When you feed a natural raw meat diet, then in most cases, there is no need to use diatomaceous earth.
But you have to:
- Feed a raw meat diet.
- You need to wait until about 8 to 10 months of age.
Once you begin feeding a raw meat diet, the body will naturally expel worms when the body has reached a point where the body's level of health and immune system is strong enough.
What this means to you is that as the body gets healthy, the environment within the body begins to change meaning it is no longer is an environment that worms like to live in. Thus the worms actually want to leave. But in addition, we have to wait until the immune system is strong enough that the immune system begins to natural expel worms.
In an adult dog or cat, once they begin eating a raw meat diet, this could begin in as little as two weeks. Whether you see the worms leave or not is a different story. The worms could leave with a bowel movement, by coughing the worms up, when the dog or cat vomits and/or by sneezing.
But with a puppy or kitten we have to wait until they are about 8 to 10 months of age before this begins to happen. Why? Because while an adult dog or cat can obtain a strong immune system within about 2 weeks of feeding a raw meat diet, a puppy or kitten will not have an immune system that is working at 100% until they are about 8 to 10 months of age.
When you then allow their immune system to naturally expel worms, at about 8 to 10 months of age, then you also help to provide them with natural immunity to worms in the future.
Most vets will deworm a puppy or kitten at about 6 months of age. But this is too early and if you are patient, the worms will naturally come out starting as early as 8 months, but probably more likely around 10 months and possibly lasting until about 14 months of age. It's not that you will see worms be expelled every day but you have to be patient for the body to fully cleanse itself and to cleanse any babies that have yet to be born. Thus one of the reasons why a puppy or kitten can still expel worms up to about 14 months of age.
When the body pushes the worms out of the body, the worms will be full size and 100% alive. The worms won't be dead — they will be moving and scrambling for their survival. After the worms are expelled, the worms will survive probably for about 12 hours before naturally dying.
If you feed a commercial pet food diet or any type of cooked meat diet then our dogs and cats will always be susceptible to worms because any type of cooked meat diet shuts down the digestive system, begins to create mucous and an unhealthy environment within the body which in turn creates the perfect habitat for worms. But, when you feed a raw meat diet, the body keeps itself clean and the worms no longer have a suitable host body.