Essential oils should never be used on your animals at all. If you personally use essential oils, make sure your animals are not around when you do. I personally use my essential oils in a small space where only I am at. I make sure that my cat is not around me or my aromatherapy sticks while using my oils. When I am done with my aromatherapy sticks, I put them away so my cat will not get into them. Make sure you air out the area that you use your essential oils in.
Cats are especially sensitive to essential oils. That being said, dogs are also sensitive to essential oils at higher levels.
Essential oils can cause the following problems in your fur babies.
Gastrointestinal problems and upset stomach in cats and dogs.
Central nervous systems problems and liver damage to your cats.
If your cat ingests or inhales essential oils it can also cause aggravated pneumonia.
If you want to use aromatherapy on your animals, go with a hydrosol and not an essential oil. Hydrosol is also called Flower Water. Hydrosols are water based and not oil based, so this makes them much safer for animals. When buying hydrosols make sure the plants that were used to make the hydrosols were grown organically. Make sure the hydrosols are not mixed with any other substances. Make sure your hydrosols are distilled and stored properly in a dark or amber glass bottle.
There are a few aliments that aromatherapy can be used for. For fleas and ticks, “to help calm your animals when they are stressed out”, you can make a shampoo. For ear health “you can make an ear cleaner”. For first aid and wound care, make a spray or compress. If you have a recipe for your animals that uses essential oils, just replace the essential oils with hydrosols in the recipe. This will make the recipe much safer for your fur-baby.
In later posts, there will be a few aromatherapy recipes for different aliments for your animals.