Growing Marigolds for Relieving Pets Itching

Just like us, our pets can get itchy, irritated skin that leads to intense scratching, bald spots to open wounds from constantly suffering. This does not automatically mean that poor dog or cat is infested with fleas and ticks. Something else could be causing the animal’s distress such as skin allergies. Of course, as a worried pet parent your first thought is to take your buddy to the vet like I did when this happened, but I could have saved myself trouble and expense by trying the benefits of marigolds or the calendula (marigold) tincture first.

At the time, I didn’t know what was wrong with my cat. I even checked with a flea comb to see if I picked up any fleas from within her long fur, but she was clean. As I suspected, the vet agreed that it wasn’t flea or tick related that was causing her to constantly scratch so badly to the point of becoming hairless in a spot. He gave a prescription but told me next time to try calendula tincture before it got to this point to relieve itching.

The calendula is the common marigold. It helps their pain with the flower’s salicylic acid as well as in speeding healing. The tincture is derived from the flower part, which is safe to use topically on both dogs and cats. You can buy this calendula tincture to make your own DIY itching relief spray or just grow your own marigolds to brew up your own calendula treatment.

I was talking to a friend about what happened to my cat and about what the vet mentioned about the calendula tincture. She shared a similar episode that happened with one of her dogs, then told me that the reason she grew marigolds. It was to dry the flowers to make her own calendula spray.

She would use about one-half cup of the dried marigold flowers to about four cups of water and boil it with one-fourth teaspoon of salt in a covered pot. After she let this mix seep and thoroughly cool, she had enough to treat her German Shepard, golden retriever, and a collie.

If you have just one dog or cat, just reduce the recipe to one-eight of a cup of the dried marigold flowers to one cup of the water and add a pinch of salt. You can pour the cooled mixture into a clean spray bottle or just wet some cloths to rub into the skin of your pets.

If your pet is on the sensitive side and had other issues with him or her before, then you may want to leave out the salt or just use extra fine sea salt. Sea salt is the same as table salt. Table salt, however, has extra additives that may further irritate sensitive prone animals.

Something important is checking the condition of your pet for any broken skin before making the recipe. In this case, avoid using the salt because it could cause him or her extra pain.

Your other option is buying the calendula tincture that is made from the flowers. Add a few drops to about a cup of distilled water to better preserve it (the salt is optional) and pour into a clean spray bottle.

Pet parents, I hope you try this out because it does the trick to help make your pet more comfortable again.