I grew up listening to talk radio, largely because my dad worked overnight shifts and was obsessed with Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell. I can still remember a lot of the commercials that aired during that conspiracy show, many of which were for natural supplements that promised to cure what ails you.
That’s where I first learned about colloidal silver, advertised as a natural antibiotic with remarkable healing capabilities. Being as simple as silver particles suspended in sterile water, it seemed both too good to be true…and too absurd to be true.
Fast forward to the early 2000s, where I found myself buying a bottle of the stuff to combat bacterial conjunctivitis I’d picked up from my contact lenses. This decision was based on some cursory research that told me colloidal silver was pretty much the go-to natural remedy for people with pinkeye who couldn’t or wouldn’t go to the doctor for a prescription.
I used it, and the infection cleared up very quickly. Since then, I’ve used colloidal silver on every case of conjunctivitis I’ve faced in the last twenty years. I’ve used it on numerous animals (mostly cats) to clear up their eye problems as well.
So when one of my bearded dragons started to close one of his eyes a little more than usual, I knew colloidal silver drops might be on the treatment list. I did my usual investigation to make sure there were no interactions to worry about with reptiles, then flushed his eye with the drops.
Long story short, his eye problem cleared up the next day, but I don’t think the colloidal silver was the reason. Not because it doesn’t work, but because I later found out that the problem was most likely related to his UVB light. (This post goes into how I solved the eye problem.)
The bigger takeaway from that incident was that I found other keepers mentioning colloidal silver online. I saw other uses listed, and ended up falling down a brand-new rabbit hole of research (because that’s what I do).
What I found was interesting, though not altogether surprising. Lots and lots of medical sites — including the NIH — are bashing my beloved silver solution.
That anti-colloidal silver stuff simply wasn’t there back when I first used the product. Sure, you had the expected “this hasn’t been evaluated by the FDA” kind of hand-waves, but it seemed like the government had now decided to take an aggressive stance against colloidal silver.
Naturally, I read the warnings to see what new research had been done to prove the danger of this ancient remedy. After all, silver had been used for centuries as an antibiotic, so some scientists must have blown the lid off of…
Why Colloidal Silver is Dangerous (?)
…oh wait. No. They didn’t blow the lid off of anything. No mystery revealed. These websites just cited the one high-profile case of argyria that was linked to colloidal silver almost 20 years ago. And this was a guy who was megadosing the stuff…and making it himself in his garage. In fact, I haven’t been able to find any documented cases of colloidal silver-linked argyria that didn’t include the terms “large quantities” and “homemade,” so I can surmise what the real problem is here.
But this stance reminds me a lot of the government’s stance on kratom, an herbal supplement with numerous benefits that some have decided is dangerous and evil — despite the fact that entire countries have been using it heavily for hundreds of years. And their reasoning? Because there is essentially zero evidence of harmful effects linked to kratom, the journals and media love to cite the few incidents where someone died “of an overdose with kratom in their system.” But they downplay the fact that they also had heroin, fentanyl, or other serious drugs in their bodies, and that’s what they actually overdosed on.
That’s pretty much like saying someone died from eating a cheeseburger because they had a Big Mac in their stomach when their plane crashed into a mountain.
What complicates this is the general misunderstanding that colloidal silver is different from silver nitrate, silver sulfide, silver salts, and so on. I’ve seen a story of a woman turning blue from prescribed silver nitrate drops being used against colloidal silver, but they’re not related. Can’t blame table salt for chlorine burns just because it’s sodium chloride, right?
What’s funny is that if I have any doubt about colloidal silver, it’s that it doesn’t actually do much, no that it’s dangerous. I use it in my eyes and my animals’ eyes because I believe, from experience, that it works to clear infections. Beyond that, I can only say that arguments on both sides seem very sketchy. I don’t think it cures cancer, but I also don’t believe it turns people blue — because there’s no evidence for either of these outcomes.
Anyway, I’m not here to give medical advice, but I’m not too worried about these sudden, new dangers of colloidal silver. And apparently, the NIH is only concerned about us using it, because they also share research about the commercial use of silver as an antibiotic booster and wound dressing additive that makes it sound pretty dang efficacious.
Weird how these ancient remedies are always dangerous until a pharmaceutical company can slap a new name and huge price tag on it.
Colloidal Silver: Uses for Beardies
That said, I will continue to use colloidal silver as my first line of treatment for bacterial conjunctivitis. For the record, red eyes with crusty formations are usually bacterial conjunctivitis, so there’s your indicator.
How else did I see people using it with their dragons?
Water additive: Some keepers posted that they add drops of colloidal silver to their dragon’s water dish. Their stated reasons included both to keep the water pure, and as a means to orally introduce the supplement to their lizard. Personally, I don’t recommend this simply because I can’t find enough data on efficacy. Colloidal silver as a water purifier or disinfectant would be, at best, marginally effective. The PPM would be kind of difficult to eyeball, and most research is done with concentrations of 30PPM. (As you may or may not know, my disaster preparedness fascination goes back decades, and I’ve never seen colloidal silver used as a replacement for something like iodine). In terms of your lizard ingesting it, I doubt that there would be harmful effects unless they have too much. But how much is too much for a creature that weighs a few hundred grams? I feel like the risk isn’t worth the possibility of fighting or preventing a bacterial stomach bug. Especially since gut biomes are so important — and not an ideal thing to tinker around with randomly. (https://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/evidence-dec-2022/)
Treating a stomach bug. If I had no other option, I would feel safe giving a lizard two doses of 30PPM (or higher) colloidal silver a day for two days and watching for improvements. This would have to be undiluted (not added to water, but syringe-fed) for the concentration to have any chance of working.
Wound care. Colloidal silver is widely considered to be safe when applied topically. (Even the government seems to agree on that one.) In terms of staving off infection, colloidal silver has been shown to be an effective antimicrobial. I would use it on a wound, though I’m far more likely to use a solution of chlorhexidine. I suppose if the wound were very close to the lizard’s eyes, nose, mouth, or vent, I would consider the silver first.
Oral hygiene. Based on what I already know about colloidal silver, I wouldn’t be opposed to using it as a treatment for stomatitis or dental disease. This holistic pet care site goes a little overboard with the healing properties of silver, but their points about fighting infections of the mouth align with what we know about the antimicrobial properties of colloidal silver.
That’s largely what I found among the discussions about colloidal silver for bearded dragons. While I clearly don’t agree with every keeper’s use of the supplement, I know from experience that it can work in certain situations.
Of course, none of this is a replacement for seeing a vet. Specifically, a reptile expert. Consider these forays into “natural healing” a tool in your toolbox — and like some tools, they’re probably best left for situations where you don’t have a lot of options.
What are your experiences with colloidal silver? Let me know!
