Proven Herbal Ways To Help Your Cat's Skin Health

Has your cat had a skin condition? Itchiness, loss of fur, sore skin, flaky skin and other symptoms of skin irritations and ill health can be found with our feline friends from time to time.

There can be many reasons why your cat has a skin ailment, so always get your veterinary surgeon to examine your cat to determine the root cause and advise on the appropriate treatment options. However, as well as conventional medicine, there’s a whole range of complementary therapies that you can use to help with your cat’s skin ailments. In this blog post i’m looking at a few of the herbal ways to help.

So what are the herbal ways you can help your cat’s skin health?

1. Evening Primrose Oil - veterinary research has found that this can be helpful. ‘The Veterinary Record’ has published a couple of research papers looking at different types of dermatitis:

• papulocrustous dermatitis, this found that when comparing evening primrose oil with sunflower oil, that “Six weeks after the supplement was withdrawn the cats fed evening primrose oil had deteriorated less than those fed sunflower oil.”

• miliary dermatitis, this found that the cats “were supplemented with various combinations of evening primrose oil and fish oil. The cutaneous signs improved when the cats were supplemented with either evening primrose oil alone or with a combination of evening primrose oil and fish oil. Fish oil alone was unable to maintain the remission and the cutaneous signs deteriorated. The subsequent administration of a combination of the two oils resulted in a resolution of the dermatosis.”

2. Olive Leaf Extract and Coconut Oil - veterinary research was conducted looking at the use of these in combination. This found that: “In cats administered rectal enema olive leaf extract and coconut oil for 10 days, all had significantly decreased Feline Dermatitis Extent and Severity Index from 121,5 ± 44,4 to 14,0 ± 6,0 (p=0.028).”

3. Aloe Vera is a popular herb for both animals and people to help with skin ailments. Published research found that aloe vera combined with virgin coconut oil helped accelerate healing following scabies. The results of the three groups of cream formulas B, C, D caused a significant cure in cats suffering from scabies compared to control group A.

Find the links to the veterinary research further down the page

How to know what herbal remedy to help?

Do speak to your veterinary surgeon for professional advice. Many ‘conventional vets’ are more than happy to recommend using herbal medicine. So do speak to your vet. But if you’d like a veterinarian who specialises in herbal medicine then there are many in the UK and around the world.

What about choosing herbal medicine products for your cat that you can find online or in a shop?

It is important that you know exactly what the cause of your cat’s skin ailment is. There can be many reasons, including some which are very serious and indicative of an underlying disease that means other treatment would be better. So do speak to your vet for advice.

Conclusion

It is possible to find that veterinary research has taken place to determine if herbs can help your animal's health. Please see links mentioned in this post below:

Research for Herbal Approaches to Feline Dermatology

• Harvey RG. A comparison of evening primrose oil and sunflower oil for the management of papulocrustous dermatitis in cats. The Veterinary Record. 1993 Dec;133(23):571-573. PMID: 8303807. https://europepmc.org/article/med/8303807

• Harvey RG. Effect of varying proportions of evening primrose oil and fish oil on cats with crusting dermatosis ('miliary dermatitis') The Veterinary Record. 1993 Aug;133(9):208-211. DOI: 10.1136/vr.133.9.208. PMID: 8280288. https://europepmc.org/article/med/8280288

• Ural, K., Yağcı, B. B., Erdogan, H., & ERDOGAN, S. (2022). Olive leaf extract and coconut oil rectal enema: a new ayurverdic therapeutical strategy for feline atopic skin syndrome. Turkish Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 1(1), 10–19. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7473057 (Original work published December 21, 2022) http://dergi.veterinerichastaliklari.org/index.php/vihder/article/view/10

• Aloe vera and Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) accelerate healing process in domestic cat (Felis domesticus) suffering from scabies. Tridiganita Intan Solikhah, Gahastanira Permata Solikhah2 and Raden Joko Kuncoroningrat. Susilo Division of Veterinary Clinic, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cahaya Petshop, Veterinarian, Mojokerto, Indonesia. Doctoral Program in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, College of Science and Technology, University Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia (2021) https://www.iasj.net/iasj/download/2ae9962d48668d42

Find more links to veterinary research online here


Finally….Please remember that if your horse, dog or other animal is unwell. Or on any kind of medication or other supplement. Then always speak to your Veterinary Surgeon first before using any supplement or therapy. Even natural ones. To avoid any possible issues.

And do you know someone who'd find this helpful? Please share, the more we can spread awareness of the benefits of natural therapies the better! :)

Find out more about other natural animal therapies here at Taranet. Or read other articles in this Natural Pet Health Blog. Take a look at the sitemap here to explore!

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About the Author
Suzanne Harris is an equestrian and canine entrepreneurial coach and consultant to veterinarians who want to help prevent animals being affected by domestic abuse.