• Lesson from Sugi: don’t give me too powerful medicines
• Sugi says: “I’m a sensitive guy…”

Sugi often gets hot waxy ears sometimes when he’s having an allergic reaction, or if he’s stressed. If there’s lots of wax he can develop a candida infection in his ears and they become itchy and painful. A couple of months ago we had to have the vet remove his ear hair and flush out the wax. Argh! it was an ordeal for him and he spent a few days recovering from the anesthetic. I’ve tried using different solutions and medicines in his ears to flush out the wax and/or relieve the pain and itch. He either reacts allergically or the medicines are too toxic (cortisone, etc) to use repeatedly.

I recently consulted with a great book called “Four Paws, Five Directions” by Cheryl Schwartz. For waxy build up she recommends using a natural remedy solution of lavender, calendula and agrimony. This solution seems to ease the itching and calm the ear from producing all that wax. Here’s my recipe:

• 1/4 tsp lavender flowers steeped in 1 cup hot water
• add 10 drops of calendula tincture (the hot water from the lavender tea will evaporate the alchohol
• 1 drop agrimony tincture

Once the solution has cooled, use a cotton ball to dribble into ears (maybe a 1/2 to 1 tsp per ear). Massage the base of the ear to get it down into the canal. He will then shake out the excess. Gently clean out the excess with a few cotton balls.