How to Use Flower Essences for Animals

Selecting Essences

The capacity of flower essences to help animals with a wide array of behavioral and emotional issues is endless. The key to their effectiveness with animals is specificity of selection: matching the specific, unique and subtle issues needing attention to specific flower essences known to address those specific issues. In other words:

Match the deepest known energy of what’s going within the animal
to the healing qualities of an essence(s)

There are two categories of choosing essences: cognitive, left brain and intuitive, right brain:

Cognitive, left brain: simply match the obvious, known situation of the animal and the known healing quality of essences, which can be easily learned in the books recommended in the Resource section. Examples:

• You are going on vacation and want to be sure your animals are not emotionally stressed during your absence. You have your pet sitter put Bleeding Heart in their water.
• You are adopting a new animal and want to provide your current animals emotional support in accepting the new family member. You give them Holly, Quaking Grass and Willow for at least a week before the new animal arrives, and for about a month after the arrival. You give the newly adopted shelter animal Animal Relief Formula.

Intuitive, right brain methods, such as kinesiology, the use of a pendulum or animal communication. Examples:

Kinesiology or use of a pendulum are helpful to get yes/no answers or confirmation for your best guess for flower essences appropriate to the situation. Perhaps your cat is urinating out of the litter box and you believe it’s because she is mad that you have been away quite a bit. You test for Willow and get a “yes.”

Telepathic Communication is best used to identify and understand the specific thoughts, feelings, and stories behind the observed behavior. When we talk to our animals, we create an opportunity to uncover thorough, relevant information needed to match the best flower essences to the problem—far, far more complete information than what is gleaned from simply observing behavior and guessing the animal's feelings.

Perhaps your dog seems depressed so you give him Borage (which is for depression), but it doesn’t make a difference. Later, when using telepathy to talk with your dog, you find out that yes, he is somewhat depressed, but the cause of the depression is that he feels he can’t fill the shoes of your other dog, who recently died and who was the “star” dog in the family. Now you know the specific energy behind the depression you have observed: your dog is worried about not being good enough. With this more specific information, Inmortal (Desert Alchemy) would be a perfect match of flower essence support.

In using telepathy to communicate with your animal, consider the following:

1. Identify what your animal is thinking and feeling regarding the issue at hand, the reasons underlying unacceptable behavior or troubling emotional states observed, using your own intuitive or telepathic abilities or with the help of an animal communicator.

   For flower essences to be effective, it is extremely important to match them to the animal’s internal states of emotion, energy and thoughts, not merely on observed behavior. Flower essences can do no harm, so giving the “wrong” essence for an issue can’t hurt them. But with the hundreds of essences available for so many specific and subtle issues, we have the opportunity to very closely, if not perfectly match issues with essences so healing can be targeted, thorough and more swift. For every horse that doesn’t like trailering, for every cat that goes out of the box, for every dog that digs holes, there are different reasons why, just as there are varied reasons for each human who overeats, drinks too much, or gets depressed. Flower essences don’t treat behaviors, they treat underlying causes, which is why they work so well. But for them to work at full power, they need to be carefully matched to underlying causes. Even when animals' emotions are visible, such as being aggressive with children, shy or cowering around men, hyper whenever the doorbell rings, or acting depressed, it is still important to seek the reasons why in choosing essences. There are probably twenty or more essences just for depression, a dozen or more for aggression, shyness and hyper activity. Finding out the animals’ stories, the reasons behind their observed behaviors and emotional states are what allow for the best match and effectiveness of flower essences.

2. Select essences that address the emotional, mental or spiritual issues described by the animal.

   Essences most helpful to specific issues can be recommended by an animal communicator well versed in flower essences, by a flower essence practitioner, or through your own research in one of the fine books or the cross reference list provided created for this very purpose. The following two books and our recommended essences lists are excellent sources of cross reference of emotional and spiritual issues to essences which help heal them. I highly recommend purchasing at least one of them for a lifetime reference for this powerful source of holistic well being and healing:

Flower Essence Repertory, Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz (creators of FES essences)

The Alchemy of the Desert: A Comprehensive Guide to Desert Flower Essences for Professional and Self-Help Use, Cynthia Athina Kemp Scherer (creator of Desert Alchemy essences)

How to Use Flower Essences for Animals

Administering Flower Essences With Animals

How Much to Give, How Often and for How Long

Flower essences come in glass dropper bottles and are taken just a few drops at a time, or, with the spray bottle and are taken with a few drops from one or two sprays. Ideally, animals should take in a few drops of the essences about four times per day.

More drops does not equate with greater effectiveness. Frequency of taking essences is much more important to their effectiveness than quantity. Giving the essence just once a day may not make a difference in the situation you are attempting to help. On the other hand, more drops at a time does not equate with greater effectiveness. Giving the whole bottle in a day or week will not heal the issue more quickly. It will merely be a waste of the essence, since only small quantities taken several times a day is all that is needed. The only exception to this is during a crisis or emergency, when essences can be given every few minutes, every hour, etc.

In addition, there is no possibility of “overdosing.” Taking large doses of flower essences will not hurt an animal or human. If you accidentally spill an entire bottle of essences into a water bowl and they drink the whole thing, the only negative result of this is that you will have wasted a few dollars.

The duration of giving animals essences depends on the situation. Because flower essences are vibrational (i.e. they do not directly impact the functioning of the physical body as do drugs and herbs) there is no set protocol for duration. But there are a few important things to keep in mind regarding duration.

• If you are giving essences for a short term situation, such as separation while you are on vacation, you only need provide the essences starting the day before you leave and be sure they are given during your time away. There is no need to continue after your return.

• If you are working with any long term, serious, or deep seated behavioral or emotional problem (i.e. a cat urinating out of the box, newly adopted rescue animal acting terrified of men), I recommend giving the essences to your animal every day, a few times each day, until such time that you see significant change with the problem. This could be weeks or months depending on the complexity of the situation.

Be patient! They work powerfully, but more slowly than drugs

Even though some essences such as Five Flower Formula and Rescue Remedy bring immediate relief and calm in crisis, please remember that flower essences are not drugs designed to mask symptoms, they are healers of root causes. Sometimes, it can take a number of weeks before we see any progress. Don't give up.

After you see change or improvement, continue giving the flower essences for at least one more month, or longer if the issue is serious and long standing. This provides the energetic support needed to "seal in" or complete the healing offered from the flower essences.

Put Essences in Water Source, on or in Their Body, on Food and Snacks, or in a Mister

• In the water bowl: The easiest way to give animals flower essences is in their water bowl, allowing them to “drink them in” whenever they lap the water from their bowl. When putting essences in the water bowl, three to four drops works well for cat bowls if they are the approximate size of a soup bowl. For dogs (or other animals)with much larger bowls, a full dropper full of essences per day is needed. Please remember that if putting essences in your animals' water source, you must use the concentrate/stock level of the flower essence. Essences can only be diluted one level beyond the concentrate/stock bottle. Also, if you are providing essences to help one animal, it is perfectly safe for other animals in the family to be lapping up water from that same essence filled water bowl. Because flower essences are so vibrational, when an animal takes one they don't need (such as inadvertently through a shared water bowl), the impact is neutral. Unlike vitamin supplements, herbs or homeopathy, which directly impact the physical body, with flower essences we never need to worry about potential harm through giving the wrong substance, wrong dosage, etc. The very worst that can happen with a flower essence is no impact at all.
• On or in their Body: It can work well to directly apply four drops of essence onto your animal's body three to four times per day.  Find a spot or spots where the hair or fur is less dense so the essence will reach the skin and be absorbed transdermally. Typical areas used are ear  (never inside the ear), nose area, gums or paw pads. Avoid areas where the drops may flow into the eyes and create a burning sensation. Some people and animals really enjoy this method because it becomes a ritual of healing and love several times a day. Essences can also be placed directly into the animal's mouth. Please be very cautious if considering this method. Do not consider doing this unless you absolutely trust your animal not to bite down on the glass dropper, which could of course create terrible injury if the glass shatters in their mouth. If placing the flower essence in or on an animal's body, you can use a diluted “dosage bottle” of essences. A dosage bottle is made up of four drops of one or more essences into an empty glass dropper bottle, pure spring water and preservative (alcohol or vegetable glycerin).
• Food and Snacks: For animals who love food and snacks, this is an easy and fun way to get their essences into them three to four times a day. Just place a few drops on the snack and be sure they eat it. Be careful not to put the essences on food and walk away without being sure the animal actually eats it. Essences in a diluted dosage bottle can be used for this method.
• Misters: You can place about a dropper full of concentrate/stock level flower essence into a small mister bottle filled with pure spring water. You can mist horse trailers, dog crates, the inside of cars when traveling, cat carriers, bird cages, etc. for special circumstances when you want your animal to get extra essence support. Many birds enjoy being misted with flower essence filled misters every day.

Neutral Effect to Those Who Don't Need

It's perfectly OK if you are placing essences in a water bowl for the problem of one animal, and other animals also drink from this source. When a human or animal ingests a flower essence they “don't need”, there is simply a neutral effect.

There are No Contraindications

Flower essences are powerful but very gentle. Taking them will not in any way impact other medications. There are no foods, liquids, traditional medicines or holistic remedies that animals must avoid while taking flower essences.