Text size:

Flowers Soothe Savage Beasts

Denise Flaim | Animal House

June 27, 2000

ASPEN IS for calmness, impatiens is for cooperation. Clematis is for focus, mimulus for courage.

Though they sound like Ophelia's flower-strewn ramblings in "Hamlet," those floriferous associations are the cornerstones of an herbal approach to healing called the Bach flower remedies. Distilled from flowers and tree buds, the 38 remedies are used to treat behavioral problems such as homesickness (honeysuckle) or panic attacks (rock rose) or bullying (vine) in both humans and their animals. And though it may sound silly to think a beaker full of beech essence can get a bird to quit pecking at strangers, some folks swear by them.

"I have horses here, and one of them is a mare who went crazy at the sound of fireworks," says veterinarian Alberto G. Gil, who has a home-based practice in Old Westbury. When the Fourth of July rolled around, Lucy became so distraught she had to be tranquilized. Then Gil started giving her Rescue Remedy, a popular combination of five flower essences, about an hour and a half before the pyrotechnics commenced.

"Now," he says of the 7-year-old thoroughbred, "she enjoys the fireworks."

Denise Flaim Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

Bach remedies are based on the work of early- 20th-Century British physician and pathologist Edward Bach, best known for developing nosodes, oral bacterial vaccines that are still used in homeopathy. Bach intuited that certain plants had vibrational qualities, or energies, that helped reintegrate and balance emotions. Available in alcohol-preserved tinctures and sold in 10-milliliter treatment bottles at health-food stores for around $9 each, the flower remedies can be added to an animal's drinking water (make sure it is not chlorinated or distilled) or diluted and orally dispensed from a plastic syringe. In terms of dosage, four drops to one ounce of water is a good rule of thumb.

"They work on several levels, not the least of which is that of cellular activity," says Barbara Meyers, a Bach flower counselor based in Staten Island, adding that it can take "anywhere from minutes to months" to see results, with acute cases usually responding most quickly. "But there is probably no empirical evidence - by that I refer to those double-blind, proof-beyond-the-shadow- of- a-doubt kinds of study that people are so fond of referring to."

While no one understands how Bach essences work, says Meyers - who points to conventional treatments, including steroids such as Prednisone, whose "hows" are as mysterious - the point is they often do work. "Animals don't fake it," she says. "They're not having some placebo effect."

Burton D. Miller of Riverhead is a holistically oriented vet who has used Bach flower remedies on behavioral and trauma cases. "In those cases with a good match between symptoms and remedy, you can have very gratifying and quick results," he says. "I've yet to see adverse effects, which is different than other therapies such as herbs, chiropractic and acupuncture - in some of those cases, I have seen animals get worse after treatment."

Indeed, Miller says Bach essences are so harmless, the worst effect of administering them is no effect at all.

"I've tried them and I didn't find that they did anything," says Cliff Conarck, a vet in St. James who has tried the remedies on dogs with stress problems and thunderstorm phobias. "I just haven't had success, but I've had no adverse effects, either."

For his part, Miller says it may take time to see the beneficial effects of Bach flower essences. And he calls them "the perfect holistic therapy for pet owners trying branching out - as long as they do not delay in finding appropriate help" for serious symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. Meyers concurs, stressing that it's important to first rule out physical causes - such as an underlying neurological condition that results in unexplained aggression - "especially if the behavior is unusual and comes on suddenly."

Because there is no formal vet training for Bach flower essences, Miller says he learned by reading as much as be could. One good starting point is "Bach Flower Remedies for Animals," by Helen Graham and Gregory Vlamis (Findhorn, $12.95), which describes each essence and how it can be used on dogs, cats, birds, horses, even rodents and tortoises. The book also recommends cases when the essences benefit the humans involved.

"Dogs in particular, but certainly all animals, are finely attuned to the people they live with," reminds Meyers. "And they will reflect that person's sadness, anxiety and happiness. Lots of people who come to me for professional help with their animals will then seek consultation for the remedies for themselves."

And in the end, that human-animal bond is an intangible that no medical expert can gauge.

"With homeopathy, it's in the intention of the healer," says Gil, whose Lucy is gearing up for next week's shooting stars and gunpowdery salutes. "That counts for a lot."