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Why Cats Can't Metabolize Essential Oils: Cats are known to be deficient in their ability to eliminate compounds through hepatic glucuronidation (they lack enzyme glucuronyl tranferases). Glucuronidation is an important detoxification mechanism present in most animals except cats. Lack of this important detoxification mechanism in cats may result in slower elimination and thus build up of the toxic metabolites in the body causing toxicity. http://www.holisticat.com/aromatherapy.html cats cannot tolerate or metabolize essential oils. Their use can lead to symptoms of toxicity or even death. Why can cats not tolerate the oils? There are several reasons. The major one is that they cannot metabolize them the way that dogs or humans can. (they also cannot metabolize certain herbs or allopathic meds, either) This means that they are not efficiently excreted by the body and can build up to toxic levels. Symptoms of toxicity include vomiting, dizziness, clumsiness, lack of appetite and lack of energy. The next one is that cats have very thin, delicate skin. This means that essential oils can be absorbed more rapidly into their skin and enter the bloodstream. Cats also dislike strong odors and generally keep away from strong scents- even highly diluted essential oils. http://www.vet-task-force.com/Abstract-tea-tree-oil.htm Australian tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) Oil Poisoning in three purebred cats. Bischoff K, Guale F Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 10, 208 (1998) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three Angora cats treated with undiluted tea tree oil dermal route. O. got it from a pet catalog sold as flea treatment. Within 5 hours, the first cat was hypothermic and uncoordinated, alert but unable to stand. Later that day, cat 2 was admitted comatose with severe hypothermia and dehydration. Cat 3 was conscious, nervous, trembling, and ataxic. All the cats smelled of tea tree oil. Cat 3 spent one day being treated and cat 1 spent two days being treated in the hospital but then both went home. Cat 2 died on the third day. The article states: Tea tree oil contains 50-60% terpenes, toxicity is "similar to other essential oils such as eucalyptus oil." Toxicosis in humans has resulted from ingestion of 0.5 to 1 cc tea tree oil per kg of body weight. The 3 cats had about 20 ccs applied to them (each). Says cats may be more sensitive to this toxicosis than dogs, but that the tea tree oil toxicosis has been reported in humans, rats, dogs, and cats. Most patients have clinical signs of central nervous system depression. Dogs and cats with tea tree oil toxicosis will appear weak, obtunded, uncoordinated, ataxic, and usually have muscular tremors. Cats may exhibit signs of liver damage. Toxic components are fat soluble and rapidly absorbed via skin and GI tract. There is no antidote. Treatment involves general detoxification, supportive care, bathing with mild detergents, using activated charcoal if ingested. This directly from the author of the post: (McCashin): FW with permission: Most of us know the warnings of use for cats and small dogs. As you can see toxicity can occur in even very large dogs (bullmastiffs in this case). ---------- From: McCashin <[email protected]> Subject: Tea Tree Oil Toxicity Tea Tree Oil Toxicity Yesterday evening while I was brushing over the dogs I noticed a few new abrasions so I grabbed for the bottle of Tea Tree Oil and dabbed a few drops of the oil onto them. It states on the Thursday Plantation bottle that it is a 100% Pure, Antiseptic-Fungicide-Germicide and can be used on skin infections, boils, pimples, cuts, insect bites, for nasal congestion and on minor burns. The directions are: Apply 2 drops twice daily to the affected area. I dabbed a total of 6 - 10 drops of the Oil directly onto the dogs at different areas and they went off to their beds for the night as normal. In the morning when Tony went down to let them out of their beds they could not get up, they were shaking and in a fair amount of discomfort, they were disorientated and appeared to be high and not in control of their bodily functions. Both Tony and I eventually carried the dogs out from their beds and placed them on their feet, where we had to hold them up otherwise they would literally fall over as they could not support themselves. By this stage I was frantic wondering what was going on, where had they been, could they have eaten anything poisonous. By a quick process of elimination I realized the only thing they both had different was the few drops of Tea Tree Oil each. I phoned the vet and described how they were and said I thought it could have been from the use of the Tea Tree Oil, she couldn?t see how a few drops of a Natural product like Tea Tree Oil could cause such a reaction but advised me to wash the dogs to get rid of any oil left on the skin and phone her and advise her of their situation after that. While Tony bathed the dogs I went searching the Internet to see what I could find about Tea Tree Oil and if there were any possible problems from it?s use. To my horror I discovered quite a bit of information on how toxic it is to our animals. When I phoned the vet again and read her the article I had from the Internet and explained that the symptoms of toxic poisoning from Tea Tree Oil were exactly what they were presenting with, she said to get the dogs to her ASAP. They were both put onto IV drips to flush out their systems and my male who was having severe muscle spasm and pain was also put onto morphine and given a substance to line and protect his stomach. I was able to bring them home for the night to monitor them as the vet thought they would be less stressed at home. My boy had a very disrupted night because of the morphine but today they have both begun to regain control of their bodies and are now able to walk, be it ever so slowly. They are still showing signs of discomfort but hopefully within the next 24 hours they should be back to their happy selves What I have experienced may shock some, but it seems Tea Tree Oil although touted as a Natural? antiseptic-antifungal product, implying to most that it is safe and for use on everyone, can actually be fatal to our animals. Some animals only need to inhale the oil to have it affect them in this terrible way and some animals have died as a result of the Tea Tree Oil. I know I for one will never open another bottle of Tea Tree Oil againS<caron> Tea Tree Oil ToxicityS<caron> Tea tree oil contains 50-60% terpenes; toxicity is similar to other essential oils such as eucalyptus oil. Toxicosis in humans has resulted from ingestion of 0.5 to 1 cc of tea tree oil per kg of body weight. Cats may be more sensitive to this toxicosis than dogs, but tea tree oil toxicosis has been reported in humans, rats, dogs, and cats. Most patients have clinical signs of central nervous system depression. Dogs and cats with tea tree oil toxicosis will appear weak, obtruded, uncoordinated, ataxic, and usually have muscular tremors. Cats may exhibit signs of liver damage and could die as a result. Toxic components are fat soluble and rapidly absorbed via the skin and GI tract. There is no antidote. Treatment involves general detoxification, supportive care, bathing with mild detergents, using activated charcoal if ingested. I have learned that 100% Pure Tea Tree Oil is an ?Essential Oil<sum> and because of the potency of all essential oils it should be used with extreme caution. In my opinion it should come with a WARNING on the label, it can be extremely toxic to our animals and my advice would be to keep T. Tree Oil as far away from your animals as possibleS<caron> Karen McCashin McCashin Bullmastiffs NZ From: Roman <[email protected]> > Tea tree can be great but it has the potential for being very toxic to dogs > and is an ABSOLUTE no-no for cats (any EO is). Do you know why it is so? Roman __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. 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