Are household cleaners safe for cats? What about essential oils?

Most household cleaning products are fine to use around your cat. There is no serious harm here if you are using products and then allowing them to airdry. The main concern is that some aerosolized cleaning products can cause irritation of your cats airway in some cases. However, most of these products will also cause you discomfort as well, so use your best judgement here. In most situations if you can handle exposure to the product, then so can your pet. As far as ingesting products go, you just have to make sure not to leave out any buckets of cleaner that your cat could potentially get into, and you are basically covered here as well. If you are still a bit worried about your pet, you can also switch all your household products to more organic cleaning products such as Green Works or the Mrs. Meyers products, which are derived from 98% natural products. I hope that this helps! Best of luck with your kitty and safe cleaning practices. Take care.

I would suspect the citrus oil could be irritating to a cats upper respiratory tract. With sensitive animals around using a vinegar and water solution is always a safe bet. Another suggestion would be to keep Melcho in a different area of the house while cleaning and allow him back in once everything has dried and the fumes have mostly dissipated. A bit depends on what type of allergic reaction he was having, if it's respiratory you want to avoid compounds with strong perfumes or fumes. Cats seem particularly sensitive to the Pine-Sol and Lysol type products. If it was more of a contact reaction to touching the cleaners then typically waiting till the area is completely dry may be safe. But in general vinegar and water solutions are very safe to use around cats and you should not need to remove him from the area you're working in. I hope this helps, thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach

You can use plain vinegar and water in a 50/50 dilution to clean most hard surfaces. Commercial products that are safe to use include Green Works wipes, the Seventh Generation line and the Mrs. Meyer's line of "eco-cleaners".

Hello. For the most part, these diffusers are safe for cats, as long as there are regular air exchanges & some fresh air coming in all day. Most HVAC systems have automatic air exchanges, but if the weather is good, keeping a window cracked a bit is perfect. Some cats are very sensitive to odors, some do not care for them at all, so as long as the cats are not confined to a closed in room & can move to a different area, there is no harm in essential oils. One caveat, we have a diffuser mounted on a wall in our clinic & it malfunctioned ( exploded ) sending the contents all over a hallway. Fortunately, none of the office cats seemed to have walked through this, but that would be a concern if a cat ingests any of this. But otherwise, I would just enjoy the fragrance of your choice. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

As long as you thoroughly rinse the rugs after they are washed, there shouldn't be a problem with any residue from the cleaner. If you can find a soap/shampoo called Orvus in your area, or order it online, that should be a safe, effective cleaner. I have used it myself to bathe horses, so it shouldn't be a problem using it to clean rugs for your cats to lie on.

While direct contact with undiluted essential oils can be toxic to cats using a few drops in a spray or diffuser is unlikely to cause any problems. If your cats have asthma you may want to avoid any fragrances but otherwise I think you can continue to use your oils this way. Ask your veterinarian for advice if your cats have any health problems.

I would not use essential oils. There are many that are toxic and aren't safe to have around cats. Ant bait stations are safe for cats and you can find ones with low toxicity. I recommend getting those to kill the ants. I hope this helps!