A cure for dog dandruff

If your dog badly needs this, run out right now and locate a palash tree! The flowering season is almost over for this year, and the flowers are ready to be gathered.

I got the idea from friend Prerna’s post in her blog, Under the Banyan tree and other stories. Thanks a ton, Prerna! You didn’t know what a godsend your post was going to be!

While Prerna doesn’t say anything about using palash on dogs, her post describes the soothing properties of bath water in which palash flowers have been soaked. So I thought, why not? Our darling Topshe has been a bundle of itches for years. She has dandruff and sheds round the year.

I’ve tried all kinds of remedies – herbal and chemical, to no avail. Palash flowers seemed like just one more thing to try out. And guess what? It worked! The dandruff has actually disappeared after just one use, I can hardly believe my eyes.

So here’s what you do. 1. Find a palash tree (lucky for us, there are six or seven around our house).

2. Gather as many flowers as you need. I gathered several basketsful of dry flowers, as I plan to store them for future use. But you can just pick and use a handful of fresh ones.

3. Put a handful of the flowers in a cloth bag and soak it in half a bucket of warm water for a couple of hours.

4. Boldly pour the bright orange water all over dog and rub it gently into the skin. Never fear, your fluffy white dog will not get dyed. Unless you steep her in the juice for a few hours.

5. Dry off dog.

6. Admire clean, cool, non-orange dog.

A little about the palash tree, Butea monosperma: It’s a beautiful native species, with a host of practical and medicinal uses. It’s found all over India and is variously called palasham (Tamil), kimshuka (Sanskrit), muttuga (Kannada) and keshudo (Gujarati).