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Diatomaceous Earth

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Diatomaceous Earth
  • Okay, on another board a person posted that they had two good friends who had adopted heart worm positive dogs, and gave them  Diatomaceous Earth and in 3-4 months they tested negative for heart worms and after a couple of years are still heart worm free.
    Well, I had never heard of that stuff until the other day on this forum, so had no idea what it could do--except kill roaches, fleas, and ticks, etc.  So I googled it and found a lot of information.  It is not toxic in any way.  It kills by cutting the outside of the bugs and they dehydrate and die  The sharp edges that slice open the bugs is to minute to harm us or animals when ingested...is perfectly safe.
    It can be used to rid animls of parasites in their intestines.  Many use it on horses, cows, dogs, cats, etc, etc.Is mixed in with their food.  Also, it is safe to put on your animals for fleas and ticks.  It is a dust and does say to avoid breathing it and do not allow your animsl to breath it or let it get into their eyes.
    Okay, the problem I have is I checked about 2 dozen of the sites and not once did I see it could be used for heart worms.  And I don't see how it could.  It is a non toxic (or poison) powder that is swallowed and wipes out worms in the intestines bc slicing them so they die.  But heartworms are not in the intestines.  They are in the blood  system, the heart, lungs.  So how does this kill them?
    Has anyone ever seen that it will kill heart worms?  If so it would be a much safer way to do the job.  But i just can't see how it could. And I would hate for people to find their dog heart worm positive and go this route if it doesn't work. I do plan to try it on my dogs and in my yard.
  • I've never heard that it kills heartworms. I am also looking around at different qualities and prices for the yard and the dogs. Since they recently got fleas, they might have tapeworms. I'd much rather feed them that than dewormer.
  • I found it so very interesting that it kills the worms in the intestines.  My dogs are on interceptor and that takes care of whip, round, and hook worm--but not tapes.  But if I can kill fleas and ticks on the dogs and in the yard without using poison, that would be great.  Oh, it also, as Glenda had said, kills ants.  We have some fire ants, but our biggest problem is those ants that strip every leaf off a good size bush over night.  Have killed to many of my plants like rose bush,
  • I normally don't use any chemical flea prevention, but I do use Interceptor. I used Frontline Plus, recently, b/c they got fleas (from me, no doubt, working around dogs every day), and I was feeling lazy. Normally, I'd wash everything in hot water, and give the dogs a good bath in Dr Bronner's, flea comb them in the tub, flush the fleas, and it'd take all day. Frontline killed all the fleas with all of a minute's effort, but it burned poor lil Teenie. If DE works as well as everybody says, I can just put the food grade on the dogs and in the crates and dust the furniture. It'll be a lot easier than the full cleaning of the world (I do clean everything, just not usually all at once, LOL) without the chemicals. That'll be great. I've used lyme in the yard, with great success, but it doesn't kill ants. If DE will kill the ants, I'll use it in the yard too.
  • You should google it and read some of the sites and see what all is said about it.  Some even give you the amount you can feed your dogs for the "gut worms".  I don't worry about that tho, just the fleas and ticks on dogs & in yard, and the ants in the yard.There are lots of lizards and toads in the yard and I worry every time I spray out there.  This other stuff sounds like it is good and may really work.  At least it isn't toxic so isn't like we would poison everuything when we try it.
  • Right. I have to worry abuot Miss Sensitive, over here, if I spray anything. I usually don't use any kind of chemicals. I even clean with vinegar, and castille soap, and things like that, so as to not irritate Emma. Of course, I used bleach to mop the floor in the dog room once and she ran through that and my pile of dark laundry, and that's what started not using chemicals, LOL. 
  • Hello there [:)]

    It seems that every time I log on here, there is a new miracle cure promulgated for the same old problems. Let me put this brief: as Carl Sagan is famous for saying, "extraordinairy claims require extraordinairy evidence". Show my any controlled study showing any efficacy of "diatomaceous earth" (mind you, even the anecdotal evidence is a very mixed bag - and that says something when it comes to issues like this where belief often is stronger than facts). The handful of studies I could find published in the most respected Parasitology publications show no effect whatsoever. That fact is little surprising given the physiology of many endoparasites in question and that of the gastrointestinal tract.

    Further, that any little grain of sand would cure heartworm - the statement quoted from another thread, with which this one starts out - is outright ludicrous. I know that you do not posit this, Sandra. You were asking about it and what we others know about it. I think you do know a lot already all by yourself. Lets try to see this together. Think about it, how does heartworm 'work'? In brief, as you probably know, a mosquito bites a dog and deposits an infective larvae. This larvae burrows into the tissue, lives there for some time, then moves on via the bloodstream to the heart, where it makes a new home and goes on to make little heartworms, causing meanwhile the real damage to its host. So how exactly would any mechanical substance passing through the intestines cure that? It would not. Or would anyone suggest that this sand (it is nothing else - many beaches are made mostly from the shells of diatoms) magically passes through the gut/blood barrier, works its way through cells and interstitial fluids - nothing harming there of course, even though it will remain a mystery how since a cell's organelles surely are not sturdy enough to withstand any 'cutting action' that would chop down a heartworm in residence. Finally, our sand in motion will home in on the heartworm and chop chop.... That is how it works? Surely not.

    I am truly sorry for sounding quite exasperated (I just reread the above, but decided not to change it), but I am just saddened by the fact how well meaning animal lovers are constantly promised easy-fixes, that end up doing little but endangering the animals we all love.

    Please, afford your dog proper heartworm prevention. [:)]