Hippocrates (Odin, Missouri, USA) on 04/29/2012
Hello all, A dirt poor friend of mine once had a Labrador puppy under a year old that had massive tapeworms. It was just skin and bones. So, not having money to take it to the vet and not wanting to see it die, and not having Diatomaceous Earth on hand, I had him go outside and take some Perlite (garden section of stores) and crush it into a fine, fine powder. I had him make a simple white gravy, mix in one teaspoon into the gravy and put it on his food. This was done twice a day.
Shortly after it started gaining weight, and was back to normal within the month, during which time I had him continue it for, just to make sure any eggs that might hatch would be dead.
D.E. and Perlite are similar in the physical mechanism in which they act upon the worms as an abrasive, killing them.
Lithrassa (Los Angeles, California) on 05/09/2010
my dog is susceptible to tapeworms, even with flea medicine. he's 6 and gets tapeworms once, sometimes twice, a year. i was tired of spending $75.00 each time i went to the vet for the pill. plus, i wanted to give him a natural treatment. i tried the pumpkin seeds and they worked okay. i read about diatomaceous earth and thought i'd try it. i'm so glad i did! it worked wonders. my dog is 90 lbs. so i gave him 2 heaping tablespoons in his food and later that day his stool had pieces of dead tapeworms and 1 live one. the next day i gave him 1 tablespoon and later that day his stool had only dead pieces. the third day (today) his stool was clean. so it only took two days. i gave him another tablespoon today just to be safe and i think i'll continue for another day or two just to clean out his system, but thank you for this wonderful suggestion. oh, and it costs just cents per tablespoon! nice bonus.
Patti (Coconut Creek, Fl) on 04/10/2010
I wanted to add I give my horses and dog DE for parasite control. I've taken it myself from time to time, too. It's very important to know that there is a Food Grade DE ....and there is diatomaceous earth product that is sold for use in pool filters. That product is toxic. Be sure to buy Food Grade diatomaceous earth.
flicka_sugar (Pahrump, Nevada) on 07/28/2009
I use diatamaceous earth (or dirt as I affectionately call it) with all my animals. I have horses and cattle who get 1oz/day in the spring and fall and 2oz/day in the summer to help with fly control. The nice side benefit is I also have less problems with parasites when they are on this. I also give it to my pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, alpacas, dogs, and cats. it works great and the farrier even comments on how little pest problems we have compared to other farms, which is nice to have few flies with all the animals. Also because of the effect on parasites and our local weather I only have to strongly deworm about 2x per year instead of deworming every 8 weeks for the horses and such.
Jody (OH) on 12/23/2006
Dimataceous earth, not sure about the spelling on that... If you add a tbsp of dimataceous earth to an adult dog's, and a tsp to a puppy's food on a daily basis you will eliminate most parasites. You also can rub it into their fur for flea control as well. I have a kennel and have used this method for a long time and it works well.
