Is Almond Oil Safe for Cats?

[busseli]

Hi - I am pregnant and using almond oil to (hope to) prevent stretch marks. I have woken in the middle of the night to hear my female cat liking the bottle of oil. Even when I "hide" it she seems to find it. Is this safe? Would this suggest she needs a certain vitamin or mineral? Any references are welcome as not much is available online.

Kind regards

 

[natalie_ca]

No. Almonds are poisonous to cats.

http://www.cathaven.org/printpages/foods.htm

Can I ask why you were wanting to give your cat Almond Oil?

 

[violet]

Almond oil is not listed among the essential oils that are toxic to cats. To the best of my knowledge itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s one of the safe essential oils for cats.
(When I took one of my cats to a holistic vet a few years ago to find help for his itchy skin and ears, the vet cleaned the wax out of his ears and told me to use almond oil for cleaning his ears at home.)

To find out whether almond oil is safe for your kitty please go to the
Holistic Feline Health and Nutrition Forum
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=60
and ask Dr. Jean.

Some info about almond oil and other essential oils:

http://www.herbalremedies.com/aloil100pur1.html

http://cats.about.com/od/housekeepin...omatherapy.htm

http://64.233.169.104/custom?q=cache...gl=us&ie=UTF-8
(Sorry about this long link. The short one doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to work any more.)

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...therapyandcats

 

[yosemite]

I'm sure the visiting vet can help you with the question of whether almond oil is toxic to your kitty. I wanted to comment on your use of the oil. I don't know if it is true or not, but my doctor told me (when I was pregnant and getting rather large

) that rubbing oil on my tummy may make me feel better but that it would do nothing for stretch marks. He said one's type of skin determined whether they got stretch marks or not. I believe him since our daughter has stretch marks just from gaining and losing some weight while I have no stretch marks at all and I went from 104 lbs to 143 lbs during pregnancy and it was all out front.

 

[courtney_ou]

isnt it the skins that are toxic to the kitties not the entire nut?

 

[violet]

For a long time I've been wondering about the same thing myself, so finally I did a search to find out what's the problem with almonds and found this:

http://www.cat-world.com.au/ToxicFoodsToCats.htm

Apricot, cherry, peach pits, almond nuts, apple seeds:
All of the above contain cyanogenic glycosides which will result in cyanide poisoning. This interferes with the ability of the blood to release oxygen into the tissues, so the cat effectively suffocates while it's blood is full of oxygen.

HOWEVER. SWEET almonds are safe, they donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t contain cyanogenic glycosides. Only BITTER almonds contain cyanogenic glycosides.

Interesting reading about almonds:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/a/almon026.html

According to this article
http://www.joyofbaking.com/almonds.html
bitter almonds are illegal in the US.

A tiny bit more info on bitter almonds:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/cook...tteralmond.htm

 

[courtney_ou]

ooooh see i always thought it was the almond skin they used to make cyanide. learn something new everyday.

 

[jazzmine]

I just purchased a compounded pain medication from a pet pharmacy and almond oil is the base product. Given a pharmacy is using coconut oil, I'm going to say, yes, it's safe for cats. I don't know, however, whether there are different types of almond oil. My guess is that a food grade almond oil would be fine. Or, try calling a compounding pharmacy (Red Rooster in Phoenix) or pet poison control line.