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Some pets respond well to the use of lavender oil. Humans find it has a sedative effect and so might your animals, but it needs to be used with caution. These oils are extremely concentrated and need to be heavily diluted to be safe for your animal. Add 15 drops to a small spray bottle filled with water. This can then be sprayed on your dog ' s skin. It often has the added benefit of helping with flea and tick control and skin healing. Other calming herbs include lemon balm, rosemary, stinging nettle, comfrey and borage. Because pets can ' t tell you if a remedy is working, you need to watch carefully to see the reaction. Excessive scratching, sniffing, nervousness or whining are all signs to watch for. What is good for a large dog is not good for a small dog. Size matters, and less is definitely more when working with oils, for animals or humans. Sick, frail, older, or pregnant pets have special considerations, so do not administer the same dose to them as you would to a healthy animal of the same size. Putting on a quite tight fitting garment or jacket helps some animals, or even elastic bandage wrapping. There is a garment called the ThunderShirt- a sturdy, stretchy vest that hugs the torso, which is available for dogs and for cats. It is rather expensive though. There are also special calming collars on the market, which might prove to be a better remedy. The collar is impregnated with a synthetic copy of a pheromone that is produced by sebaceous glands found between the mammary glands of lactating queens and bitches. This is the pheromone that the mother cat or dog produces to calm and reassure her young. Dogs and cats recognise these pheromones throughout life. The advantage of these collars is that the animal wears it all the time and the calming effect will also help with separation anxiety, travelling stress or being left in kennels while owners are on holiday. The collar can also be used as an adjunct to behaviour modification therapy. There are also homeopathic remedies for calming pets. Rescue Remedy is a blend of plant extracts, that have been found to be safe for animals. The Rescue tablets can be crushed into the pet ' s food or the Rescue drops can be added to the pet ' s drinking water. People have also applied drops to the pet ' s feet so that the pet will lick it off. Another product is PetCalm, a
PET CARE
natural remedy apparently with no risk of side effects or addiction and can be safely used by animals of all ages and sizes.
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