Tea Tree Oil

[pogolysmom]

Has any one treated a fungal infection with tea tree oil?

[dgarriques]

No but it is great for chigger bites.

[pogolysmom]

What's a chigger?

[dgarriques]

http://tinyurl.com/76ae7

[sef1268]

Chiggers are evil little bugs that are usually found in tall grasses. They burrow into your skin and excrete some sort of lovely gunk that makes you itch like crazy.

My husband once counted somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 chigger bites on his ankles and legs, after we stupidly strayed off a hiking trail many years ago.

[pogolysmom]

ewwww, how does a piggy get one of those bad boys?

Is that one of the mites that you read about?

[pogolysmom]

I think sef1268 beat me to the punch when I was responding to the picture of the ugly little bug.

I don't think that we have those in CT.

[dgarriques]

No those are on humans mostly. I dont think Guinea Pigs get them, not sure unless they were in infested grass.

No chiggers is NOT one of the mites described here when someone refers to Mites. If I am wrong someone will come by and let us know.

[lisam]

I tried tea tree oil on some fungus on myself, and it took way too long to begin working. With your pigs, I think it's best to use the recommended cremes-- http://www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html .

[sef1268]

I didn't have much luck with it on fish, either. It's the primary ingredient of Melafix and, I think, Pimafix.

[Mum]

I'm pretty sure Josephine once mentioned that tea tree oil could be toxic.

I'd previously used tea tree oil shampoo, but I dumped it after that post.

If you do a search you should find it.

[pogolysmom]

I had done a search and didn't come up with anything. I wonder what I did wrong when I typed it. I was afraid of the toxicity, which is why I was asking. I'm using a recommended cream, but thought that going herbal might be better since you know that they are cleaning themselves and getting the cream in their mouths, yuck. Or maybe because they taste yucky, they don't lick themselves at the site of the infection?

[Wheekers3]

Yes, it has been found to be toxic in small amounts. It can do some real liver damage.

I found the info in search a while ago, but have lost the link. Did you try "Tea Tree Oil Toxic"?

[Mum]

Ah found it. It wasn't Josephine:

http://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?p=832334&highlight=tea+tree+oil#832334

[pogolysmom]

Thanks. That was great information.

So much for the idea that herbal is better.

[rshevin]

How in the world do you treat fish with tea tree oil sef?

Or do I not want to know.

[Brandilynn]

You justput it in the water. I used it once and it worked fine on my fish.

[cavyman]

I found articles about using tea oil on two sites. Both quote Peter Gurney, a noted GP authority.

http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/skinp.htm says:

I always use my formula of essential oils to treat this condition
which seldom fails to deal with it. The oils are tea tree, lemon grass, patchouli, and lavender at a nine to one ratio with a carrier oil, ie, ten ml of the essential oils to one hundred of carrier oil.


http://www.smellyhippy.com/Peter_gurney/m.html says:

The formula is as follows. One part each of Patchouli, Lemon Grass, Lavender and Tea Tree oils to ten parts of Neem oil. If you cannot get Neem oil any good vegetable oil may be used. People sometimes get confused about these amounts but to put it more simply, if you use 2.5ml of the essential oils, making a total of 10ml you dilute that with 100ml of the carrier oil.

Both sites seem really knowledgeful and holistic. I have two pigs with fungal infections. I am currently using a lyme and sulfur dip, but I think I will give the essential oils a try. My piggies HATE the dip, and it makes them smell like rotten eggs.

[Lynx]

Not sure why you would use a folk remedy when better products are available. I would use something that has been proven to help and avoid this product.

[Mum]

would use something that has been proven to help and avoid this product.

Ditto.