Our dog, Lucy and my daughters beloved cat, Baby had a minor flea problem towards the end of this summer. Given that it was the end of the season and all the hoopla about how the name brand flea treatments are "toxic" and "poisonous" to our furry family members I scanned the web for more "natural" home remedies and came across a common one-Cedarwood essential oil. In the youtube video a man goes on and on about how toxic the one's the vet offers are and how this is so perfectly harmless but effective and proceeds to apply it directly and very generously to his golden retriever.
What he doesn't tell you is that Cat's body's are different than ours and they metabolize things differently. Many essential oils cannot be metabolized by Cats as their livers lack certain enzymes necessary to process them so their bodies store it away poisoning their tiny bodies. Many cats have died from this. I'm currently praying my daughters Baby doesn't become one of those! Further 2 drops of any essential oil is enough for a 150 pound man. The amount that man put on his dog would be toxic to any living creature as he applied it undiluted and directly in abundance. Last the smell, it is incredibly strong! And animals sense of smell is far far more sensitive than ours! A dog can smell your emotions! Now if a dogs sense of smell is THAT strong, imagine what that offensive smell of undiluted essential oil over applied to it's coat was doing to his poor nose!
You should also know that Cat's skin is thinner than dogs. Therefore more sensitive and more easily irritated. One must be cautious...even shampoos made for dogs cannot be used on cats. Our kitty babies are very unique and must be treated as such.
So please please read up on home remedies....they might just be old wives tales. And not at all what they claim. Thankfully we did not treat Lucy after seeing what it did to Baby. Now we are all just praying hard for Baby.
