer areas, however some grow in cooler areas.
Usage: Thought to be applied to wounds.
Effect: Thought to heal poison.

Sorrel
Description: Similar to dock, sorrel is used as a traveling herb.
Location: Can be found near Twoleg nests.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Traveling herb, can also build up appetite.

Stick
Description: Thin wooden protrusions that grow on and fall from trees.
Location: Can be found anywhere there are trees.
Usage: Cats in pain bite it when other medicine is either unavailable or not recommended. Also used to help broken legs heal.
Effect: Distracts cats from pain. Recommended for queens giving birth.

Stinging Nettle
Description: It has green, spiny seeds.
Location: All over the forest.
Usage: The seeds are eaten by a cat who's swallowed poison, or the leaves are chewed into a poultice for a wound. The stems can also be chewed.
Effect: Induces vomiting, or brings down swelling, respectively. Can be mixed with comfrey to help heal broken bones. Helps with wounds. Chewing the stems helps fight against infection.

Sweet-Sedge
Description: Thick green stem with long buds at the top.
Location: Grows all through leaf-bare. Most common around the GaleClan camp.
Usage: One must swallow the sap.
Effect: Eases infection.

Tansy
Description: The tansy plant has round, yellow leaves, and has a very sweet and strong scent, making it good for disguising a cat's scent.
Location: Found in the forest and near Twoleg places.
Usage: To be consumed, but only in small doses.
Effect: Cures coughs. Can be used to cure wounds and poisons. Stops cats from getting greencough. Soothes throats.

Tormentil
Description: It has a strong, aromatic scent to it and a sharp taste.
Location: Found in most cool or cold areas, but other types may be found in gardens.
Usage: Chewed and put on the wound.
Effect: Its root is good for treating all wounds and extracting poison.

Thyme
Description: Small, delicate, thick, sticky leaves with a fresh tang.
Location: Best in hot, sunny locations.
Usage: Leaves can be chewed on.
Effect: Calms nervousness, anxiety, and cats who are in shock.

Traveling Herbs
Description: Traveling Herbs consist of sorrel, daisy, chamomile and burnet.
Location: Anywhere in the forest.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Used to give a cat more energy and strength, and it keeps the cat from getting hungry for a long time.

Watermint
Description: A green, leafy plant.
Location: Usually found in low water or damp earth.
Usage: It is usually chewed into a pulp, and then eaten.
Effect: Eases the suffering that originates from a bellyache.

Wild Garlic
Description: Due to its strong smell, it is good for hiding the scent of a certain Clan, and disguising cats on raids.
Location: Not far from the forest entrance in the LichenClan camp.
Usage: One must roll in it.
Effect: Prevents infection, especially rat bites.

Willow Bark
Description: Bark of the willow tree.
Location: Grows near Twoleg places.
Usage: Unknown.
Effect: Eases pain.

Willow Leaves
Description: Leaves of the willow tree.
Location: Near lakes.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Stops vomiting.

Wintergreen
Description: Easily identifiable by its red berries.
Location: Oak-pine woods and sandy habitats to sub-alpine places.
Usage: Unknown.
Effect: Treats wounds and some poisons.

Yarrow
Description: A flowering plant.
Location: Around large stones. The Gathering place.
Usage: Its leaves are chewed into a poultice that can be given to cats or applied to a wound depending on the situation.
Effect: Extracts poison from wounds. Will make a cat vomit up toxins. The ointment will soften and help heal cracked pads.

Poisons:

Deathberries
Description: Red berries from the dark-leaved, poisonous yew bush.
Location: Around the borders.
Usage: Sometimes used to kill other cats by making them eat the berry.
Effect: Kills a cat within minutes when consumed.

Foxglove Seeds
Description: Tiny, black seeds from the bell-shaped flower of the foxglove plant.
Location: Almost everywhere, especially in temperate regions.
Usage: They are used to treat the heart.
Effect: They can easily cause paralysis and heart failure.

Holly Berries
Description: Plant with spiny leaves that produces red berries with no medicinal value.
Location: Forests.
Usage: Unknown.
Effect: Unknown.

Deadly Nightshade
Description: A small shrub with faintly scented, bell-shaped flowers that are purple tinged with green in colour. Berries are shiny and black when ripe.
Location: Moist, shady places. Often grows in places where the soils are rich in limestone.
Usage: To kill a cat who cannot be saved quickly.
Effect: Poisonous.

Water Hemlock
Description: Green or white flowers with petals in umbrella-shaped clusters
Location: Wet, marshy areas.
Usage: Unknown
Effect: Causes writhing, pain, and foaming at the mouth.

Diseases and Injuries:

Chest Infections
Whitecough and greencough are the most common chest infections known to the Clan cats. Whitecough is the milder form, but if untreated, it can develop into the much more severe greencough. Cats usually catch it during leaf-fall and leaf-bare, and sometimes it develops into large-scale epidemics. It can be fatal for elders and kits, and it has claimed the lives of several cats. It spreads quickly and is highly contagious.

Poisoning
Poisoning is the ingestion of a substance that causes harm to the body, such as:
Eating or drinking poisonous substances or plants such as deathberries. Kits are the ones who usually fall victim to this, being curious and unaware of the danger.
Eating poisoned or rotten prey or drinking tainted water.
Inhaling too much smoke from a fire.
Being bitten by a venomous animal such as a snake.
If only a small quantity of poison is ingested, the cat usually just receives a bellyache, but larger amounts can cause death. Medicine cats treat these bellyaches with yarrow or nettle leaves, while mild bellyaches can be treated with juniper or watermint. If a cat has been severely poisoned (as in eating deathberries, as Sorrelkit does in The Darkest Hour) he/she may become unconscious for a length of time.

Rat-Borne Infections
The cats sometimes fall victims to infections carried by rats.

Loss of Sensory Perception
A cat may lose his or her eyesight or hearing due to old age as One-eye of ThunderClan did before her death or from accidents and infections, or birth defects. These conditions usually end their career as a warrior, as they cannot hunt or fight efficiently, and must retire as elders, such as Longtail. Kits born with defects usually die young, unless they have special skills compensating it, like in Jayfeather's case. Kits that are white with blue eyes have a higher chance of being born deaf, like Snowkit.

Joint Aches
A condition usually associated with elders, the joints gradually degenerating with age, causing pain and difficulty to move. Damp environments can cause the appearance of this condition, so apprentices must make sure that the moss they gather for bedding is completely dry. It is usually treated using daisy or ragwort poultices.

Toothache
A toothache is caused by a cracked tooth, cavities, or an infection in the mouth. Alder bark is used to soothe the pain.

Fever
Fever is an abnormally high temperature of the body. It is not a disease in itself, but it usually signs the presence of an infection, such as greencough or an infected wound. If needed, it can be treated with feverfew, borage or lavender.

Chill
Chills are mostly associated with cold weather or being submerged in cold water for a long period of time. Although this condition is mild and is not a disease, it has claimed the lives of Mosskit and Hollykit. Kits and elders are more at risk of dying when they get a chill. Licking a cat's fur the wrong way gets the blood flowing again. A poultice of lavender, catmint and feverfew is also a good remedy.

Wounds
Wounds are injuries when the skin and the muscles beneath are torn, cut, or punctured. They may put a cat's life in danger due to blood loss, infections, or the damage of the organs. Wounds are the most common injuries, due to the cats always fighting enemy Clans, badgers, or foxes.
Minor wounds heal on their own in no time, but severe wounds must be treated by a medicine cat. This treatment includes cleaning it thoroughly with the tongue, stopping the bleeding by pressing cobwebs on it, and applying poultices to prevent infection and help it to heal. Herbs used in the poultices include goldenrod, marigold, burdock root or (in the case of rat bites) wild garlic. If the wound becomes infected, chervil or horsetail is used as well. The pain can be eased with poppy seeds or willow bark.

Sprains
Sprains are injuries to ligaments of a joint, caused by being stretched beyond their normal capacity and possibly torn. It causes severe pain and decreased ability to move the joint. The cat must rest for several days.

Joint Dislocation
Joint dislocation is the displacement of a bone from its normal joint. Medicine cats treat this condition by first feeding the patient poppy seeds to make them sleepy so they don't feel it as much, and then forcing the limb back into the joint.

Cracked Pads
The paw pads may crack while walking long distances on hard surfaces, or due to cold weather. Elders are especially prone to this condition. It is treated with a poultice of coltsfoot or yarrow. Dock leaf poultices are also used to cool cracked pads.

Broken Bones
A broken bone is usually the result of an accident, such as falling down from a high place, or being hit by a monster. Cats most often break their legs, and while medicine cats try to bind the bone with cobwebs, the injury usually results in the cat remaining crippled for the rest of his or her life. The only cat known to fully recover after breaking a leg was Cinderheart. A more severe injury is when a cat breaks his or her backbone. This results in the cat being unable to feel or move parts of his or her body. If the break is bad enough the cat will be killed on or shortly after impact. Briarlight broke her backbone, and as a result, her back legs no longer function. Wildfur also broke his backbone, and since he only sat in his nest all day, he got fluid in his lungs and eventually died from not exercising.

Healing Treatments and Mixtures:

Aching Joints - Ragwort leaves, Juniper berries, Goldenrod, or Daisy leaves.
Bee Stings - Blackberry leaves.
Broken Bones - Wrap in cobwebs, put on comfrey pulp, use poppy seeds to dull pain.
Bellyache - Chervil, Watermint, or Juniper berries. Also, try a trip to the dirtplace.
Coughs (whitecough or greencough) - Use either Catmint, Honey, or Tansy, and keep the cat away from other cats.
Cuts in Eye - Trickle Celandine juice into the eye to ease the pain.
Deep Wounds Cobwebs, Marigold, or Horsetail.
Displaced Bones - Give poppy seed, wait for effect, then have cat bite stick while you give the leg a tug and hear it click into place, give them another poppy seed so they sleep.
Dull Pain - Use poppy seed, then when it takes effect preform treatment, give them another to sleep.
Hurting Throat - Honey, or water.
Nettle Stings - Dock leaf pulp, give poppy seed so it dulls the pain and helps cat sleep.
Poison - If poison is in stomach, give cat yarrow leaves so they vomit the poison, have them vomit onto dock leaves.
Prevent Infection and Soothe Pain for Burns - Comfrey, honey.
Poultice for aching joints - Ragwort leaves and juniper berries.
Poultice for broken bones - Stinging nettle and comfrey.
Rat Bites - A poultice of burdock root with cobwebs on top, and horsetail if it is available.
Scratches - Marigold, horsetail.
Shock - Thyme or Chamomile. Lick fur to comfort, give water and poppy seeds.
Stiffness - Crushed poppy seeds, marigold or comfrey.
Strengthening Herbs - Tansy, watermint, or feverfew.
Toothache - Use alder bark.
Traveling and Strengthening Herbs - Chamomile, burnet, daisy leaves or sorrel. Lambs ear and ragweed also work.
Wrenched Muscles - Comfrey, nettle and/or water therapy.

Healing Remedies without using herbs:

Gently Nip Spine or Poke with Claw - This tests to see if the backbone is broken, if they don't feel it, then it is broken.
Lick Fur - It clean wounds, brings down shock, and warms a cold cat (lick fur the wrong way).
Moss Soaked in Water - Sick or injured or weak cats can drink, and can be used to cool feverish cats. It is also helpful in kitting.
Rosemary, Mint - This is used to lighten the death-scent of a dead cat before burial. It is also respectful.
Sweeten Herbs - Use necter, honey or mouse blood.
Water Soaking - Hold swelling wound in cold water, it takes down swelling and also soothes scraped pads.
Water Therapy - Have a cat with weak or hurting muscles or bone wade in water, eventually they'll get stronger.
Wailing, Yowling - If the cat does not have a sore throat, it keeps lungs and chest clear.

Herb Care:

If herbs are wet, leave them out in the sun to dry.
Gather fresh herbs when stock gets short.
Leave enough of the herb on its plant so it can reproduce when in season.
Check herb store often, and throw out old or weak herbs.
Wrap honey in dock leaves, with rhubarb to keep fresh.
Use bark strips to finish the leaf wrap, or keep the herbs together so they can be fresh.

Medicine Cat Code:
† Medicine Cats are allowed to cross territories.
† Medicine Cats can't have a mate, or kits.
† Medicine Cats may cross territories to help another Clan.
† Medicine Cats must learn battle moves.
† Medicine Cats must do everything they can to help a cat or kit in need.

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