Today in lessons learned from the Twitter-verse: Tea tree oil is poisonous for your pets. At least according to user shaelynspacyyy.
In a thread posted on Jan. 29, Shaelyn shared her discovery after a trip to the veterinarian. She noticed her cat and dog “acting strange” and becoming “very lazy, sick and just not themselves.” Later on, she learned that these behaviors from her fur babies were caused by her tea tree oil diffuser.
The veterinarian informed her that tea tree oil, along with a list of other pure oils, is toxic to cats and dogs. This list includes cinnamon, citrus, pennyroyal, peppermint, pine, sweet birch, wintergreen, and ylang ylang.
PSA: ANYONE WHO USES ESSENTIAL OILS PLEASE READ THIS!!!
recently my dog and cat have been acting strange, very lazy, sick and just not theirselves. i took them to the vet and turns out it’s from tea tree oil. i use this oil in my diffuser and it’s TOXIC to dogs and cats
— shaelyn (@shaelynspacyyy) January 30, 2018
When other Twitter users suggested that maybe it was just the brand of Shaelyn’s oils that was bad for her pets, another Twitter user called spacek1tten was quick to spell out why they were wrong.
this has literally nothing to do with what brand you use. They are toxic to your animals no matter what. Oils from plants which have phenols will poison your cats and dogs because their bodies lack the enzyme needed to break them down
— hummingbird (@spacek1tten) January 30, 2018
She explained that the aforementioned list of pure oils was toxic to pets because “oils from plants have phenols.” She goes on to say that this chemical compound can “poison your furry friends because their bodies lack the enzyme needed to break them down.”
We double-checked the science behind it (because we know it’s hard to trust something said by strangers that spell spacy with three Ys and kitten with the number one as a letter), and the science checks out.
A study from the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association lists a decade’s worth of data on incidents of tea tree oil toxicity in cats and dogs. It writes:
“Tea tree, or Melaleuca alternifolia oil, does have toxic potential, depending on the circumstances of exposure. Clinical effects that may occur following dermal exposure to significant amounts of tea tree oil include loss of coordination, muscle weakness, depression, and possibly even a severe drop in body temperature, collapse and liver damage. If the oil is ingested, potential effects include vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, seizures. If inhalation of the oil occurs, aspiration pneumonia is possible.
There you have it. If you’re keeping a pet at home, please keep the fragrant oils out.
Header photos courtesy of Unsplash.com and Pixabay.com
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