[roddycm]

We give ours a handful of ewe nuts in the evening to keep 'em friendly.  Following on from the behaviour of a horsey friend of ours I give a sprinkling of garlic powder over the nuts with the view to keep flies off.

How much garlic powder? I wonder if this would work on my poor mare who gets sweet itch!

[DartmoorLiz]

Although big Pharma R&D was dominated by chemical molecule development in the eighties there were still natural product departments sifting earth world wide looking for new leads for antibiotics for example, a bit of a side line then. In recent years the promise of biological based medicines has taken the interest and money.

You are right.  It might help big pharma's cause if they published all their research.  I do love a lively debate.

[pharnorth]

They do publish a lot more than they did. Though a lot of unpublished is inconclusive or leads to a dead end. In my defence if my previous comments on General public's ignorance seemed arrogant there are many many subjects about which I am ignorant.

Most of my horse friends use garlic too.  A handful with the hard feed. Trouble is whole yard smells of citronella and garlic not too keen myself. My horse never gets garlic and doesn't get any more or less flies than the other horses. Of course it could be the flies keep away because the rest of the herd stink.....

[davet]

Following on from the behaviour of a horsey friend of ours I give a sprinkling of garlic powder over the nuts with the view to keep flies off.

How much garlic powder? I wonder if this would work on my poor mare who gets sweet itch!

She uses one of the big buckets of turmeric and garlic powder, and each horse gets to stick its snout in there once a day/couple of days.

Efficaciousness I could speak to beyond the anecdotal.

[landroverroy]

We give ours a handful of ewe nuts in the evening to keep 'em friendly.  Following on from the behaviour of a horsey friend of ours I give a sprinkling of garlic powder over the nuts with the view to keep flies off.

How much garlic powder? I wonder if this would work on my poor mare who gets sweet itch!

 It doesn't work for sweet itch - I tried it on my mule who used to get sweet itch quite badly. Not only did it not keep the flies away but it didn't help at all with the sweet itch. In addition, I read somewhere that administering garlic actually makes an animal more sensitive to the bites. (Can't remember the details now)

 However. . . . you may notice that I said "used to get sweet itch". Well she does still get it but it is controlled by putting on a mixture of pig oil and sulphur, as used to treat feather mite in hairy cobs. I just spread it on where she's started to itch, it takes the irritation away and the fur starts to grows back immediately. By applying every few days or whenever you see bites, it keeps the sweet itch within comfortable control  and never gets to the obsessive scratching stage. 

[roddycm]

Never heard of pig oil!! I'll have to Google and get to making this potion!! Thanks for the tip!!!

[Buttermilk]

Pig oil and sulphur does work but I will add a warning - the oil can affect the way fly repellents are absorbed and I have seen a Shetland go into anaphylactic shock when fly stuff was put on, it was very fortunate the vet was present vaccinating another pony at the time.

This pony had been a long term sufferer and had had many lotions and potions over the years so several could have been involved with his reaction.

[lord flynn]

We give ours a handful of ewe nuts in the evening to keep 'em friendly.  Following on from the behaviour of a horsey friend of ours I give a sprinkling of garlic powder over the nuts with the view to keep flies off.

How much garlic powder? I wonder if this would work on my poor mare who gets sweet itch!

please don't-garlic as an alium, is toxic to horses (also to dogs and cats fwiw, no idea about ruminants) and in high amounts can cause anemia. In fact the only thing garlic has been proved to do is stimulate the immune response, not something you want in an animal who's immune response is already over stimulated (i.e. SI being an allergic response). 
Garlic does not keep flies away, nor does it have any efficiency against worms (I am a postdoctoral parasitologist fwiw, I would probably use 'herbal' books to light the fire with, why anyone would take them as gospel is beyond me).

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Hey come-on I know that Garlic can be bad too, but there is a lot to be said about it (that is for the ruminent side, not horses) ..... I used it in part to help treat an animal with mastitis, as the usual treatments hadn't worked, which the vet had given me, and I must say it made a huge amount of difference, I did use a newer treatment, which was new on the market, to treat her properly, but the garlic made a huge of a lot of difference to it. It cleared it up to a point where it could then be wiped out by the newer strain of antibiotic thingy which I was then prescribed. There is a lot to be said for natural treatments in animals, why should we ignore them? I agree that more research needs to be provided via data for people to then be able to decide as to whether it would work as well. Maybe we should be learning more about them instead of dismissing them so lightly. Who's for scientists doing more research into this, it could be highly interesting, and cheaper in the long run and better for the animals systems too?

[lord flynn]

. Maybe we should be learning more about them instead of dismissing them so lightly. Who's for scientists doing more research into this, it could be highly interesting, and cheaper in the long run and better for the animals systems too?

research is done on 'natural' remedies where there is the money-they don't work or if they do, they are at toxic levels. you don't get to hear about it because they're either not published, because publishing negative results isn't interesting, or you arent looking in the right place for peer-reviewed journal articles in good journals. I work in livestock health with a very strong emphasis on welfare. Your stories amount to anecdotes, not data.


who do you think funds research wbf? where does the money come from? pixies? the government? the EU? oh no, wait...

[waterbuffalofarmer]

. Maybe we should be learning more about them instead of dismissing them so lightly. Who's for scientists doing more research into this, it could be highly interesting, and cheaper in the long run and better for the animals systems too?

research is done on 'natural' remedies where there is the money-they don't work or if they do, they are at toxic levels. you don't get to hear about it because they're either not published, because publishing negative results isn't interesting, or you arent looking in the right place for peer-reviewed journal articles in good journals. I work in livestock health with a very strong emphasis on welfare. Your stories amount to anecdotes, not data.


who do you think funds research wbf? where does the money come from? pixies? the government? the EU? oh no, wait...

The funds I expect would come from Taxpayers pockets. Shame that they can't publish the negative as well as the positive results though.  The cheaper in the long run being taht nowadays you have to pay an absoloute arm and a leg for medicines, whereas if the correct information about them was to hand and how to use them you might be able to treat your animals more cheaply. But then doesn't the fault lie more with the drug companies who charge so much? By the way.... just as a point here drugs created by scientific methods are made using naturally based ingrediants, so whatever you use it can't be completely manmade, as they have to resource certain ingrediants from plants.

[pharnorth]

It is a shame that this discussion has deteriorated. Taxpayer paying for drug research is a political point. Drug companies charge a lot for medicines because medicine R&D is horrendously expensive not least of all because the trials needed are horrendously expensive. And of course drug companies are privately funded and shareholders want a return on their money. Charities do some fundamental research but don't develop medicines although their misleading calls for money imply they do. The taxpayer can't even afford to buy medicines (hence NHS shortfall) and 60%! Of what is bought by the NHS is wasted by the user who forgets to use it. So the taxpayer cannot afford to develop drugs.

[landroverroy]

Hey come-on I know that Garlic can be bad too, but there is a lot to be said about it (that is for the ruminent side, not horses) ..... I used it in part to help treat an animal with mastitis, as the usual treatments hadn't worked, which the vet had given me, and I must say it made a huge amount of difference, I did use a newer treatment, which was new on the market, to treat her properly, but the garlic made a huge of a lot of difference to it. It cleared it up to a point where it could then be wiped out by the newer strain of antibiotic thingy which I was then prescribed. There is a lot to be said for natural treatments in animals, why should we ignore them? I agree that more research needs to be provided via data for people to then be able to decide as to whether it would work as well. Maybe we should be learning more about them instead of dismissing them so lightly. Who's for scientists doing more research into this, it could be highly interesting, and cheaper in the long run and better for the animals systems too?

I agree entirely about the efficacy of garlic for treating infections (albeit not for dogs, equines etc.)
It has been proved that garlic is a very effective bacteriocide and virucide for humans and I find it is the only thing effective against a cold. By taking high strength garlic capsules at the first sign (sore throat stage) of a cold - every 2 hours or so - the cold never properly comes out and is gone in 3 days.
It is well known that drug companies aren't interested in developing natural cures for illnesses because there are no vaste profits to be made. Quite simply - you can't patent naturally produced substances. Therefore there's no point in researching them as you cannot then exclusively market anything found to be effective, so you cannot charge inflated prices for what grows free naturally and is available to all.
That does not, however, mean that something has to be researched and peer reviewed in order for it to be accepted as an effective treatment. There is an awful lot of ancient knowledge about medicines that served us well before modern drugs and antibiotics were developed. (And I'm not talking about snake oil and potions made from heavens know what!). Look at such as honey that has been used to prevent infection of wounds since at least the time of the crusades.  Copper sulphate is an old cure for sarcoids - it works and is a lot cheaper and less corrosive than Blood Ointment.
But - we are where we are.  Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but sometimes there's no harm in having an open mind, doing a bit of your own research, and thinking outside the box.

[farmers wife]

Fec fec fec.  Why worry about worming when you dont have them? Vets and Pharmas have got us into a nasty routine of worming now theyve found resistance.  Its all about the money as they say pharmaceuticals make millions out of cancer.   Its a business.  No scientist is going to be funded by a pharma to find a natural remedy. As scientists are no longer impartial and rely on funds of the major cheeses.  If a remedy was found they would prob do their best to cover it up.


You prevent worms by 1. strip grazing 2. rotation 3. long grass. 4. keep away from wet ground/streams etc We use DE, salt and seaweed mixed into a lick bucket into a tyre. No issues over a year now.

[pharnorth]

Farmers wife thanks for your comments on an industry you have never worked in. Big Pharma has and does fund finding a 'natural remedy'. Try penicillin for one simple  example that you may understand. They don't fund finding the obvious when there is no money to be made to cover the cost of finding the obvious. But that is obvious isn't it?  Sorry but I have seem my son who was at deaths door with complications from a burst appendix immediately stop throwing up repeatedly on taking a drug I had been involved in developing in big pharma.  That and the antibiotics saved his life. That same drug is used to reduce nausea in chemotherapy patients that would otherwise not be able to take their medication. Your comment on making millions out of cancer is very offensive to the thousands of people in this country who have created some of the most effective remedies out there.  So where does you cynicism come from first hand knowledge or a lot of Internet antidote?  Incidentally I agree with you regarding FEC and if you check the info coming from Big pharma so do they.