What is Essential Oil Therapy for Animals?
Have you ever noticed how animals are very good at taking the time to “smell the roses”? … or the lavender, rosemary, jasmine … And invariably, it’s not just because the plants smell “nice” – more often than not, animals seek the scent of specific plants to make themselves feel better. Have you ever noticed the effect catnip has on felines!
Healing through smell is one of the fundamental principles of essential oil therapy (EOT), or (aromatherapy). EOT is derived from the ancient practice of using natural plant essences to promote health and well being. Pure, therapeutic quality essential oils are extracted using steam distillation from the leaves, flowers, fruit, bark, and roots from a wide variety of plants.
Squeeze some lavender between your fingers and what you are smell is the essential oil of the plant; peel an orange…it is the oil exploding into the air as it is released that you will smell.
Plants use the essential oils they contain to protect against disease and to heal wounds and it is these qualities that people and animals can benefit from as well. Therapeutic quality essential oils are highly volatile and the chemical elements are easily absorbed through the blood/brain barrier via the nose or through the skin, to create many different effects on the body and the mind. They are not medicines in the conventional sense, but work gently and holistically to balance the body and combat dis-ease.
Many essential oils have powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal qualities which can assist a wide range of physical ailments such as aches, pains, and injuries, relieve respiratory ailments, reduce cold and flu symptoms and treat skin problems. Essential oil therapy also acts on the central nervous system and may relieve depression, anxiety and stress, or relax, uplift, calm or stimulate moods and restore a sense of wellbeing.
It is important to note that "fragrance oils", perfumes", and other artificially made substitutes for Pure Essential Oils cannot produce these results.
So, what’s the connection between animals and essential oil therapy?
The documented use of aromatherapy for and by humans dates back to at least 4000 BC, although the term “aromatherapy” wasn’t coined until the 1920s by French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse. The physical, emotional and therapeutic benefits of essential oils are well documented and it is in more recent times that their use for treating animals has gained popularity throughout the UK and Europe particularly, and is starting to be used here in Australia.
In simple terms, animals have an innate ability to self-medicate i.e. seek out what they need to maintain health through herbs and minerals, and the oils contain components that they would instinctively select for their own wellbeing if they were living in their natural state in the wild. In a domestic setting however, this natural ability to seek out therapeutic plants is often restricted due to the environments and living arrangements we impose upon our pets.
Offering oils to Horse in Greece Scarlet licking her oils from my palm
How are essential oils used on animals?
When we use essential oil therapy with people, massage is one of the best methods to apply an essential oil blend to the body, but obviously when confronted with a fur, hair or feather-coated animal this method would present some potentially sticky challenges.
The method that has been developed over the past decade in consultation with aromatherapists and veterinarians uses an animal’s ability to know what it needs to heal through the sense of smell.
Essential oils may be useful to treat a wide variety of physical conditions and health problems in animals, however they are particularly helpful in treating behavioural issues such as anxiety, aggression, fear, defensive, trauma and abuse disorders as well.