opinions on diatomaceous earth?

[TheRambler]

A friend of mine put a bunch of feather lice in a jar of it and it didn't kill them. And when I say I dusted mine with it, I mean I coverd them and the bugs in it. It did *not* kill any of them!

-Kathy

Now that's interesting.

 

[JeanR]

I keep a cleaned out Mustard container, with pointed tip, and put Sevin 5 in the container.. HOld your chicken firmly,gently pull the feathers back and give a quick puff of the powder right around the bare vent area. Another just under the feathers of the abdomen. Puff it on skin! It does nothing on the feathers, mites and lice do not feed there! IF you see mites or lice on the skin,under the wings-(-I have not seen them there, because I check my birds often and they never build up huge colonies of them) well ,give a puff there also. Dust the roosts. Most often, one treatment does the job!! Check a bird or 2 every few nights. If one has them, others will, too. If none have them--good for you!

If you are worried about yourself, wear plastic gloves and a face mask-- I do not, as there is no flying Sevin dust. I would NOT want to inhale DE!!!!!!!! .

Do you know that if you hold of your chicken by one leg and the wing tip on the same side, your bird will not try to flap wings and "beat" you and scatter dust! You can move and turn the bird upside down and also, release it close to the floor, with no tusseling and it will keep that bird and the others, quiet and confident in you as handler? Judge from Canada showed me this, years ago!

 

[TheRambler]

I never understood the argument of not wanting to inhale DE, but frequently everyone shrugs off the much more harmful sevin in comparison in regards to the dust. DE is an irritant at worse, sevin can be very toxic and a carcinogen. Both of them can be applied while minimizing the dust, but sevin definitely isnt safer than DE. Sevin is much better at killing the bugs though.

 

[ConPollos]

I usually worm my dogs with Safeguard Goat Wormer fenbendazole liquid, which is a fraction of the cost of dog fenbendazole, because I know the correct dosage for giving dogs the goat stuff. But I rescued a stray dog that was pregnant and didn't want to worm her with chemicals, so I bought food grade Red Lake DE from TSC and followed the dosage on the Wolf Creek Ranch website.

She's a medium size and her poop was full of tapeworm, so I mixed at least 1 Tablespoon of DE into her kibble twice a day. Over the next week or two I watched the tapes dying and disappear from her poop. Then when the pups were a month old they all got tapeworm too, so I mixed DE into their gruel, 1 teaspoon per pup twice a day, and again watched as all the tapes died and disappeared from theirs and mama's poop. I mixed all their food with water and it didn't diminish the effects of DE.

I keep all my dogs on DE everyday and they don't have worms.

I also throw a handful or so of DE onto the floor or their kennel daily, where they lay, and they rarely have a tick or a flea here in the country where it's hard to contol parasites. I used to fill a sock with Sevin and pat them down with it every couple of months, and I still will if need be, but I've only had to apply Sevin to one dog who got a bunch of ticks in her ear last month.

DE definitely kills bugs, and it makes firmer more odorless poop.

 

[casportpony]

Worming dogs with Safeguard is probably much less expensive than buying the pills or Panacur from the vet.

For thiose that don't know, the Safeguard dose for dogs is 0.23 ml per pound for no less than 3 consecutive days.

-Kathy

 

[ConPollos]

Yes, it's super cheap, and it kills whips, rounds, hooks, and tapes. I think I give one cc per 5 lbs of dog, if memory serves... for three consecutive days, then repeat a month later.

I recently read that you can give 1 cc per 4 lbs of dog if you're sure the worm load isn't too high or the worm die off could have a toxic effect and even kill a badly infested dog, so in case of high worm load use 1 cc per 5 lbs of dog...which is the dose I've always used because I didn't know about the stronger dose.

 

[CrazyChickLady7]

Its great for PREVENTING a bug problem, but not so much trying to fix an already happening problem. I put it on my cat, dogs, and chickens. Though I have never heard of using it on your own skin.

 

[casportpony]

Yes, it's super cheap, and it kills whips, rounds, hooks, and tapes. I think I give one cc per 5 lbs of dog, if memory serves... for three consecutive days, then repeat a month later.

Three days in a row is key... just one day doesn't work in dogs. Your 1 cc is probably close enough.

-Kathy

 

[ConPollos]

Yeah, I edited above to explain why my dose is not quite as strong as yours. Yours is like the 1 cc per 4 lbs of dog, I think, right?

 

[dawg53]

Yes, it's super cheap, and it kills whips, rounds, hooks, and tapes. I think I give one cc per 5 lbs of dog, if memory serves... for three consecutive days, then repeat a month later.

I recently read that you can give 1 cc per 4 lbs of dog if you're sure the worm load isn't too high or the worm die off could have a toxic effect and even kill a badly infested dog, so in case of high worm load use 1 cc per 5 lbs of dog...which is the dose I've always used because I didn't know about the stronger dose.

Safeguard does not kill tapeworms in dogs, neither does DE. Droncit kills tapeworms in dogs.