me too. I know nothing about it except what I've read here. The deal is, using oregano, if it works, great, if it doesn't then all you've lost is the cost of the oregano & olive oil you mixed it with. And your bird got some seasoning. In the world of birds that's about as good as it gets.
Hmm, well, in general, I would like to think you are right... and there are things I have come to rely on such as probiotics, cinnamon and peppermint. I would also like to know more, for example, how much ground oregano to add to feed, etc. If it truly works, I would much rather feed an herbal supplement than, say, amprolium contained in commercial feed -- so I'd love to see the studies on that, because my preference would be to use it.
My concern is that when things such as herbs are used in therapeutic doses, sometimes things can backfire or work differently than we expect, and there is no standardization, so it's not clear how strong the dose we are giving.
I suspect that in many cases it is not a problem, but for some things, occasionally it can be a real problem, and I worry about how strong the system is of an ill bird to withstand something harsh or an inadvertently too high dose. (Did I mention I killed my poor azalea plant with too much ACV? I have also killed some wonderful plants with an herbal oil that was supposed to kill insects... but killed some of the plants, too.)
Also, even when just cooking with herbs, there is a tremendous variation in strength between batches, and I don't know how much active ingredient there is in essential oil versus contained in ground up oregano. And just because something is natural... well, think about nicotine in the tobacco plant... When I was in college, a friend's half-grown puppy died after it got ahold of a pack of cigarettes... The dog probably weighed 40-50 pounds, and the nicotine killed it.
Turmeric is a wonderful herb and I use a lot of it in cooking. It has proven therapeutic properties... but it can also result in drug interactions and in high doses, can cause liver toxicity. Teenagers are currently choking themselves on cinnamon... that's been in the news, and I think some kids actually died recently... that's just horrifying to me.
I did a cursory internet search and found that
oregano is also not without dangers, including liver toxicity:
This first article mentions the need to limit amounts and duration, and discusses some side effects:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/136630-the-dangers-oregano-oil/
And apparently care must be taken not to ingest artificial oregano oils, as the artificial oils are apparently toxic and only for topical (surface) use:
http://www.medicalhealthguide.com/articles/oregano.htm
There was an interesting, very old article comparing thymol (one of the active ingredients in oregano and thyme) to carvacrol (a related component) for anti-worm use... as part of the study, they gave various doses of each to rabbits, and looked at how much it took until the rabbits died. They apparently first tried with dogs, but the dogs threw it up. (Smart dogs!) Reminds me how much scientific times have changed...
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4576013?seq=1
With that said, oregano appears to have known antibiotic and antifungal properties, and many beneficial uses. So it is certainly something I would like to know more about.
I just want to proceed cautiously... I try not to put anything into my birds or my family that I'm not sure of...
So I will need a lot more info on dosage and safety before I feed it to my birds.
I will have her weight by later on this evening.
