# Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth - Does anyone use this?



## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

I have been mixing this in my feed for my goats. it sounds like a great alternative to chemical worming. Has anyone used it long term and how did it work for you?


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Do you fecal sample? How were your worm counts before starting the DE? If you are going to use it, definitely you will want to be sampling your goats frequently to be sure it is working. I've never used it, but have heard that some people have dumped it right onto insects with no ill effects, so I have my doubts. Also, what about the animals who are eating it? The idea is to scratch up parasites and leave them more vulnerable, but won't it scratch up the goats insides then? And, it's not good to inhale it, but my goats inhale stuff from their feed all the time, so I'd worry about giving it to them. Overall, I am skeptical, but if you do fecals often and keep an eye on your goats' condition, you will know if it is working or not.


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## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

I have not done fecal samples. i have just kept them on a pretty regular worming schedule with safeguard about every 3 months. all my goats are super healthy and i have never had a sick goat (knock on wood) in the 3 years i have had them. a friend of mine said that it wasn't good to inhale, but when she looked at the diatomaceous i had, she said it was much finer than hers and said the color was even different. maybe it is because the stuff i get is for human consumption. there was no warning on the stuff i got about inhaling. it said that you can dust in on your animals for ticks and fleas and put it in their bedding. really want to keep them safe, but would be a super huge bonus if i could do it naturally. i get a little (ok a lot) intimidated by the amount of scientific stuff you need to know about goat health. i am trying to eat this elephant one bite at a time, LOL and haven't gotten to the fecal part yet. to be honest, i am scared that i will not be able to read the slides properly and worry myself into to hysteria if i think i see something funny.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

You better do fecal samples. Your grace period is about up. (The time you have when you first start with goats until your ground becomes contaminated and you start having worm problems.) Safeguard does not take adequate care of barber pole worms which you have in Texas. You need to use Cydectin for that. What are the eyelid membranes like on your goats? They should be bright (hot) pink, not pale pink. DE in the food can be a source of trace minerals, but there is no evidence that I've found that it does anything to deworm a goat. There's lot's of information on here about fecalling. It really isn't too hard.


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

DE won't do a darn thing to the parasites we get here in Texas. 

It's best to fecal sample so you KNOW what you're deworming for. Safeguard is pretty ineffective in most areas against a large variety of parasites. I used to use it for kids to get tape worms, but never for anything else. Now I don't even use it for that. I keep Valbazen on hand for intestinal parasites, and Ivermectin Plus & Cydectin for the really dangerous critters like barber pole. 

Read the Wormers & Dosages page here on the forum under Goat Keeping 101. Lots of good info


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## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

Thank you to everyone for all your help. I will print the info on worming and implement asap. Have been given the big "YOU CAN DO IT" on fecals in personal note from a friend that is on here. Thank you Suzie. All my girls are prego, so besides Ivermectin Plus is everything else ok to use? It's almost 4 am and i haven't slept at all tonight studying and trying to finish my web page. So I am a bit loopy. I remember reading something that it is better not to give worming meds orally. They work better if given by injection. We are in a pretty rual area so I order most of my stuff online. Any suggestions on where to get the worming meds? 

Thanks again for putting up with my newbie questions and letting me extract your knowledge. Love Love Love my babies and want to provide the best care possible.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Welcome to the forum, Brenda!

Not sure where you are getting your information from, but besides what everyone else has already said, use your wormers ORALLY! When it be pour-on or injectable, use it orally and AT THE CORRECT DOSE. There are many threads on wormers here and also, like someone above said, read through the Cocci/Wormer section. At the very least, get a sample to your vet so he/she can fecal for you until you can do it yourself. It really isn't hard and if you find something you don't know what it is, come back on here and describe it.

You can buy wormers at your local TSC or farm store or online in a myriad of places.......Jeffers Livestock, Valley Vet. Do a google search and you'll find plenty of sources.

Good luck and again, welcome!


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## jdavenport (Jul 19, 2012)

I know in Ohio I have put DE in my wheat to keep the grain bugs from eating it all. I still have a few bugs in the wheat, but they are dead and the bucket I didn't put the DE in was crawling after about 2 months. The chickens were happy... I did see a study somewhere that said DE only made certain wormers more effective, not that it was a wormer for animals.


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## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

ok, so i think i will give the DE to my husband. LOL - see if it helps with his joint pain. And SOOOO glad to hear that i give worming meds orally. i hate giving shots. it is such a trip on how many different web pages i have visited in the past 3 years and how differnt everyone does it and says how it should be done. personally wish i would have just came on here a long time ago with ppl who are focussed on dairy. grrrrrrr lots of waisted time on my part. And Suzie, not a word of I told you so. LOL


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

The DE is good for getting weevils out of grain. It's also supposed to be good for dust baths for chickens. There are garden uses too...


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## Qz Sioux (Feb 21, 2009)

'Bout time! Welcome to the forum! You will learn TONS from the pros here. Try not to get overwhelmed though :biggrin


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## lorit (May 10, 2010)

With regards to the DE - I use it in bedding areas,especially my chicken coop and where they take their dustbaths, but NOT internally for any critters. I think it has its place but is not a cure-all.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

I occasionally use it on my dogs' food, for internal parasites. You can buy it at TSC. Been thinking about adding to my goats food, been reading about it for years. 

YES on the oral method of worming goats, been doing that for yrs too. Cydectin has been working well for us here in eastern Ohio for a few yrs.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Here in Texas, Texas A&M has already done the studies for us. DE and herbal wormers does nothing for ruminants. Now your single stomached animals, yes it comes out in their poop and keeps fly larvae at bay, but we have never seen it work on fecal in our dogs. WE have few to no freezes, certainly none that kill parasites in the soil. Your coming up on problems, not dealing with the barber pole HC/haemoncous controtus blood sucking worms seen throughout the south, not killed in freezes and overwintering in your goats. You would have killed more worms shooting the safeguard on the ground  A lot of areas also have liverflukes and lungworms. What I worm with, dosages, what works here on fecal and when I use it, is in goatkeeping 101 under From Birth to Kidding. Biggy is I don't stress my does with acidosis from feeding sweet feed or too much grain, feed a good mineral mix and copper bolus, bo-se several times a year and roughage roughage roughage and calcium  Vicki


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## funnyfarmtexas.com (Oct 3, 2012)

Thanks Vicki, 

Along with several other informative articles, I printed it and put it in protective plastic and in my binder for reference. i am picking up a fecal kit here in the next few days and will put on my lab coat and see what we got. will the liverflukes and lungworms come out in a fecal? i did give two of my goats ivomec plus, because they had an occasional cough and needed to be wormed anyway. i have reviewed the proper dosage and realize that i only have them 3.5 cc's and they weigh 180 lbs. so i underdosed them. i still hear occasional coughs from them. when i just went out to feed, i noticed that one of them had a clear runny nose. so i am wondering if it isn't allergies like we are all suffering from here. i really really want to worm them, but a scared to harm the kids they are carrying, but i will not risk losing the dams. what would you do? i will definitely be following the timelines you so beautifully laid out before next breeding season


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I live in the north where winter kills some of the worms. I have tried DE and found it to be useless for worms in my herd. The dust from the food grade DE kills my lungs and bothers my eyes, I can imagine what it is doing to the goats lungs and eyes when they breathe it in while eating. The dust is very fine and gets everywhere. I didn't find it much good against external bugs in the barn either. I haven't used it against the weevils though, just flies and such.


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