Cats, Essential Oils & Aromatherapy? - The Lavender Cat

TheLavenderCat - Purrrty Comments - The Lavender Cat - Essential Oil Safety For Cats
http://www.thelavendercat.com/generic.html?pid=19 (3 of 4) [11/15/2007 11:03:43 AM]
Sue,
Your creation of this website for the love of the
feline critters is heart warming.
I have a question concerning essential oils used
for aromatherapy with diffusers. Your warnings
appear to be focused on topical and ingestible
uses. I have been using oils daily in diffusers,
with four cats under foot for years. Although I
have never noticed any signs of discomfort by the
cats, I do want some assurance that this use is
okay - or that I should be exercising some
precautions. Will appreciate your feedback.
Hi DT,
Thank you for the compliment and your interest
in your cats' safety. As oils
can affect a cat by olfactory and lungs just like
humans, precautions should be used. Liver
toxicity can be a slow process without any visible
symptoms.
This is what I do: try to choose oils in lower
terpene volumes, keep air circulating especially
during diffusion so that molecules are not heavily
concentrated in the area a cat is in. Make sure
cat can get 'undiffused air at any time if
possible, do not diffuse in an individual room make
it a multi-room location and wait 48 hours
between end of last diffusion and starting
another diffusion.
As you probably know, humans become desensitized
to the intensity of a beautiful aroma
and have the habit of 'freshening it up' and
adding more essential oils, not so good for the
cat.
Thank you for writing,
Sue
Dear Sue,
Many thanks to you for your speedy and thorough