Written in the Stars

NOTE: You may NOT use particularly deadly contagious diseases- such as redcough/blackcough- without some sort of permission, preferably from an staff or a clan leader. This is because these diseases were made or intended for major events. Just go with white or greencough if you're set on something like that.

Poisoning is usually fine as long as the thread is plotted by people who have agreed to kill or injure those characters; you may never force someone's character to be injured, sick, or poisoned.

Chest Infections

A chest infection causes congestion and mucus build-up in the lungs, resulting in coughing and troubled breathing. Mild forms can clear up on their own within a few days, while severe forms can damage the organs and are often fatal. Uncommonly seen outside of leaf-bare, but can quickly become epidemic during cold moons. Most are named after the color of mucus the cat coughs up, so it is easy to identify.

Whitecough and greencough are the most common chest infections. Whitecough is very mild, but it can easily develop into greencough. Greencough can be fatal for elders and kits, or anyone weakened by something else at the time; it is extremely contagious and develops quickly. Cats usually catch this during leaf-fall and leaf-bare. The cure is usually catmint or chickweed, but a mix of borage and tansy can be used in a pinch.

More serious and generally rare strains exist, named yellowcough, redcough, and blackcough.

Yellowcough can be fatal and targets the upper gastrointestinal tract as well as the lungs, causing loss of appetite, fever, delirium, and a sore throat; it has only one known effective cure, lungwort.

Redcough is an extremely severe infection that causes chest pain, heavy congestion, high fever, delirium and hallucinations, seizures, internal bleeding, and often results in death or permanent disability. It attacks the lungs and blood stream, causing damage to the lungs and brain; the cats will cough up blood instead of just mucus. Normal treatments may reduce symptoms temporarily, but the only cure is the otherwise unremarkable and rarely seen elfdock.

Blackcough is another severe infection that affects the bloodstream with toxins from the disease. Causes abdominal and general pain that ranges from mild to severe, usually growing worse over time and during coughing fits, and has permanent effects on the lungs and potentially the brain. Cats cough up blackened, highly contagious blood and black mucus. Almost universally fatal in kits and elders, with only one in ten surviving. A thankfully rare disease with no known effective cure.

Kitten-cough is a minor infection that is almost never seen in anyone older than a few weeks, but can affect weakened elders or anyone with compromised immune systems. It has a mild fever and mild cough, and can cause mild general body pain and a bad mood. Clears up on its own or with the help of coltsfoot. Only very rarely is it fatal, and most kits get it once or twice when they're very little.

Poisoning

Poisoning occurs when a cat ingests a harmful substance such as:
- Eating or drinking poisonous plants or other substances. Usually done by curious kits.
- Eating poisoned or rotten prey (crow-food) or drinking tainted water.
- Inhaling too much smoke. This can also make a cat faint and damage their lungs or brain.
- Being bitten by a venomous animal such as a snake.

If a small quantity of poison is ingested, the cat usually just receives a bellyache, but larger amounts can be fatal. Medicine cats can treat the bellyaches with yarrow or nettle leaves, though more mild bellyaches can be treated with juniper or watermint. If a cat has been severely poisoned (from something like deathberries) then they may become unconscious for a length of time. Severe poisoning can be deadly, and there isn't usually much to be done. Snake bites are almost always fatal, and the only treatment is pain reduction; some may opt to give the patient enough poppy seeds to knock them out or kill them while asleep if possible.

If traveling, it is important to make judgements on water quality. Drinking something that will sicken you a little is better than dehydrating, but drinking something that will kill you should be avoided.

Rat-Borne Infections

Cats can sometimes fall victims to infections carried by rats. One of these infections is often called Carrionplace Disease. Burdock root and wild garlic is used to stop infection from rat bites. The disease itself causes severe stomach and muscle pain, and may damage the liver, stomach, and intestines, potentially becoming fatal. Additionally, rat bites are prone to secondary infections that can worsen symptoms.


Cats may lose their eyesight or hearing due to old age, infections, accidents, or birth defects. These conditions usually end adult cats' careers as warriors, as they can no longer hunt or fight effectively, and must retire and live as an elder in most cases. If only a single eye or ear is lost, such as in battle, duties may still be resumed but they will have to learn to compensate for their halved sense. Kits born with these defects usually struggle to accomplish the normal standard unless they have special skills to compensate for the disability. The young can often be taught to compensate if the clan is willing and able to provide the training needed.

Loss of sight requires greater training in their other senses a daily routine in camp that changes little on a day to day basis. Few blind cats can ever reach the skill level to be a typical warrior, but can make good medicine cats or nursery aides. If sight was lost to a wound or infection, treatment must be applied to soothe pain or eventually remove disease.

Loss of hearing will make hunting and regular communication very difficult. Clanmates will have to work with the individual to find a way to "speak", and most deaf warriors must train very hard to hunt even somewhat well. Kits that are white with blue eyes have a higher chance of being born deaf.

Loss of smell is not as impactful as the others but can cause emotional issues due to difficulties hunting, patrolling, and keeping up with their peers, especially when young. Depression and anxiety can result. Only some special training to rely on hearing and whisker sensing is needed to correct hunting ability, but patrols must always be done with another cat to know where to put scent markers or spot intruders.

Loss of touch can be extremely disorienting and usually results from a born-in mutation or from severe but livable trauma such as a spinal injury or nerve damage such as from intense burns. Cats will lack real sensation in the affected area, and may bump into things, not realize they've been injured there, or feel some form of phantom pain. Can usually see, smell, and hear just fine.

Loss of speech will not usually prevent warriorhood and won't have a measurable effect on any normal rank's duties, but will complicate the ability to have personal relationships for most, and can prevent a cat from taking any position of authority due to their inability to grant names to others or provide verbal instruction.

Arthritis / Osteoporosis

This is a condition that is usually associated with elders, as the joints and bones often gradually degenerate with age; effects usually become noticeable around one hundred moons, and debilitating at over one-hundred fifty. This condition causes pain and difficulty moving. Damp or cold environments can worsen or expose this condition, which is why apprentices must be sure that the moss they gather for bedding is completely dry and frost-free. Joint aches are usually treated using daisy or a ragwort poultice. This condition has no cure and tends to worsen once it appears, with pain levels varying day to day. Never fatal on its own but can end a warrior career due to joint pain.

Toothaches

A toothache is caused by a cracked tooth, cavities, or an infection in the mouth. Alder bark is used to soothe the pain. If tooth pain is from tooth loss and growth in teething kittens, provide them with sticks to chew on to loosen their baby teeth and make room for their adult set.

A fever is an abnormally high body temperature. It is not necessarily a disease in itself, but it often signifies the presence of an infection such as greencough or an infected wound. If need be, it can be treated with feverfew, borage, or lavender. If the fever and disease are mild and the weather is warm, it should be left alone, but if the fever is high or the disease is severe, treat immediately. Places to check body temperature to confirm a fever are the ears, under the front legs, and the belly.

Chills

Chills are usually associated with cold weather or being submerged in very cold or frozen water for any period of time. Although it is usually a mild condition and is not a disease, kits and elders can die from chills easily, and any cat can be vulnerable. Any cat falling through ice into frigid water must get out within a few minutes to avoid the worst danger, and too long of exposure can make a cat too weak to finish swimming back up, resulting in drowning. Licking a cat’s fur the wrong way helps get the blood flowing again. A poultice of lavender, catmint, and feverfew is also a good remedy, as can fennel seeds be due to their spicy nature.

Rare Maladies

(SPECIAL NOTE: As these are rare and generally very severe or contagious diseases, we ask that you never introduce or plot with rabies or FIV/FPV. You may give a character cancer or diabetes but be aware that these will be painful and/or chronic diseases with very clear impacts on their lives without human intervention. The character is also unlikely to know that such a thing is the exact cause of their illness as they do not have access to the same diagnostic tools as us. The existence of these notes is for education and flavour.)

Some conditions are very rare, and thankfully so, as these are all potentially disastrous. Symptoms can be alleviated but there is no cure for any of the following:

Diabetes is an issue in the body with processing insulin. Causes crankiness, excessive thirst, and unusually strong light-headedness when hungry. Can he helped with some herbs but there is no truly effective wild treatment. Twoleg help seems to work very well but usually requires giving up the warrior lifestyle.

Cancer is the abnormal growth of cells, forming tumors inside the body or on the skin. Some tumors can be benign, but cancerous ones will continue to grow and may even return if they manage to get help removing them from twolegs. Usually fatal in the end, often coming with intense body pains as the body begins to function differently. May induce seizures. Leukemia, a type of cancer, is viral in cats and can be contagious, but usually requires lowered immunity.

Injuries

Wounds are tears, cuts, or punctures on or into the skin, sometimes going deeper into the muscle tissue or organs. They may put a cat’s life in danger due to blood loss, infections, or damage or the organs. Wounds are the most common type of injury, due to the nature of a warrior's life; fighting rival Clans, chasing off dangerous animals such as badgers and dogs, and defending borders from hostile outsiders.

Minor wounds heal on their own in just a few days for most, but severe wounds must be treated by a medicine cat. This treatment includes cleaning it thoroughly but gently with the tongue, stopping the bleeding by pressing cobwebs or moss on it, and applying poultice to prevent infection and help it to heal. Herbs used in the poultices often 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. If cleaning is too painful, a stick may be provided to bite down on.

Sprains

Sprains are injuries to ligaments of a joint, caused by being stretched beyond their normal capacity or possibly torn. It causes severe pain and decreased ability to move the joint. The cat must rest for several days. There isn't much to be done for treatment, but severe cases may have cobweb binding to ease the impact of walking.

Dislocated Limbs

Dislocation is the displacement of a bone from its normal joint, which is often extremely painful when it happens and extremely painful to fix. Can sometimes pinch a nerve, resulting in intense pain until moved back into place. Medicine cats treat this condition by first feeding the patient poppy seeds to make them sleepy and dull their senses so they don’t feel it as much, and then forcing the limb back into its socket or joint. Bark may be places between the medicine cat's teeth and the limb to prevent biting or teeth scraping, and the patient may want a stick to bite on.

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 soothe cracked pads due to their cooling sensation.

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 their life. Poppy seeds for pain can be used but should be weaned off of as the healing goes along.

A more severe injury is when a cat breaks their backbone. This results in the cat being unable to feel or move parts of their body. If the break is closer to the neck or involves even deeper trauma to the rest of the body, the cat will be killed on or shortly after impact due to inability to breathe or digest food, or sometimes from internal bleeding. Generally, a wild cat can only survive if the injury is low on the spine, just before the hind legs or the tail. If the cat survives, their back legs and tail will no longer function and they’ll have no control over bowel movements. They are also susceptible to any chest infections, as while they can keep their lungs clear by doing stretches and guttural howls, any added congestion can be fatal. Cats with spinal injuries will almost certainly never hunt, patrol, or fight again in their life, and even with twoleg aid they will never walk normally. Severe depression is common.

Herbalism

Any medicine cat worth their salt should know as many of these by heart as they possibly can. Mnemonic devices and abbreviations may help some cats, especially for poultices and mixtures for travel. A healer must learn how to balance keeping their stores stocked and healing their clan while not removing too much of the plants they rely on so that there will be more later.

Medicines

Alder
Description: A greyish-brown barked tree whose inner layers are a distinct red tone. May sometimes have pinecone like parasitic plants around their bases. The bark is the useful part; leaves and catkins have no known benefit, though they are edible as roughage.
Location: Grows mainly in wet, boggy terrain, except for white alder, which prefers dry climates. Follow butterflies to have a chance at finding new sources or if in unfamiliar places.
Usage: Bark is chewed with water or honey for tooth pains and mouth infections.
Effect: Eases toothaches and reduces irritation. Also good for teething.

Beech
Description: Large, broad leaves that can be serrated, entire or sparsely toothed. Form distinct mushroom-cap shaped canopies.
Location: Grows in almost any soil that isn’t too wet, often on hills.
Usage: Leaves are occasionally used by medicine cats for carrying other herbs; a bundling leaf.
Effect: -

Bindweed
Description: Large arrow-head shaped leaves with pale pink or white trumpet-shaped flowers.
Location: Grows almost anywhere.
Usage: Wrapped around limbs to fasten sticks to broken legs keep the bone in the right orientation.
Effect: Stabilizes the bones in a fracture.

Blackberry Bush
Description: A short prickly fruiting bush. The leaves are serrated and can irritate or make tiny cuts on the tongue or gums, so be careful gathering.
Location: They grow almost anywhere.
Usage: The leaves are chewed into a pulp and applied to stings.
Effect: Eases the swelling from insect venom and reduces itching.

Borage
Description: It is easily distinguishable by its small blue, purple, 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 production of queens' milk. It also brings down fever, and is a very mild medicine with little side effect.

Bright-Eye
Description: White, pink, or purple five-petaled flowers with blue or violet centers that grow in large clusters.
Location: Wooded areas with lots of sun, thickets.
Usage: Petals are gnawed or crushed into a poultice and eaten. May be mixed with water or another herb to make it easier for weak patients to eat.
Effect: A weak medicine on its own, only useful for very mild coughs if at all. However, makes the most effective cough cure when mixed with lovage.

Broom
Description: Shrubs with small yellow leaves and small leaves. Flowers generally grow alone or in pairs.
Location: Grows best in light forests but may also be found in grassy moors. Hardy and can be found year-round regardless of recent weather.
Usage: Flowers are ground or gnawed into a poultice and applied. Leaves may be eaten for same effect.
Effect: Aids in bone growth, good for fractures. Can also help wounds close a little faster.

Burdock
Description: Tall-stemmed thistle with wide, dark leaves and a sharp smell. Extremely bitter taste. Roots are thick and brown.
Location: Often seen in places where moisture is both common yet runs off quickly, like gorges, thunderpath sides, and fields or riverbeds.
Usage: The root is dug up and washed off, then it is chewed into a pulp.
Effect: A cure-all for painful, infected wounds, especially from a rat. Also used on cracked, infected paw pads. However, can cause stomach pain and may numb a cat's pain tolerance while injured to the point of overworking themselves.

Burnet
Description: Large, long-stemmed basal plant with thin, serrated leaves. Sometimes sprout a "spike" of purple flowers, which indicates healthy, good quality soil.
Location: Typically found in grassy, dry meadows and sunny forest borders.
Usage: A traveling herb. Leaves are swallowed whole or in halves but shouldn't be chewed much due to their intensely terrible taste.
Effect: It helps to keep a cat’s strength up, making them feel refreshed and invigorated. Often given to cats on a journey or to queens who may be giving birth soon or have just done so.

Catchweed
Description: Milkthistle-like plant with thin, fleshy stems, small tapered leaves, and distinct spiky, soft-spiked spheres that eventually bloom into tiny white flowers.
Location: It is common in hedges and other low, shrubby vegetation. Undergrowth.
Usage: The burrs are put on the pelt where the poultices are.
Effect: Stops poultices from being rubbed off without hurting the cat’s skin. May catch on fur or on other cats or bedding, but is mostly just annoying in that regard. Harmless.

Catmint
Description: A leafy, delicious-smelling plant. Leaves are greenish-grey and pale, with fuzzy stems and purple flowers. Visually similar to nettle but has no sting.
Location: Rarely found in the wild, but can occasionally be found in Twoleg gardens. Dies to frost easily, and is very rare in leaf-bare when it's needed most. Keep well-stocked if you can.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Best remedy for the deadly greencough, which kits and elders often catch in leaf-bare. It can also be used to remedy the less serious whitecough. Can cause delusions or hallucinations and mood swings in high dosages.

Celandine
Description: Thin-stemmed plant with yellow four-petaled flowers. Some plants are bigger than others but their benefits are the same.
Location: Grows best in forest territories, but it can also grow around streams or marshes.
Usage: The juice is crushed out of the stem and trickled into the eye.
Effect: Soothes scratches or infections of the eye, and can help with early stage cataracts.

Chamomile
Description: A small, white flower with a large, yellow center. Often grows clumped, and the plant itself can be very large. Fragrant and sweet-smelling.
Location: Is often found in Twoleg gardens. Sandy soil and cool weather.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Soothes the mind and strengthens the heart; it is also given to traveling cats for strength. Also good for anxiety or frazzled nerve, and can help with insomnia if combined with lavender. Never mix with poppy seed.

Chervil
Description: A sweet-smelling plant with large, feathery, fern-like leaves and small white flowers. The roots are knobby and brown. Grows in a fanned-out way and get quite tall, with the flowers at the top.
Location: It can often be found in rocky areas in forest territories, or near farm animals, hedges, or thunderpaths. Not very picky.
Usage: It is chewed to extract juice from the leaves or the root.
Effect: The juiced leaves are good for wounds and infected sores, while the roots are helpful for any lower belly pain, such as an infection or kitting cramps and contractions.

Chickweed
Description: Tall-stemmed plant with fat, almond-shaped leaves. Grows thin white flowers.
Location: It can often be found in rocky areas in forest territories. Hardy and common, it can still be found almost anywhere.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Treats greencough, though notably less effectively than catmint.

Cobnuts
Description: A type of hazelnut; a smooth, brown nut with a hard outer shell and distinct flat-topped shape comparable to an acorn. Wait for prey to pop it open for you, or try your luck using stones to do it yourself.
Location: In, below, or near hazel trees, which grow in sunny areas.
Usage: Made into ointments or ingested. Can also be used by warriors to draw out prey.
Effect: Thickening or coagulating agent for thin poultices or to combine two medicines into a paste. On its own, may be good for recovering cats or those with skin issues, and can be eaten raw; high in protein and vitamins.

Cobwebs
Description: Long, thin, shiny strands spun into a web by spiders. Very common. Also called gossamer, silk, or spidersilk.
Location: All over the forest. Mind the spiders.
Usage: Press or wrap over a wound.
Effect: To soak up and stop (or slow) bleeding. It may also be used to help bind broken bones. Can be used to "glove up" cracked paw pads while healing.

Coltsfoot
Description: A flowering plant with yellow or white flowers that somewhat resemble dandelions. Grows best in Newleaf.
Location: It grows near waterfalls and lakes, and in damp ditches or ledges.
Usage: The leaves are chewed up into a pulp and eaten for infections or applied as a poultice to cracked paw pads.
Effect: Eases breathing during infection, and is mild enough an herb to be given to kits with kitten-cough. It can also help cracked or sore pads heal.

Comfrey Root
Description: It has large leaves and small, bell-shaped flowers that can be white, pink, or purple. The roots are fat and black. Tangy smell.
Location: Damp, grassy places.
Usage: Roots are chewed into a poultice, but can also be used to line a nest.
Effect: A so-called "miracle herb". Repairs broken bones, soothes wounds, helps wrenched claws, soothes itching, helps inflammation and stiff joints, soothes and speeds healing of burns, and can ease stiffness and soreness overall when woven into a nest.

Daisies
Description: Delicate, somewhat large white flowers with big yellow centers. Thick, dark green, oval shaped leaves.
Location: Almost everywhere.
Usage: Leaves are chewed into a paste. The flowers just smell good.
Effect: Eases the pain of aching joints. It is also used as a traveling herb to prevent or delay aching paws and legs.

Dandelion
Description: Common plant with a long, hollow stem and yellow flowers. 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. Sometimes confused for milkthistle, which is very similar in looks and use.
Location: Almost everywhere, but exceptionally plentiful in fields.
Usage: The white liquid in the stems is applied to insect stings. Leaves can be chewed into a poultice.
Effect: Eases pain and swelling of insect stings and is thought to help leech out the toxins. Its leaves can be chewed to act as a topical painkiller for bruises and wounds.

Dock
Description: Common, large-leafed plant with a tangy smell and taste.
Location: Doesn't grow well in mountains, best in leafy areas.
Usage: Can be chewed up and applied to scratches. Can also be added to bedding to help with general body pains and soothe wounds overnight after a battle.
Effect: Soothes scratches, though it can sting when being applied. Soothes sore pads. If placed in nests, it can ease the pain of wounds.

Elder
Description: A somewhat small, frilly-leaved tree that grows many white flowers that eventually mature into dark indigo berries. The leaves and berries have use.
Location: Often found on the ground as shed leaflets and dense grape-like berry clusters in forests.
Usage: Leaves chewed into a poultice. Berries eaten.
Effect: Leaves soothe sprains. Berries help boost the immune system and soothe allergies and allergic reactions. Also helps with kidney diseases. May harmlessly turn the tongue blue or black for a bit.

Elfdock
Description: A tall, spindly type of sunflower with many flimsy yellow flowers and large, broad, tapered leaves.
Location: Open fields or in short-grassed moorland.
Usage: Flowers are eaten.
Effect: The cure for redcough. Originally discovered thanks to a message from StarClan.

Fennel
Description: Flowering plants with thin stalks and somewhat small feathery leaves. Small yellow flowers that grow in clumps on long thin "branches".
Location: Found in numerous places, but especially on riverbanks and lakesides.
Usage: Stalks are broken and the juice is squeezed into the patient’s mouth. The tiny seeds may be shaken out; they have a warm spice to them that weakens as the seeds dry and change color from green to brown to grey.
Effect: Soothes pain in the hips, especially from pregnancy or arthritis. Seeds are spicy and may help with congestion or drowsiness.

Feverfew
Description: Small bush with flowers resembling short-petaled daisies. Has a sharp tangy smell and soft little leaves.
Location: Grows best along water but can be hard to find in flood zones because they wash away easily.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Reduces body temperature in cats with fevers. Soothes general body aches, and is very good for headaches, migraines, and allergy-related congestion when combined with poppy seeds.

Goatweed
Description: Plant with oval leaves and small yellow "spider-like" flowers in the springtime.
Location: Along streams or rivers; anywhere marshy or with high rainfall.
Usage: Leaves are chewed and eaten daily until the medicine cat or the patient says they're done.
Effect: Eases anxiety or intense grief; a "heartache" soothing herb. Usually reserved for extreme cases, as most can cope and move on normally and doing so is encouraged.

Goldenrod
Description: A tall, leafy plant with numerous bright yellow flowers.
Location: Grows well on moors; heavy sunlight and lots of space.
Usage: Chewed into poultices.
Effect: Good for healing wounds, especially from battle. Often combined with cobweb dressing.

Hawkweed
Description: Small green plant with yellow and orange flowers. Sometimes mistaken for dandelion, but hawkweed has a darker, more intense color.
Location: Fields and open spaces. Grows rapidly and tends to spread before the cold knocks it back again.
Usage: Whole plant can be chewed into a pulp.
Effect: Greencough treatment. Similar to catmint or chickweed, but even less effective than chickweed. A last resort or additive when the last two can't be found or are nearly out of stock.

Heather
Description: Tall, slender woody plant with tiny blade-shaped leaves. Grows small columns of tiny mauve or rarely white flowers on the ends of its branches.
Location: Best grown in shady areas such as dense forest. Can usually always be found as some types grow in winter and some in summer.
Usage: The nectar is extracted from the flowers and is considered very sweet as well as soothing; often included in herbal mixtures or added to harsh herbs. Often used to get kits to eat very bitter medicines.
Effect: Makes swallowing easier and sweetens the mixtures.

Honey
Description: A sweet, golden liquid made by bees or sometimes wasps.
Location: In honeycombs or bee/wasp nests in tree boughs. Bees are usually less dangerous but both can leave nasty stings.
Usage: Eaten or licked off of a stick, or soaked into moss for dripping or suckling.
Effect: Soothes infections, is a great remedy for smoke-damaged or sore throats, helps cats swallow other concoctions, helps soothe coughing, and gives a little boost of energy.

Horsetail
Description: A tall plant with bristly stems and fleshy stalks.
Location: Any marshy area; may spread further during wet seasons.
Usage: Chewed into a poultice then applied to wounds.
Effect: Treats infections and stops bleeding.

Ivy
Description: Thin vine with three-pointed leaves resembling arrowheads; leaves are a deep green with yellow or cream-colored veins.
Location: Usually found clinging to old trees, stones, and any stable abandoned twoleg structure.
Usage: Sometimes used to store other herbs that may tend to roll around such as small flowers and poppy seed pods.

Juniper Bush
Description: Pale-wooded tree shrub with spiky dark leaves and berries that shift from whitish-blue to blue-violet.
Location: Grows in dry places.
Usage: Berries are chewed and eaten.
Effect: Soothes bellyaches, gives strength, and helps troubled breathing. It can also help to calm cats.

Lamb’s Ear
Description: Soft, fuzzy green plant with thick leaves.
Location: Most commonly found in the mountains but can also spread from twoleg gardens.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: It gives a cat some energy but is often considered unpleasant in texture.

Lavender
Description: A stalky, small, purple-flowered and fragrant plant.
Location: It is most commonly grown in Twoleg gardens, but can also be found in sunny spots with gravelly or sandy soil.
Usage: It is placed under a cat’s nose to inhale its scent, or it is rubbed/placed on a clanmate’s body to hide the scent of death.
Effect: It can cure fever or chills, but is also used to hide the scent of death. Can help soothe anxiety or be combined with chamomile to help with insomnia.

Lovage
Description: Spindly, stubby shrubbery with pointed, maple-like leaves. Bright green.
Location: Sunny forests and low hills.
Usage: Chewed up to be mixed with bright-eye.
Effect: If mixed with bright-eye, it can help cure chest infections. On it's own, it can help with water retention and kidney issues, but can also cause dehydration in high amounts.

Lungwort
Description: An herb with triangular dark green leaves speckled with white. Grows five-petaled magenta, blue, or white flowers, and can have multiple colors on one plant. Relative of borage.
Location: Moors and beech forests.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Cures yellowcough. Can help stomach pains.

Mallow
Description: Tall flowering plants with striped, heart-shaped purple petals. Has a rosy smell.
Location: It grows well near shores, but is best harvested at sunhigh when it is dry.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Flowers soothe bellyaches and pains, and can soothe insect stings and spider bites. Leaves can help kitting contractions go faster if it has been over thirty minutes since the kitting started. Superstitiously believed to make a cat more fertile and attractive.

Marigold
Description: A low-growing frilly flower that is yellow to bright orange. Dark, simple leaves.
Location: It grows near water.
Usage: The petals or leaves are chewed into a poultice, though the juice can also be used if stocks are tight.
Effect: It stops infection and stops bleeding; it is also used for inflammation of stiff joints. Juices soaked into moss can be used to clean up the medicine den after an epidemic.

Mint
Description: Downy, serrated leaves that can be anywhere from green to purple or yellow in color. The flowers are small and either white or purple in color.
Location: Grows best in forest areas but is also seen in twoleg gardens.
Usage: Leaves soothe stomach troubles and can help cats with nausea keep food down. Also rubbed on the dead to mask the scent of death.
Effect: Stomach and nausea relief. Hides the scent of death.

Mouse Bile
Description: Foul-smelling, yellowish-green liquid from a rodent's stomach, usually a mouse.
Location: Anywhere that mice can be found.
Usage: The liquid is stored in moss and dabbed on ticks embedded in one’s pelt.
Effect: The ticks fall off.

Oak
Description: Dark-barked sturdy tree with easily recognizable, simple round and bumpy-edged leaves. Grows acorns but they aren't edible.
Location: Leaves are all over the forest floor where oaks are; collected in leaf-fall.
Usage: The dried leaves are stored in a dry location until the time of use, when they are chewed into a thick poultice and spread onto a wound.
Effect: Stop infection from setting in. Keeps wounds clean even while doing normal duties.

Parsley
Description: A long-stemmed plant with ragged-edged crinkly leaves. It has a sharp scent, a cold and fresh taste that doesn't fade even when dried.
Location: It grows the best in moist, well-drained soil with full sun.
Usage: Eaten.
Effect: Helps with nursing-related pain, and helps a queen's milk stop once her kits grow up, if her kits die, or if she is producing milk while not pregnant or nursing.

Poppies
Description: Colorful flowers with black centers and velvety petals. More valuable as a medicine when they dry up, the tiny, round black seeds are held in the dried pod.
Location: Poppies grow all over the forest, especially during rainy summers.
Usage: Seeds are chewed on.
Effect: They can help a cat sleep and reduce emotional shock or distress. Can reduce pain some, but it is possible to overdose. Can be used to soothe a cat after a seizure, but never try to feed them during an episode.

Ragwort
Description: Tall shrub with thin yellow flowers. Tastes foul to cats.
Location: Grows best in cool areas with high rainfall, but can be found anywhere.
Usage: Crushed and chewed; when mixed with juniper berries, it can be used to help aching joints.
Effect: It treats aching joints and keeps a cat’s strength up. Used as a traveling herb for older cats.

Ragweed
Description: Ragged-leaved plant resembling a more upright fern.
Location: Often found in the mountains.
Usage: Chewed into a pulp and eaten.
Effect: Gives cats extra strength and energy.

Raspberry Bush
Description: Very similar to a blackberry bush, but with red, somewhat fuzzy berries instead of black and shiny ones. The tangy berries are too intensely flavored for most but aren't toxic. Leaves are soft but have jag-shaped edges.
Location: Partially shaded forests, often on hills or in twoleg yards.
Effect: It is a painkiller when eaten or applied to a wound, or it can be used to help stop bleeding during kitting. Will ease the pain of internal bleeding but cannot stop it.

Rosemary
Description: Tall with needle-like leaves and purple flowers. Stiff and pokey when dry. Has a powerful, savory scent.
Location: Forest territories.
Usage: It is 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 rust or lavender-colored head stalks.
Location: It grows in infertile soils in a wide range of moisture conditions.
Usage: Used to bind broken bones; it helps keep the broken limb in place.
Effect: Stabilizes fractured bones and can be chewed on if nervous without wasting precious catmint or other nerve-reducing herbs.

Sorrel
Description: Similar to dock, spinach-like.
Location: Can often be found near Twoleg nests. Grassland friendly.
Usage: Eaten, but avoid chewing too much as it reduces the effect and releases its bitter juices.
Effect: It is used as a traveling herb, artificially and temporarily reducing hunger, but is not nutritious and can cause stomach cramps or constipation. Often leaves a feeling of intense hunger once it is processed.

Sticks
Description: It's a stick.
Location: Anywhere there are trees.
Usage: Cats in pain bite down on the stick when other medicine is unavailable or not recommended; can also be used to help bind broken limbs.
Effect: Distracts cats from pain; recommended for queens giving birth or for cats with dislocated limbs being put back in place.

Stinging Nettle
Description: Short, broad plant with four-leaf tiers covered in spiny, sharp "hairs". It grows "strings" of green, spiny seeds.
Location: All over the forest.
Usage: The seeds are eaten by a cat that has swallowed poison. The leaves can be chewed into a poultice for a wound. The stems can also be chewed.
Effect: The seeds, when eaten, induce vomiting. The leaves can bring down swelling, help wounds or be mixed with comfrey to help broken bones heal. The stems, when chewed, help fight infection. May agitate diabetic cats' conditions.

Sweet-Sedge
Description: Thick green stem with long buds at the top.
Location: Most common near streams and rivers. It grows all through leaf-bare.
Usage: The sap from broken stems is swallowed or dripped onto infected wounds.
Effect: Eases infections.

Tansy
Description: Round, yellow leaves with a sweet and strong smell that can be used to disguise a cat’s scent.
Location: Found in forest areas and near Twoleg places.
Usage: Eaten, but only in small doses. Rubbed on the pelt and scent glands to hide a cat's scent.
Effect: Cures coughs and soothes sore throats along with helping prevent greencough. It can also be used to recover after poisoning and infected wounds.

Tormentil
Description: Small flowering plant with clover-shaped yellow flowers. It has a strong, aromatic scent to it and a sharp taste. Roots are slim and tan.
Location: It can be found in most cool or cold areas, though it can also be found in Twoleg gardens.
Usage: Roots are chewed and put on the wound.
Effect: Its root can be used to treat all wounds and extract poisons. Good second treatment for rat bites.

Thyme
Description: Small, delicate leaves that are also thick and sticky.
Location: Grows best in hot, sunny locations.
Usage: Leaves can be chewed on.
Effect: The leaves calm nervousness, anxiety, and cats who are in shock.

Traveling Herbs
Description: Nickname for an herb mix consisting of sorrel, daisy, chamomile, and burnet.
Usage: Eaten
Effect: They are used to give a cat more energy and strength, and it keeps the cat from getting hungry for a while.

Watermint
Description: A green, leafy plant. Grows fuzzy, pale purple or white flowers.
Location: It is usually found in streams or growing in damp earth.
Usage: It is usually chewed into a pulp, then eaten.
Effect: Eases bellyaches.

Wild Garlic
Description: Long-leafed plant with small star-shaped white flowers. Long white shoots go into the ground and end in garlic bulbs, which are somewhat flaky and have a unique shape and a sharp odor. Can mask almost any smell with its own but may be suspiciously out of place most times.
Location: Forest territories.
Usage: Chewed up and applied to infected bites. One must roll in it to mask their scent.
Effect: Prevents infections, particularly from rat bites. Hides basically any other smell.

Willow
Description: Distinctly droopy tree with pine-green to yellow leaves. Dark, soft bark.
Location: Grows near Twoleg places and water.
Usage: Bark is chewed. Leaves are eaten.
Effect: Bark eases pain. Leaves will stop nausea and vomiting.

Wintergreen
Description: Holly-like short plant with thick, cherry-like red berries. Leaves sometimes have white rims.
Location: Oak-pine woods and sandy habitats to sub-alpine places.
Use: Leaves are eaten or applied as a poultice.
Effect: Treats wounds and counteracts deathberry poison to a small degree.

Yarrow
Description: A delicate flowering plant with white, pale blue, or yellow buds.
Location: Forest territories.
Usage: Its leaves are chewed into a poultice that can given to cats or applied to a wound depending on the situation.
Effect: Extracts poison from wounds. It will make a cat vomit up toxins. The ointment will soften and help heal cracked pads.


Deathberries
Description: Red berries from the dark-leaved, poisonous yew bush.
Location: Forest territories.
Usage: It can be used to kill cats by making them eat the berry, but this is against the code.
Effect: It can kill a cat within minutes when consumed. Only a few berries are needed to do so, and treatment must happen very soon after to save them.

Foxglove Seeds
Description: Tiny, black seeds from the bell-shaped flower of the foxglove plant.
Location: Grows best in temperate regions but it grows everywhere.
Usage: They can be used to treat the heart but it is not recommendable unless desperate.
Effect: Though it can treat heart problems, they can easily cause paralysis and heart failure with even a slightly too high dose.

Holly Berries
Description: Plant with spiny leaves that produces red berries with no medicinal value.
Location: Forests.
Usage: Similar to deathberries.
Effect: Similar to deathberries but generally less severe.

Deadly Nightshade
Description: A small shrub with faintly smelling, bell-shaped flowers that are purple in color with green tinging. Berries are shiny and black when ripe.
Location: Moist, shady places. It often grows in soil rich with limestone.
Usage: Berries may be eaten.
Effect: Quickly and mostly painlessly kills a cat that is beyond saving, such as late-stage red or blackcough, following a spinal fracture, or after a snake bite. Never, ever used as a first resort until the patient can be confirmed as too far gone.

Water Hemlock
Description: Green or white flowers with petals in umbrella-shaped clusters.
Location: Wet, marshy areas.
Usage: No legitimate usage outside of being sadistic.
Effect: Causes writhing, pain, and foaming at the mouth. May be deadly.