Susan Skylark
Songster
Please don’t use ivermectin in birds unless you have absolutely no other options, while very safe in most mammals (not border collies!) birds are very sensitive to it and overdosing is very easy, especially when you can’t tell a drench (oral product) from a pour on (topical use in CATTLE). When you don’t have an accurate weight and the product is labeled as a % rather than mg/kg it gets even more complicated. There are plenty of safe, effective and labeled parasiticides for poultry, this is an option of last resort. And never apply a topical pour on to a bird, or you’ll have worse problems than mites. I saw a cat that the owner had treated repeatedly with nuflor (long acting cow antibiotic) and he couldn’t figure out why it had all these weird abscesses, I’m not even sure what he was treating but the cure was worse than the original issue! Please be very careful using anything (including over the counter, herbal, and essential oil remedies) in birds and cats in an “off label” manner, especially when you just feel you need to do something to help but have no clue what you are treating. Giving a sick chicken ivermectin is very unlikely to help and if dosed wrong might actually make it worse. If you are just guessing, stick with fluids, a safe antibiotic, aspirin or other safe pain meds (depending on species), access to good feed and clean water, reduce stress, keep warm, clean and dry. Good nursing care is 90% of treatment and some things just can’t be fixed.
