Cats and room freshers

[bertsdinner]

This may sound a weird question, but can cats be upset by room fresheners? I quite like reed diffusers and bought a lavendar one on Friday. Its quite potent.
My cat is not keen on strong smells, he will flinch away if I have strongly scented handcream and go to stroke him.
He has been out of sorts all weekend, can't settle, clingy and is in and out non stop.
Im wondering if the smell is upsetting him, as I know cats like familiar scents around them? Ive moved it out of the room now.
Anyone elses cats had any kind of reactions to this kind of thing?

They certainly have very sensitive noses for smells. Maybe it's so strong it's masking his 'normal' smells and unsettling him?

Could well be. I think lavender is slightly toxic to cats too ( although I could be thinking of something else).

Watch that it's out of reach of the cat so they can't knock it over, there was a picture doing the rounds on FB a couple of years back of a cat that had skin rashes and burns from one. Even if that isn't true it would make a right mess.

Thanks for the replies, Ive thrown it in the outside bin, I think maybe it was disrupting his normal smells.
I found it quite chemically/potent so hopefully cat will be relieved it's gone.

Ooh, good point-I've just added some freshener to the litter room-will move it way out of the way