I used to feed this when we lived in Florida, and it was the only thing (after lots of trial and error) that worked for my mare’s no see um allergy. It was marketed under the name Vetericyn (not the similarly named topical now on the market).
Does anyone use DE nowadays? Her diet is good otherwise (I’m not interested in going through everything bit by bit as is COTH tradition), low NSC because of her PPID diagnosis. Just wondering if there’s any new science to show that this isn’t a thing I should be trying as a first pass. We have no-see-ums for the first time this year and they’re driving her crazy (yes I do realize this can also be a PPID symptom, that is being handled as well).
How do you think it helped when you fed it before?
DE is harmful to breathe (for both you & your horse) and entirely ineffective when wet. It definitely gets tossed around a lot as a “natural” dewormer or insect treatment, but research pretty clearly shows it doesn’t do anything, and carries risk of lung damage.
I hear it makes great substrate for pool filters though?
Well it definitely wasn’t wet (She only ate dry feed at the time). It made her significantly less itchy. I don’t know that I can find it now, but months ago when I was trying to look up the product that I used to feed, DE was the main ingredient. Maybe it was something else in the product that actually was doing the trick? If anybody is familiar with the old Vetericyn/Vetricyn/Vetericine oral powder, it was white, I’d love to know what else was in it!
Yeah, feeding dry DE is pretty scary from a lung perspective. But there are a few silica supplements out there, if you wanted to try that. DE is mostly entirely silica.
Don’t think there’s any reason that should help itchiness, but hey, they don’t really read the book so
DE does absolutely nothing for parasite control (and I can’t imagine any potential mechanism that would make it useful for allergies) and is dangerous when inhaled. Please don’t feed it to any animal.
But once it’s in her digestive tract, it’s certainly not dry. So how would it work if it has to be dry to be effective?
And no-see-ums are external. So I don’t understand how feeding DE would address it. I can see if you dusted the horse’s coat (except for the issue of the potential harm to the respiratory system) it could help with external insects, but what would feeding it do? DE is supposed to help by puncturing the insect’s exoskeleton.
IDK man, all I’m saying is that 15 years ago my vet recommended it and I fed it for multiple years, only through fly season, stopping every winter, it and it kept her from being itchy. As I said above, maybe it was something else in the product that was helping. 🤷
Clearly we know better now so I won’t be feeding it again, guess I will start this process all over trying to find something that helps her.
DE is an ingredient in Renew Gold Senior. I’ve always wondered about it. I used to feed RG Sr. years ago and it really helped one of my old guys in particular. Turned him around and made him look ten years younger.
I wonder what it adds to a supplement/feed like this? It’s very low (maybe last) on the ingredient list.
ETA: a quick Google and I see that there is “food grade” DE and that fly control is one of the potential benefits.
I can’t tell if that Ani-med stuff is a pellet or a powder?
If a powder, that would be a hard no. A pellet is at least a lot less likely they’ll inhale the DE in it. I’d still feed it wet and be cautious about handling it myself. Some pellets can still be pretty dusty. Lung disease (in you OR your horse) from feeding something known to cause lung damage just seems like a silly thing to cavalier about, ya know?
I think it is added to some animal feed and supplements in small amounts as a dessicant/preservative.
But the “food grade” DE is generally used for agricultural purposes. Like dusting your tomato plants.
I have food grade DE on hand for grain mite control. Knock on wood, I haven’t had this problem in a couple years, but in the summer, feed straight from the feed store can be riddled with grain mites. They are so small they look like dust, so I think a lot of people miss them. It’s absolutely disgusting. So I will sprinkle a light layer of DE on the inside of my feed bins and on the top layer of feed. That way if I accidentally bring them home from the feed store, they don’t infest my entire feed room. I always add water to my horses’ feed, so I really don’t worry about any potential side effects from the small amount of DE in their feed.
There’s a big difference between a little bit added to feed for bug control v. feeding heaping scoops of it to try to illicit some sort of internal benefit.
All right, she is especially itchy this morning so I caved. I figure if this is a commercially available product, horses probably haven’t been getting sick from it (knock wood). I will report back.
