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Dr. Bell's Veterinary Medical Wonder

A

Aaron

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
626
Location
Stratton, Ontario
Anybody know if there is somewhere you can still buy Dr. Bell's Veterinary Medical Wonder? Have a really old bottle of it that gets used every once in a while, and eventually going to need another bottle.

We just found one of our calves outside staggering around. He has been a problem since he was born in April. First he had a fever, which we gave him an aspirin for. Then, he went missing for about 3-4 days. Cow didn't know where he was and I couldn't find him. Finally almost tripped over him when we were rounding up cattle for vaccinations. He was hiding under a bunch of deadfall and had lost 60% of his hair, but was alive and had a little spring in his step. He is now about 85% bald. We found him tonight staggering around and lying down after walking about 10 feet. He would stretch out in agony every time he would lie down, as if to tell us to put him out of his misery. We figure it has to have something to do with his guts. Blockage or distrubance of some sort. We gave him a dose of electrolytes, a bit of penicillin in the hip and neck and a bit of Dr. Bell's. From our experience, either the Dr. Bell's will cure him or kill him, either way it will solve our problem. :roll:
 
Aaron said:
Anybody know if there is somewhere you can still buy Dr. Bell's Veterinary Medical Wonder? Have a really old bottle of it that gets used every once in a while, and eventually going to need another bottle.

We just found one of our calves outside staggering around. He has been a problem since he was born in April. First he had a fever, which we gave him an aspirin for. Then, he went missing for about 3-4 days. Cow didn't know where he was and I couldn't find him. Finally almost tripped over him when we were rounding up cattle for vaccinations. He was hiding under a bunch of deadfall and had lost 60% of his hair, but was alive and had a little spring in his step. He is now about 85% bald. We found him tonight staggering around and lying down after walking about 10 feet. He would stretch out in agony every time he would lie down, as if to tell us to put him out of his misery. We figure it has to have something to do with his guts. Blockage or distrubance of some sort. We gave him a dose of electrolytes, a bit of penicillin in the hip and neck and a bit of Dr. Bell's. From our experience, either the Dr. Bell's will cure him or kill him, either way it will solve our problem. :roll:
Click to expand...
Aaron-Of what does Dr. Bell's stuff consist?
 
The label on our bottle is worn out, so I can't say for sure. A person on Agri-ville.com said that he believed arsenic was in it, which could be very true as it claimed to work by affecting the nerves, tissues, muscles including the heart, in the animal....and could kill a person if they were to take it. Lots of vets say it is a crock of BS, but we (along with many other faithful followers of Dr. Bell's) always used it on animals for decades (typically calves) that were basically about an hour away from being dead anyways.....and somehow, a majority seemed to pull through. :D

A picture of the old box and bottle can be found here:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=21097&item=7158886173&rd=1

It is a super small bottle with an old rubber and glass eyedropper as the cap and process used of calculating and applying it to the tongue.
 
If memory serves me it was Codine - some heavy drug anyway - Iligal in the US I would go up to visit friends in Canada in the 60's - buy a case or 2 and put it in plane view in my camper - when I was asked if I had anything to declair I'd say No! - - in 10 trips I had one Border Guard say "You can't take that into the USA - - and took my case.

It was iligal as Hell around the Race Tracks - - The Vet's around here knew I had it and would tell people with horses that were "Down" to see if I could get their horse up

Many a "Downer" horse, cow, sheep would get up and walk off after a couple drops of Doc Bell's orally. :roll:

V¬'s Dad
 
Aaron,IM curious about that calf,because I got a call from a neighbor that asked me basically the same question,its been a few years ago but I went to look at this calf and it was a black baldy calf that was born with about 75% of his hair missing.I had never heard of it before and talking to the owner and asking questions I found out the only thing that he had done that might have contributed to the calfs problem was that he said he didnt know the calves mama was that close to calving and he ivomeced her along with some others.I didnt keep up with him so I dont know if calf recovered or not.Its gonna be interesting to see how yours does,keep us posted...........good luck PS did you ivomec that calves mama recently ?
 
He was pretty down and out when we treated him, but he is up and out of the calf shed and walking around. He wasn't born bald. I figure he must have got a real bad fever, and was on the brink of death when he lost all that hair...because he lost it over about a 4 day period. Haymaker, if you have a calf that is born bald, and it is coming from a black baldy, I would suspect it has contracted the hairless gene in the Herefords. If so, it's hair will grow back, but will be very short, and sometimes curly.

We never Ivomeced the cows last fall, so it has been at least a year and a 1/2 since they have gotten Ivomec. We thought about putting Ivomec on the calf, but he is such a light little bugger at about month old that we are scared it might kill him. Cow is fine though, not a patch of hair gone on her body...and the calf can mingle with other calves...and they haven't gotten it....so I suspect it had something to do with it running a fever.
 
Aaron said:
Anybody know if there is somewhere you can still buy Dr. Bell's Veterinary Medical Wonder? Have a really old bottle of it that gets used every once in a while, and eventually going to need another bottle.

We just found one of our calves outside staggering around. He has been a problem since he was born in April. First he had a fever, which we gave him an aspirin for. Then, he went missing for about 3-4 days. Cow didn't know where he was and I couldn't find him. Finally almost tripped over him when we were rounding up cattle for vaccinations. He was hiding under a bunch of deadfall and had lost 60% of his hair, but was alive and had a little spring in his step. He is now about 85% bald. We found him tonight staggering around and lying down after walking about 10 feet. He would stretch out in agony every time he would lie down, as if to tell us to put him out of his misery. We figure it has to have something to do with his guts. Blockage or distrubance of some sort. We gave him a dose of electrolytes, a bit of penicillin in the hip and neck and a bit of Dr. Bell's. From our experience, either the Dr. Bell's will cure him or kill him, either way it will solve our problem. :roll:
Click to expand...
This is waaay late but Bell Drops consist of Belladonna, Nox Vomica, and Aconite. All of those are legal to have but I THINK? The product was discontinued (even though it always worked wonders IMO). Did you by chance ever find a new vendor because mine recently stopped selling them as well
 
I had never heard of it, but WHEW, did this thread bring back memories. Aaron, DOC Harris, Haymaker, V_key. I would like to know where they are or what may have happened to them.
Those were fun days on this site.


Thanks for bringing this back up HouseA, and welcome to ranchers.

I'm curious, and I did find this: https://mhc.andornot.com/en/permalink/artifact2422

Veterinarian Dr. George W. Bell (1858-1927), graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College 1880; practised veterinary medicine in the U.S. for 13 years. Returning to Kingston he established a veterinarian clinic on Brock Street, and continued to produce his patent medicines for use in farm livestock and pet animals under the business name of 'Dr. Bell's Wonder Medicine Company'. Dr. Bell made both veterinary and human remedies.Dr. Bell's Wonder Medicine was used as a sort of "cure all" but especially in the treatment of colic and inflammation and for cough and chills. The ingredients were aconite, belladonna, digitalis and nux vomica (strychnine).He was principal (1895-1897) for the new Kingston Veterinary College at Queen's University. By 1919 he was the milk inspector.The operation of Dr. Bell's Wonder Medicine Company was headed by his son. In 1936 when the United States Food and Drug Administration accused Dr. Bell's Wonder Medicine Company of "misbranding." Bottles were seized and analyzed under the Food and Drug Act. Labelled at 40 per cent alcohol, the tests concluded the mixture contained between 63 per cent and 65 per cent per bottle. Legal action ensued. In later years, the once-respected and prosperous company was labelled as quackery.
 
Aaron said:
The label on our bottle is worn out, so I can't say for sure. A person on Agri-ville.com said that he believed arsenic was in it, which could be very true as it claimed to work by affecting the nerves, tissues, muscles including the heart, in the animal....and could kill a person if they were to take it. Lots of vets say it is a crock of BS, but we (along with many other faithful followers of Dr. Bell's) always used it on animals for decades (typically calves) that were basically about an hour away from being dead anyways.....and somehow, a majority seemed to pull through. :D

A picture of the old box and bottle can be found here:


It is a super small bottle with an old rubber and glass eyedropper as the cap and process used of calculating and applying it to the tongue.
Click to expand...
I am living proof that it does not kill humans!! EVERYTIME when I was sick as a kid grandpa would take down the Dr. Bells and we all got a three drops on a teaspoon and cured within a day or two!! I'm interested to know if I can purchase some of the original mixture stuff too!! Not the bell drops stuff!! Red-white-black label with the horse on the front. By the way I'm 63 and the last bottle (out of grandpas case) I had was used at the beginning of the Covid scam and I felt a little sick (sore chest, coughing, felt warm) so squeezed the last three drops out of the bottle and sickness was gone. Haven't been sick since!! The sticker on the bottle said "The Original Dr. Bells horse medicine"!

I've been looking for this for a few years!!
 
If it contained arsenic, I would bet it is no longer available.

We used to use a product called Etherated Camphorated Oil and it would warm up a lamb
with a cold mouth. Saved many calves and one horse that fell into the Powder River.
The last we got a vet bootlegged it out of Canada. It was a great life-saver, but can't get
it anymore. It only took a few cc's and immediately you could smell it on the calf's
breath.
 
Have cured many horses with colic with this product. would love to find more as I don't have much left. Interesting comment about taking Dr. Belle's when the covid spamdemic surfaced. I took invermectin and symptons were gone in a couple of days.
 
Way back when when I started my first job at the Co-op, this stuff was on the shelf. My boss at the time explained to me that yes, it would either cure or kill. AND they had a lot of long distance truckers would come in to buy it and soak their toothpicks in it. Cheaper than bennys and arguably legal!

Hope your calf makes it Aaron.
 

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