FREEDOM TO MOVE: Smelling, Sniffing and Safety in Applied Herbal Choices

Image courtesy of Will Mallot

It’s incredibly sad to read of dogs who have died or come close to dying through the inhalation of an essential oil such as tea tree. 

Naturally, I get forwarded such stories. The implication being that I should justify the safety of Applied Herbal Choices. After all, this therapy involves using essential oils with animals.

First of all, the reports of deaths through tea tree oil inhalation I have read about have been due to the use of a diffuser apparatus, which is something I always warn clients against. 

It’s always tempting for people to use a diffuser

Using a diffuser with essential oil in an unventilated room with a pet animal present is dangerous and goes against all the principles and techniques of Applied Herbal Choices for animals. 

It’s always tempting for people to use a diffuser, and it’s fine for human use, but the human sense of smell is different to that of other animals. Evolution typically discards superfluous features, and it’s common sense to see that humans have come to rely more on sight and sound than smell for our survival. 

A fundamental and distinct feature of sensory systems in animals is that they can actively control the interaction between a stimulus ( for example, a smell) and the sensory neurons detecting it (the nose). 

This active control is important because it allows an animal to approach and investigate smells, to adjust distance or breathing pattern to maintain optimal receptor function, to analyse the most intriguing components of that smell and to protect sensory neurons (and internal organs) from damage due to excess exposure to strong or (in the case of chemoreception) toxic stimuli.

In dogs, as with all vertebrates, odorants cannot be detected without the movement of air or water into the nasal cavity, and all animals, whether vertebrates or invertebrates have impressively complex behavioural repertoires built around the process of smelling. 

Image courtesy of Alvan Nee

Understanding and responding to such behaviour is a fundamental aspect of Applied Herbal Choices and teaching people to do this effectively is key to my role as a consultant. 

In contrast, a diffuser, by its very function of chucking out a continual measured amount of essential oil, makes it impossible to enable an interactive scenario between an animal and the oil. What makes a diffuser ideal for a human with respiratory issues, makes it the very opposite for other animals. Also, depending on the type of diffuser (ultrasonic, nebulising etc.) the oil may be diluted, or not.

Any dog owner will appreciate the exacting process of olfaction - sniffing.

Any dog owner who has watched their pet focus on an attractive smell will appreciate the behaviour that reflects the exacting process of olfaction as smell molecules are sampled intermittently by their dog actively drawing air into the nasal cavity and over the olfactory epithelium (OE) through a series of sharp inhalations, exhalations and rests. 

Sniffing.   

It may come as no surprise that most land-living animals demonstrate similar behaviour - but that even some crustaceans do this has to be! 

Image courtesy of Phil Hearing

And this behaviour has evolved for a good reason - the process of active sensing shapes not only how nerve cells respond to a stimulus, but also determines how incoming sensory information is processed at higher levels. 

This will affect the how the dog perceives the smell and how his behaviour is modulated accordingly: take a pee, take no notice or investigate further, for example, or leave the room. 

Image courtesy of Dushyant Kumar

If an animal is in a room with an essential oil diffuser, it cannot avoid inhaling and thus absorbing the active components of the oil. 

During an Applied Herbal Choices session, animals need to be free to exhibit their natural behaviour in response to an essential oil whether this is taking more inhalations, ignoring it or moving away. 

Honouring this is one of the elements which makes this a safe way to work with essential oils and your animals, whether that essential oil is mild and gentle chamomile or terpene-laden tea tree. 

If you would like to learn about how to use Applied Herbal Choices for your animals, then please get in touch to book a session.