In addition to safety and fairly good effectiveness, deworming compounds have one other thing in common; they are all chemicals. “What’s a chemical?” you say. Well, by definition, a chemical is, “Any substance used in or resulting from a change to atoms or molecules.” Of course, that definition encompasses, well, just about everything, but even so, a segment of the population is afraid of chemicals (especially the ones that are produced in laboratories). There’s even term for the fear – chemophobia.
The problem, insofar as killing equine internal parasites goes, it that there’s no effective way to kill parasites without chemicals. In fact, there’s no way to completely avoid chemicals period. Life is chemistry. Every breath you take contains dozens of chemicals. While some chemicals can be life-saving (e.g., antibiotics), others can, in fact, be pretty awful (e.g., dioxin). But, mostly, chemicals just do their job and nobody really notices much (e.g., water).
Natural conditions for the horse. Good luck catching him!
For chemophobes, effectively color-blind to the nuances of life and chemistry, the fact that deworming compounds are also chemicals makes them a non-starter. So they look for something else; usually something that’s “natural” or “alternative.” Unfortunately for the horse, those “alternatives” just haven’t been shown to work.
ASIDE: It might occur to you is that parasites are totally, 100% natural for horses. As such, the most “natural” thing would be to not deworm horses at all, and let the chips fall where they may. But there seems to be a limit to naturalness; even the most avid “natural” horse keeper doesn’t mind keeping a horse in a stall as opposed to turning him out in, oh, Montana and seeing if he’ll come when you call. So, while trying to control equine internal parasites is a good idea, it’s the “How?” question that becomes problematic if you are intent on avoiding the obvious choice (use a dewormer).
Parasite convention
In the “natural” wild, internal parasites aren’t the same problem as they are in domesticated horses. That’s mostly because, in the wild, horses are running around all the time, roaming over miles and miles. They aren’t confined to a fenced pasture, where they eat grass, poop, and eat some more of the now-contaminated grass. In the wild, they get away from their poop, which is the source of parasite eggs. Eventually, if the eggs aren’t ingested, they wither away and die. Horses also develop a reasonably effective “natural” immunity to parasites.
1. “Proper nutrition” – Of course, horse should get the best quality feed available. Happily (for the horse anyway), he’s set up so that he can usually get everything that he needs from some pretty simple ingredients – good quality forage and water. But while proper nutrition makes a healthy horse, and a strong immune system, a healthy horse is exactly what parasites are looking for, too. Good health for your horse is the goal, but it’s certainly no impediment for an internal parasite.
Another day at the supplement aisle
2. Supplements – You can buy buckets of colorfully packaged “natural” products. And they all have one thing in common – there’s no evidence that they do anything to prevent infections by internal parasites in horses. Here are some examples:
- Pumpkin seeds – They have never been tested in horses, but pumpkin seed meal did help control parasites in ostriches in one study. That said, they’re reasonably tasty when roasted and salted, much as are sunflower seeds (not for horses – for horse owners). In Mexican culture, they’re called pepitas.
- Carrots, turnips, or beets – They don’t kill parasites, but horses love them. They are very good for horse owners, too. CLICK HERE to see a good Russian recipe for borscht (made from beets).
- Bacterial supplements. The horse’s gut is full of bacteria. Feeding more won’t bother parasites at all.
- Wheat bran. Some “natural” folks say that wheat bran helps carry worms out of the horses, like some sort of intestinal bellhop. However, good research has show that bran doesn’t change the character of the horse’s feces at all. It doesn’t prevent colic either, I’m sorry to say.
- Wheat germ oil may be said to “discourage” tapeworms. Discouraging them from doing exactly what isn’t clear: they actually seem rather irrepressible, biologically speaking. Unless the tapeworms were to be not only discouraged, but totally depressed to the point of wanting to end it all, wheat germ oil won’t make any difference in a horse’s parasite load.
The disadvantage, of course, is that there’s no evidence that they work.
ASIDE: You have to admit, that’s a significant disadvantage.
Commercially available prepared herbal dewormers generally have a combination of ineffective or unproven ingredients. However, if you use more than one ineffective ingredient to try to kill parasites, they don’t all suddenly become effective. Nonsense does not become sense as it accumulates.
HUMOROUS ASIDE: I have seen “warnings” not to store essential oils next to homeopathic remedies because the oils dilute the energy of the homeopathic remedies. To me, that warning is sort of like warning someone not to have a seance anywhere near a UFO landing site. You can come up with your own examples.
6. Diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. It typically feels abrasive, and it’s made up of about 80 – 90% silica, which is the same chemical that makes up sand. If you really want to dig into diatomaceous earth (pun intended), you can CLICK HERE.
Et tu, Brute?
Used in gardens, diatomaceous earth absorbs oils and moisture from the external skeleton of insects, and dries them out, killing them. However, in order to work it has to be dry. Trust me, as someone who has opened up more than a few feet of equine intestines, it’s not dry in there.
But, heck, if if works externally to kill bugs, you might as well try it internally, right? (NOTE: This is not how logic works.) Undaunted, diatomaceous earth advocates maintain that the particles have spiny edges that piece the parasite’s outer layer; a soily Brutus taking action against a parasitic Julius Caesar, as it were.
While the idea that eating some pulverized fossil remains may strike some of you as silly on it’s face (I’m raising my hand, too), there have been a few studies using diatomaceous earth to try to control parasites. The results have been pretty unanimous. Whether it be goats in North Carolina, cattle and sheep in the UK, or lambs in Iowa, diatomaceous earth just doesn’t work (CLICK HERE to see research summaries). Good studies haven’t been done in horses – it’s probably not worth the time.
