12/26/2025
Your pets can be early warning systems for your home.
We recently read a story that stopped us in our tracks:
A healthy dog developed sudden neurological symptoms — confusion, fear, withdrawal — after prolonged exposure to an essential oil diffuser.
The cause? Tea tree oil toxicity.
Diffused. Not ingested.
Dogs and cats are smaller, have faster metabolisms, and detox differently than humans.
That means they often show symptoms before we do when something in the environment is overwhelming the nervous system or liver.
In functional medicine, we see this pattern all the time:
• Indoor air toxins
• Synthetic fragrances
• “Natural” products that aren’t safe for everyone
• Liver overload + neuroinflammation
Many essential oils are marketed as harmless — but natural doesn’t automatically mean safe, especially when diffused continuously in enclosed spaces.
Essential oils commonly flagged as unsafe for pets (and concerning for humans with high toxic load):
• Tea tree (melaleuca)
• Eucalyptus
• Peppermint
• Wintergreen
• Clove
• Cinnamon
• Thyme
• Oregano
If a diffuser can overwhelm a dog’s system, it’s worth asking:
👉 How does my body process this?
👉 What if I already have liver stress, mold exposure, histamine issues, or chronic inflammation?
👉 What are my kids breathing?
Functional medicine looks upstream — at environment, detox capacity, and nervous system load.
Sometimes the first clue comes on four legs.
Here at Complete Health and Wellness, we are wishing a healthy and happy holiday season and New Year for you and your fur babies! 🐾
