Dr Edward Bach studied medicine at the University College Hospital, London, and was a house surgeon there. He worked in general practice, having a set of consulting rooms in Harley Street, and as a bacteriologist and later a pathologist he worked on vaccines and a set of homoeopathic nosodes still known as the seven Bach nosodes. Despite the success of his work with orthodox medicine he felt dissatisfied with the way doctors were expected to concentrate on diseases and ignore the people who were suffering them. He was inspired by his work with homoeopathy but wanted to find remedies that would be purer and less reliant on the products of disease. So in 1930 he gave up his lucrative Harley Street practice and left London, determined to devote the rest of his life to the new system of medicine that he was sure could be found in nature.

Just as he had abandoned his old home, office and work, so now he abandoned the scientific methods he had used up until now. Instead he chose to rely on his natural gifts as a healer, and use his intuition to guide him. One by one he found the remedies he wanted, each aimed at a particular mental state or emotion. His life followed a seasonal pattern: the spring and summer spent looking for and preparing the remedies, the winter spent giving help and advice to all who came looking for them. He found that when he treated the personalities and feelings of his patients their unhappiness and physical distress would be alleviated as the natural healing potential in their bodies was unblocked and allowed to work once more.

In 1934 Dr Bach moved to Mount Vernon in Oxfordshire. It was in the lanes and fields round about that he found the remaining 19 remedies that he needed to complete the series. He would suffer the emotional state that he needed to cure and then try various plants and flowers until he found the one single plant that could help him. In this way, through great personal suffering and sacrifice, he completed his life's work.

Dr Bach passed away peacefully on the evening of November 27th, 1936. He was only 50 years old, but he had left behind him several lifetimes experience and effort, and a system of medicine that is now used all over the world.

With the primary objective to re-establish an emotional balance which will then lead to the bird’s rehabilitation, in many cases Dr. Bach's Flower Essences have been proven to be surprisingly effective healing something that was thought to be incurable by many.

Parrots are emotionally and instinctively more complicated than any other animal we are likely to encounter. Parrot caregivers, breeders, almost all of the behaviorists and many avian veterinarians are very frequently helpless when challenged to understand and deal with the psyche of a parrot. (There is still a very large question about the qualifications of a parrot "behaviorist" who is usually in it for the money. There is no education available, universities teaching avian veterinarian courses generally do not include parrot behavior in their curriculum and most of the "behaviorists" I have encountered usually get their wisdom from anecdotal information, outdated literature and subjectively shoot from the hip. I do know some of the better breeders who truly do qualify as behaviorists.) Most breeders (who are also in it only for the money) have no clue and could not care less how important abundance weaning, socializing and fledging is for the future mental health and resistance to stress of a creature that has the body to brain ratio of a dolphin, matures in stages like a human child, has evolved over hundreds of thousand years and therefore is far ahead of us in its intrinsic development. How far ahead, we can't even fathom but I am sure that there are dimensions which are totally out of our intellectual reach. We barely manage to communicate and understand each other. While our "usual" pets are bred for "human consumption," parrots are still wild animals with all their instincts and intuitiveness fully intact. There is no doubt that later behavioral problems very often are caused by the breeder’s neglect in the early formative months.

Despite all the talk and well meant advice, feather plucking/mutilation remains one of the major problems facing the parrot and its caregiver. We just have not evolved to their level to be sufficiently intuitive to sense and, what is more, to understand the emotional and instinctive dimensions of these "children from another world" beyond the obvious. Even experienced "bird people" may see the effect but often have no idea about the cause. Diagnosis is extremely difficult even for the specialist, and treatments take longer than we are conditioned to accept. Most avian veterinarians who have no idea how to deal with these situations, treat for "depression," "hormonal problems" or suggest "E-collar therapy." In my opinion that is much too one dimensional, totally ignores the likely emotional "chain reactions" preceding the problems sometimes over years, and is useless at best and cruel at worst. (Unless the bird is severely mutilating itself and extremely aggressive treatments are indicated.) Even occasional marginally positive results are temporary. I believe a paradigm change may be helpful to explore remedies previously not considered.

Anyone who thinks these birds can be rehabilitated with conventionally accepted methods, does not understand the complexity of the problem where emotional, instinctive, and physical issues interact to this extend.

The Treatment:

Once the flower essences (out of a total of 38 and based on a diagnosis of causes and symptoms) to be used have been determined, a "treatment" bottle is created: 2 drops of each essence chosen--to a maximum of 7 essences at most. Less is better. Four drops of Rescue Remedy only, if it is one of them, are mixed with distilled water in a 1 ounce mixing bottle. The contents of this bottle are used for treatment. The "treatment" bottle will keep in the fridge for a week. There are a number of ways to treat with Bach Flower Essences. The more of the treatment essence mix the bird ingests/absorbs, the better. Orally: two drops from the treatment bottle are added to a teaspoon of liquid (this can be any juice the bird likes), and offered to him with the spoon. (My CAG LOVES fresh orange juice and would take anything that way.) This should be done as often during the day, as possible. Other means of hand feeding may be preferred. If the bird refuses to be handfed and since it is not a good idea to stress the bird, the other alternative is to add the medication to his drinking water/juice. That is also a way to treat for OCD (more about that later). The drinking water method will not work in an open dish due to contamination; for that a Lixit glass drinking bottle is the best choice. In that case and depending on the size of the bottle, I put 1 or 2 ounces of liquid into the bottle with 6 drops per ounce from the treatment bottle. The drinking bottle will have to be cleaned and sterilized daily (I do that in the evening). I put mine into the dishwasher, and put it back at feeding time in the morning.

2. Misting: The bird may also be misted with a mixture of distilled water and 4 drops per ounce of the treatment liquid. The essences are absorbed through the skin or ingested by preening. The best places for absorption through the skin are under the wings and around the neck. Care should be taken that nothing gets into the eyes. Again, as often as possible if that can be done without stressing the bird.

I have found the drinking water routine the most effective and least stressful.

Finally, treating with Bach Flower Essences takes lots and lots of patience. They don't act like antibiotics or aspirin. The rule of thumb: It takes 1 month of treatment per 1 year of feather mutilation. Much depends on the severity of the problem and also on the correct choice of the essences. With parrots, especially birds with a history of multiple owners, it can be a real challenge. Frequently we have no idea which traumatic event or chain of events caused the problem in the first place and for Bach essences to be effective, we have to treat the symptoms together with the cause. So there is often the need for some experimentation. Fortunately the essences cannot be overdosed nor are they harmful. There is absolutely no question that they work; all it takes is patience and perseverance. In Europe the flower essences are widely used, for humans as well as for house pets including horses. For the reasons above, their use with parrots is rather limited: Diagnosis and treatment are just too complicated and time consuming.

Another reason for the water bottle is treatment for OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). There is no question that in many cases feather mutilation has degenerated to become OCD (even to the point of the bird ending up being dysfunctional) and I am absolutely convinced that most of the habitual pluckers are obsessive compulsive and must be treated accordingly.

St. John's Wort: Over the years a lot of studies have been conducted involving the benefits of St. John’s Wort as an holistic alternative to treat depressions, anxiety and especially OCD. The results have been extremely encouraging. St. John’s Wort contains Hypericum which is known to be effective in treating OCD. Additionally, St. John’s Wort is a natural remedy apparently with no potential side effects (except a possible sensitivity to sunlight if taken by humans), as opposed to any of the other presently available medications. To treat with St. John’s Wort, make a tea (available in health food stores). I use 1 tea bag per 1 pint of water and let it steep for about 4 minutes. To this tea the Bach Flower Essence treatment liquid may then be added. The bird should not get anything else to drink. If it helps, the tea may be sweetened with a little unprocessed honey. (Too much may cause the little ball in the nozzle to get stuck.) Although there may be more effective treatments for parrots with Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in the future, there is no reason not to believe that at this time St. John’s Wort is truly the best remedy available. Its use certainly makes a lot of sense to me.

© Bill Kiesselbach