Garlic:feed for livestock or not

[becks77]

Here's a question for you ishers, is garlic a good suplement for chickens and dogs? what do you do?, having read on various sites it is good for both and then on other sites it is bad for both I am in a quandry as to wether to feed or not to feed and what could be the possible benefits
Thanks for your help
Becks

[MKG]

Can't help, but I'm watching with interest ..

[eccentric_emma]

we used to give our dog garlic with no problems. just smellier breath!

[Martin]

a good natural food.......should give no problems apart from smelly breath, and may well be therapeutic too!

[becks77]

Thank you all for those replies, as ever very helpful,
B

[becks77]

Thank you all for those replies, as ever very helpful,
B

Didn't mean that sarcastically

B

[Ellendra]

Some people add minced garlic to the water in order to prevent disease in livestock. I know a few chicken farmers who swear by it.

[Clara]

Apparently once a flea detects garlic in the blood of an animal it leaves to find another home, so I´d definitely give it.

[ina]

One place I worked we "wormed" a few young geese with garlic pills - worked a treat.

[Rachel Squires]

My Dad used to swear by this as a preventative to coccidiosis (excuse spelling) in racing pigeons, he used to cut a bulb in half and float it in the water. John is currently experimenting with garlic for our sheep as a preventative for the midges that cause blue tongue and we bought a massive case of lovely garlic from Birmingham Wholesale Market. I reckon that most green grocers and market stall holders buy rom this kind of place so if you have a friendly one, you might be able to chat them up and get them to order you a case. The only risk is that the garlic flavour could taint meat, eggs or milk so I guess it depends how much you like garlic......

Rach.

ps, my whippets used to fight over a clove of garlic and would even pinch a bulb if I left one out and they never came to any harm although they missed out on cuddles until their breath improved!

[contadina]

Dogs shouldn't eat the green bit's you can sometimes get in the middle of garlic, so long as you don't feed them any like that, they should be okay.

Sorry don't know the reason why, just remember something about it when we first started to make our own dog food.

[mauzi]

I have used garlic for medicinal use and also as part of a worming program for horses, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, rabbits, dogs not to mention my human family. I haven't used a chemical for 20 years on my animals so I guess that is proof enough for me as my animals are in excellent condition and health and I haven't needed a vet bar for once in 10 years - so guess that speaks for itself. I was also a qualified equestrian coach and did not use a chemical wormer on my horses for all of that time and they were in peak show and performance levels. I even worked with a vet regarding worm counts and my horses had lower worm counts than those using the regular drenches at the recommended levels.

One point that I think is important is the quality of the garlic - preferably grown yourself or at least from a reliable and preferably organic source as well. Some of the garlic available is not of a medicinal quality and this should be remembered as I believe some of the statistics available are done with inferior quality garlic and that is not surprising that it has had poor results. Different garlic seems to have different strengths, for instance Russian garlic (which we also grow for both culinary and medicinal use) is not as strong as for instance purple garlic and therefore quantities need to be adjusted.

Anyway, in my view, garlic is tops and one of my favourites.

Cheers
Mauzi