Friday, July 6, 2012

How to make saline solution - eye wash



I am officially the dog lady.  Hence my long term 'break' from writing.  Some of you already know that I have 5 dogs (4 boys and 1 girl).  Well my girl had a litter of 4 boys and 1 girl.  What a coincidence!  My 2 oldest angels are 15 and 10 years old.  Shitzu doggies in general tend suffer from allergies.  It is normal to see skin allergies, skin tags, and eye allergies.  The older dogs sometimes have difficulty producing the tears needed to clear their eyes so some people notice an increase in eye boogies, eew.  The vet will give drops for the treatment of this but without making their own tears it is something that you will revisit.  

To avoid vet bills and needless chemical based medications, you can simply help your doggie child by providing the daily tears they need.  The cheapest way to do this is to make saline solution yourself.  You wouldn't believe how easy it is to do.  You can also use a few drops in their ears as an ear wash to prevent ear infections. 

Its for humans too!  Great to know for fans of contacts who run out of solution, those with irritated eyes, those who need a nasal rinse or ear rinse, and more.  
So here is what you will need...

Bottles
1 cup Distilled Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
Dropper (for eye drops)

I prefer to use multiple small glass bottles for a couple of reasons.  First of all, once you open the bottle you have 48 hours of use before it should be discarded to avoid contamination.  A closed container will have a shelf life of about a month.  The bottles I use a boston round 1/2 once bottles and this small recipe yields more than 10 bottles.  I don't need that much so I also fill one 2 ounce bottle for ear washes.

Here is the super simple steps.  I mix the two ingredients and bring them to a boil for sterilization.  I let it cool and pour it in.  That is it!  

Whew!  Time for a break.