good morning don’t fucking use essential oils around your pets especially birds and reptiles and cats spraying your pet with diluted lavender isn’t going to antioxidize them or whatever stupid bullshit you pulled off a holistic website
There are SOME essential oils that are safe for pets but many that can and WILL injure or kill your pet. Do your damn research just like you would for yourself
There are NO essential oils safe for your pets.
I did my research. I am a biochemist.
Essential oils are concentrated extracts, which are highly volatile. Their fumes are full of phenols, monoterpene hydrocarbons, phenylpropanes, and ketones. These compounds are toxic and can cause serious illness and death through extended exposure.
Let’s take a popular one: lavender oil. The active ingredient in essential lavender oil is linaool. Linaool is a cytotoxin, it destroys cell membranes. Inhaled and placed on skin, it can cause permanent damage.
“but what if you dilute it?”
Dilution won’t work. Long time exposure of a diluted toxin will result in the same damage as short term exposure of a concentrated one. Ingesting small amounts of radioactive material over time will give me the same cancer a gamma burst would. And if you dilute it extensively, you’re basically removing any effect you desired of the oil.
There’s no reason to use essential oils around pets. They make calming supplements that aren’t volatile and toxic. They make calming pheramone diffusers. If your animal is destructive (like a plucking parrot) then they’re understimulated and bored. Spritzing your pet with dangerous oils aren’t a substitute for reassessing and changing husbandry.
I’ve used lavender countless times on my cats Sebastian. He has huge paws and lots of fur so he’s susceptible to yeast infections between his little toe beans, and lavender helps speed up the healing process and ease the swelling a bit. I’ve also used lavender for burns on my dogs paw pads.
first of all, if you have a problem with me @ me next time instead of hiding in your tags
Second of all, did you like… actually read what I wrote? Because I literally stated that lavender oil has a toxic component that can cause cell damage over time. Did you conveniently skip over that part?
I have seen MULTIPLE internet sites listing essential oils that are studied and known to be toxic to cats and dogs as “safe”. There are many, many bad sources out there. If you do your research, make sure you’re actually basing your information on scientifically verified, peer-reviewed information, not tertiary sources and anecdotal information.
Do not use essential oils on your pets or around your pets.
If your pet has chronic paw infections, take it to the vet. Your vet can address the root cause (lots of fur and big paws shouldn’t inherently cause yeast infections and I’d really suggest looking at the cat’s diet and other lifestyle issues) and provide more effective, safer treatments.
Essential oils are incredibly toxic for reptiles, birds, and small animals as well. Reptiles and birds are especially susceptible to the fumes (VOCs). This includes essential oil diffusers, which I’ve often seen touted as “safer” than candles. They are not safer and still release dangerous VOCs.
^^^^
Scented oils are fine for some animals, such as rabbits, we use scented oils to calm them, but these oils are not strong, and not essential oils as they are known to be.
Wait, so does this mean those things that diffuse the oils in the air? My mom uses one of those at her house and my parents have two dogs. Does that mean I should find her an alternative? This is the first I’ve heard of this.
First off, I’d like to thank everyone who liked and shared my last post regarding Makhmal’s Medical Fund.
So far, we have not received any donations. I must say, I am a bit saddened, but I understand that not everyone can donate and that the post did not reach many people.
I don’t like to share my follower count, but in this case, I think it is necessary to help spread the word about Makhmal and her need for support from kind patrons like you.
There are 21,562 of you wonderful people with wonderful blogs. It’s not a remarkable number, but it is a good number and I appreciate every single one of you for supporting me and following my appreciation for wild cats all over the world (including domestic cats). If only 4,000 of you donate just $1, Sara would be able to help pay off Makhmal’s surgery costs as well as provide continual support (physical therapy, rehabilitation, etc.) in the hopes that one day, Makhmal may be able to utilize her left hind leg to the best of her ability.
Just one dollar and we can get Makhmal the help that she so desperately needs!
Every donation counts. Every reblog and share counts. Please do not give up on Makhmal. She is only 6 months old. A beautiful tortie shell kitten who so desperately needs your help. Please help her mom pay off her medical costs and provide her with the medical support and care that she needs.
I know that this is not wild cat related, but a domestic cat is just as important and worthy of our attention and help. As you know, there are 39 extant species of cat, the Domestic cat is #40.
If you love Scottish fold cats, I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear. Please, please read on anyway. If you are considering adopting a Scottish fold, PLEASE continue reading. This information needs to be more widely known.
In 2008, the Journal of Small Animal practice released a short report on disorders associated with breeds of cats. In this report, the authors mentioned the Scottish fold:
People who own them may be “charmed” by their round faces and open expression (and they may not realise that the reason the cats do not move around too much is because they are variably crippled with arthritis).1
The gene that causes the cute fold in the Scottish fold’s ear also leads to the development of a degenerative disorder called osteochondrodysplasia. ALL Scottish folds have this disorder, whether they show symptoms or not- the fold in their ears is caused by a cartilage deformity that also affects their joints.
Osteochondrodysplasia leads to crippling osteoarthritis, which affects Scottish folds at much younger ages than other breeds of cats. In cats heterozygous for the gene, the disease’s progression can be seen in cats as young as six months. In homozygous cats, it can be seen as early as seven weeks old.
Affected cats may be grossly deformed, with short wide limbs and a short, inflexible tail. They show lameness, swollen wrist (carpal) and ankle (tarsal) joints, have an abnormal gait, and are reluctant to move and jump. Severely affected individuals become crippled and unable to walk.
…Many affected cats are euthanased earlier in life due to the profound effects of this disease.2
The breed is often described as “placid” and “calm.” This is due to the fact that they are constantly in pain due to this disorder. Even in mild, ‘asymptomatic’ cases which can occur in heterozygous cats, they may still be experiencing pain due to cats’ tendency to hide their suffering.
Many breeders of Scottish folds claim that not all heterozygous cats have the disorder, because the studies that examined the cats (which were all, heterozygous or not, shown to have it) had small sample sizes.
In 2003, Lorraine Shelton, a specialist in genetic diseases, offered to pay for 300 x-rays of healthy adult Scottish folds to prove that the disorder was not present in some heterozygous cats.
…She has asked a list of 300 Scottish Fold breeders from around the world to go to their vet to get X-rays done. She had offered to pay for these X-rays but not a single breeder had taken up that offer. You could not know whether this problem existed unless an X-ray was taken. If somebody would send her an X-ray of a healthy hind leg of a folded eared cat, she would be grateful as she wanted to see the very first one.3
To date, no one has taken her up on the offer. The breeders’ unwillingness to have their cats examined speaks volumes. The authors of all studies on these cats agree: it ethically wrong to continue breeding these cats.
It disturbs me that any breeder would knowingly continue to create animals that will be in pain throughout their lives. As a cat lover myself, I am begging you, please do not buy Scottish folds. Do not support these unethical breeding practices, or the concept that it is acceptable to intentionally breed unhealthy animals for the sake of how they look.
Before you buy ANY animal, please do your research. If a breed suffers from high incidences of genetic disorders, don’t use your money to support the creation of more animal suffering.
I’ve started the cats on a diet (gotta get rid of those small saggy bellies), & this has resulted in Pangur shadowing me for the last 2 hours, screaming & biting whatever body part I leave accessible
no more ankle-biting!
Pangur, why
y’all losing your minds in the comments/reblogs over Pangur’s diet are gonna have to find someone else following the medical advice of a professional to threaten via anon, because, like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis that was her over-plump cat bod, she has transformed!
sorry folks, PETA didn’t come in time! my cat’s now a healthy weight for her breed! choke!
This post of yours really highlights how much of the “food equals love” mindset so prevalent in grandmas or aunties extends not only to human family but to pets, and contributed to animals being overweight so often.
Except instead of the genuine love and concern you get from gramma Carol who worries you don’t eat enough, it’s some random ass fucking lunatic stranger who insists you’re torturing your pet to death by not feeding it as much as it wants exactly when it wants it because they have no sense of portion control or hyperbole.
I live in
Australia, were pretty much 98% of cat owners seem to have outdoor cats, and
then we all equally complain about our fading endangered wildlife and
overpopulated strays. Granted, I grew up in a family that pretty much got a cat
for funsies and then just let it roam and come inside for food and a cuddle. As
I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely given an ear to people who talk about the
wildlife and how dangerous it is for cats but have never been able to fully comprehend
what they mean.
I think after
you work in a general/emergency vet clinic it quickly changes your once-unsure
opinion on outdoor cats, and I confidently say I will never, NEVER have a
roaming cat again.
My first night
working I had some poor owners walking in balling while holding their dying cat
after being hit by a car. I’d never seen a HBC (hit by car), and it is one of
the most terrible things I tell you.
The amount of
times I have “stray HBC cats” rushed in by a founder only for me scan them and
rush them down to the hospital only to get their owner on the phone saying “but
I only just saw her 20 minutes ago”.
Every week now:
Horrific
motor vehicle accidents
Lost
‘strays’ being bought in after an accident and there’s only so much you can do
as you can’t reach their owners
Countless
phone calls asking if their lost cat has come through
Unchipped
wandering cats that now have no home (happens to dogs too, please microchip)
Terrible
dog attacks
Snake
bites
Poisonings
Respiratory
infections
Mysterious
broken limbs
Cat
fight infections and wounds
Cat
fight abscesses
FIV
FeLV
FIP
(arguably indoor cats get these too, but it feels more common in outdoor
animals)
HUGE
worm loads
Very sick cats that their owners didn’t notice before because
they toilet and vomit outside (out of view)
Generally the 16-22 year old cats I see are all pretty much indoor kitties
(injured wildlife) Regardless of how you feed them, they will hunt the wildlife
Not only it is
an epidemic to our slowly-wiltering wildlife population but your cat is not
better off anyway. I will never have
an outdoor cat again, and I don’t really know why I hadn’t realized this sooner
(I lost one of my cats HBC and my other two just never came home one day, I’ve
never had a cat past the age of 7, I loved them so much, but was too young and
it never crossed my mind that it was dangerous for them).
For some reason
no-one ever complains about apartment cats and that we have to keep our dogs
contained, but as soon as we do it for cats it’s “cruel”.
“Cats are
easier than dogs”, damn well they can be, but that doesn’t mean you feed,
cuddle and forget about them. Clean the litter tray, play with them, build a
cat run, get them cat trees and shelves they can climb on, get slow feeders
they have to hunt for, give them a window ledge to hang out on, teach them
walks are fun, love them, cuddle them, they’ll be around longer if you do.
People will
scoff and call you silly and that it’s too hard, because we’re stuck in this
backwards lazy notion that that is “owning a cat” and have never given it
another thought, we need to change it.
I hope every “but my cat is an outdoor cat and does fine” person who waltzes onto this blog to tell us so sees this
PiraticOctopus 