Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth

MnV

Anyone knows if it's effective as a natural dewormer?

http://www.k911.biz/Petsafety/WormsandParasites.htm



Seems very interesting.

Thanks.

sailfloe

So, as a chemical engineer, I have to say, I think the plausibility of this working as advertised is somewhere between mildly unlikely and utterly implausible. Diatomaceous earth does have some efficacy as an insecticide, but the way it works on plants wouldn't translate to working in vivo. (On plants the DE covers the plants, then when a bug comes accross it, the DE pulls lipids out of their exoskeleton, causing them to dehydrate -- that wouldn't work in the gut, where there's too much moisture for it to act that way). Plus, the DE would probably be more likely to see your GI track than the worms initially, so most of the adsorbed lipids would like come from your gut, not the worms.

The other possible mechanism is the "diatoms are pointy and poke holes in things" idea, which isn't really all that true for medical grade DE, and even if it was, I'm not sure I want to expose my dog to something like that (the more crystalline forms of DE aren't really safe to breath for exactly that reason).