What is Peppermint oil extract
Peppermint is one of the best essential oils to kill parasites at home. It’s an aromatic oil that’s extracted from the peppermint leaves and commonly used to kill flea eggs on Pets and around the house.
Its scent is known to keep mosquito and flies away. While peppermint oil is a natural antibiotic that helps getting rid of some bacterial infections, it can be used orally for dogs and cats in low amounts or as cosmetics on their skin.
How to use Peppermint Extracts
It’s always advised to use it in combination with other essential oils. When much of peppermint extract is consumed at a time, it can result in symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, and restlessness
Well, diluted peppermint shampoo should be used on newborn kittens and pups or better on their mother to keep fleas away from both the mother and the babies.
Other ways to use peppermint oil spray is to apply it on the Pet’s bedding, furniture, and carpets in your home.
Although it’s gentle on pets and can be directly applied to the pet’s skin either by spraying or applying on them since it’s chemical-free, however, it has other ingredients that may cause side effects to both dogs and cats when they inhale it over a long time, especially cats.
Facts and Myths about Peppermint on Small animals
It’s important to clear this as there are confusing data on the toxicity of peppermint extract, it’s considered not safe because it can be easily misused, however, it’s not likely peppermint oil will kill dogs and cats.
It does not kill fleas, mosquito, other insects and rodents it’s used against, it only scares them away with its scent. It can be used to deter mice, ants, bed bugs, spiders, roaches, carpet beetles, and many others.
But for some peppermint products in the pet store, peppermint can be diluted with other compounds elements like sodium lauryl sulfate or citrus extracts like linalool to make it more potent and effective in killing fleas. In this case, peppermint oil is not considered to be the major ingredient.
Adult dogs can still lick peppermint oil or inhale it without much worry but there are more risks exposing cats to peppermint oil. It should also be noted that the oil is more important than the extract which can be used in making spray and shampoo.
Conclusion
Peppermint has been used as an insect repellent for years since it’s a natural remedy to deter insects and the oil can be easily extracted at home with alcohol. It can also help to relieve pets from inflammation and to reduce stress.
While homemade peppermint oil and other liquid forms are good for pets, the dosage is the use and you’re advised to talk to your vet before using it on your small animals.
Peppermint plants should not be grown in your garden where you have dogs around, and a regulated product where the dosage is written and the ingredients used are in the proportion that, when ingested in the dosage specified, it will not hot your dog or cat.
