How To Give Flower Essences To Pets

Flower essences work differently than traditional medications, pharmaceuticals or even herbs and supplements. For that reason, their dosing is also unique. With flower essences, the quantity or amount you give matters less, but instead, what matters more is how often you give them.

Giving Flower Essences to Pets

Flower essences treat states of emotional imbalance. Imagine the emotion as a block of energy. Every time you take a dose of flower essence, be it 10 drops, 1 dropper, or one cup of flower essences, you are chipping away at that emotion.

Each time you take the flower essence it is considered a “dose.” So for best results with flower essences – the more OFTEN the dose is given, the better the results.

Large doses of flower essences are harmless, however in some cases can be overwhelming for the pet. For this reason, I don’t recommend large doses to start with. That being said, I have never seen an overdose on flower essences. Flower essences can create what appear to be “negative side effects.” However, these have less to do with quantity given, but rather with choosing the wrong flower essence for the emotion we are treating. We will look at this more in the next post.

Combining Flower Essences For Pets

When you buy a flower essence at the store, it is often preserved with brandy, vodka or glycerin to prevent contamination. Flower essences themselves are tasteless and taste like water. However, some pets do not like the taste of the strong preservative.

For this reason, it is good to dilute your flower essences and create a dosing bottle when giving them to pets. A dosing bottle preserved in only water is good for about 2-3 weeks. If you keep the bottle in the fridge, it is probably good for about 1-2 months. When giving essences from the dosing bottle, try to not touch the animal’s mouth or skin in order to decrease chances of contamination.

Creating a dosing bottle also allows you to combine the flower essences that you would like to specifically use to treat your pet. Here are instructions for how to do this:

1. Obtain either a 1 or 2 ounce glass bottle with a dropper. Because flower essences may have some light sensitivity, it is better to choose a darker bottle such as one made from amber or cobalt blue.

Here is a link for amber glass bottles available for purchase on Amazon.*

2. Fill the glass bottle with spring or distilled water

3. Add 5-10 drops of the individual flower essences you would like to give your pet. It is best to give less than 6 essences per bottle. This allows you to better assess if the essences are helping. That being said, I have sometimes given as many as 12 flower essences in one dosing bottle with no negative effects.

*This is an affiliate link.

Administering Flower Essences To Pets

As I described in the beginning, flower essences depend more on how often they are given, rather than how much is given at one time.

I generally give ½ – 1 dropper 4-5x a day for most dogs and cats.

If you mix it with wet food, you can give a smaller amount – 3-5 drops. It will potentiate more in water or wet food. If mixing with dry food, a slightly larger amount might be better – 1-2 full droppers.

With homeopathy, some say to give it without food or on an empty stomach. While flower essences are made based on homeopathic principles, I have not seen it matter too much whether they are given with or without food. They seem to work either way. They are also largely tasteless, which makes them even easier to give to finicky animals when mixed with food or on a treat.

Flower essences can be delivered in the following ways:

• Use a dropper and give directly into the mouth or on gums. This is probably the most common way to give flower essences. It is absorbed via the gums, so does not have to be given directly on the tongue.
• Apply on the skin. A common area to apply flower essences is on GV 20 – the calming acupuncture point on the top of the forehead in animals. You can also use your hand and massage the flower essence into ear tips, behind the ears, or on the back or belly, depending on where the pet is most comfortable with you touching them. This can be calming for both of you.
• Mix with food. Flower essences can be given mixed with wet food (preferred) or even dry kibble.
• Give on a treat. Since flower essences are tasteless, it is easy to put some on a treat.
• Mix with water. Flower essences can be added to fresh bowls of water. While they don’t have a taste, animals can still be sensitive to their effects. For this reason, I would still give the animal the choice of drinking water with or without the flower essences. While not eating because of flower essences is less serious, not drinking enough water can be easily missed and can lead to dehydration.
• Spray in the air. This is probably the least common way I give flower essences. Many animals, particularly cats, don’t like being sprayed. Although this might be useful for birds or other small animals that enjoy a light mist.

Some pets LOVE their flower essences. I have had many owners tell me that the animal runs up to them when they take out the flower essence bottle. However, sometimes we may have chosen the “inappropriate” flower essence formula for that animal. If that is the case, the flower essence may actually make them feel worse. If they do not want a treat or food with the flower essence in it, it is more likely due to the “wrong” flower essence chosen rather than the taste (since it is diluted, most flower essences taste like water).

We will talk more about inappropriate flower essences in the next blog post (Coming next month!)