Dosage Question - Ivermectin in Water

[Farmgirl1878]

Hi all, I’m worming my 7 three year old hens for the first time. I will be using ivermectin sheep drench in their drinking water and wondered how much I need to add to their five gallon plastic waterer. My smallest hen is a Salmon Faverolle who weighs about six pounds. (And she drinks the most water.) My largest hen is a Jersey Giant who weighs about nine pounds. (And these are simply wild-ass guesses as no one would ever tolerate being on a scale!) My other girls are all average weight for their breeds - BLRW, SS, blue Cochin, and two EEers.

None of the girls are losing weight or off their feed, but four have poopy butts, two have watery poops, I actually saw three tiny white worms in Blue’s poop yesterday, and their feathers are starting to not look as shiny and nice as usual. They are all eating and drinking normally. They symptoms started after they started free ranging again this spring. Now that’s it‘s a little warmer, they are finding a lot of earthworms, slugs, and other bugs in the leaf litter (we are a hardwood timber farm).

Any help will be appreciated!

 

[jher77]

Ivermectin may or may not work for roundworms anymore due to resistance. I've never tried to use it but others here have stated the fact.

Some of the varients of Ivermectin will dissolve in water and some will not dissolve properly. Don't remember which type is which but seems like one contains alcohol while the other doesn't. Ivermectin requires a small dose per lb and putting it in the drinking water is a big variable depending on how much a bird will drink. It would be best to orally dose the bird instead of through the drinking water if you were to use Ivermectin but there are other types of de-wormers that would work better such as Safe-Guard.