Bach Flower Remedies for Animals
What are Bach Flower Remedies?
Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936) trained as a doctor in the 1910's and went on to develop this branch of homeopathy during the 1920's-1930's. There are 38 remedies - some are made from flowers, whilst others are made from the flowers of trees, bushes and plants with water.
Why Bach Flower Remedies for Animals?
Dr Bach saw his therapy would benefit all living creatures and therefore the therapy is used both for humans and animals. Many animals can benefit - including horses, cats, dogs, birds and other pets or livestock.
Flower remedies work by affecting the emotions and may help in many ways, including:
- Assisting with learning;
- Fears and anxieties;
- Recuperation from illness;
- Aiding in learning and cognitive skills;
- Rehabilitation of traumatised animals
Bach Flower Remedies may therefore be able to help your animal at some point during its life. This could be at particularly stressful times (e.g. Christmas or other times of noisy celebration, competitions/shows, etc) or when your animal has other health or wellbeing issues.
But as with all complementary therapies please remember to contact your Veterinary Surgeon for advice before using. In addition when dealing with a behavioural issue - please remember that no remedy can replace correct training.
Vine has been the focus of one our blogs, have a read here to find out more about this Bach Flower Remedy.
How long before the flower remedies will work?
If the right remedies have been selected and properly administered, positive results are usually seen within two to three weeks, if not sooner than that. As with any therapy/treatment, results depend on the individual animal.
Administering flower remedies to animals
The remedies are used by giving 3 or 4 drops to the animal - either in drinking water or by putting drops on your hand and letting the animal lick them off. They can be used in combination and repeated 2-4 times daily until a change is noted or the stressful situation has passed, (if it is particularly stressed, the remedies maybe administered more frequently). In addition you can add the remedies to snacks or training rewards (eg. biscuit), to assist with your animals learning.
For safety do not administer drops direct from the dropper into an animal’s mouth - as the dropper tube is made of thin glass and could be extremely harmful if bitten off and swallowed.
Different flower remedies include:
Agrimony; Aspen Beech; Centaury; Cerato; Cherry Plum; Chestnut Bud; Chicory; Clematis; Crab Apple; Elm; Gentian; Gorse; Heather; Holly; Honeysuckle; Hornbeam; Impatiens; Larch; Mimulus; Mustard; Oak; Olive; Pine; Red Chestnut; Rescue Remedy; Rock Rose; Rock Water; Scleranthus; Star of Bethlehem; Sweet Chestnut; Vervain; Vine; Walnut; Water Violet; White Chestnut; Wild Oat; Wild Rose; Willow.
Like to learn more about Bach Flower Remedies?
The Bach Centre approves a specialist level 3 programme on the care of animals. This is run by the Natural Animal Centre in Wales. As a level 3 programme though, it is only open to people who've already completed levels 1 and 2 Bach Centre approved education.
Take a look at my blog post for more insight
Would you like information on Bach Flower Remedy Practitioners near you for your animal? Please email us at firstname.lastname@example.org, we'll be pleased to try and assist!