What are some odd/weird home remedies that you use?

My grandmother swears by a shot of Tobasco for allergy symptoms. I tried it once and have to say that allergies were not my main concern for a while.

Sage leaves. Dried, and fresh plus honey. Good for the tummy, and to relax. Lotsa leafy greens for that easy numero deux.

Epoxy glue.
Once used it with success on a cracked tooth whilst out sailing.

@AmWiser Yours is the one I was going to mention. Honey, whiskey and lemon was my mom’s cough/cold remedy and it is now also my cough/cold remedy of choice. And, it isn’t weird, I don’t think,as much as it is maybe out of favor, these days but I am a big believer in hot compresses as a topical remedy for some minor infections.

Tea tree oil for almost everything for humans and the pets. @lillycoyote heat really is out of style, isn’t it? And yet it is so comforting. In the olden days, I was taught that heat encouraged blood flow and that was to be sought after.

For a sprain it helps to soak a piece of brown paper sack in vinegar and wrap it around the ankle or wrist, what ever was sprained. Usually I will put a sock on to hold the wrap in place over night. It honestly helps.

Baking soda takes the sting out of a sunburn. Just get in the bathtub and get the sunburn wet and sprinkle baking soda on the sunburn. It instantly takes the fire out of it.

I don’t know how odd this one is but gargling with warm salt water helps a sore throat.

The parents had a tin of powdered alum that we all used to heal canker sores. It worked like a charm, at least to stop the pain. Funny…I hadn’t thought about it in years.

Hmmm, where shall I start? I have used colloidal silver to clear up pink eye. Have also used a tiny bit (a really really tiny bit) of tea tree oil for it as well, but it hurts a lot more for a few minutes. But when I consider that the medication they give you hurts as badly, and you have to use it for a week or so, I choose the tea tree because I use it once and it’s gone.

Have successfully used acupressure to relieve tooth pain.If it’s bad pain I augment with over-the-the counter pain meds, and we’re good. It works about as well (and sometimes better) than prescription meds.

Acupressure also works well for us on coughs. Sometimes we use cough medicine, sometimes we use the acupressure alone or in combination. Depends on the family member and what they want.

Had pneumonia last year, and the cough lasted for months and months. The prescription meds I took only worked to a point. So I augmented with various herbal tinctures, and finally got better.

Also use tea tree to kill any sort of bug or fungus. Have used it to kill fleas and mange on my dog and lice in our hair (you put it in the shampoo or conditioner and leave it in for maybe 10 minutes before rinsing out). For mange we use it straight. That’s enough for now.

When I have a fever or cold, I drink copious amounts of water, then get as warm as possible when I go to sleep, because whenever I wake up drenched in sweat, I feel a lot better.

Gargle vigorously with vinegar and warm water at the first sign of a cold or sore throat and you will never be sick for more than a day.

Pinch your earlobes if you have a headache. I do that all the time if I feel a migraine coming on and don’t have any ibuprofen handy. I don’t know whether it actually works or if it’s all in my head (rimshot), but it seems to help.

Soap in the mouth cures my kid’s excessive screaming and yelling.

I eat oranges and drink orange juice to prevent colds. My other quirk is to avoid taking medication for as long as possible.

I eat a tablespoon of mustard to get rid of heartburn.

When I’m feeling sick, I take a bath in water as hot as I can stand it with a bottle of vinegar mixed into the water. I soak until the water just barely beings to cool then wrap up tightly in a sheet, cover up with blankets to make myself sweat, and lie down for a half hour. When you get up and unwrap, you can see brown, yellow and gray spots on the sheet from where your body just dumped toxins out.

@WillWorkForChocolate “When you get up and unwrap, you can see brown, yellow and gray spots on the sheet from where your body just dumped toxins out.”

Delicious!

Yeah, it’s kinda gross, but better on a seperate sheet than on your regular sheets or your couch, lol.

@WillWorkForChocolate That’s fascinating. I’d be willing to try it without even being sick. What type of vinegar do you use?

Thanks @all and GA’s. @WillWorkForChocolate ‘s sounds intriguing and I might try it someday:D.

@Pied_Pfeffer I just use a regular white vinegar. It smells awful when you’re soaking in it, but after I sweat it all out, I take a shower to rinse off. Vinegar is also the best possible douche for women to use- just plain vinegar and water. Vinegar will also clean bloodstains off the floor… just in case anyone needs to hide evidence…

A bottle of alcohol with a bottle of plain aspirin dumped in was in all family cupboards and under bathroom sinks. This was used as a rub down ointment for sore bodies, cleaning fluid for scrapes and cuts and a paste for packing on icky wounds or sprained joints.

Vermont’s Original Bag Balm. It’s basically lanolin with menthol or eucalyptus to make it “medicated”. It’s a generations old hand me down for cracked heels, busted knuckles, ratty fingernails, sunburns, singe burns, coating jagged wounds, keeping nostrils moist, swabbing out ears, chapped lips, rubbing into eyelashes and dry scalps, softening elbows and one time it repaired a dried out toilet ballast. I use it all the time for everything, especially keeping my little doggies eyes from getting irritated by eye boogers and it keeps his footpads soft after we shower him. I also think rubbed into his nails that it keeps them from getting brittle and chipping on our tile floors/patio.

My fiancee gripes anytime he shows me a boo boo because I tell him to go get the aspirin paste and bag balm.

@Neizvestnaya I had never heard about keeping a bottle of aspirin paste in the cabinet but I found out first-hand how well that works on bee stings when my aunt whipped it out at a picnic. I’m a new believer.

@Blueroses: The latest edition to our Prairie Home Med Kit is Superglue. It stings like hell on a cut but works wonder to heal a split in a nail at or below the quickline, peeling cuticles that have started to bleed and catch on clothes/blankets and also razor cuts that leave a piece of flesh just hanging on that’s too painful to cut off.

You can also use Superglue in place of stitches, but the cut must, MUST be clean first. You also must use it before the wound starts to well with blood, so you have to have it on you at the time, and whip it out quick.

You do it by pressing the sides of the cut together so the skin meets. Drop the superglue on top, and hold together without moving the skin until the glue dries.

We have identical twins. About two months apart, they both split their chins open. On the first one we used superglue. My mother-in-law took the second one to the emergency. You can’t even see the scar from the Superglued wound, but the other girl still has the “railroad tracks” where the stitches were 20 years later.

I have a great antibiotic ointment for dogs and horses that I use all the time.

Has a built in pain reliever and bonus…a fly barrier! No maggots in my wounds! lolol

@Coloma: What is this ointment?

It is Farnam brand ” 3-way wound treatment ” for dogs & horses. haha

1. Helps prevent infection

2. Aids in pain relief

3. Ointment form provides fly, water and germ barrier

Has a horses leg on the tube with a red star where the wound is throbbing on it’s fetlock lol

@Coloma: I’m going to see if our feed store carries it. My doggie gets open abscesses on his paw a few times a year because bit of broken bone work themselves out. I’ve always soaked his paw in warm aspirin water then coated it with the Bag Balm. I’m game to try something else. Thanks!

@Coloma I love that triple antibiotic ointment too. I buy it by the tub at the farm and ranch supply store and use it for everything (dog and human). It’s just like Neosporin but much, much less expensive.

@Neizvestnaya
@Blueroses

Yes, the wonders of feed store medications. I also keep the jumbo size of Betadine on hand and that ointment has tea tree and Emu oil in it, plus a menthol smell so they will not chew on the wound. Good stuff!