I was recently given a bottle of these drops for my elderly gelding by a “good old boy” type of horseman- the insert says it is for fatigue, shipping and loss of appetite (!), good old boy says he uses it for colic. It is administered as drops, 20-30 every 20-30 minutes until 3-4 doses have been given.
The bottle says it has tincture of aconitum, tincture of belladonna and tincture of nux vomica. All 3 are deadly natural poisons, monkshood, deadly nightshade and strychnine. WTH!
I can’t figure out if it is a homeopathic remedy (ie water with the “memory” of these substances) or actually contains an active ingredient.
Anybody ever heard of this or used it? It is a new bottle, he bought it at a feed store.
Just to add, not planning to give it to my poor old guy who is prone to mild gas colic. Banamine works JUST fine!
these chemicals have a long history of use in human and vet medicine.
Like anything the poison ( toxicity) is in the dose. In low dose they can be therapeutic
Belladonna is where we got Atropine and Scopolomine, both widely used drugs. You can google and find that these ingredients have been used for colic, bowel irritation, constipation and fever for many many years.
Well, based on the ingredients it is not surprising that it would be used on horses in shipping as a calming agent. Not sure how “fatigue” would be treated other than the idea that it would aide an animal to rest more deeply - e.g. if they are nervous/anxious, and not expend energy.
In correct doses none of those ingredients are deadly, just like most everything else.
That said, I doubt I would use it on a horse for much of anything, especially colic…although it might be good to have on hand in case you want to kill someone. LOL.
We went on a wagon train one time and a farmer met us who had driven his team many, many miles to get to where we were. As soon as we stopped for the night and he unhitched his team all 3 of them went down, either tying up or colic or something. Someone gave all 3 of them Bell’s drops, and within half an hour they had all improved enough so that they were able to load them up and take them home. What ultimately happened to them I don’t know, but the change in them after the Bells’ drops was dramatic.
Well the risk with painkillers and colic is that you just mask the symptoms.
None of those ingredients are pain killers per se. Atropine (belladonna) is a smooth muscle relaxant , dries up secretions such as saliva. It might help colic if it was gassy or a very mild early obstruction. Tincture of aconite was used topically in the past for gout and “rheumatism”. Taken orally it slows heartrate and can cause arrhthmias- there are no modern drugs derived from aconite that I am aware of. Nux Vomica- strychnine- causes vasoconstriction but more importantly is a strong neurotoxin leading to spasms, convulsions, respiratory arrest and death, usually from hypoxia. Again, no modern drugs derived from this.
I would hesitate to say that in “correct” doses they are not deadly- what is a correct dose of a mixture with no documented safe use?
Edited to add that there is no indication on bottle package or insert as to the strength of the tinctures. I am leaning towards a homeopathic remedy altho it does not state that anywhere.
I would suspect that the reason there are no modern drugs with the same ingredients is because any benefits (if there are any) do not outweigh the potential side effects. If Bell’s Drops were reasonably safe and effective then more responsible owners would have them in their first aid kits, but they don’t.
From what I saw, the Bell’s affected the horses in ways that made it look like they’d been successfully treated, but I have no idea if the horses continued to recover or ended up with serious complications, or died.
I don’t believe that a homeopathic remedy could have produced the effects I saw, as they were much more consistent with what I would expect from atropine, aconite, and possibly strychnine.
And they used to feed tobacco for deworming. Honest!
Belladonna/atropine will exacerbate an impaction colic. It stops smooth muscle contraction.
Right. I will consign this to my “interesting but outmoded” shelf!
