Mites and Ivermectin usage

[yellowherb]

I know this topic has been beat to death because I've read nearly every one. What I can not figure out is the proper dosage. Everyone seems to have their own formula and methods for this and what I would like to know is which one is the right one?

I hoped I could get away with using the injectable ivomec as a spot treatment and I tried this 2 days ago. I just checked my young sultan roo and he's still got active mites. This is a heavy infestation Since all my chickens are feather footed they seem to not dust bathe really well. I sprinkled 7dust over the coop and main areas of the yard they visit, also dusted the aviaries and dusted all the chickens last week, 7dust did not seem to touch it.

Can I mix the ivomec into propolyen glycol to make a spot treatment? (I have some for perfumery so it's safe for humans on skin)
Again, I read use internally by giving the chickens bread with ivomec on it but I am not too sure they would eat it. Any ideas on this?

My chickens are 5 adult sultans, 2- 5 month old sultans, 2-4month old mille fleur bantams.
Unfortunately next to the chicken coop is a coop of bob white quail that are 2 months old. There is also a English budgie aviary, cockatiel aviary, button quail, coturnix quail and pheasants. All would have been exposed since the chickens are free ranging during the day and love to clean the seed around the aviaries.

For the majority of the birds I would prefer to use in their water bowls. But some have chicks and I don't know that this is safe.
So questions to answer are:
1. Amount of ivomec injectable in water for the various birds I have
2. Can it be used in spot treatment on the skin or is there a formula or recipe to make it?
3. How long after usage or application before mites die?
4. When to use again after first usage.
5. Is it safe to use when I have chicks in nest boxes (budgies and cockatiels)

*The other birds do not seem to have mites, only the chickens so ivermectin would be used as a preventative in them.
Thank you!

 

[IceAngel]

I noticed that nobody has answered this so far. Did you happen to read the post that quoted this:

"Ivermectin is effective against a large variety of worms and works also against mites. You can place a drop of the oil based medication on the skin behind the neck, or administer orally: Give 7 drops orally to a bantam and 0.25cc to a large chicken. If you put it in their waterer, use 6 cc / gallon for 2 days and to treat for worms, repeat in 12 days. To inject, give subcutaneously as follows: Little bantams (rosecombs, golden seabrights: 0.5cc. Brahmas, Silkies, Orpingtons: 1.0 cc. Standards: 1.5 cc. Jersey Giants: 2cc"


Somewhere in that thread I think I read that you have to do it three times and you can't eat the eggs for a while and cant eat the meat for 28 days.

 

[yellowherb]

Thanks IceAngel for the response. I think I have fixed the problem of mites. At first I used a ivermectin horse paste which worked a bit but also worked on round worms I had NO idea they had. Since there were still some mites I bought a cheap dog spot treatment with only Fipronil as the active ingredient. I applied 3 spots on the bantams and 4 on the larger Sultans. This worked! no mites.

It was old information on the web I read about using the spot treatment. It may cause fertility issues(some say but other say no issues) but I'd rather have fertility issues than dead chickens. My chickens are Sultans and they are pets mostly, no worries about eating eggs or meat. I just hope to have hatching eggs one day to carry on this lovely, sweet breed of chicken, but if I don't then I will order some to hatch.

*edit bought some safeguard pellets and mixed some with their feed for the worm issue

 

[IceAngel]

I think you can use their eggs for hatching purposes if fertility isn't compromised. You just need to leave sometime for the chemical to be expelled if you want to eat the eggs or the meat.

 

[appps]

My vet told me if I remember correctly 0.1ml per kg of body weight and 2 weeks not eating the eggs. You need to make sure you move the feathers out of the way and get plenty of skin contact. It cleared ours up within about 3 days. It worked on mites but not on lice we got the following year.

 

[yellowherb]

I held several of the chickens today and looked them over for mites. Happily there not a single mite I found. So the fipronil worked, and hopefully did not compromise their fertility.

 

[jazzer21]

Hi! I have bantam cochins and the 5 young pullets I got from a breeder brought in an infestation of some kind of mites. When I pick them up and my hands and shirt have them crawling all over I cleaned all 3 coops today, put garden& poultry dust all over and DE and then put new bedding in the coop. I dusted the birds with the garden & poultry dust before. I am not sure this is gonna clear up the coop with the young pullets as its infested, when I cleaned the hen house I had the mites all over me! It was so gross. I am worried the pullets are anemic as their combs and around their eyes are pretty pale, dry and flakey. The frizzle keeps her eye closed a lot. I have never had issues with mites before as I have been good keeping DE in their coops. I am considering using the dog flea treatment. What weight did you buy? And did you just put a drop on them?

 

[casportpony]

Ivermectin is *not* water soluble, and those doses seem like way too much.

-Kathy

 

[yellowherb]

@Kathy did you mean post number 2? The subcutaneous injections seemed high to me but I'm not expert

@Jazzer21 I used the dog flea treatment as a last resort. My chickens were in terrible shape and too skinny for me to treat slowly so I really went at this with a sledgehammer approach. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. Some of my research said people believe this spot treatment can cause fertility issues. Which I suppose in a egg layer would not be a problem but if you ever considered chicks from your birds it could be. So saying all that.. I used the brand PetArmor for dogs 89-132lbs and put 3 drops on teeny mille fleur bantams and 4-5 drops on sultans which are about the size of a standard sized cochin bantam. The only active ingredient should be FIPRONIL 9.70%. You may find this anywhere but I picked it up at walmart for a little less than $20 for 3 dog doses which should last forever. There are other brand names of Fipronil based drops, you will have to look at the active ingredients before buying any.

*disclaimer While I did find some research on this, there really is not a lot of information. I would highly recommend you go with more researched methods before trying this one out. Eggs should not be eaten for a while. Since the spot treatment on dogs is monthly I'd be safe and toss eggs for a month or feed to a dog.

Another thing I did which stopped the mites instantly is 3/4 witch hazel and 1/4 rubbing alcohol put in a spray bottle. We sprayed every chicken in the heaviest infested areas (on white chickens this is easy to see and on mine is on the head poof, neck and vent area). This will not kill every mite. It just lessened the mite load. It would probably be a economical spray for doing the coop area though. Cover the chickens eyes when you do this. I'm sure it would burn if it got in there. I found this easy to do if my husband held the chickens upside down by their feet while I misted them all over and under their wings, then rubbed it in. Part feathers to get spray directly into the heaviest, dirtiest areas.

1 more thing which my quail seemed to really, really enjoy is a dust bath of wood ashes.

 

[casportpony]

@yellowherb all amounts mentioned in this thread are too high, especially the subcutaneous ones. No offense intended to anyone or their vets.

If you go by what one of the books I have says, the max dose is 0.4mg/kg orally or by injection. Of course you shouldn't believe everything you read, but other books have list similar doses.

Not much info on giving the injectable or the pour on topically to birds, though I did read a post written by a dog/cat vet that says how much they use, so I'll look that up and post it here. Pretty sure they don't want people knowing that they're a vet, so I can't post their name.

About putting it in water... I did an experiment where I put some in water and within a few minutes it all floated to the top. Need to do that again and take pictures this time.

-Kathy