Essential oils are often regarded as being way out there with the fairies, invoking a sweet kind of ‘oh bless her, she’s such a hippy’ type of attitude.
I have to tell you, I was one of those people who felt like that, and now that I know better I feel like a bit of an idiot. And by the way, I don’t wear cheesecloth, dangly gipsy earrings, a headscarf or dance naked in moondrops either....
Today, I wanted to give you a little information on some of the oils we use at the Ranch every day and why.
The most common essential oil we use here is cedar oil, as many of you already know. It repels and kills ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers, flies...you name it. Pete and I wear it every day on our skin, hair and clothes, and when we do, we rarely get bitten.
As for the dogs, apply once every ten days or so, or after bathing. Totally non toxic to dogs or humans, the diluted blend we use is a must-have at the Ranch; we love this stuff and have used nothing but this for fleas and ticks for years.
The brand we use is ‘Best Yet’ cedar oil and its available from www.cedarcide.com.
Note is said ‘dogs or humans’, cats can be a different matter.
An alternative is Rose Geranium oil. A single drop on the dogs collar, no more is needed and only on the collar, not on the dogs fur, will repel fleas and ticks.
Got a thunder phobic dog?
Firstly get yourself a good diffuser.
We use one during thunder storms here and it’s amazing how effective it can be.
A few drops of lavender oil in water in the diffuser can take the edge off the most thunder phobic dog. The diffuser blows the scent all around the area, calming wherever it flows.
One of my favorite tools at the Ranch is Dr Bronners Lavender Castile soap. It’s a pure soap with no nasty sodium laureth sulfate or glycols....I love it for me, but I love it even more for my dogs, in fact I’m about to give Freddie a nice bath with it today.
It has lavender essential oil in it, smells like a summer’s day in Provence and has the unique ability of providing a calming experience while refreshing the body.
My dogs love it.
Camomile oil works in the same way. A soothing oil to calm ragged nerves and works brilliantly in a diffuser with just two drops.
Have a dog dealing with dementia, brain fog, due to age? Tie a bandanna round his or her neck and apply a drop of frankincense oil.
A new one on me that I’ve been trying out on myself and my own dogs is carrot seed oil. Diluted with a bland carrier oil, carrot seed oil can be a powerful friend in the fight against skin infections and itching due to allergies.
It’s a useful anti-microbial and is generally regarded as a safe oil as long as the dog isn’t pregnant.
If you’ve got a dog that’s down in the dumps, wild orange oil in a diffuser can help.
We have a blend here that we got from Doterra, a brand I like because of the purity, called Cheer and it has wild orange peel. It’s a great lifter of negative moods, easer of fears and releases pent up stress.
By the way, Young Living are a very good company too. Their essential oil cleaner is the absolute dogs bollocks, it even kills parvovirus!
Check out Thieves Oil as an alternative to nasty noxious regular household cleaners.
Many people make the mistake of thinking that because oils are natural they are safe. Not true.
Some oils can be extremely toxic to dogs, and even moreso to cats, so do your research, go easy, use a diffuser instead of pouring oils all over your poor pooch and remember that one drop, just one drop, is enough to go cellular in 20 seconds.
Take that in for a minute.
Most medications you ingest will take 45 minutes plus to start working, but essential oils take literally 20 seconds. Once they’re on, you can’t take it back because it’s already started to have an effect, that’s why we prefer diffusion of most oils, it’s generally safer, and we always use carrier oils if it’s going on the skin.
The only one we ever put on the dogs body direct is a tiny smear, not even a drop, of lavender oil rubbed over our hands and then we will swiftly rub the ear tips of a nervous dog with it. That’s all it takes to have an effect.
What’s a good carrier oil? Well, we like jojoba or fractionated coconut oil.
Fairly reasonably priced and kind to the skin, while not taking away any of the powers of the essential oils themselves, they’ve been a good choice for us.
