We didn’t just decide to start using essential oils overnight. It all started with a German Sheppard named Lucy. Shortly after my husband and I got married, we moved into a cabin in Tennessee out in the middle of the woods. My mom had purchased it many years earlier, since it was so close to the lake where we would spend many a weekend enjoying fishing and the great outdoors. We didn’t have a lot of money at the time and they offered us a place to stay (and so we could also help with upkeep of the cabin). They weren’t able to go there as often as they liked, being that they both worked full time jobs. So being newly weds, we figured this would be a great place to start out our lives together.
Shortly after we moved in, my husband got a job where he would come home late at night and it made me a bit nervous because honestly, the world is a crazy place nowadays. Being so far out in the middle of nowhere, my husband and I felt we needed something not only to help protect us, but also be part of our first “family”. Our “family” at the time was my husband and I and two Siamese cats. They were great, but we needed something more. A dog sounded perfect. We adopted Lucy shortly after we moved in and she was wonderful company and she was a very good guard dog (there is a reason police officers use German Sheppard’s, after all!). My husband was originally from Iowa and grew up in a fairly large city. He loved the outdoors but never really lived in the country. It didn’t take long for him to discover that one of the worst things about living in Tennessee are the bugs–especially the ticks and mosquitoes!
Being that we lived practically in the middle of the woods, it wasn’t long until we discovered Lucy would get ticks time to time after coming in from outside. She, like most dogs, also would get fleas pretty bad (being that we let her run outside freely from time to time). Our first thought was to take her to the vet to see what they recommend for fleas. It turns out, she also had heart-worms and the treatment the vet recommended did not sound very safe for her (mainly due to her age). Helping her with heart-worms was a whole other process–this will be explained in more detail in an upcoming blog. For the fleas, however, the vet recommended Comfortis for her. This was a pill that was suppose to kill fleas for up to 30 days. That sounded perfect–but little did we know at the time, however, that it actually could be harmful to her in the end.
When we gave Lucy the flea pill, she got sick shortly after and threw up the pill. One pill cost approximately $30. Not only did we waste $30 on her, it also made her sick when we gave it to her. At this point, I thought, it is time to try something else. I never really liked man-made “medicine” to begin with, but since the fleas were so bad we wanted to do something and I figured we’d give it a shot. Since she got sick, however, I decided to look for possible alternatives–maybe something more natural.
After some research, my husband and I discovered Peppermint and Eucalyptus Radiata essential oils can be used to help get rid of fleas or at least repel them. We decided to give it a try so she wouldn’t get infested so bad. We would just mix a few drops of each into a spray bottle and spray it on her each time she needed to go outside. That seemed to work well, and she had zero side effects–not to mention it made her smell good! This is when I first started discovering the power of essential oils. I didn’t discover Young Living right away, so we stuck with generic brands. They still worked, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized the enormous difference between Young Living essential oils and generic brand essential oils (see my blog entry “Why Young Living Essential Oils?”). That just goes to show how disappointed hindsight can make you feel. Fortunately, it is never too late to start over and start something new. Our family and I now thankfully have Young Living essential oils. Today, my family and I use essential oils for more than just pets–we use them daily as a part of our lives. Essential oils for essential living!
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