Hi there fellow dogs, cats and their humans! Pebbles here, to tell you about how dilligent we are in researching not only the efficacy but also safety of our pet products. I'm just writing the intro, and now I'm going to turn this over to my human, so I can go back to licking myself. A good friend/organic gardener was asking if we wanted her to harvest us some Pennyroyal for our pet line. She was the one who told my human about how the hippies use to make a pennyroyal concoction and dip a little handmade bracelet in it, then wear it around their wrists or tie it around their dog's necks. But we didn't include it in our formula because while it is a great insect repellent, it's also toxic.
So much for hippie ingenuity.
Toxic is a relative term however. Flaxseed is toxic if you ingest too much of it, because it has trace amounts of arsenic in it. ...But so does rice for that matter. So you can see there are certain things that we can't completely avoid, like arsenic - because it's virtually everywhere - so we limit their use if we are unable to avoid it altogether. Flaxseed has some really amazing benefits - it literally saved my life while going through menopause. I couldn't find anything that helped, until I found flaxseed. It balances hormones rather than increasing estrogen like soy products, which are considered to be an endocrine disruptor. However, it is recomended to consume the ground seed no more than 1-2 tbs. per day. At my worst symptoms, I would use 2 tbs. When things became more balanced, I was able to just have 1 tbs. It also brought my cholesterol down (my LDL) by 30 points in a month. I consider that to be a rousing success.
But back to the pennyroyal discussion, and the inspiration for this post...
If you clicked the link up there, you would have found out that pennyroyal was used as a folk remedy for centuries, particularly to help women abort a fetus. Some of them were aborted in the process, as it caused liver, then kidney failure, and soon complete organ failure, resulting in death. This was with about 15ml of essential oil though, so it was pretty concentrated. Nevertheless, that's pretty scary.
But let's see what the literature says on dog & cat toxicity. All of our ingredients have been well researched and double-checked against the ASPCA's list of toxic & non-toxic plants for animal safety as well as poison control and medical journals.
The ASPCA doesn't have pennyroyal listed, but PetMD does. They state that it is used in many flea products, however they also mention that there has been one reported incident of a dog suffering pennyroyal oil poisoning from dermal (skin) exposure. One dog + liver failure is too much for us to roll the dice on, so we opted out of using pennyroyal in our Flea Flee. You never know if there's an open wound where the toxin can get straight into the bloodstream, so we don't take chances on ingredients like that. Of course, there's other types of toxicity that are nowhere near as troublesome as something that can potentially cause liver failure and maybe even death...but we opt out of those too. I'll tell you a story:
I once had a weinerdog named Jack. One day, I was outside admiring my beautiful morning glories, and a few minutes later, I came back and they were all gone. They bloom in the morning (hence the name) and close up in the afternoon, and that's it for them. They're one of my favorite plants because they're easy to grow, they can be trained to climb just about anywhere, and they are prolific bloomers. My favorite color is the blue/lavender ones.
Once the bloom is spent, the flower closes up and begins a process of drying out. Once dried, you can open up the little pod the spent bloom created, and find a little black seed. These are toxic. Read on to see what *kind* of toxic...
The puzzling thing I was trying to understand that day when I looked and my pretty flowers disappeared, was, WTF happened to the spent blooms? They were fully opened flowers one minute, and the next, they were gone.
A little spying on my dog proved useful. I happened to see him hanging around over by some blooming morning glories, and caught him in the act of eating one. I knew that the seeds were poisonous, so I freaked out when I realized he had been eating all my morning glories.
I immediately called poison control and told them what he'd done. They told me that the seeds contain a toxic level of the same thing the flowers contain: Lysergic Acid.
Then we laughed for a few minutes at the fact that my dog was tripping on acid and he obviously liked what it was doing to him, because he was eating all my goddamn acid flowers!
After that, I stopped growing morning glories.
So just to be clear, we don't offer a psychedelic experiences for your pets.
What we do offer, is heavily researched and tested products that are safe and effective. To that end, let's look at what's inside Pebbles' Flea Flee and why it's in there:
Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil: We've written extensively about the benefits of unrefined coconut oil for human skin, as it's in every one of our products. We love it. For pets, it's just as good and there is no toxic effects. What we love about it for pets is, it helps keep the coat nice and shiny, and the skin hydrated and soft. Additionally, because sometimes they love to lick it off themselves, that's actually okay...maybe even good! Studies have shown that the polyphenols in unrefined coconut oil have anti-inflammatory benefits. Additionally, there were a couple studies done in 2014 & 2015 where they induced arthritis in rats, and then gave them unrefined coconut oil. Their conclusion was that it reduced inflammation significantly, which is the main cause of arthritis pain. Many of you reading this I'm sure, can relate to watching a beloved pet suffer with arthritis, so this is one of the ways you can help alleviate that pain.
Nepeta Cataria (Catnip) Many of you know this plant as the stuff that causes cats to go a little nutty...like crack for cats. Apparently when it's eaten, it causes sedation, but when smelled, it brings out the crackwhore in your cat, releasing pheremones and triggering receptors similar to the ones we have that release DMT or some sort of feel-good chemicals in the brain. But did you know it's also an amazing insect repellent? Yep, it was studied by scientists who discovered that it repelled mosquitoes 10x more effectively than DEET...a poison that we put on our bodies, our children's bodies and our pet's bodies to keep them safe from fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. I dug up a Consumer Reports article that says the overall incidents of toxicity with DEET are very low, with a reported 47 incidents of seizures and only 4 deaths! The problem that I have with this - and if you're reading this, I'm assuming you feel the same way - is that these are the only traceable incidents they have documented, but over time toxicity may build up with regular use, and then an illness may occur later down the line. This is why Johnson & Johnson just settled a handful of lawsuits that are projected to end up costing them most of their $7 billion in assets and may even bankrupt the company. These things don't happen overnight. When you put a product on your skin, whether or not you are a chemist or biologist, just assume that it has the potential to react transdermally and affect your insides. We have proven that our Rejuvenating Body Polish acts systemically through transdermal application and gets rid of a fungus that apparently has no known cure. Transdermal application is not a myth - it's relied upon to deliver some pretty serious drugs like fentanyl, nicotine and hormones, just to name a few. So whether or not you have the scientific knowledge to know whether or not something you put on your skin (or your pet's skin) has the molecular structure to penetrate the dermis and enter your bloodstream, to be safe, just assume it does. Catnip also happens to be completely safe for cats, dogs and humans, and so it is our main active ingredient in Pebbles' Flea Flee.
Melissa Oficinalis (Lemon Balm) This is another botanical with insect repelling properties, but that's not all! Lemon Balm is also good for the skin. Because of this, it is one of the ingredients in our serum as well. It has the ability to soothe skin and help facilitate wound repair. which is great if you have an active pet. It has a calming effect on pets as well, helping to relieve anxiety, and a study was conducted for its successful use in treating cold sores. Overall, it's a beautiful healing plant, and completely safe for pets and humans. An interesting thing about this rarely discussed plant is that it is ounce for ounce one of the most expensive essential oils. Because of this, many people will sell an adulterated version with other similar smelling oils in it. The same way rose oil gets a lot of imposters. Since we harvest all our own plant material, we know exactly what is in our products, and we've got the real deal in ours.
Calendula is one of the first plants I'd even seen in a beauty product. Years ago, I had a facial at The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, and they used these wonderful, natural products that had calendula in them. I had learned all about calendula as a result of that facial, and decided it was an ingredient I wanted to put into Pebbles' Flea Flee because of its gentle, soothing properties. The list of benefits is impressive: It's soothing and healing on sunburns. It reduces redness. Its antiseptic properties lend it to being a great ingredient for acne prone skin, but unlike many acne products, it doesn't dry the skin. Instead, it has skin conditioning properties that actually help dry skin, along with stimulating collagen production and cell repair. It's another one that's good at treating wounds, and reportedly even may have anti-cancer benefits. Again, completely safe for pets and humans.
Hibiscus Flower is another one of nature's best kept secrets & has earned the moniker, "The Botox Plant" through it's overachieving antioxidant content, plus its ability to act as a natural AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) by gently exfoliating and tightening skin. Its such a powerhouse that the antioxidant content is no joke, and it has been shown in laboratory studies to be so efficient at killing gram negative and gram positive bacteria, that its performance in this arena has been compared to some antibiotics Some say it even helps minimize the appearance of cellulite. It is packed with Vitamin C and has been used in beauty treatments since the days of Cleopatra, and is completely safe for pets and humans.
Macrocystis Pyrifera (Giant brown sea kelp) Originally, we didn't include this ingredient in our Flea Flee, but since it's the star of all our other skin care products, we decided to take another look and see how it could benefit dogs and cats. It's seriously a powerhouse of nutrients, which is why we love it so much, and it contains iodine, which is essential for growth, thyroid function and healthy skin, plus amino acids, antioxidants till Tuesday, vitamins and minerals galore...well, you get the picture. We've written extensively on its benefits, so we'll just steer you to that blog post if you'd like to know more. And if you'd like to know more about what it does for your dog, here's a good article from an expert on dog nutrition.
So there you have it. A safe an effective product that repels fleas, ticks and mosquitoes, and conditions the skin, supports wound repair, thyroid function and prevents inflammation, thus helping joint pain/arthritis. We know you love your fur babies, because we love ours too.
Stay tuned for our next product launch in Pebbles' line - Peanut Butter Body Polish! We're serious, and it's amazing! Meanwhile, give Pebbles' Flea Flee a try today! Use code: SAVE10 to get $10 off on your first purchase! Coupon good through October 31st