Here are answers to questions Dr. Janet gets asked all the time. If you have a question not listed here, email support@essentialoilvet.com. For a personalized consultation to support your animal, please visit the consultations page.

Essential Oil Vet Membership Group Questions

Here is what you get for just $27/month in the Essential Oil Vet Membership Group or save with a $270 annual membership:

  • Exclusive Member Only Webinars: Join Live each month or binge watch all the recorded webinars from past months!
    From Allergies to Anxiety, these webinars will help you make the best choices for your animals!
  • ​Weekly Q & A: Get your specific questions answered – LIVE videos weekly
  • Safety Information: Including the latest when new products come out
  • Research: Keep up to date with the science and how to apply what we learn
  • ​Protocols: What your animals need when they need it most
  • ​Diffuser Blends and Recipes: Sprays, salves, shampoos, and much, much, more!
  • ​Whole Animal Health Guidance:  Roark is an experienced veterinarian
    and she focuses on whole animal health (in addition to Essential Oils)
  • Early Access & Discounts: Members often have the inside scoop on discounts and freebies!!
  • ​Monthly or Yearly payment options available

Welcome to the Essential Oil Vet Membership group! Be sure to check your email for tips on how to get the most out of your subscription.

The Essential Oil Vet Membership group has 2 parts: A private Facebook group and an online Membership Portal. You can to login to the Membership Portal at https://essentialoilvet.com/login. If you have any trouble logging in please send an email to support@essentialoilvet.com.

You can access the Facebook Group directly from your Facebook account or you can follow this direct link: ESSENTIAL OIL VET MEMBERSHIP GROUP IN FACEBOOK. Be sure to click “Join Group” button so my team can verify your subscription to your Facebook account. Verification usually takes less than 24 hours but can take longer on weekends.

If you are not already a member, be sure to visit our membership subscription page for more information and to subscribe today! See you on the inside!

You can cancel your subscription at any time. If you joined before June 2021, just send an email to admin@essentialoilvet.com with your name, the email that you used when you subscribed, and your Facebook name (if different from your name). PayPal subscribers can cancel their subscription themselves via PayPal.

If you joined after June 2021, you can cancel your subscription yourself in the Membership Portal! Just log in and go to My Account Profile at https://essentialoilvet.com/register/my-account/. From there you can click “Disable auto renew” or “Cancel your membership”.

If you joined the Membership Group before June 2021, send an email to admin@essentialoilvet.com with the subject line “Change Credit Card” – Please include in the email the BEST way to contact you to update your information in our system so you don’t miss a thing in the group!

If you joined after June 2021, you can update your billing yourself in the Membership Portal! Simply log in and go to: https://essentialoilvet.com/register/update-billing-card/.

Yes! After you join the Membership Group, you can watch all the replays of previous webinars in the Membership Portal at https://essentialoilvet.com/webinars/ or in the Facebook Group in Guide 2: Exclusive Monthly Webinars and Resources.

After you subscribe to the group, the easiest way to find answers is in the Membership Portal at https://essentialoilvet.com/online. You can also search the Facebook Group by using the search feature in the upper right-hand corner. Thousands of questions have already been asked so there is a wealth of information at your fingertips! Here is a helpful 3-minute video on how to search the Facebook group!

You’ll also want to check out the 40+ GUIDES (these used to be called UNITS). You’ll find this tab across the top of the Facebook group. It is right between the Discussion and Announcement tabs. *Hint: Most Guides are organized alphabetically.

Once you join the Membership Group, you can post your question on the ASK THE VET post. This post can be found under the Featured tab. Scroll down a few posts…you can’t miss it! The questions from the Ask the Vet post will be answered in the order they are received during a LIVE Q & A video every Sunday at 6 PM Central Time (unless otherwise notified). You can always watch the reply if you don’t catch these videos live! The replays are available in Guide 3: Live with Dr. Roark.

Please remember that this group is NOT an emergency veterinary service and Dr. Roark cannot diagnose anything over the internet. She is here to answer questions and support you but if you have a veterinary emergency, please take your animal to an emergency clinic or call your regular veterinarian immediately. This group is not a substitute for regular veterinary care.

Animal Aromatherapy Specialist Certification Questions

Yes! While you do not need to be a veterinarian to become an Animal Aromatherapy Specialist, I am pleased to announce that this course has been approved by the AAVSB’s Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) program.

AAVSB-RACE Approved – Provider Number: 50-29495

This program has been approved for 24 hours of continuing education credit for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians in jurisdictions that recognize RACE approval.

The 6-week Animal Aromatherapy Specialist Certification course is usually offered twice each year. Registration is open for the following sessions:

July-February 2023 | July 24 – August 28, 2023
January-February 2024 | January 15 – February 19, 2024

Join my mailing list to get email notifications about upcoming classes as well as other events, recipe ideas, stories, and more!

The live sessions are at 5 PM (Central Time) on Mondays. These are not just pre-recorded videos for you to click through and get “certified.” Together, we will tackle your hard questions and I encourage you to join live for real-time answers and interaction with myself and the other students! There will also be a weekly “office hour” (usually on Thursdays at 5 PM Central TIme) to answer your questions and discuss cases. These office hour meetings are optional and not required to receive your certification.

Yes, the recordings are made available and you have lifetime access to them – watch them as many times as you’d like and you can even pause and take notes if you need to! Attendance in live sessions is highly recommended but not required.

Yes, for ADA compliance, a transcript of each video will be posted 1-3 days after the live training for each training. In addition to the live videos, I will be helping you understand and implement at each step in the process, and there will be written tools offered along the way, so you won’t get lost.

Listen to how this has helped one of our students, Rebecca, when she first went through the course.

“I’m a dog trainer (dealing mainly with behavior modification) who took this course to expand the ways that I can help my clients. Although many of [the other students] have previous experience with EOs, I really had no experience besides the benefits I’ve seen to my own health through the use of oils by my bodywork practitioner. I am slowly incorporating the use of oils, but at this point I am more so testing things and experimenting.

Yesterday, I was at a training lesson with a very fearful dog. His owner had a collection of oils that she had previously purchased for herself. I was very happy that I was able to go through each of the oils, separate those that should not be used with a dog, recommend proper storage for all, demonstrate and advise on self-selection, discuss the methods of usage, advise on proper dilution, and discuss the negative emotions treated and positive emotions gained by the oils selected ALL WITH COMPLETE CONFIDENCE AND AUTHORITY because of the education I’ve received.

…I am beginning to feel like I know what I’m talking about and will soon have the ability to use my knowledge as intended. Thank you Janet Roark!”

There isn’t a strict deadline for each assignment. You have up to 60 days after the last live training session to complete the requirements in order to receive your certification. You will have lifetime access to the course material!

You have LIFETIME ACCESS to the group, videos, trainings, and materials and you will be able to ask questions about the specific course content along the way.

You can complete this material in 3-5 hours per week, but remember you have up to 60 days after the course ends to complete all the requirements, so go at your own pace!

There are 3 different payment options available:

  • 1 time payment option of $1497 (save over $270 compared to the 6 month payment plan)
  • 3 payments of $545 (save $135 compared to the 6 month payment plan)
  • 6 payments of $295

The payments will be charged on the date of the first payment each month (For example, If you signed up on the 21st of July, the payments will be taken out the 21st of July, August, September, and October.) – for 4 months total.

Essential Oil Safety Questions

Let’s go over a few things here.

1. When using essential oils, only use tested as pure essential oils, which means… not from amazon, your local grocery store, or people you don’t know or trust or won’t / can’t show you the test results. Many essential oils are adulterated with chemicals that are very toxic to pets to breathe in. I use and recommend doTERRA products, but there are other safe brands out there. Please contact me if you’d like to know if your brand is one of the safe ones or not.

2. When diffusing, only use 3-4 drops of oil in a water based diffuser on an intermittent setting. The Petal, Lumo, Volo, or Brevi diffusers all have this intermittent setting.

3. Be sure your diffuser is in an area where your pet cannot knock it over.

4. Be sure to diffuse in an open area with the door open so your pet can leave the room if desired.

5.  Yes, tea tree oil can be harmful to pets if you use WAY too much of it.

6. If your pet is sensitive to an oil you are diffusing, stop the diffuser and get your pet some fresh air. Contact your veterinarian if you are concerned.

It is good to be careful using oils around animals, but let’s not get overly paranoid about it. Follow some common sense guidelines and rest assured you are actually helping them, not hurting them!

You will hear many things from many people about cats and oils. Here’s my take: Cats lack an enzyme called glucuronyl transferase. This is important for the Cytochrome p450 liver metabolism pathway. This makes cats very susceptible to ALL kinds of toxicity, including plant, NSAIDS (like aspirin or ibuprofen), Tylenol, chocolate and caffeine (methylxanthines), lead, zinc, many types of pesticides, and many other things.

So which oils do you stay away from? Most highly tested, therapeutic oils (not the ones from any grocery store – the ones that are tested by batch) are so pure that you can use them topically on cats sporadically in a highly diluted form (as if for infants – 0.25% to 1% maximum dilution). It’s not a good idea to use them topically or internally on your cat every single day (with some exceptions.)

*The oils to stay away from and use something different if you can are the oils that are high in phenols and eugenols as far as direct application (topical or internal) to your cat (basil, birch, cinnamon, clove, fennel, melaleuca, oregano, peppermint, thyme, and wintergreen) as well as oils high in d-limonene (citrus oils).

That being said, I have used a highly tested therapeutic grade Melaleuca on my own cats without dilution without any ill effects. (I do not recommend you do this, though!) Just like people, every animal is different and you should consult your veterinarian if you are concerned.

As far as diffusion – I diffuse everything! I just make sure not to diffuse anything in my kitty’s room (where his food is) and make sure he’s not “locked” in the room with the diffuser – he will go away if it’s one he doesn’t like or need. It is recommended that you use a water based diffuser rather than one that pulls oils directly from the bottle.

The main thing is, don’t give oils to cats topically or internally *every* day (with some exceptions), dilute them, only use highly therapeutic grade, tested essential oils, and when in doubt, feel free to ask.

The use of Melaleuca alternifolia, or Tea Tree oil, is controversial in small animals, and almost every veterinarian I know will tell you that it is toxic. In my opinion, this unnecessarily frightens pet owners and oil users. So I’d like to spend some time discussing this topic with you today.

In January 2014, JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) published a study entitled “Concentrated tea tree oil toxicosis in dogs and cats: 443 cases (2002–2012).” This article took all of the toxic exposures to Melaleuca that were reported to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center of dogs and cats over a 10 year period and analyzed them. This included reported toxic exposures throughout the US and Canada. The article concludes by stating that use of tea tree oil in dogs and cats is not recommended. And this is why your veterinarian tells you it is toxic.

They analyzed 443 cases – over 10 years… a little over 44 cases reported each year. To put that into a little bit of perspective, it’s estimated that 70-80 million dogs and 74-96 million cats are owned in the United States alone. Granted, not everyone uses essential oils. Of those cases, only 31 were classified as major illness.

The brands of the essential oils that caused toxicity were not disclosed in this study, it is likely that they are not known. Being that different purity levels and potency exists between brands, I believe this is a contributing factor in toxicity of this oil in most cases.

The amount of oils that caused toxicity was “dose dependent.” In other words, the larger the dose or amount of oils used, and the smaller the animal, the more severe the symptoms were. The animals ranged from 0.2 kg (less than 0.5 lb newborn/ juvenile kittens) to 71 kg (156 lbs dogs). The toxic dosage ranged from 0.1 mL to 85 mL – in terms of standard sized essential oil bottles, that is 5 drops to over 5 Bottles worth of essential oil. Two dogs were reported with applications that resulted in death – one was accidently given 0.4 mL of this essential oil IV (in the vein) which is about 20 drops. The other was a small dog (miniature poodle) that was given 28.5 mL (that’s a little less than 2 full bottles) topically for 3 days straight. None of the cats that had toxicity died from exposure. There were no reports of toxicity from diffusion.

The symptoms of Melaleuca toxicity in dogs include depression, lethargy, listlessness, somnolence, or appearing subdued, paresis, weakness, or hind limb weakness, ataxia, muscle tremors and fasciculation, and rarely: coma, collapse, recumbency, dermatitis, pruritus, rash, stiffness, increased salivation, and high serum liver enzyme activities. In cats symptoms include salivation or drooling, ataxia, coma, recumbency, unresponsiveness, unconsciousness, or a semicomatose state, muscle tremors or fasciculation, dermitis, pruritus, or rash. These symptoms will develop within 2-12 hours and may last up to 72 hours.If you think your dog or cat has had a toxic topical exposure, wash your animal with mild dish soap and rinse thoroughly. If you think your dog or cat has ingested this oil, do not induce vomiting. They can be fed activated charcoal. Contact your veterinarian if either of these is the case.

Interestingly, in one year (2003), the American Association of Poison Control Centers recorded 787 exposures to Melaleuca in humans; 518 of these were in humans less than 6 years of age, 57 in those 6 to 19 years of age, and 212 in those over 19 years of age. Based on these numbers compared to those in the 10 years of reported dog/ cat cases, Melaleuca may actually be safer for pets than humans! (If you were basing it solely on reported cases).

All of this to say, that Melaleuca should not be feared and avoided at all costs the way it seems to be around animals. If you have a newborn or young kitten, I do not recommend using it on them, or small dogs less than 20 lbs, or even large dogs in large amounts, or animals with liver disease. Because this oil is so common, we tend to think it is very safe to use on ourselves, but the truth is it is very potent and should only be used in small amounts or diluted, even with people. Be knowledgeable about the information that is out there. Be sure to look at all the facts and ask questions. The margin of safety for this oil may be larger (or smaller) than what you may have originally thought. That being said, there are other oils that are equally as effective as Melaleuca that have an even higher margin of safety for small animals.

Birds are extremely sensitive to essential oils, so I recommend only using a water diffuser if it is in the same room as the birds, rather than one that pulls oils directly from the bottle. They can benefit from the oils just like we can! Here is some good information about birds and oils:

http://www.animaleo.info/birds.html and

http://www.liveoakacupuncture.com/parrots-essential-oils

Overall, avoiding the hot oils may be prudent, but I tell bird owners what I tell all my pet owners: I think it’s really interesting that so many people will put a commercial, chemical filled air freshener in every room in their house without thinking twice about it, but are worried about harming them with essential oils! I do love that people are cautious (as they should be) with their pets. In general, each individual animal has preferences and dislikes, and sensitivities, just like different people do… so I always tell people to just observe your pets behavior – if it is behaving normally, all is well – if it is behaving abnormally, that may be an oil that they are sensitive to. They are very good at telling you! (Especially birds!)

Rabbits (and chinchillas, sugar-gliders and other small mammals) are hind-gut fermenters. This means that the bacteria in their gut is very important for proper digestion of the forage they eat. It also means they are very susceptible to digestive issues if that delicate bacterial balance in their gut is upset with things like antibiotics (which kill the good bacteria as well as the bad) and other things that may harm the good bacteria in their guts. Strong oils that may cause an imbalance in the gut with rabbits include cinnamon, oregano, clove, melaleuca, and others. So caution should be used when using those oils around bunnies. If you must use these oils in the same area for some reason, be sure to give probiotics to help support them. They love citrus oils, and some of the more soothing oils like lavender, roman chamomile, helichrysum, and frankincense are all safe to use highly diluted (0.25%-0.5%). I recommend water diffusing around rabbits, as they are a bit sensitive. If you need to give oils in their water, just one drop per 1 liter to 1 gallon of water is the recommended dilution for most of the oils. They may also be utilized topically highly diluted when indicated, but check with your veterinarian before applying topically. And as always, observe their behavior. If they are acting normally, all is well! If not, it may be an oil they are sensitive to.

Essential Oil Ordering Questions

Essential Oils are volatile aromatic compounds that are harvested and steam distilled or cold pressed from the leaved, bark, fruit, flowers, stems, roots, or other parts of plants. These powerful and potent compounds can be used aromatically, topically, and (under the supervision of a certified aromatherapist or healthcare professional or veterinarian) even internally safely and effectively for amazing health benefits and overall wellness.

There are 3 different ways to order Essential Oils through Dr. Roark depending on your interest and need:

  1. Just order a few oils full price: If you are looking to only buy 1 or 2 oils a year and are not interested in trying anything else, then purchasing Retail will be your best option. Just click here to order now!
  2. Save with a doTERRA Wholesale Membership: If you are ordering 3 or more oils per year, or are spending $50 or more on essential oils annually, then the Wholesale Membership is for you! You automatically get your oils at wholesale prices (25% off retail) and have the option for even more savings if you elect to enroll in the optional (free) Loyalty Rewards Program. Just click the “Join & Save” button under Wholesale Membership above to get started!
  3. Become a doTERRA Wellness Advocate: If you love essential oils and can’t help sharing them with others, and want to earn enough in commissions to cover your oils (and possibly more depending on how much time you are willing to devote), then becoming a Wellness Advocate is the option for you!

Essential Oils work at a cellular level, and while there are many differences, there are also many similarities between human and animal cells. I work with people and animals, and even have a few people on my team that don’t even have pets at all (although, I’m working diligently to convince them they need one!)

While Dr. Janet Roark enjoys working with fellow veterinarians, you do not need to be a veterinarian to work with her. She will empower you and give you the tools you need to succeed if you are willing and able to learn. She is available to answer questions as you need them every day and you will receive unlimited free consultations when you join her team.

It is not required to spend $100 at all! You can join as a wholesale member and only order when you want to. However, in order to earn commissions that month, you do need to order a certain amount. Life happens and if it just doesn’t work out for that month, I will work with you to figure out a plan of action to get you earning again if that is what you are still wanting. There is never any pressure to purchase if you are unable to, though.

No, please don’t! The oils at grocery stores have been tested by a 3rd party laboratory and found to be largely synthetic. Some of them do contain a small amount of essential oil, and some do not contain any. These oils can actually cause more harm than good as the fragrance in them can actually result in disrupting normal endocrine function. These oils should NEVER be used with or around animals, and only oils labeled with a supplement fact/ nutrition panel should be used internally as they are specifically tested and labeled for internal use.

What specific oils depends on what you are wanting to achieve and in which areas you or your animal need support. A good one many people start out with is Lavender. It is affordable and able to be used for a vast array of situations. For a specific recommendation, you can contact Dr. Janet with some of your concerns and she can help guide you in the right direction for choosing an oil that will both be helpful and be used by you!

Yes! If you start as a wholesale customer, upgrading is free and easy at any time!

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