Ivamectin Poisoning

14 Mar 2009, 11:22

Does anyone know the symptoms and antidote to Ivamectin poisoning? Three weeks ago I purchased a new hen Gouldian and Hecks and put them into quarantine and treated them for mites, worms and coccidia. The longtail was fine but the gould almost immediately started to loose her feathers at the site where the Ivamectin (in mineral oil) was applied. She has continued to deteriorate, become lethagic and staying in front of a heat lamp (no easy feat in this climate) and this morning (Philippines is the same as WA time when there's no daylight saving) she started to fit. I'm sure I'll probably lose her but I'm wondering if I poisoned her as my Ivamecting mix is now over a year old. The Ivamectin was made up by the vet as a 1:10 dilution in mineral oil but I don't know the actual concentration. It was supposed to be applied as a single drop to the skin on the back of the neck but this bird got two as the first got into the feathers rather than the skin.

14 Mar 2009, 12:05

Iam sorry iam can't help, but i have heard that sometime if you loose a bird when treating with ivamec that they already had the disease and they were to far gone and no matter what you could have done you will still loose them, iam not saying that is the cause decause i haven't had that much to do with it. Good luck and hope the gouldian survies, let us know how she goes.

14 Mar 2009, 16:07

How much did you give her?I use eprinex,and have used ivemectin before at a rate of .05 off a ml per finch straight onto the bird.I think with these there is a hundred times percentage error for overdosing.?Maybe she had a reaction to it.or like Greg said had somthing else.

15 Mar 2009, 08:49

Well for this particular bird there's now no chance of recovery - it died yesterday. I noticed that she had a wet vent as well as her neck hooked over while she was fitting and that's the condition I found her when dead. I will get rid of my batch of Ivamectin as the feather loss did occur in the previous hen Gouldian that used that particular batch but the reaction does seem to be restricted to Gouldian's. I guess it's part of their mystique.

With that wet vent I hope it wasn't bird 'flu! I'll sterilize the quarantine cage and try again with another hen. Thanks Gomer & Greg for your thoughts and if someone knows what Ivamctin poisoning looks like I'd still be interested to know.

15 Mar 2009, 09:54

Hi Greg
I have read accounts of Dogs dying after being treted with normal flea & tick treatments when they were past the use by dates - the insecticide changes with age rather than just becoming ineffective like some other chemicals.
I dont know the symptoms of Ivermectin poisoning but I wouldnt risk using the same batch again. Good luck with a new hen.

15 Mar 2009, 13:50

soory to hear about the hen.maybe a good idea to throw it out.try some moxidectine or eprinex maybe if you want a pour on one,

13 Apr 2009, 02:21

I need some help as a beginner with finches. I live in Finland and I can´t trust our vets here. They don´t know anything about birds.

Now i need to treat my birds with ivermectin and i don´t have any idea about doses. I haven´t use this product before and these are my first finches....

I quess i need to blend this with something... What have you used and why...

Poisoning sounds bad thing to have....

- Essi

13 Apr 2009, 09:42

Hi Essi and welcome to the fourm, i get mine from the vet and i use 2ml per liter of water fresh daily, hope this helps

14 Apr 2009, 04:05

Hmmm... I don´t need to give it daily. My birds are inside and we don´t have that much mites and worms here in our country. I only need to get mites out when i buy new birds and if i have any sympthoms...

I allready did use this ivermectin. I hope it´s not too strong. I blend 1 drop ivermectin with 15 drops alcohol and i used one drop for this one bird. That bird was still ok after 24 hours. Do you have any ideas how much i need to put water or alcohol with one trop of ivermectin? There is still 7 more birds waiting... Only this one was having feather and breathing broblems....

at the moment we have molt with all these birds and they look BAD! This is first time with these gouldians and if they look like birds after this, I´m glad

-Essi

14 Apr 2009, 09:34

I use a syringe to measure out 0.50ml to 250ml of water, i treat them for 3 days changing the water daily and treat every 3 to 4 months.