Irritated Piercing?

So, I have a regular old helix (or cartilage) piercing. I use Punk Medics aftercare but I recently ran out. My piercer said to use the pink Medics and/or running water (or sea salt soaks) 1-2 times per day. I usually used the spray I bought because I really liked it. My piercing is about 4 months old and has been really easy to take care of. But I just ran out of the punk Medics stuff and have just been running it under some warm water for a few minutes (in the shower usually) or just giving it it's own little warm water bath (using a clean cup and warm distilled water). Except it's very irritated because I've also toned down to cleaning if 1 time per day. And if I happen to forget it gets so angry and red and swollen. I don't really know why it's acting up over not using the Punk Medics piercing spray. Any ideas?