Invermectin- is it safe and do all my girls need it for it to work?

JemimaP

Songster
May 24, 2018
166
221
121
UK
hi I got some invermectin through a contact on Facebook and managed to catch 3 out of 4 of my girls to apply 2 drops to back of neck. I read I should do this every 3 months? Is that right? Is it safe? Also I can’t catch my 4th hen, I’m sure I could if I tried but she’s super shy and I’m working on gaining her trust so I don’t want to freak her out. Will it matter if I’ve only treated 3 out of 4 of them?
They are 10 week old bantams. Showing no sign of anything other than they had coccidiosis earlier this week but I treated them for that and they seem fine now. It did freak me out though, hence me wanted to worm/de-lice just in case they have anything else wrong with them.
Thanks
 
I wouldnt use ivermectin neither. The only time I'd use it on my birds would be due to tapeworms and would have to use equimax or zimecterin gold which contains ivermectin and praziquantel. The z-gold contains more ivermectin than the equimax. I recommend the equimax for tapeworms.

Keep in mind that most dog wormers contain ivermectin or a derivative. As a preventative, dogs must be treated monthly. That's how long the ivermectin stays in the blood. It's the same for chickens.
So if you're willing to toss eggs for a month, that's up to you.

I used to use ivermectin pour on and/or eprinex to treat for lice/mites, and worm my birds years ago. The ivermectin was ineffective in treating worms, especially large roundworms, due to worm resistance. Neither treated lice and certain types of mites are now resistant. There are claims on the west coast that ivermectin will treat lice, at a higher dose.

I've also seen Sevin dust not treat lice recently, a shocker for me.
Permethrin dust and 10% liquid permethrin are readily available at hardware stores under the label 'Hi Yield,' and are not expensive. The liquid has a 30 day residual. I havnt seen any resistance against permethrin. It's an effective product.

As far as your skittish hen, catch her when she goes to roost for the night or early the next morning.
As for worming goes, I recommend safeguard liquid goat wormer or valbazen liquid cattle/sheep wormer. Either given orally to each bird using a syringe without a needle.

Since you have already dosed your birds with ivermectin, wait at least 30 days before any other treatments. Then routinely inspect your birds once a week for external parasites. There's no need to treat them for external parasites if they dont have any on them.
Your soil conditions will determine how often you'll need to worm your birds. Wet or moist warm soil will require frequent wormings.
Good luck.:)
 
2 Questions, First do I have to toss eggs while using Permithrin to kill mites and lice and do I retreat in 7 or 10 days?
Second how much Safeguard liquid goat wormer do I use for large fowl? I ran out of Valbazen.
 
It's safe to eat eggs after using permethrin. Permethrin liquid is persistent for 30 days.
Safeguard liquid goat wormer dosage is 1/4cc per pound. Give it orally 1/2cc at a time to reduce the risk of aspirating your birds.
 
Thank you dawg53 I wanted to make sure cause I couldn't remember. My first case of mites and naturally it has to be in my flock of show birds.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom