Fungus has always been something that perks up my ears. I've been through enough that I'll try almost anything to cure it. I've used Captan and hated it but at the time it was the only thing I could find that would cure fungus.
During one of the ECBC CA state show dinners Gary Neubauer of Bowen Chinchillas was talking about how he was using sulfur with his dust to cure and prevent fungus. Of course I asked him about it and he said he uses 1/2 to 1 cup to 50 lbs of dust. He even has a cement mixer that he throws a bag of dust into and lets it roll until all mixed. Gary said that as the fungus goes away he decreases the amount of sulfur in the dust to 1/3 to even 1/4 cup per 50 lbs. In those small amounts you cannot smell the sulfur and it certainly doesn't deter the chins from frolicking in their bath! I asked him where to purchase sulfur and he said he purchased 50 lb bags from the nursery.
Well I tried my local nursery (floral) and only found sulfur that was 90% sulfur and 10% inert ingredients. When I opened it up the sulfur was green and smelled like chemicals. I'm sure that different types of sulfur can be found in different areas but I haven't been able to find any other source for it than Flowers of Sulfur at my local drug store. It's a 16 oz bottle of yellow powder that cost around $13.00. It is food grade for human consumption. In my search someone said I can purchase sulfur from the local fertilizer company. At the time they did not have any powdered but did have it in pellets. Since the powdered works better in the dust than a pellet would I stuck with my drug store sulfur. I guess I should go back and see when or if they are going to get any powdered. Oh, yea, the other thing they said was that they red sulfur. They dyed the sulfur red and treated corn seed with it to stop mold and fungus. Well, I didn't want red sulfur - nothing like a red tinted animal is there - and what a nice red belly....
Since I've been using sulfur I have had few outbreaks and only on 1 to 2 animals, not on the majority of the herd which ranges anywhere from 400 to 800 animals at a time. I keep sulfur in the dust at all times. Okay, well occasionally I don't take the time to mix it in the dust and they don't get sulfur for a month or two, but for the most part they have a small amount of sulfur in the dust.
Do a search on sulfur - it's amazing what is and has been used in.
If anyone has any questions you can contact me at
[email protected]
Good luck!
Ronda
