Does any one use ivermectin in chickens ?

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guard41 said:
casportpony, Kathy says that under her hands on experience, Ivermectin does not kill Lice because the Lice do not suck blood but according to backyardchickens guru "
dawg53"​
the lice will still bite the hens and ingest the poison from the hens blood. There are different species so you will have to experiment a bit. It didn't work for kathy but depending on the species it may for you! Ive never had lice on mine but will look out now I know what to look for. Perhaps if the hen is completely riddled with lice they all do not get chance to bite the hen so those that have ingested the Ivermectin and die but you cannot see a difference as the others just take their places and in the end the hen may die!


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/687442/treating-with-ivermectin


http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140
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dawg53 said:
Keeping in mind that ivermectin is a product mainly used to treat cattle and is off label for chickens, I hope you know that ivermectin's primary purpose is a wormer, it's secondary benefit is that it kills mites, but not chicken lice. Chicken lice do not suck blood. Cattle lice which are a different type of lice suck blood from cattle. If you're dealing with external parasites, you'll still have to treat the inside of their coops, nests and roosts...preferably using sevin dust and redusting in 7-10 days to kill nits hatched from eggs.
The dosings you have for your birds are good. Put the drops of ivermectin on the back of their necks, make sure it goes on bare skin so it can be absorbed into the bloodstream. It will quickly be absorbed. I dont recommend giving the eggs back to the chickens. This will increase the withdrawal time, additionally the wormer residue in the eggs will help build worm resistance against the product. Ivermectin will not kill cecal worms nor tapeworms, and large roundworms have been showing resistance to the product due to its overuse as a miteacide in chickens.
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I have tried it topically, orally and by injection on several birds and it had zero effect on lice. Works on horse lice, but not poultry lice.

-Kathy
 
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guard41 said:
Because the life cycle of lice and mites is. approximately 2 weeks, treatments should be repeated every 2 weeks as needed. Carefully read all labels prior to treatment to make sure withdrawal times are followed for food-producing poultry. Severe lice or mite infestations can be treated initially with a kitten strength dose of a pyrethrin-based medicated spray on the birds to reduce the initial numbers. If problems persist, contact a veterinarian for treatment with such medications as Ivermectin�. Prevention is the best method of treatment. For poultry used in exhibition or for new poultry entering the flock, a minimum quarantine period of 2 weeks is recommended. During this time birds should be physically examined and treated if necessary.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140
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You should include the link that you copied and pasted from. Above text can be found here:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

-Kathy
 
It was included in the full link to the original conversation!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/687442/treating-with-ivermectin

Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.

There are other people on here who have said it worked for them.


(miss_thenorth​
 It worked for me. Ivermec 8%, three drops between the wings)

It could be that your hens were heavily infested and the lice that died were constantly replaced by others or they picked them straight back up again from the hen house, as research states that they do not suck the blood but bite so it takes longer for the Ivermectin to work properly which is no good.

If you have only a few lice then Ivermectin will kill them but not an infestation!
 
Anyway my friend who an engineering lecturer at our local University just read dawg53 comments about Ivermectin!

"Keeping in mind that ivermectin is a product mainly used to treat cattle and is off label for chickens, I hope you know that ivermectin's primary purpose is a wormer"

Ivermectin is a broad-spectrum antiparasitic agent, traditionally against parasitic worms.
It is mainly used in humans in the treatment of onchocerciasis, but is also effective against other worm infestations (such as strongyloidiasis,ascariasis, trichuriasis, filariasis, enterobiasis, and some epidermal parasitic skin diseases, including scabies.

More recent evidence supports its use against parasitic arthropods and insects:
  • Lice:[12][13] Ivermectin lotion (0.5%) is FDA-approved for patients six months of age and older.[14] After a single, 10-minute application of this formulation on dry hair, 78% of subjects were found to be free of lice after two weeks.[15] This level of effectiveness is equivalent to other pediculicide treatments requiring two applications.[16]
  • Bed bugs:[17] Early research shows that the drug kills bed bugs when taken by humans at normal doses. The drug enters the human bloodstream and if the bedbugs bite during that time, they will die in a few days.
edited by staff
 
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People wonder why ivermectin is ineffective as a wormer. It's due to overuse as a miteacide. There are other products better suited in treating lice/mites rather than ivermectin. Ivermectin will treat mites because mites suck blood. Lice feed on skin, dander and feathers. They get their moisture from around the eyes and vent. Lice are more of an irritant but are opportunistic in that they will feed off blood if there is a wound from scratching, for example. In that instance they would be susceptible to ivermectin and die. They do not bite and suck blood like mites.
Another point; what good is any kind of treatment if the inside of the coop isn't treated as well? Birds will be reinfected and will have to be retreated again.
 
Ivermectin maybe an effective worming in other species, but it has lost it's efficacy in poultry as a wormer.

Quote:
Abstract

To evaluate the use of ivermectin as a bird anthelmintic, 29 White Leghorn hens naturally infected with Ascaridia spp., Heterakis spp. and Capillaria spp. were treated with 0.2, 2 or 6 mg/kg intramuscularly or 0.2 or 0.8 mg/kg orally. Faecal samples were collected before treatment and at autopsy, 2, 6, or 16 days after treatment, when the intestines were also examined for helminths. None of the treatments gave satisfactory anthelmintic results.
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-Kathy
 

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