diatomaceous earth

[CYJ]

That product sold in Health food store is basically for cleansing the colon and some applications for the skin. Some people buy this product to help them beat drug tests. After I retired from my Company Bell South. I worked in a health food store with a professional herbalist for some years part time.

I see nothing from this product that would help a dog unless it had been poisoned. The Charcoal tablets would be better over all for that. If you want to give the dog some additional trace minerals. The best product for that is ConcenTrace Trace Mineral Drops. You can add say around 15 drops to the liquid drink twelve hours before the main work out. 15 more drops in the main feed after the main workout. Should be a plenty as it calls for 40 drops a day for a Human. Cheers

[EWO]

There are food grade and non-food grade choices with this product.

I worked in a pharmaceutical/chemical plant in the 90's and it was called 'body feed', it was added to certain chemicals to aid in filtration. There was the filter cloth and then this DE/body feed would form a secondary membrane that would filter and prevent the cloth from blinding.

I would bring a bag home and throw it in the flower bushes and around the dogs and dog pens. It worked pretty good for bugs and such on the flowers and it helped with fleas and what nots around the pens. I never imagined there would be a food grade version and people would actually use it directly on the dogs.

Back then it was like $7 for a 22.68kg (50lb) bag. Now I see the food grade version for way, way more than $7 for a very small bag.

EWO

[bamaman]

I have heard the non food grade works on bugs but I never used it.What I was told it actually cuts the insect and causes them to dehydrate but I don't know this for sure.I got some friends that use it on their worm beds to keep insects out.

[EWO]

It is basically a flat crystal. The edges do indeed cut the waxy shell on the insects and that dehydrates the bug til they die.

I used it way back when and haven't used it since I worked there.

EWO

[mrtsi]

Thanks for your knowledge and input everyone, i appreciate it. I didn't mind searching this topic and maybe I should have before I asked the question. I also understand where No Quarters is coming from, makes sense. It's all good, on to the next.

[Officially Retired]

Just wondering if anyone has used diatomaceous earth? If so, what did you use it for and did it help?
Thanks

It is pretty much quackery.

There was a good debate on this subject awhile back. (As well as another.)

The subject comes up from time to time, and the studies show that the product does actually work NUTRITIONALLY ... but does zippo for internal worms.

This whole "rough edges of the DE" is only correct when the product is DRY ... and flies out the window once the product is ingested (and thereby moistened).

It is quackery to use it for internal parasites ... and most people don't know how to differentiate between "opinions," claims, and "advertisements" (which can say anything) ... and published scientific studies (which are held to a standard).

Ads and people "claim it works"; the published science says it doesn't.

Jack

[EWO]

I've read that too. Back in the early 90's I used in externally around the dogs and the flower beds. I never used it internally on the dogs and was always skeptical when it became popular a few years ago.

I can't really comment on what they do or do not to internal worms. I would think they do nothing as I have read.

The non food grade DE that we used in the chemical plant did not go into solution with moisture or water alone. They were crystalline and the crystal dissolved and/or returned to solution in water if the water was heated to app. 93C. The second way was to adjust the Ph way up or way down, less that 5.5 or more than 9.5. The crystal remains intact in water that has not been heated nor had the Ph adjusted. The dog's stomach/digestive enzyme more than likely nullifies the 'cutting action'.

What does happen using them externally is that rain/water washes them to the ground and it returns to the ground where they are not nearly as effective as they will bind with dirt/grains of sand, etc. and do no damage to a bug/flea/tick.

A dusting that remains dry is far more effective. EWO

It is pretty much quackery.

There was a good debate on this subject awhile back. (As well as another.)

The subject comes up from time to time, and the studies show that the product does actually work NUTRITIONALLY ... but does zippo for internal worms.

This whole "rough edges of the DE" is only correct when the product is DRY ... and flies out the window once the product is ingested (and thereby moistened).

It is quackery to use it for internal parasites ... and most people don't know how to differentiate between "opinions," claims, and "advertisements" (which can say anything) ... and published scientific studies (which are held to a standard).

Ads and people "claim it works"; the published science says it doesn't.

Jack