I am not a vet & this is not intended to be veterinary advice, or advice at all. If that were my dog, I'd get some penicillin from the feed store & give it to him orally or subcutaneously (I can get syringes at the feed store as well). I would say that it is for my horse. The last time I got penicillin, it was about $13.00. I'd ask the person at the feed store, or call a friendly vet tech, to find out the dosage for a dog of my dog's weight. I'd also clean the ears & pull out any hair that's matted up inside there; ears can be cleaned with any "pure" oil (no fragrance) such as olive oil or mineral oil.

As mcmann said - WD 40 works well. I used it on some rug runners that had been glued to our hardwood floor. Get a plastic pot scrubber, do a little at a time, then rinse well. It IS hard work and DOES take time, but it doesn't mess up your floor. Good luck and let us know how it came out.

Thanks for all the comments. I did buy a Horticultural oil yesterday for the scales. Will be glad to get that on. As for the health of the plants, it's always a learning process to balance wet and dry, especially when it can vary so quickly in our seasons. If we have a few dry days where we ran the fire or wood stove, the soils in the house can dry up immediately, and then I find I'm dealing with thirsty plants. But, at other times they can go much longer and I have to watch overwatering. Here, low humidity will always be an issue. I know I need to do a better job of fertilizing regularly, which would help with the health of the plant. Light is generally not an issue. We have big south-facing windows with a great deal of natural and reflected light. In fact, the inside of the house gets less light in the summer because of the leaves on the trees, which is another reason plants go outside. Al and/or rina, could you clarify something for me? Are you saying detergents are bad, but normal "soaps" (NaOH) are OK? The Dr. Bonners soap I used in the spray from my original post is the Castille variety for babies and has KOH in it. Are you saying that's OK to use and won't damage the wax coatings and general health of the leaves/soil? It confuses me because the purpose of soap is to bond to oil and grease, so I'm not clear on what soaps are better than others, be they Castille, Murphys's, or something else. dchall,the molasses post was a big surprise. Did some research and was surprised to find that some of the off-the-shelf-products actually use molasses! Will research that more. Thanks for the info. Again, I appreciate every comment!

That's a handy list, Bea. Thanks!