Baby Lavender Oil?

[guineapigluver1]

Is baby lavender oil okay to use on cats? The only ingredients are mineral oil and fragrance, I'm pretty sure you can't, but I just want to find out.

[Jane_G]

Before I answer your question, I have one of my own. Why would you want to use baby oil on a cat? Just curious.

[guineapigluver1]

My sister put some of the oil in a jar with water to put fleas in (we have a flea problem we are trying to get under control), and they died right away, and she wanted me to find out if you can put it on cats.


P.S We use a product spray on them by Natures Chemistry called De Flea, that you spray on every three days, and I'm going to try to get my mom to get a gentle cat shampoo so we can give them a bath, we are vacccuming EVERYWWHERE every day, and my mom is going to order capstar, and something else, and I think we need to treat the yard, since Rocky some times gets out of the house.

[Jane_G]

You have to be very careful when using essential oils with pets. Your best bet might be to check with your vet. Some of the oils have very strong smells and could do more harm than good.

Have you given your cat any flea treatments? I'd try them before I resorted to unproven treatments. If the fleas are in your house also, you would have to treat the house, not just the cat.

[guineapigluver1]

It isn't strong at all, you can barely smell it. We had treated the whole house before, but when we got the cats they came back, after Rocky escaped, and I'm trying to get my mom to have it done again, but she said that we need to be careful because my baby brother is crawling, I told her theat just vacuuming every day isn't going to do much. We also have fleece blankets in all their favorite places to sleep and wash them in hot water often. Wehaven't treated them with any yet, we tried 2 before, but they didn't work, I think what she is getting on Friday is though. I hope she gets the house treated again these fleas are driving me up the wall! Me and the cats!

[gpigluver14]

I would definitely ask your vet before putting it on your cat, just to be sure. But I don't know about the fragrance. It might be okay if it said where it came from - like "fragrance derived from cucumber extract" for example. But it could come from anything if it doesn't have the source it is from. Most likely it may be just chemicals, to add a pleasant smell.

[fuzzworth]

Essential Oils depending on which one ( even oils not toxic to dogs can be fatal to cats) can be extremely bad for cats. the feline system is a fickle thing and process things so radically different then most of our domesticated pets that I would be hard pressed to spray anything on my cat. E.O. toxicity can lead to liver failure, ataxia, vomiting and death.

the lavender cat has some great info on the subject
The Lavender Cat - Cats and Essential Oil Safety

Diatomaceous Earth is a good start for natural non toxic flea control.

Edited to add- Fragrance oils and essential oils are VASTLY different things. Do some research.

[Ziggy&Herald]

As pointed out dogs and cats are very different. But, I thought I should say when I was having problems with a dog pottying in the house, we were told to mix lavender with water and put it on the dog and the areas he was going. Dogs are not suppose to use the bathroom in areas that smell like themselves was the theory. It did not work, but my point being it was safe for him. I would definitely talk to your Vet and research it before trying it on a cat though.

[guineapigluver1]

I decided not too, since I was worried about the fragrance part, and they WOULD lick it, and ingest it, my mom said not too. Oh, by the way, my mom said we can't treat the house until the day we move out, until then we just keep vacuuming everywhere, washing everything we can in the washing machine, treating them, giving them a bath (once in while), etc. and before we move into the new house (when we sell this one, Argg!), we are going to steam clean the carpet, vaccuume the carpet, vacuume all the hardwood, vinyl, and tile, and then mop, and treat the yard, before we move in.


fuzzworth-The spray we use is not toxic at all, it's natural.

[guineapigluver1]

Well, we treated the cats on friday and it did help some, but I was going over their tails, and it's like a minefield!! There are probably thousands (no kidding!) on Rocky, and Penny's tails! Oh, and yesterday I was running my fingers through his tail and came up with blood on my hands, I feel so bad for them. I'm at a loss as what to do, oh I hope those people who came last week buy our house! Princess suprisingly, when I go through her fur has mainly fleas (what little she does have on her), and basically no flea eggs. To add to the wonderful fleas (sarcasm), I found out today that they have lice, wonderful, huh? I had found some white eggs on them before, but never thought about lice, well I got a cat book day before yesterday (just to read, again, for the summer reading program), was looking at the parasite section and saw the thing about lice. We are going to spray the house (after we move out), and after it dries vaccuming it, and than mopping to get rid of them once and for all, and while doing that taking care of the fleas and lice on the cats, and possible having to treat the new house. We had someone look at the house today, they were really rude also. First off they said they were coming between 11:00 Am and 12:00 PM, we came back and the lock combination was the same as when we left, lights were still on, and the papers appeared not touch, well two hours later, (after my mom finally got my brother to sleep finally, and was about to put him down), my sister heard a lady talking outside, and turns out they finally showed up really late, and woke my baby brother up, not only that but the guy was incredibly rude saying "It looks like you murdered the yard!" Well, it's like been in the 100's for the past week or so, so we couldn't mow, plus the smoke from the wild fire, and we don't water it because of the drought!

[fuzzworth]

Originally Posted by guineapigluver1

Oh, and yesterday I was running my fingers through his tail and came up with blood on my hands, I feel so bad for them. I'm at a loss as what to do, oh I hope those people who came last week buy our house! Princess suprisingly, when I go through her fur has mainly fleas (what little she does have on her), and basically no flea eggs. To add to the wonderful fleas (sarcasm), I found out today that they have lice, wonderful, huh? I had found some white eggs on them before, but never thought about lice, well I got a cat book day before yesterday (just to read, again, for the summer reading program), was looking at the parasite section and saw the thing about lice.

Books especially books in the library can be full of outdated harmful information. And if your cat has bloody open sores then you need to take the cat to the VET. You don't know for sure that these other eggs on your cat are lice you are making an assumption based on a photo in a book. Again take the animal to the vet.

Originally Posted by guineapigluver1

fuzzworth-The spray we use is not toxic at all, it's natural.

My point, guineapigluver, was that just because its non toxic to you or a dog doesn't mean it cant be toxic to a cat. Some antibiotics are fatal to guinea pigs but not to humans cats or dogs. This is WHY it is so important to talk with a vet.

I would take your cats to the VET. With that many fleas I would be sincerely worried about anemia as well as other issues associated with a bad flea infestation.

[guineapigluver1]

The book isn't outdated at all it is a very thick in depth, and lots of research was done in part of the author, there was not a picture but descriptions, of it and how to treat it. My mom has seen lice before, and looked at what I showed her, said that it is lice. And, yes, they will be taken to the vet, we know how to treat the fleas, just not the lice, and I told my mom that we need to go to a vet. They are not open and bloody, but traces of it from having scratched so much because of the fleas, and I use a flea comb every day, and spend literally hours working through there fur getting them off, tomorrow, I am going to go through every singe one of them, and get as much off of them as possible, as well as washing everything, and vaccuming everything and everywhere.

[Ziggy&Herald]

Fleas cause severe anemia when they are that bad. Not to mention they more then likely have tapeworms which come from ingesting fleas. Not just any worm medicine will treat the tapes. It needs a special kind.

Flea dander is nothing but flea poop filled with blood. When you wash the animal it will seem as if it is bleeding, but it's just the dander mixing with the water. I'm not saying they don't have open sores, they probably do if the infestation is so bad.

They need to be treated by a vet and the house needs to be professionally treated. Fleas are incredibly hard to get rid of. Bombs do not work unless you lift all couches and cushions so the insecticide gets under there as well. You have to vacuum everyday and dump the bags or canister immediately outside of the house. You also have to wash everything in your home. If you don't clean absolutely everything all your hard work will be for nothing.

I can not stress the importance of getting rid of the fleas and worms. They can kill your pet from anemia if they are not treated.

[guineapigluver1]

Turns out they don't have lice, Rocky had flaky skin (we are going to change there food brand from Blue Buffalo, to either Felidae, or Solid Gold) and put that and a flea that looks like lice. Anyway's, we are going to get the house professionally treated, we had it done before, but we think they had fleas on them when we got them (the lady who had them was terrible, she fed them hot dogs, and kept them outside), and it turned into a nightmare. Yes, we do know how hard it is to get rid of fleas we had to do it before. I think Rock'y and possibly Penny will need to get their tails shaved, there so bad that when you try to get stuff off you end up pulling fur. Today we are washing every single peice of bedding, all clothes, vacuuming everything, and washing the cats in only warm water. I don't know when we are taking them to the vet, but I'll deffinately tell my mom about the tape worms. They were treated for round worms before, and gotten rid of.

[fuzzworth]

They probably have dermatitis related to the fleas. I would hold off on additional stress to their system by a food change.

[guineapigluver1]

No, they don't have dermatitis, he had flaky skin before the flea problem, and we can't change their food until we move, because unfortunately the only places for pets (that I know of) here are PetSmart and PetCo, and they don't have those brands of food as well as Wal-Mart, and Target don't have them.