Ivermectin Question

[lellis34]

I don't know if anyone knows the answer to this but here goes....

So King has been on Ivermectin a couple of times for Demodex. He hates it - nasty stuff, can't hide it in anything. So, I end up just shooting it down his throat then treating the heck out of him. Well, i was giving them their HeartGard the other night and I noticed on the box it says Ivermectin/something or other (don't have the box in front of me).

Is this the same ivermectin that is used for demodex? And if so, why don't they just make the demodex medicine in the same manner as the HeartGard. It would certainly be easier to medicate the dogs. Mine seem to LOVE the HeartGard.

Ok, my musings are over, go back to sleep. Maybe our resident vet has some input.

[TheRedQueen]

Ivermectin is the same...I have to avoid it because it can be deadly to my Aussies. Same stuff you can buy in bulk for livestock.

I honestly don't know why they wouldn't package it the same as the Heartgard... Hopefully Dr. Blabs will have an answer...

[DropkickPA]

My solution is to alway squirt it on bread and then make a peanut butter sandwich. No dog has ever been able to resist it that way.

[lellis34]

My solution is to alway squirt it on bread and then make a peanut butter sandwich. No dog has ever been able to resist it that way.

Tried it. King spit it out EVERY dag gone time. He's a good pill spitter too - no matter what its in he manages to get everything from around the pill and spit the pill out. He's a great catcher and usually will gulp down anything I toss to him. But put a pill in it and he manages to take everything BUT the pill. He's like the freakin' Houdini of meds.

[mnp13]

Have you tried the ten-toss-trick? That's what we had to do with Cleo. She would never catch the first two things you tossed her, she let them fall then sniffed them to decide if they were ok to eat. After that she would catch and then chew, then after a few more times, just catch and swallow. By the 6th or 7th one, she was just gulping them down. That's then the ones with the pills in them were tossed; it was the only way it worked with her.

Psycho boy just chews and swallows any pills I give him. Yes, chews. It doesn't matter what it is. He's so gross.

[Malli]

maybe you can get the Ivermec compounded into something tasty? It'll cost extra, but it might be worth it.

There isn't anything I can put Oscar's pills in that he'll eat. A couple of times he took them in a great big chunk of wet food, but soon stopped taking wet food from we altogether. I have to pill him with all his meds except the Cosequin, and that capsule gets opened on the food; he'll eat his Interceptor chewable tabs, but he only gets those every couple weeks. Everything else goes down the hatch and then water gets syringed - wich he knows to drink as it'll feel better.

[Vertigo]

Maybe a stupid question but have you ever just tried opening his mouth up with you hand and throwing the pill down as far as you can then closing his mouth and tilting his head up? Works for me with Montgomery every time.

[Malli]

Right, except Lynne's dog is taking a really awful tasting liquid

and FYI, even if you toss a pill in the back of the dog's throat, he can still taste it, just like we can

[Vertigo]

Oooohhh liquid!

Let me know what you figure out for that. I tried the tossing Pepto down the back of his throat thing that didn't work at all. We had a 30 minute wrestling match and there are still pink sports all over my kitchen.

[mnp13]

Oooohhh liquid!

Let me know what you figure out for that. I tried the tossing Pepto down the back of his throat thing that didn't work at all. We had a 30 minute wrestling match and there are still pink sports all over my kitchen.

Yeah, liquid is a whole different ball game. Riggs sprayed pepto all over my all-white kitchen; 9 foot ceilings? no problem for him! but hand him the pills that taste the exact same and he chews and swallows.

I'm glad Connor was the one who had to take the Ivermectin, he's the only one of the three with any sort of manners. My two would have played WWE with me twice a day every day

[Marinepits]

Indy was on Ivermectin for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time when he was a pup. We used a giant scoop of beef flavored baby food and put the Ivermectin in the middle of the scoop, then shoved it in his mouth. He loved the food so much he seemed to not care about the Ivermectin. If we put the Ivermectin in anything else, he'd spit it out all over the kitchen.

[blabsforbullies]

Well, here is the honest answer (or at least in my opinion why )...

Using ivermectin orally for demodex is "off labeled" use. That means that although it works like a charm, and is safe to most dogs (collie/aussie-types excluded ), it is not FDA approved for that purpose. And, until that happens (which may never happen, because most drug companies aren't going to spend the time and money to "prove" something we already know works , so to speak), there probably won't be any products coming out to help us with giving it orally.

There are compounding pharmacies, and even ones that will formulate it into a chewie very similar to the Heartgard, that can help. I have no idea what the price for something like that would be. But I know we get flyers and such all the time, so I know it is done frequently.

I hope that helps a little. I had a severe case of demodex in a collie cross puppy a few years back (FYI: it has now been proven that only certain genetic lines of these types of dogs are ivermectin sensitive. Problem is that we don't know who they are , so why take the chance ). Again, using an off label dose, I was able to treat with the heartworm preventative Interceptor. This was SOOOOOO expensive. I felt so bad for the owners, who luckily, were able to do it. It would be equally, if not more so, cost prohibitive to do that with the Heartgard tablets. DEMODEX IS A PAIN IN THE KEESTER!!!!

[babyreba]

If you have the Ivermectin that is sold for livestock, it usually comes in a bottle that's made for syringes ... meaning, you need a needled syringe to suck the stuff up. If that's the case, you take your dosage into your syringe and slowly and carefully inject it into a 1/4 hunk of hot dog.

Feed your dog a non-Ivomec hot dog hunk, then follow with the Ivomec treated dog . . . and most dogs just swallow it down and hardly even notice it.

If your dog does notice it, just make sure to place the hot dog into his mouth at the very back of the mouth, hold his muzzle shut for a second, and he'll swallow and won't even know he had that nasty-tasting stuff in his mouth cuz it'll go down so fast!

[call2arms]

Sucks that the paste for horses (in very practical long syringes made to make it deep into a horse's mouth, and the paste can be apple flavored) is so concentrated that gauges on the syringe are per 250 lbs... It would be so easy to give. But impossible not to overdose.

[katiek0417]

I am going back to giving ivermectin to my dogs for heartworm prevention...

Typically, I just put it on their food...