Has anyone used diatomaceous earth to help battle parasites and worms in NDG's?
My husband read somewhere about a guy that gave his goats diatomaceous earth as a loose free choice type option like the loose minerals and it has worked wonders. I was wondering what everyone else's experiences with it was.
Replies
Diatomaceous earth has been researched in controlled studies where they have control groups, and they have found no difference between goats that got it and the goats that did not get it. There was one study that showed reduced larvae on pasture when goats were fed DE daily, but other researchers have tried to repeat that study, and they did not get the same result, so it could have been something else causing that effect.
In my personal experience, I have tried just about everything imaginable for worms -- DE, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and multiple herbs -- back when we had a problem with complete dewormer resistance in our herd, and our goats were dying from worms. NOTHING worked. Basically Mother Nature culled our herd and those with the worst parasite resistance died.
I also learned about rotational grazing, which is the #1 most important thing you need to do. You should not have to give your goats a dewormer if they are properly managed. I now have many goats in my herd who have never had a dewormer. This year we have dewormed one doe after kidding, but that's it.
If you have my book, Raising Goats Naturally, the parasite chapter is about 24 pages long and goes into detail on this a lot more, including management practices that reduce worm overloads.