Treating with Ivermectin

[Lortiz]

Read about poultry lice in this link if you need convincing that ivermectin wont treat lice.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html
More detail for you, "Chewing Lice," 4th paragraph, then read about all the different types of lice chickens get and what they feed on.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140

I understand that there is reason to believe that Ivermectin doesn't work for lice, but I used it topically on my chickens in the evening and the lice were all gone the next morning.

 

[dawg53]

I understand that there is reason to believe that Ivermectin doesn't work for lice, but I used it topically on my chickens in the evening and the lice were all gone the next morning.

Poultry lice are not bloodsuckers like mites. Poultry lice arnt like bloodsucking lice in other animals. However, they will drink blood from an open cut or wound in the skin. They also feed off moisture around the eyes, vent area. If this is the case, Ivermectin can be effective, otherwise not effective.
Ivermectin also has a long egg withdrawal period, 30 days.
Dont forget to treat your coops, nest boxes and roosts, cant do that with Ivermectin. You wouldve been better off using Permethrin for your birds and coop.

 

[jodiefoster]

Just like to ask how you got on with Ivermectin, I've used it once, last year when some of my hens had scaley leg mite. It's not always that easy to evaluate how effective the medication was because I was also cleaning their legs with warm soapy water, spraying with surgical spirit and coating the legs with vaseline, so was it the Ivermectin or the the intense leg washing etc that cleared the infection?

Recently, looking to buy some more Ivermectin I noticed that this product isn't recommended for chickens, any views on that?

Ivermectin has been used for chickens and all animals for over 30 years. Recently government regulations changed and want specific testing done particular to chickens and the manufacturer did not do that so they had to change the label. Vets still give it for lice and mites as they know it works.

 

[SammiezSilkiez]

Treating Poultry Mites/Lice. Worked for me! Just wanted to share my recent experience with Ivermectin Pour On 5mg per mL. I have Silkies, frizzled silkies and a sizzled silkie . I feel like at some point no matter what you do it’s not a matter of if but when , if you have chickens (especially Silkies) that eventually you will have to treat for mites and lice. So far I’ve used the Permethrin 10 spray, but you can’t use it during the winter months cause it’s cold outside and you don’t want your chickens wet and cold. So then I used the GARDSTAR garden and poultry dust, but my, that is a big job if you have more than a few chickens. You can’t just sprinkle some poultry dust on them , you gotta literally try and cover every inch down to the skin by parting feather’s and turning the bird this way and that way and not get it in their eyes. Then worry if it’s gonna make the coop air too dusty for them . Then, DO IT AGAIN, in 7 days! So recently I discovered during one of my monthly bird checks that they all had mites/lice. Possibly 3 different kinds! And I thought ok whenever I get a massive amount of free time I’ll dust them all. Well that massive amount of free time kept getting put off. So I knew they were going to have a pretty heavy case of mites and lice since I had waited so long and didn’t have the time to treat with the dust. So a friend suggested that I could simplify all that by just doing a few drops of ivermectin on their backs and TaDA! All done. So I start researching the Ivermectin, wow ! I spent days on the internet! Thank goodness for this site!!!! BACKYARDCHICKENS . com must live Forever!!! This site has basically taught me everything I know about my chickens! I had no idea that the ivermectin Sheep Drench 0.08% I found in my barn WAS NOT the topical Ivermectin that I was looking for . I learned that you must find and use the correct Ivermectin product for whatever you are using it for ! So there is Ivermectin injectable, Ivermectin DRENCH 0.08% and Ivermectin Pour On in 5mg per mL , just to name a few. Then you gotta find dosage! So good luck cause using this stuff on chickens is considered off-label, then to my surprise I find this thread and it seems that not all agree that it will in fact kill the damn mites and lice on poultry! So I managed to piece together a plan from several other threads , got the correct product, I used Durvet Ivermectin Pour On 5mg per mL . I used the dosage suggested by Casportpony from years ago, 0.045mL per pound . Maximum of 0.23mL for a 5 pound chicken. Most of my Silkies weigh about 2 -3 pounds , so I decided on a rough estimate of 0.09mL for the 2 pounders and 0.135mL for the 3 pounders. I researched what that should look like in a needle less syringe and applied it to each bird by parting the feathers and deposited the liquid on the skin in 2 areas , at the back of the head and at the base of the neck on the birds upper back but above the shoulders. For example if I was doing a 3 pound bird at 0.135mL. I would distribute half of that at the skin at back of head and the other half of that at the base of the neck. Just to spread it out kinda like you would do Frontline on a dog or cat . It’s way quicker than using the poultry dust. I checked each bird on day 2 , they still had mites and lice , I checked again on day 4 and there was not one bug on any of the 14 birds that I treated. Today is day 7 still no mites or lice at all. I did not treat the nesting boxes, (yes ,Silkies lay in winter) or any part of the roosts or housing. Only the birds were treated. They also share a plywood/ wire wall with my other coop of 7 birds ( with mites and lice) that I did not treat. Yes I know they will come back if I don’t do it again to get the mite and lice eggs that have hatched out by today (day 7). And if I continue to not treat the housing and adjacent coop. Conclusion: In my case the topical Ivermectin did kill mites/ lice. There are many differentials with every case. I suspect some people use the oral Ivermectin topically? Or maybe the dose isn’t correct? Or maybe there is a certain kind of mite/lice in different areas that are not susceptible to Ivermectin? Btw, I’m in Arkansas. Of course I’m not sure specifically what kind of mites/lice my birds had. I find it fascinating that Ivermectin doesn’t work for some and others it does work. I thought I would share my experience .

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Treating Poultry Mites/Lice. Worked for me! Just wanted to share my recent experience with Ivermectin Pour On 5mg per mL. I have Silkies, frizzled silkies and a sizzled silkie . I feel like at some point no matter what you do it’s not a matter of if but when , if you have chickens (especially Silkies) that eventually you will have to treat for mites and lice. So far I’ve used the Permethrin 10 spray, but you can’t use it during the winter months cause it’s cold outside and you don’t want your chickens wet and cold. So then I used the GARDSTAR garden and poultry dust, but my, that is a big job if you have more than a few chickens. You can’t just sprinkle some poultry dust on them , you gotta literally try and cover every inch down to the skin by parting feather’s and turning the bird this way and that way and not get it in their eyes. Then worry if it’s gonna make the coop air too dusty for them . Then, DO IT AGAIN, in 7 days! So recently I discovered during one of my monthly bird checks that they all had mites/lice. Possibly 3 different kinds! And I thought ok whenever I get a massive amount of free time I’ll dust them all. Well that massive amount of free time kept getting put off. So I knew they were going to have a pretty heavy case of mites and lice since I had waited so long and didn’t have the time to treat with the dust. So a friend suggested that I could simplify all that by just doing a few drops of ivermectin on their backs and TaDA! All done. So I start researching the Ivermectin, wow ! I spent days on the internet! Thank goodness for this site!!!! BACKYARDCHICKENS . com must live Forever!!! This site has basically taught me everything I know about my chickens! I had no idea that the ivermectin Sheep Drench 0.08% I found in my barn WAS NOT the topical Ivermectin that I was looking for . I learned that you must find and use the correct Ivermectin product for whatever you are using it for ! So there is Ivermectin injectable, Ivermectin DRENCH 0.08% and Ivermectin Pour On in 5mg per mL , just to name a few. Then you gotta find dosage! So good luck cause using this stuff on chickens is considered off-label, then to my surprise I find this thread and it seems that not all agree that it will in fact kill the damn mites and lice on poultry! So I managed to piece together a plan from several other threads , got the correct product, I used Durvet Ivermectin Pour On 5mg per mL . I used the dosage suggested by Casportpony from years ago, 0.045mL per pound . Maximum of 0.23mL for a 5 pound chicken. Most of my Silkies weigh about 2 -3 pounds , so I decided on a rough estimate of 0.09mL for the 2 pounders and 0.135mL for the 3 pounders. I researched what that should look like in a needle less syringe and applied it to each bird by parting the feathers and deposited the liquid on the skin in 2 areas , at the back of the head and at the base of the neck on the birds upper back but above the shoulders. For example if I was doing a 3 pound bird at 0.135mL. I would distribute half of that at the skin at back of head and the other half of that at the base of the neck. Just to spread it out kinda like you would do Frontline on a dog or cat . It’s way quicker than using the poultry dust. I checked each bird on day 2 , they still had mites and lice , I checked again on day 4 and there was not one bug on any of the 14 birds that I treated. Today is day 7 still no mites or lice at all. I did not treat the nesting boxes, (yes ,Silkies lay in winter) or any part of the roosts or housing. Only the birds were treated. They also share a plywood/ wire wall with my other coop of 7 birds ( with mites and lice) that I did not treat. Yes I know they will come back if I don’t do it again to get the mite and lice eggs that have hatched out by today (day 7). And if I continue to not treat the housing and adjacent coop. Conclusion: In my case the topical Ivermectin did kill mites/ lice. There are many differentials with every case. I suspect some people use the oral Ivermectin topically? Or maybe the dose isn’t correct? Or maybe there is a certain kind of mite/lice in different areas that are not susceptible to Ivermectin? Btw, I’m in Arkansas. Of course I’m not sure specifically what kind of mites/lice my birds had. I find it fascinating that Ivermectin doesn’t work for some and others it does work. I thought I would share my experience .

Thank you for this! I am going to try it on my birds. Seems so much easier to use. I have Silkies as well, so I appreciate the dose adjustments for their smaller size.
The dust is so messy and the permethrin spray stinks, though I will still use it in the coop.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I used Durvet Ivermectin Pour On 5mg per mL . I used the dosage suggested by Casportpony from years ago, 0.045mL per pound . Maximum of 0.23mL for a 5 pound chicken. Most of my Silkies weigh about 2 -3 pounds , so I decided on a rough estimate of 0.09mL for the 2 pounders and 0.135mL for the 3 pounders.

Minimum for a 5lb hen is 0.23ml
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mites-lice-now-hen-growling.1242981/post-19965544

The max dose for Pour On Ivermectin is 1 mg/kg which is 0.09 ml per pound. This is given topically only.​

A five pound hen would get 0.45 ml.

The minimum effective dose for Pour On Ivermectin is 0.5 mg/kg, which is 0.045 ml per pound. This is given topically only.
A five pound hen would get 0.23 ml​

 

[Teeisme]

I usually only use ivermectin for horses. For mites and lice I just use sevin dust. It can be purchased and any home and garden store. I dust the bird thoroughly and it works very well.

Sevin dust has a life time egg withdrawal. This info came from my vet. I would not recommend it.

 

[casportpony]

Sevin dust has a life time egg withdrawal. This info came from my vet. I would not recommend it.

Welcome to BYC! In some countries, carbaryl (Sevin) is still approved for use on poultry, so I think it's safe to use. However, it's worth noting that the active ingredient, carbaryl, used to be labeled for use on poultry in the US years ago.

 

[dawg53]

Sevin dust doesnt have Carbaryl in it anymore. It contains Pyrethrines and Piperonyl Butoxide.