Homeopathic Remedies & Flower Essences for Your Dog’s Physical and Emotional Well-being

I’ve been studying Homeopathy and Heilkunst (a more advanced system of medicine) for over two decades and I’m still in utter awe of how effectively both acute and chronic issues can be annihilated without the need for a visit to the local clinic. I’ve covered just a few basic remedies here for you to be able to stock your own natural home pharmacy.

Every member of our family, including our teens, have advanced training in first aid. It is important to always have a properly stocked first aid kit in your car, as well as at home, the cottage, or camp.

If you choose to take a course, your instructor will suggest a basic kit with bandages of all sizes, a sling that can be fashioned with your own clothing, antiseptic (such as iodine or hydrogen peroxide), scissors, tweezers, big diaper pins or safety pins of varying sizes, non-stick surgical tape, saline for eyewash, and a blanket for preventing shock. Our kits also have Arnica Cream for bruising, Calendula Cream for cuts, and Cantharis Cream for minor burns that can be used for both humans and animals.

In addition, here are some basic Homeopathic Remedies and Bach Flower Essences to stock in your kit for yourself and your beloved pup. You can easily administer the remedies by dissolving a pellet in water and placing in a dropper bottle. Now, you can easily just drop one drop into your dog’s mouth or on his fur or in his water bowl depending on how urgently you’d like him to have it. The rule is, the more acute an issue, the more frequently you need to dose. You can’t cause yourself, or your dog, harm using homeopathic remedies or flower essences so dosing every minute or so is fine when issues are flared.

Homeopathic Remedies for Basic Injuries

Aconite is the remedy used for shock. Your dog may exhibit staring, excessive panting, sweaty paws, and a very rapid heart rate. They may not be able to move or properly make eye contact due to the fight/flight response caused by anything from a fall, being injured, seeing an accident, or the sudden death of their beloved owner.

Arnica is the chief remedy for bruising and typically the first remedy you may ever use with your pet. Anytime your dog has a limp or sore spot, this remedy will miraculously heal the contusion, often skipping the red, blue, and purple phases, going straight to the more yellow and green latter phases in a matter of hours or days, depending on the nature of the injury. Never use Arnica directly on an open wound as it will cause it to fester and worsen; instead, take it internally for best results.

Borax (not the laundry soap) is the homeopathic remedy for thrush. If your dog develops a yeasty rash or thrush in his mouth that just won’t clear up on it’s own, Borax is the remedy of choice.

Calendula is the remedy for a cut or wound. You can dissolve a pellet in bottled or clean spring water and gently sponge the affected area. Calendula can also be taken by mouth simultaneously. I’ve seen the most amazing results with this remedy on cuts that would normally take a few days to close and heal, accomplish the same in less than 12 hours after use.

Cantharis is our chief remedy for burns and scalds. If you don’t have the remedy handy, you can gently run the affected area under warm water, just to the point where the dog complains that it is too warm. The homeopathic principle of like cures like will work this way too! Never use hot water as this will cause further tissue damage and harm your puppy.

Hypericum is used effectively for nerve damage. If a dog’s paw has been caught in a door or he has bitten his tongue, Hypericum is your remedy of choice as it is for injuries in nerve rich areas of the body.

Ledum is a great remedy for more serious contusions (like a black eye) or for puncture wounds from a mosquito bite all the way to having stepped on a rusty tack or nail. Ledum is the homeopathic similimum for tetanus and we’ve used it for our own family at the camp, until we can employ the Tetanus nosode at our clinic.

Rhus Tox. is the homeopathic remedy for stiffness and soreness in the joints from over exercising, or from twisting a limb or wrenching a joint. The symptoms in Rhus Tox. will be likened to a rusty gate, very stiff at the onset of movement, typical of arthritic complaints, and then once oiled with further motility, your dog will achieve greater ease in his joints.

NSOL stands for Natrum Muriaticum, Staphysagria, Opium and Lachesis. In order, these are the homeopathic remedies for grief, anger, fear, guilt, resentment, and shame. When my own children were upset, this combination rx, in addition to their Genotype or Homeopathic Constitutional Remedy to help set their keel straight, would go a long way in properly reorienting their life-force towards homeostasis, balance, ease, and health. I would also add remedies for anxiety, shock (such as Aconite), or several Flower Essences (such as the Rescue Remedy combination outlined below). You can also treat your dog with the same remedies as they are like canaries in our coal mines, picking up every emotion we express, or don’t express, keeping it harboured below decks. By discharging it with homeopathic rx, your dog won’t turn it in onto himself as a cancerous tumor, diabetes, or heart affliction later on.

You may bump into schools of thought that only use one remedy at a time per person, this goes against Dr. Samuel Hahnemann’s maxim of “treat for what you see.” Combining remedies in succession is not a problem, as Hahnemann never limited the prescriber for the time frame between the giving of each remedy. Also, all homeopathics are strictly “informed” by their doctrine of signature in nature, meaning that they all know their ordained job and can not, in fact, fall over into the territory of a remedy also prescribed simultaneously. Heilkunst, the much more dynamic system of medicine that we practice, enables us to achieve cures in much more complex cases. Perhaps check out our testimonials page on our website to see how patients react to being cured: http://arcanum.ca/about/testimonials/

Bach Flower Essences (Helping To Shift The Mental State)

Rescue Remedy (RR) is the remedy that folks usually hear of first when initially exploring the realm of Flower Essences. It is great for general, overall stress and emotional strain when it may be hard to discern which remedy is ideal in the moment. As you will learn, there are no specific Flower Essences associated with physical complaints, however, RR is a great remedy to use in all instances of physical and emotional suffering without causing an ounce of harm.

RR is a blend of the following five remedies created by Dr. Bach for crises and emergencies. It will help your dog to relax, feel calm, rest, or cope with whatever issue has arisen. Rescue Remedy will help your dog to level out those more spiky feelings that can sometimes come up on the tide of his suffering (or his beloved owner’s suffering), so they can heal more quickly, enabling both of you to assume a better state of ease and grace. Here is a list and brief description of the Flower Essences contained in Rescue Remedy:

Impatiens is the remedy for those dogs who become demanding and impatient to have their needs met. This flower essence will help the dog be more patient and at ease.

Star of Bethlehem is for having suffered shock or trauma, either recently or long ago in the past. It may be hard to imagine or remember being sick and feeling scared given that your internal landscape has completely changed, however, a dog can become withdrawn when in pain or in shock. This remedy helps your dog to integrate both their physical and emotional pain and suffering into a more manageable resolve, letting you both start to process the strong emotions from an event of this nature.

Cherry Plum is for fear of losing all reason and control, entering into a spiral of self-inflicted, insidious, self-destructive tendencies. Cherry Plum enables the sufferer to invoke their essential courage allowing for symptoms to pass easily by simply letting go, without getting hung up on the drama of being ill.

Rock Rose is for quieting feelings of panic or terror. An ideal remedy for a dog suffering a shock.

Clematis is for those who retreat into a world of fantasy to escape their illness. Your dog may appear ungrounded and indifferent to what is going on in their everyday life. Clematis can help anchor them, bringing about growth on the physical and mental level, ultimately promoting a more mature immune function. This flower essence harmonizes the disparity inherent in the suffering associated with the physical illness, helping to assimilate the dog’s purpose. Clematis bundles up the fount of ideas sourced from spirit and integrates them into our physicality, aligning them both into a state of creative accomplishment and grace.

Allyson McQuinn, DHHP, JOAH has been studying natural medicine for over 20 years.  Working as a Physician with both humans and animals in her international practice at Arcanum Wholistic Clinic by Skype and by phone, she is able to effectively prescribe and ship remedies worldwide. 

She has also authored over a dozen books, one of them being “Natural Home Pharmacy For Dogs; How to Use Practical Tips, Homeopathic Remedies, Nutrition, and Training for Your Dog’s Natural Health” available on Amazon.  Allyson’s beloved “Sammy” Terra is just one of many rescued animals she’s treated using natural remedies on her farm.