June 2004

Say Phooey To Natural Dewormers

We found no evidence to convince us that non-drug dewormers are a wise alternative.

Veterinary technicians learn to properly identify parasites in fecal samples.

A lot of the propaganda floating around about natural dewormers sounds pretty convincing, especially when it’s presented with cautions about how harmful the chemicals in conventional paste dewormers can be.

However, the fact of the matter is there are no studies that proved to us the commonly recommended natural dewormers effectively eliminate intestinal parasites. As for how harmful a drug dewormer could be, well, any drug, herb, or even mineral for that matter, is potentially harmful and has its own safety profile and risk-versus-benefit ratio. Frankly, modern paste dewormers have a more favorable safety profile than common widely used drugs like penicillin or phenylbutazone. …