Hi everyone!
The other night my dog, a 7-year old, crazy, puppy-like labrador retreiver named Bret, came into the house after spending most of the day in her kennel. For the first hour, she continuously licked her legs and often tried to cough up...something. My mother, Bret's handler (she's a drug dog for Customs), concluded that while out in her kennel, Bret had been eating the straw put in there to serve as additional insulation. It was obvious that the straw wasn't agreeing with her.
At the same time that the dog was feeling icky, I had prepared myself a pot full of lemongrass, peppermint and ginger for a lovely after dinner and before bed cup of tea. I knew that both peppermint and ginger are good for soothing the stomach, and that lemongrass is a wonderful refresher, so I thought that maybe I'd try giving some to the dog to see if it would help out with her grumpy tummy. It also didn't hurt that the tea was made of all-natural products and that none of them are toxic to dogs.
I poured about 3/4 cup of tea into a little bowl and placed it down on the floor for the dog. Bret took one lick, and then looked up at me. Now normally this dog will eat anything in a flash, but apparently ginger, peppermint and lemongrass just didn't do it for her. So that's when I dropped a plain cracker into the tea.
Bret's eagerness for the cracker conquered her distaste for the tea and she licked the bowl clean. Within 15 minutes the dog had given up the licking and the drooling and the general miserable-ness. It seemed as though my herbal concoction had helped my dog's stomach troubles, and helped both my mom and I watch our movie without getting drooled on by a mopey dog.
I fixed a dog with tea.
I've noted a number of threads that talk about natural tea remedies for people, but has anyone ever tried tea on their pets? Do you have any stories of your own? How about suggestions for different types of remedies that might work for your pets?
What type of tea do you use for that? Just plain orange pekoe? Do you think it would work for other litter box pets like cats and guinea pigs?JM wrote:Put a tea bag in your pet rabbits water to reduce litter box odor. I normally steep my tea and then add the bag to the rabbits water for a few min.
I believe drinking tea makes me a better artist. But hey, I also believe I'm completely sane.
I will bring this post from the grave for several reasons.JM wrote:I did use orange pekoe during the summer, I like to make iced tea with it...but Jasper gets whatever I'm drinking. You probably could give it to other criters.
Orange Pekoe refers to the leaf size, not a specific type of tea. If you are buying something called OP, it is a generic black tea that happens to have OP sized leaves.
Stimulants are not good for any pets, especially a rabbit that already has a very fast heart rate. Even a used teabag will have some caffeine remaining. That being said, my dog likes to go through the garbage and he got into it once and decided to eat all of the used loose leaf tea that was in it. Aside from probably speeding up the digestive process he was fine.
There is nothing wrong by making a flavored drink for your dog, like the original poster did. Checking the safeness prior to giving to your dog is much better then just trial and error. The saying goes, better safe then sorry.
I read in a dog book or a dog related article that Chamomile tea was okay for dogs. It suggested this to relax a hyperactive dog. I made some for my dog once and he lapped it up. He is a basset so who knows if it made him any more relaxed then he already is. I just poured some tea into their water bowl so it was very dilute.
Most of the caffeine is released in the first 30 seconds of brewing, so, I figure it's safe. (Some say up to 98%) A Netherland dwarf rabbit lives about 5 to 6 years, my rabbit is 6 now and we've been giving him tea since we got him. (I found the suggestion in a book about rabbit care.)
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Jan 10th, '09, 20:04
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silverneedles
and some say you need around 5 minutes infusion to "remove" 80% of the caffeine.
based on research data, 30 second steep removes about 10% of the caffeine (20% by "small leaf CTC tea, loose in the 'pot' rather than in a teabag, at constant temperature and stirred vigorously").
based on research data, 30 second steep removes about 10% of the caffeine (20% by "small leaf CTC tea, loose in the 'pot' rather than in a teabag, at constant temperature and stirred vigorously").