Bach flowers for animals? Certainly — and now, for the first time in Italy, Californian flowers for animals have arrived too, a necessary evolution of Edward Bach's first floral remedies, which first saw the light in the now distant 1950s. All of this is the work of an Italian scholar, the veterinarian Laura Cutullo, who was the first to study Bach and his flowers and use them to treat the minor and major problems of our four-legged friends. But what is flower therapy? It involves the oral, inhalatory or percutaneous administration of remedies derived from flowers. Each flower acts on a particular emotional state, which is rebalanced or strengthened according to need.

Edward Bach and his flowers

Already with her first book, Laura Cutullo‎ began introducing to Italy this healing method devised by Edward Bach. The flowers studied, selected and used by Bach numbered 38; he explains their action as follows: "The flowers cure not by attacking the disease, but by flooding our bodies with the beautiful vibrations of our higher nature, in whose presence disease melts as snow in the sunshine." Poetic concepts that nonetheless explain well the efficacy of Bach's remedies, which Cutullo has brought into the animal world too. "I began using Californian flowers," Cutullo explains, "after reading a now out-of-print volume, Il repertorio delle essenze floreali californiane by Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz. I found it effective and extremely important. These were flowers often to be found in Italy as well." There were, however, other concepts, different definitions — everything very different from what Bach had outlined. Few, indeed very few, Californian flowers had indications for animals.

Laura Cutullo and the world of animals

But Laura Cutullo is an experimenter, and she began to try. As a veterinarian she knew the anxieties and worries of those who live with one or more animals and care about their wellbeing and health. Often it is our four-legged companions themselves who act as vehicles and containers for our anxieties, our stresses, the worries that occupy us daily. And what better remedy than a series of flowers that bring relief and rebalancing not only to humans, but also and above all to the little creature that shares their path?

Californian flowers for animals

From this veterinary experience comes Fiori californiani per gli animali (Xenia Edizioni), a handy, easy-to-consult volume in which Laura Cutullo illustrates the use of Californian flowers in veterinary medicine. A serious and passionate study that proposes a new way of resolving problems related to our four-legged companions' wellbeing, in a wholly natural manner free of side effects and contraindications. The author concludes: "Flower therapy is an apparently simple therapeutic system, the fruit of careful observation of the human mind and of how it is involved in physical illness — indeed, is in a certain sense responsible for it. Starting from this premise, flower therapy has, in the case of veterinary medicine, a necessarily more demanding application, because the result escapes the possible accusation of a placebo effect. What I have tried, done, verified and used up to this point, over many years of daily work in the surgery, I am making available to all those who wish to let their curiosity be piqued and to experiment on a sound basis."