Supplemental Session Preparation & Guidelines for Cats
Space
We have found these three most suitable for cats:
A large size crate that has been made safe & comfortable.
A blanket covering the top and two to three sides can help to provide a feeling of security.
In a favorite place, or a small room such as a bathroom, with good ventilation.
On someone’s lap or the sofa (if likely to stay).
Aim to work in a relaxed, quiet environment and to allow your cat plenty of time to work through and process the aromas. This usually takes longer the first session.
It may be difficult for a cat to focus on the extracts in a larger room. An unwanted aroma may make them run under furniture or out of the room, since they will associate an oil that is not needed as a potential toxin and become suspicious when subsequent aromas are offered. If this happens, we will need to earn their trust again by letting them know that we want to help. Only when we begin to work with extracts that make them feel good will they want to stay around.
Potency
Essential oil molecules are considerably potent to cats, even in minute doses. Simply inhaling lemon oil seems to help dissolve kidney stones.
How Cats Work with Oils
Informational guidelines to share what to expect during a session with your cat.
Cats may take a few sniffs and turn away or just stay with the oil.
They take relatively short breaks before topping up with more of the same oil in order to reach their required dose.
Multiple sniffs allow the concentration or dose, to build up.
When a cat’s eyes squint to an oil, it is with inspired aromas, not because it’s too strong. If it were too strong, they would walk away.
Cats may choose to brush against fragrant hands which have a drop or two of a selected oil rubbed in, resulting in fragrant hands. They indicate their desire for a topical application by rubbing against your leg, or nearby furniture, or they may put their head down for it to be rubbed around the head area, or the side of the neck (avoid around the eyes).
Even though cats do not have the metabolic ability to efficiency break down some of the essential oils, they are able to work with those they require at appropriate dosages. When offered correctly, essential oils can be of great benefit to the cat both physically and behaviorally.
Offering an Oil
I highly recommend working with a qualified practitioner or being fully trained & understanding Animal Self-Medication before using any remedies. Essential oils and other extracts are potent medicines.
If you would like to learn how to work more independently with remedies, coursework is available at: www.carolineingraham.com
It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to not let a cat accidentally touch an essential oil. See more under ‘Feline Safety’.
Remember to always let the cat lead the way.
When an oil is first offered to a cat, place your finger gently around the top side so in case a cat rushes up to it, it doesn’t touch their nose.
When offering an essential oil, start 12-18” away, slowly approach the cat with the oil. If there is interest and the cat’s head begins to turn away, but they haven’t left, hold that position. This will be the distance required for the optimum concentration of aromatic molecules. During this process the cat will become still, with a far away look in his or her eyes. After a little while, try moving the aroma closer, observing the eyes and body language. If the eyes open or your cat turns away, stop. After a while, move the aroma slowly away. If the cat’s head turns back and follows the aroma, keep offering. When your cat loses focus on the extract, try another, and go back to that one at a later stage. Each situation is case sensitive so it may be a matter of “feeling” your way at first. If an oil is not needed, your cat will either show no interest, back off quickly, or walk away.
An short video clip introducing Feline Self-Medication
Points to Remember
Hold the bottle or aroma positioned below the nostrils. This way, your cat can guide its dose since aromas travel upward. If it is held higher than the nostrils, it is likely to flood the room with the aroma and will make it harder for your cat to work with.
While offering the aroma, if your cat slightly turns their head away, natural temptation is to follow, but don’t follow 🙂 This is their way of positioning to get the correct concentration. They may change in the moments to follow where bringing it closer would be ok. Though if we follow a cat when have turned away from it or said “no thank you”, it is likely that they will run off.
Smelling
When a cat detects a needed oil, it may not be immediately obvious if the nostrils aren’t flaring, so we are looking instead for blinking, stillness and a change in breathing. Aroma molecules will be sent via the olfactory system to the brain where they trigger responses.
Sniffing
When the nostrils are actively twitching or flaring, a cat is taking aromatic chemicals into the blood.
Licking the Air
This will elicit a stronger dose since the aroma molecules on the tongue will enter the bood and also the brain via the vomeronasal organ, giving the most direct route to the brain.
Extracts that Access Memories
Essential oils such as Rose, Neroli, Linden Blossom and Yarrow can access memories which could evoke a reaction such as hissing or swiping out for a cat, or growling for a dog, or stomping for a horse. Not all animals want to face their past so an animal may initially be hesitant to inhale or work with these aromas. Supportive oils such as Jasmine, Valerian and Vanilla may also be needed.
Topical
Essential oils and CO2 extracts are generally not offered to cats topically except when indicated by the cat when it rubs against the nearest chair or leg after smelling it. If working with floral waters, spray the chosen water on your hands and offer your hands to your cat. If working with essential oils, put a few drops onto your hand and rub your hands together so that there is no liquid left, just fragrant hands, then offer your hands. They may bow their head for application or indicate they want it applied to the side of their neck (avoiding around the eyes). Please do not apply an oil to a cat without professional guidance. They do not have the enzymatic or metabolic function to break down oils that are still in liquid form.
Oral
Cats usually find essential oil inhalation sufficient for their needs. However they will occasionally select extracts such as infused oils, vegetable oils and powders orally.
Feline Safety
Cats have very low gucuronyl transferase activity, an enzyme involved with breaking down some chemicals including alcohols and more importantly, phenols. Only a small number of essential oils used in Animal Self Medication are phenol-rich. The most common are clove, cinnamon and the phenol-rich chemotypes of thyme. Cats will however select phenol-rich oils by inhalation when needed, affording beneficial outcomes. THe importance in working with cats, as with all animals, lies in reading the cat’s response to the aromas and not forcing any on them.
What to do if an essential oil accidentally comes in contact with a cat’s coat
This can happen inadvertently if a cat rushes up to a bottle or if a drop accidentally touches a cat’s coat, which may then be licked off. If this should happen, immediately sprinkle the coat with dry powdered green clay to absorb the lipid-rich oil or as a second choice, wipe it off with a vegetable oil. Do not use water, since this will exacerbate the essential oil’s potency (oils are stronger in water), forcing it to be absorbed further into the skin. It is good practice to offer the essential bottle held in such a way that your finger act as a barrier to protect the cat from direct contact with the bottle. If a cat accidentally touches an essential oil, frothing at the mouth or over-salivation may occur. Essential oils such as Bitter Almond, Clove, Cinnamon and Garlic are of greatest concern. That said, cats can work with those oils by inhalation with great success.
What happens if my cat starts frothing at the mouth?
There are two possible reasons why a cat would froth at the mouth after self-administering an essential oil. Firstly, when cats experience great pleasure, they may froth at the mouth. Secondly, if the cat has taken something noxious. If the frothing or over salivation is prolonger (30 minutes or more) contact your veterinarian for advice.
Am I offering too many extracts?
The primary goal besides supporting healing is to offer as few extracts as possible to achieve results, minimizing the body’s need to break down unnecessary secondary compounds. Ultimately you cannot offer too many extracts providing the cat has the opportunity to turn or walk away and is in a well-ventilated area. However, the practice has refined a lot through the years and now, we offer as few as possible with the goal of achieving the same result.
Are wintergreen, birch, flax, clove and garlic hazardous to cats?
Since aspirin is dangerous to cats, Wintergreen and Birch essential oils have also been put into this category as they contain methyl salicylate, the pharmacologically active compound found in aspirin. If cats were made to ingest these oils, like aspirin it would amount to an overdose. By inhalation, only positive outcomes are experienced. Like when cats have self-administered flax, they haven’t suffered any detrimental effects, only relief from symptoms. Literature also depicts garlic and clove essential oil as toxic. Again, this is a dose-related statement. Their vapors have been invaluable for cats with bacterial infections or disease.
How do I know the session has come to an end?
Once the cat has achieved homeostasis, the response will normally be to curl up and go to sleep. If you are working with an elderly or lethargic cat, more activity or no further interest in the extracts normally indicates the session is over. Try not to confuse the end of a session with a cat turning away to process the remedies. If the session has not finished, the cat will become focused and continue to be interested in more extracts. You should aim to leave the cat in a more balanced state.
How often do I offer the remedies?
If the cat is fighting an infection, you may need to offer the remedies frequently throughout the day, at least for the forest few days. Otherwise offer remedies 1-3 times a day and try to get the feel or how often they are needed. If you cannot do this as frequently as that, leave the selected oils on individual pieces of cloth, in an aroma strip or inhalers. It may be that your cat wants one remedy daily, another every three days and another initially throughout the day. If you use cloth, aroma strips or inhalers, only leave the remedies out that your cat wants to work with. Most ideal is to be present with the cat where you are able to offer them yourself.
Can cats safely sleep with their nostrils near aromatic oils?
Your cat will move away from the aromas when they are not needed. Even though the muscles in the body become limp and immobilized during sleep, those that control automatic functions such as breathing and smelling, continue to operate. For instance, if smoke entered the room an animal would wake up.
Note on Drinking Water
If a cat is only interested in drinking water from a tap, it could indicate an infection, possibly urinary, since the chemicals in tap water that kill bacteria such as E.Coli, will not have had the chance to evaporate, having been in the pipe, so will be most concentrated out of the tap.
Herb Gardens 🌿
Providing an ‘herb garden’ at the before or at the start of a session, if desired, can provide enrichment and sometimes be an indication of what your cat might need during the session (some of the herbs are in the same family as the oils, so they can give us clues). This is not a requirement and can be done any time for enrichment and therapeutic value especially with indoor cats. The herbs do provide medicinal value in a different way and could be seen either as a compliment to a regular session with oils or a stand-alone. If you do it outside the session, it would save time in session fee.
If you would like to do this before the session starts, it can be a nice way to ease your cat into working with the more concentrated version of the powders, the oils. That could be done anywhere inside at your leisure, preferably on a sheet and can be done with more than one cat at a time.
If you would like the herbal garden to be part of a session, if using a crate for the session, place the herbs and powders at one end so that your cat can have the other end to work with oils (instructions next paragraph).
To create the herb garden, lay out a couple teaspoons each of the herbs such as valerian root, arnica flowers, catnip, lavender, marigold and chamomile flowers as well as barley grass powder. Herbs are set at least 4-6” apart where (doesn’t need to be exact):
Arnica, marigold and chamomile flowers are next to each other
Valerian, catnip and lavendar are next to each other
Barley grass could be in the middle somewhere
Once set up, mark the remedy name on a piece of paper near the remedy itself, watch which your cat selects, noting whether they eat, sniff, roll or sit on them. All are different methods of self-medication.
If it is not convenient to get the herbs and powders, the floral waters are a nice way to start a session. I will guide you.
