Dr. Natalie Noble: Top Essential Oils and Herbs for Preventing Pet Diseases | E48

[00:00:00] The main sort of preventative things that I think everyone's

[00:00:02] interested in is, you know, ticks, fleas, worms, that kind of thing. And so there are some really

[00:00:08] nice essential oils that can be used topically. Again, you've got to make sure you've got a good

[00:00:13] quality one and you've got to make sure you're using it an appropriate dilution for your pet,

[00:00:17] whether they're a cat or a dog or a horse even. Welcome to the Pet Care Report podcast by Pet

[00:00:32] Summits. Here's your natural dog health care host, Elora McKinley.

[00:00:36] Well, g'day guys. We've all heard that saying that prevention is better than a cure.

[00:00:41] So today we're going to be talking to the wonderful Dr. Nat about things we could do

[00:00:45] to prevent pet disease and specifically we're going to be looking at essential oils and herbs.

[00:00:51] Now, Dr. Nat is an integrative veterinarian who specializes in treating animals holistically.

[00:00:57] She emphasizes using a fresh, minimally produced, processed diet such as a raw diet.

[00:01:02] Dr. Nat treats her patients with a variety of tools, including essential oils, Chinese herbs,

[00:01:08] Western herbs, homeopathy, nutraceuticals and acupuncture. She has created her own line of

[00:01:14] herbal pet products to support gut health and help pets heal themselves naturally.

[00:01:19] Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Nat.

[00:01:22] Thanks, Elora. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:23] It's always lovely to have another Aussie on the podcast and for our followers that may not

[00:01:29] have heard of you before. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and why you wanted to become a vet?

[00:01:33] I always wanted to become a vet actually as a little kid. I'm sure it's many little children's

[00:01:39] dreams actually, but my dad tells lots of really interesting stories about me when

[00:01:44] I was like a two-year-old carrying around frogs and playing with spiders on the wall

[00:01:49] and we had lots of pets at home. I had a really good connection with lots of pets,

[00:01:55] like a variety of many different pets. Then I grew up and had horses and a really good connection

[00:02:02] with them and just a very strong human-animal bond connection with a lot of animals. They

[00:02:09] helped me through the rough times as a teenager and everything. It was just something I always

[00:02:15] wanted to do, which is nice. Not everyone has that and not everyone's able to follow their dream.

[00:02:21] So I became a vet, but it was a little disillusioning. I did get to fifth year

[00:02:30] which is the final year in Australia and found myself really struggling to get through that

[00:02:37] final year because I was burnt out. I had my own health issues and I ended up finding help through

[00:02:48] more natural holistic alternative means such as a naturopath and acupuncture and things like that.

[00:02:55] So through my own journey, I then ended up going a little bit more down the natural path.

[00:03:01] Very interesting. So what are we talking about essential oils? Because I know you've done

[00:03:06] quite a bit of study into this. What are the most effective essential oils for pet health?

[00:03:12] There's so many to choose from, but I really do have a couple of my top favourites I suppose

[00:03:19] and frankincense is definitely one of those. I had a patient today. I've been working at

[00:03:23] the natural vets today. I'm at the clinic at the moment if you're watching. So I had a

[00:03:30] cancer patient today and my favourite one to include to support cancer patients is frankincense.

[00:03:36] Frankincense is one of the ones I use a lot on my patients because it has so many healing properties.

[00:03:45] There's lots of great studies. You can look them up on PubMed even about its effect on tumor

[00:03:52] apoptosis and really like it's quite amazing. Even the research behind it is really amazing.

[00:04:01] So that one's great, but it's not just for cancer. It's for lots of things. It's as a herb,

[00:04:06] it's included in like an anti-inflammatory herbal complex called Berzwellia that we use a lot here,

[00:04:13] but there'll be other ones in other countries too, other brands. So it's great for joint health.

[00:04:20] It's a really good oil rounder. It's quite good just for clearing the mind.

[00:04:26] So I sometimes would use it in anxiety and behavioural issues. It's a very good oil rounder,

[00:04:34] great for skin health too. I've included it in my soothing balm that I created and

[00:04:43] yeah it's sort of one of those that you could reach for if you didn't know what else to use.

[00:04:49] It's one of the top three actually that I would say you can use for almost anything.

[00:04:54] So one of the other ones that I would use for just about anything is lavender. I'm sure a lot

[00:05:02] of people are familiar with lavender essential oil. Unfortunately, I think some people would probably

[00:05:09] associate lavender with like toilet cleaners and things because it's probably overused in other

[00:05:16] areas but as a pure therapeutic great essential oil, it's a beautiful smell. It's very healing.

[00:05:22] It's great for the skin. Excellent for burns. I have a really good story about my cat that we

[00:05:27] can maybe talk about later when she jumped on a fireplace but that's also how it was discovered.

[00:05:34] Someone burnt themselves and had a pot of lavender oil there and put his hands in it and

[00:05:39] basically saved his skin with lavender essential oil. So it's also in my skin soothing balm

[00:05:48] and it's also in my spray that I've created to help soothe the skin as well and it's something

[00:05:54] that people can reach for again for almost anything whether it's anxiety and behavioral issues or

[00:06:01] topical skin issues or even to help them get to sleep at night. It's a beautiful oil to add

[00:06:07] to the diffuser for lots of reasons. And then probably my top third essential oil would be

[00:06:13] copaeba which maybe isn't as well known. Copaeba is like a resin from a tree in South America

[00:06:23] and it's extremely high in like its anti-inflammatory properties so it's a really nice one

[00:06:30] to include for any issue that involves inflammation which is pretty much every disease.

[00:06:37] I use copaeba orally sometimes if there's some really intense gut health issues going on and

[00:06:45] we need to directly get to the gut health and help with inflammation there. I do recommend

[00:06:51] being cautious though using any essential oils orally. I think we'll talk a little bit more

[00:06:56] about safety shortly and it's in my soothing balm and it's in almost any topical blend that I create

[00:07:07] for use topically that requires that anti-inflammatory action. It's also nice in the diffuser as well,

[00:07:14] it's also really grounding and has some really nice properties for the mind. That's the wonderful

[00:07:20] thing about essential oils is they're quite mood enhancing and mood affecting which a lot of other

[00:07:27] modalities sort of don't touch on a lot, mood and behaviour. So it's a great essential oil

[00:07:35] in general or a great one to use to add in for those kind of issues.

[00:07:39] So I was wondering is there much science then to back up the use of essential oils

[00:07:44] in pets? In pets specifically probably not a lot actually. There's a little bit

[00:07:53] and there's definitely some studies around it being dangerous but those studies are quite biased

[00:08:02] in the sense that they've used really poor quality essential oils and they've used really high doses.

[00:08:07] So one fairly well known one I used something like 60 ml of tea tree oil and it was a poor quality tea

[00:08:15] tree oil and they didn't dilute it and they put it directly onto cats and the results as I'm sure

[00:08:21] you can imagine weren't very good because when you're using firstly a poor quality essential oil

[00:08:28] and then a very strong undiluted concentration of it, it can be very dangerous. So when you look up

[00:08:37] things like the use of tea tree oil there are a lot of warnings online so you need to kind of be

[00:08:43] cautious around what quality and what brand you're using. It's really important to make

[00:08:52] sure you're using a very high quality essential oil and it's very important to also

[00:08:58] just dilute it correctly. So when I'm using it for example the the balm that I've created,

[00:09:04] my soothing balm, it has 1% essential oil in it and that's because I want it to be very gentle

[00:09:10] and very safe. It's safe to use on puppies and kittens and essential oils are so powerful

[00:09:16] that that is still quite effective even though it's very diluted

[00:09:21] but when you use it straight it can be dangerous. So is this something a pet parent should be guided

[00:09:28] then by a professional rather than going about it themselves? Potentially I think they definitely

[00:09:34] need some education around it. I have done a couple of little workshops and courses and things

[00:09:39] about it for people and the main things that I really emphasise is the quality

[00:09:44] and the dilution before they go any further. It's really important to get those things right.

[00:09:50] I tend to use de terra essential oils which is a nice world-known brand now so people

[00:09:58] wherever you're listening can probably get hold of de terra but there are other

[00:10:02] good brands that's not the only one. I used to use young living essential oils. I had a really

[00:10:09] great guru I suppose who was part of young living a long time ago. Her name is Dr Melissa Shelton.

[00:10:18] She's in America and she's now created her own essential oils for animals

[00:10:22] and she's basically led the way. She's done a lot of her own in clinic testing essentially

[00:10:29] and blood testing and can really prove that it is safe so she was a great person to have as

[00:10:35] a mentor. Then in talking about preventative health what kind of things can essential oils be used

[00:10:41] to prevent impents? Yeah sure so the main preventative things that I think everyone's

[00:10:49] interested in is ticks, fleas, worms that kind of thing and so there are some really nice essential

[00:10:55] oils that can be used topically again. You've got to make sure you've got a good quality one

[00:11:00] and you've got to make sure you're using it an appropriate dilution for your pet whether

[00:11:04] they're a cat or a dog or a horse even. Dogs and horses are going to tolerate it a lot stronger

[00:11:10] than a cat would so with cats you might even start with like a really really diluted amount of

[00:11:17] something less than 6% sorry something less than 1% before and doing like a little test patch

[00:11:24] on maybe like their tummy or something and just checking because I actually have had one cat,

[00:11:31] only one have a bad reaction to my skin soothing cream so that was 1% dilution. That was a

[00:11:38] Sphinx cat so it was like a hairless cat so probably a lot more likely to have a reaction

[00:11:44] so yeah definitely sort of need to take each individual as its own and do the test patch

[00:11:51] but my favorite ones for like ticks and fleas and things like that would be lavender, tea tree,

[00:11:57] a lot of the kind of woody oils so like cedar wood is a good one, lemongrass is great,

[00:12:09] what else? Rosemary can be good sometimes but again like you'd probably just start with 1 or 2,

[00:12:17] go cautiously and then see how you go and that's also why I've kind of created my own

[00:12:24] product line because I think it's easier to know that it's been used and it is safe.

[00:12:32] It's already diluted correctly in all of those things. Yeah and I'm sure it's a quite a

[00:12:39] cost effective solution because you know lots of those things can be very expensive. Yeah if you

[00:12:44] want to go out and buy like the 10 different top essential oils for ticks and fleas, you spending

[00:12:48] between I don't know $30 and $100 per bottle to have your own collection. It's crazy. Now when we're

[00:12:55] talking about herbs what kind of herbs do you like to use for patients in your care as a preventative?

[00:13:03] Yeah okay so probably again I'll pick my top three keep it nice and simple so people can remember.

[00:13:10] Turmeric is fantastic, turmeric also comes in an essential oil which I use sometimes as well.

[00:13:15] It's commonly used as a powder and in the form of turmeric paste. There's a really great Facebook

[00:13:23] group called Turmeric, I think it's called the Turmeric User Group and it was created by

[00:13:30] an Australian vet on the Gold Coast and he has a brand called Turmeric Life and he's

[00:13:38] he's really paved the way with that. So Turmeric combined into a paste with your

[00:13:47] coconut oil and black pepper really helps to activate it and get the curcumin more bioavailable.

[00:13:55] So by making it more bioavailable to the gut you're going to get a much better absorption

[00:14:02] rate because turmeric can be quite difficult to actually absorb the active ingredient, the curcumin.

[00:14:10] So I haven't actually said what it's good for but it's got a lot of studies. It's probably the

[00:14:15] most well studied herb for its non-steroidal anion inflammatory effects and it's used very

[00:14:24] very commonly for pain and for joint problems but also for gut health issues and probably

[00:14:30] anything else that involves inflammation it can be helpful for. So then that's probably number one

[00:14:36] and it probably does have the most scientific studies to show how effective it is so it's

[00:14:44] very well proven and its active ingredient is also very well proven, the curcumin. A lot of other

[00:14:49] herbs have many active ingredients that maybe science could try and like potentize just one

[00:14:57] of them or synthesize just one of them but it's actually more the whole herb effect that's really

[00:15:02] helpful and really effective and that's kind of the main difference between natural medicine and

[00:15:08] actual western synthesized medicine right so but curcumin is a little bit unique in the sense that

[00:15:14] well tumeric is unique in the sense that curcumin has really been found to be the main

[00:15:18] active ingredient. So my second one is probably garlic, garlic you know these are

[00:15:25] common kitchen ingredients that we include in our foods all the time or a lot of us do

[00:15:32] but garlic is also has a lot of studies it's got some really great anti-cancer effects,

[00:15:37] I didn't mention that tumeric is also an amazing anti-cancer herb so garlic is very very good

[00:15:45] at preventing cancer it's shown mostly again in humans there's not a lot of great

[00:15:51] science for for veterinary medicine in general but human medicine has lots of great science

[00:15:58] and so garlic has been shown in in human medicine to prevent and help with cancer

[00:16:04] and it's also great for lots of other things it's a great anti-inflammatory as well

[00:16:09] it's great for parasite prevention and I have included it in two of my products the

[00:16:15] the Defend, I've got it here if you're watching, the Defend Immune Tonic is like my all-round

[00:16:22] health tonic to boost the immune system and to help a little with avoiding parasites and making

[00:16:30] pets basically less likely to be hosts because not not every animal in a herd of cows for example

[00:16:37] will have parasites only a couple will tend to be the parasite carriers compared to the rest

[00:16:44] so some of us are going to be bitten by mosquitoes more than others like some some beings are just

[00:16:49] basically more attractive to parasites and my idea behind the Defend and adding the garlic and some

[00:16:56] of the other herbs is that our pets are then less attractive to those parasites right?

[00:17:03] Yeah and just I don't know that's okay um because I know garlic's still a bit of a

[00:17:12] correct so it has been shown that large amounts of garlic given to dogs long-term and cats

[00:17:20] can cause bleeding because it destroys the red blood cells so again conventional veterinary medicine

[00:17:28] likes to put a blanket over things and just sort of give one answer garlic is bad never feed

[00:17:32] garlic however in small amounts it's great and it's great for lots of things so you

[00:17:40] can feed garlic that the guideline is about one clove per day per 20 kilo dog it's quite a bit

[00:17:48] less for cats you do need to be more cautious in cats and in my my tonic I've got a very safe amount

[00:17:56] so it's it's very safe for cats and dogs. So you mentioned before that like a turmeric paste

[00:18:01] are these the best ways to incorporate it into a pet's diet so that can help them long term?

[00:18:08] Yeah totally turmeric paste is really easy to make and if you look up that turmeric user group on the

[00:18:15] Facebook page there's like loads of recipes you can make it into little pills you can make it

[00:18:20] into like a paste that you keep in a jar in the fridge and you can add it to their food

[00:18:25] it's fairly strong tasting it's fairly warming too so if you have a dog that's already too hot

[00:18:30] and very inflamed maybe with skin and not enjoying being hot it might not be the right herb

[00:18:37] although some vets will say turmeric's amazing for everything there is occasions where turmeric is

[00:18:42] maybe not a good idea so that would be one conjure indication is if you have a very hot patient

[00:18:48] it's going to be too heating for them so yeah you can but you can quite safely add about a teaspoon

[00:18:55] per 20 kilos twice a day to their food a teaspoon of the paste. Yep and you touched on it just briefly

[00:19:01] there but what kind of precautions should pet owners take then if they are going to incorporate

[00:19:06] these herbs and essential oils into a pet's diet what should they be aware of? Yeah sure so with

[00:19:12] turmeric again probably not suited to really hot animals and it also is there's a few things

[00:19:19] such as turmeric that need to be stopped before a surgery because they can cause more bleeding

[00:19:26] so you need to stop it I think up to about two weeks before as recommended and even like a little

[00:19:33] while after just in case you have somehow increased that likelihood of or tendency to bleed a little

[00:19:42] bit and then with garlic yes it's actually good to give them a break if you were adding it

[00:19:48] to their food better to underdose a little and give them a break you know a couple of times a week

[00:19:55] not feed it every single day. Yep and then because you mentioned with surgeries can they interfere much

[00:20:00] with conventional medicine? Unlikely usually the lovely thing about herbs is you're going to

[00:20:08] actually get a potentiating effect so like milk thistle which I haven't mentioned but it's

[00:20:13] probably another excellent top of the list herb is going to it's really great for the liver

[00:20:20] and very healing and supportive for the liver and if you had a patient that had liver issues and

[00:20:24] maybe even if they were on chemo and there were cancer patients getting chemo it's been shown

[00:20:29] that having them on milk thistle will potentiate the chemo so you actually need less chemo

[00:20:35] so I guess a conventional vet or doctor might be concerned about that but actually if you're

[00:20:43] watching carefully and you're monitoring you can usually reduce the dose of your conventional drugs

[00:20:48] and get like more effect out of less which means you get less side effects right and then

[00:20:53] if it's something like milk thistle it's also very protective for the liver so the liver is

[00:20:59] going to be healthier in general because it's protecting the liver and it's able to handle

[00:21:03] the chemo like chemo for example is often stopped in patients this is more general like speaking

[00:21:09] of human health as well it's stopped because the person or the patient becomes too unwell right

[00:21:15] but if we can reduce those symptoms then you could maybe get more out of that medicine.

[00:21:20] Interesting now you mentioned before a few of your patients that have had really great

[00:21:26] success can you name any of those stories? Yeah sure okay so I just remember what my other herb

[00:21:33] I was going to talk about is um my my other one which is also just in most of our kitchens and

[00:21:41] a very regular culinary herb is ginger so one of my favorite topics is uh gut health and ginger

[00:21:50] is really supportive for gut health it helps with nausea it helps with digestion it's also

[00:21:57] a nice anti-inflammatory so it's also actually great for joint problems and sore joints and I have

[00:22:06] incorporated it into my restore digestant tonic as one of the main ingredients because it's

[00:22:11] it's so so believing for all of those gut issues so it's something like people could even make a

[00:22:18] tea out of ginger to feed their dog when it you know is had a vomit and it's not feeling great but

[00:22:24] it's not that sick and maybe not time to go to the vet yet you could feed ginger tea. And will the

[00:22:30] dogs have the tea? It's not too too strong tasting? Oh no probably not especially if they're

[00:22:37] feeling unwell and they're not going to eat anything so you would you would be syringing

[00:22:41] it into their mouth. Lovely and now some stories tell us some of these stories. Yeah so

[00:22:47] the reason I thought of the restore my restore product with the ginger in it is because it has

[00:22:53] such great stories behind it and that is really mostly because of the ginger but also the pineapple

[00:22:58] in it it's an apple cider vinegar that I make with pineapple and ginger. And it's been

[00:23:04] the most remarkable of my products in the sense that it's worked so quickly so I've had

[00:23:10] cases of you know a dog coming in that's fairly well but it's fussy it doesn't like bones or

[00:23:15] vomits after bones or it was vomit occasionally or it just doesn't really tolerate meat and it's

[00:23:21] like but this dog is healthy and it's always been on a good diet like a lot of our clients are

[00:23:27] pretty alternative and feed their dogs a pretty natural raw diet from the get-go and I remember

[00:23:33] this one in particular and I was like oh it doesn't seem right it was just here for a health

[00:23:37] check I'm like try the restore see if that helps and they came back and were like oh my goodness

[00:23:43] you fixed him like it eats bones now he loves his food again and it just totally rebalanced his gut

[00:23:49] health so I've had quite a few like that I remember my neighbor's dog Tilly she was similar this is

[00:23:56] a little while later after I'd had quite a few success stories and I was just over at their place

[00:24:03] actually and she said that Tilly vomits occasionally and I said oh you've got to try

[00:24:07] my restore product it'll work I promise you it's so amazing like by then I was really confident

[00:24:12] she was like okay and the next time I saw her she was like yep just stop vomiting

[00:24:17] so that's very simple like it's apple cider vinegar that I create it's all organic I use

[00:24:24] really good quality ingredients and that the pineapple and the ginger and together they just

[00:24:31] awesome they create so much balance and really help with nausea and other issues in the stomach

[00:24:39] that's amazing and now you said that essential oils can be safe for like young puppies is that

[00:24:46] is one of your um is your tonic okay for the puppies yes yeah I use it in puppies all the

[00:24:52] time because often they come for their first visit and they're on a kibble diet and I say

[00:24:58] oh we do really don't like kibble it's highly processed and it's basically going to make

[00:25:03] you a dog sick in the long term so let's get it on a raw diet and to change them can be tricky

[00:25:08] so they need some support and that and we usually add in the restore to help with the diet change

[00:25:14] yeah sounds like it's a great product for um just all pet owners to have having the cup

[00:25:20] yeah it is it's one of those that I feel like if you get

[00:25:24] gut issues especially if they happen regularly it's a good one to have on hand

[00:25:29] lovely well thank you so much dr. that that was really interesting and you've given us lots of

[00:25:34] lots of things to go away and think about and maybe add to our collection for our dogs in

[00:25:40] the cupboard now what's your number one tip that parents can take away from this episode

[00:25:44] oh my number one tip I guess to have some of these things on hand like to have lavender

[00:25:49] essential oil if you if your pet got um a burn like if you do have a fire in the house um my

[00:25:57] cat jumped on the fireplace that's what happened I mentioned earlier and I just coated her feet

[00:26:01] instantly in the lavender essential oil and she was fine and I was expecting her feet to like

[00:26:07] blister up so to have a few of these things on hand as like your emergency medicine your

[00:26:14] your first aid and to be prepared for like gut upsets I feel like you don't always have to

[00:26:21] rush to the vet if your dog vomits once and if you had a few tools um and you you know

[00:26:25] you fast them you add some things in to support the digestion uh often they are fine within

[00:26:33] the next day or so and if they're not then it's time to go to the vet great tip now where can

[00:26:39] our listeners find more about you uh so I have a website doctor gnatsnats.com.au and I'm also on

[00:26:48] Instagram and Facebook and I think yeah my handle for that is at Dr. Nats pets so again it's Dr.

[00:26:57] Nats with an s pts um and I post a little bit I've got quite a few articles on my website

[00:27:07] about gut health and essential oils and herbs and and raw diets and just like those general

[00:27:16] support information so people have sort of I guess more questions about what we've been chatting about

[00:27:21] in this recording there'll probably be a bit more info on my website and there's a few little posts

[00:27:27] and things on my Instagram and Facebook about it as well. Lovely and we'll add some links so

[00:27:32] our followers can find it really easy to your social media social media accounts thank you so much

[00:27:37] Dr. Nats for joining me today. Thank you Laura and thanks to all our listeners for tuning into

[00:27:43] another episode you will have heard my cheeky puppy running around and causing a racket um

[00:27:50] don't forget to follow and subscribe and leave a review if you found something in this interview

[00:27:54] interesting this helps us to reach more pet owners and we'll see you next time