This is a YouTube video titled "Are herbal tinctures with alcohol safe for cats?" featuring a conversation between Pam Roselle and Rita Hogan recorded in July 2025. The discussion focuses on the safety and use of herbal tinctures containing alcohol for cats, addressing common concerns about alcohol content, dosage, and methods to make tinctures more palatable for pets. Rita Hogan, an herbal professional, provides detailed explanations and practical advice throughout the talk.
Hey, everybody.
Hey, everybody. It's Rita Hogan.
It's Pam Roselle with perfectly holistic. And look who I ran into at Super Zoo. My friend Rita.
We're having a great time.
We're having a great time, and we're. We're seeing a lot of stuff about dogs and cats here, obviously. But here's something I wanted to bring up with Rita, who is the resident herbal professional. How long have you been doing this?
A couple decades.
Okay, so you know what you're doing A little bit.
Just.
You also formulate.
I do, yes.
So you're smart about tinctures and how to make tinctures and why certain tinctures have the dreaded word alcohol in it.
Dreaded word.
You know, people are so afraid, Rita, of using products that have alcohol for their cat. And I'm like, I think you're being misled or there's a misunderstanding. So for all the cat people out there who are a little hesitant to use an herbal tincture of some kind that has a little bit of alcohol in it, can you explain or give them a little reassurance on why certain things. Formulas have alcohol in it? And is it really harmful for our cats?
Okay, so a couple of things with alcohol. Certain herbs have to be extracted with alcohol, okay. So they don't extract well in glycerin. Now, you can. There are certain companies that can extract the alcohol out of that substance and then preserve it with glycerin. But as far as our little kitty friends having alcohol, you got to remember that not giving straight alcohol. And for most tincture formulas, you're using what's called 40 proof, 50 proof or 60 proof. So. Or I'm sorry, 40. 40 to 50 to 60% of alcohol. So that'd be like 60%, would be 120 proof. Okay? You're taking that alcohol and you're. What's called macerating. You're mixing it with different plant matters that's chopped up. And the wonderful thing, plants are almost 80 to 90 to 98% water, okay? So you're going to get a ton of water into that alcohol that already has. So, like, just remember that. Let's see, I would say 40 proof or 80 proof alcohol. Okay? Gonna have a massive amount of water in it. It's not pure alcohol. Okay? No one's gonna ingest pure alcohol. So you're gonna mix that alcohol that already has a ton of water in, okay? And then kitties hardly ever have more than a couple of drops of a tincture. Okay? A couple drops, two to three Times a day. Now you're not even getting up to one drop of alcohol for your cat per day, not one drop. Okay. So usually it's between six to eight drops into a regular tincture. So it would take six to eight drops to even have one drop of alcohol for your cat. Or depending on if there's glycerin involved, alcohol and water, which you can see a lot of those for cats, they're going to be what's called low alcohol, but it is such low alcohol. And again, you're not going to give over like two to three drops to a cat, Even a big cat. Let's just say a 25 pounder maximum is going to be four drops of formula or a tincture a few times a day. So you're not even getting. At the end of the day, you might get one drop of alcohol into your dog or cat. Right. So the cool thing is, is that I would say that the maximum dosage for alcohol per cat per day probably would be about a milliliter.
That's a lot.
You're never. You're not gonna get that.
That's like 30 drops.
Yes, it's like 30 drops. So you're not gonna get that. Okay. Of pure alcohol.
Yeah.
Okay. Of a big cat. All right, so you could do a half a mil and that's like a half a dropper for a small cap of pure alcohol. And you're just not going to get that because a lot of people just don't realize the amount of water that is in a tincture. Because when you taste it, you're going to taste the alcohol. Right? It's going to go, oh, that has alcohol. But it has so much water. You're just. That's a dominant flavor. It's not, it's missing. Like for instance, there's more alcohol in a ripe banana. Ripe piece of banana. There's more alcohol in ripe fruit. Okay. But you have that fiber and the flavor to cover up the alcohol in a tincture. You really don't have that. You have that bitterness of the plant and then the water and the alcohol. And so if you add glycerin, then you can sweeten it up. And so that's what you really need to remember. But for those of you that are like, still can't use it, just can't do it. You can take a tincture and you can put that tincture in a little bit of hot water and just let it sit, Take a shot glass. Let's just say we're going to do four drops of an alcoholic tincture. We're going to put that tincture in a little bit of hot water in a shot glass, and we're going to just let it sit for maybe about.
10 minutes so it evaporates.
So the alcohol will evaporate and you can give it to your cat. Okay. And if you're still worried about it, then just don't use it. That's my theory on that one.
Because it doesn't hurt their liver. They can metabolize it.
Yes, they can.
Yeah, right.
Yes. Nobody can metabolize a lot of alcohol, but like I said, there's so much water, it's going to be probably over 85% water. There's going to be. There's so much water, you're just tasting the dominant flavor, which is going to be the alcohol. And certain plants, whether you're told the truth or not, cannot be extracted without alcohol. And so it's all about dosage, it's all about water content. And nobody is using pure alcohol for most tinctures. Again, we're looking at 80 proof, 90 proof, 100 proof, or 120, and that's 60%, like 120, 60% alcohol, 40% water. And then you're adding another, like, 85% water in your tincture from the plant. So it's very little. It's low alcohol. You know, it can get a lot more complicated than that, but that's the gist.
That's very cool. Now, do you have any tips for helping them mask the flavor? Like, what have you used? And like, if you recommend, what I.
Usually do is I will take a couple drops of the tincture, put it in a shot glass and add a little bit of water, and then I'll taste it. And if I think it's gross, your cat's gonna probably think it's gross. So I will drip that on a tree. I will put it with a syringe. Just cheap, you know, I have to tell you that sometimes I use oven mitts. I have these great oven mitts that my cat, if he wants to haul off and give me a. A little snickerdoodle, he's not gonna hurt me so much. But my cat usually just goes like this. You know, he just. He's, yeah, yeah, but he's like, yeah, no, that's really gross. But, you know, always the intention is there. Let your cat know you're trying to help them. Put it on a treat. Put it in some bone broth, put it in something fishy, you know, goat's Milk or something like. Yeah, tuna juice. Stinky, Stinky. And just mix it up and then they'll be okay. But again, you can put it out, leave it in a shot glass, let it evaporate a little bit. That'll calm it down a little bit.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
Because this is the thing. I don't want you guys to be afraid to use these awesome products and herbal tinctures. Because they can provide so much benefit to your cats if they're. You know, whether it's therapeutic or whether it's something they really, really need, like for life support, you know, liver damage, whatever it is. So I just wanted to check in with the herbalist here. And give you guys some just good information. So I hope you guys enjoyed this. And drop a comment below.
Yeah, drop a comment below. And also, dosage is everything.
So if you have to spread out multiple doses throughout the day instead of so much at once.
That's exactly right. And you're never going to give your. Don't ever give your dog a lot of an alcoholic tincture. It's not needed. Oh, sorry. Kitty, Kitty Whitty. Listen, I have two cats that I love very much. And I'm turning in to a crazy cat lady.
