For the same reason guinea pigs are dosed at 0.2 mg/kg and dogs are dosed at 0.006 mg/kg? Some species are more sensitive than others, and they might metabolize the drug in different ways–leading to more “available” drug in the system. The drug disrupts the parasites at a VERY small dose to the dog.
It’s no different than worming your horse. The dose is not toxic to the HORSE, but it is toxic to the PARASITE.
I wouldn’t use the horse ivermectin for all the reasons stated above…but doesn’t anyone use liquid Ivomec which is very inexpensive?
[QUOTE=kcgold;5785193]
I wouldn’t use the horse ivermectin for all the reasons stated above…but doesn’t anyone use liquid Ivomec which is very inexpensive?[/QUOTE]
I use liquid sheep ivermectin. Here’s how I calculate the dosage:
If you read the Heartguard product label, it says the minimum prophylactic dosage for ivermectin is 2.72 ucg/lb. [Micrograms per pound]
So a 40 lb dog needs a minimum of 108.8 ucg.
I use sheep ivermectin, which is an 0.08% solution.
108.8 ucg/800 ucg/mL = 0.136 mL for a 40 lb dog
I round up to 0.2 mL and then double it to get 0.4 mL. I do this because
a. the product label says even an ivermectin-sensitive dog should be able to consume up to 10x the minimum effective dose and
b. 0.2 mL - Two Tenths of one milliliter - is a tee-ninesy amount and it would be easy to leave half the dosage behind in the food bowl. (I put a bite of canned tuna in their food bowl and squirt the ivermectin on top.)
Or, as my vet says, an easy rule of thumb with 0.08% liquid ivermectin is One-Tenth of a Milliliter per ten pounds of dog.
This also discourages intestinal worms.
I spend about $30 on enough ivermectin to treat my five dogs for a year.
It is important to note that you need a syringe that measures Tenths of Milliliters. NOT Milliliters (cc).
And you need sheep ivermectin, NOT cattle ivermectin, which is 1% solution.
Using either a syringe marked in cc’s or cattle ivermectin with the calculations above will result in 10x more than the dosage indicated, which could be toxic.
ETA: This is an off-label use, so proceed at your own risk.
Actually most dogs aren’t that sensitive to ivermectin, unless you have a collie, sheltie, maybe the aussies - even then it’s only 15-25% of them that are sensitive. I have used the horse dewormer on countless dogs, they all stayed heartworm free and didn’t die from ivermectin. I have also used the injectable ivermectin, but orally on dogs and it also works fine. As others have said, you just have to figure out the dose. It is the exact same drug in heartguard minus the beef flavored filler.
And pigs can fly.
We used to do a whole kennel of foxhounds with injectable ivermectin. No problems.
You can give ivermectin to dogs. BUT you MUST have them tested for heart worms FIRST. If they are positive it will kill them. My apologies if this advice was already given.
[QUOTE=kcgold;5785193]
I wouldn’t use the horse ivermectin for all the reasons stated above…but doesn’t anyone use liquid Ivomec which is very inexpensive?[/QUOTE]
I do. I just get a big bottle of liquid ivermectin and do it that way. I would never try to use a tube of horse dewormer, that is a mess waiting to happen.
the cattle solution and dose that many breeders use is very similar:
1/10th of 1cc for each 10 pounds of body weight, so your 40 pound dog would be getting .4 cc as well.
At our shelter, we have treated many demodex dogs with a daily dose of ivermectin (according to body weight) for up to 30 consecutive days, per our vet. No issues (other than the mange going away )…
[QUOTE=candyappy;5786375]
You can give ivermectin to dogs. BUT you MUST have them tested for heart worms FIRST. If they are positive it will kill them. My apologies if this advice was already given.[/QUOTE]
Nope. Giving ivermectin at prophylactic doses is the way most of us here in the heartworm-infested South treat hw+ dogs. We call it the “slow kill” method. The “fast kill” method (immiticide) results in too many complications, plus for rescues it’s prohibitively expensive.
I have had a mass microfilarial die-off result in anaphylactic shock (dog recovered but it was close) - but that was from giving milbemycin oxime to a dog post-immiticide as a microfilaricide. Under veterinary supervision. Pfft. Never again.
[QUOTE=kcgold;5786482]
the cattle solution and dose that many breeders use is very similar:
1/10th of 1cc for each 10 pounds of body weight, so your 40 pound dog would be getting .4 cc as well.
At our shelter, we have treated many demodex dogs with a daily dose of ivermectin (according to body weight) for up to 30 consecutive days, per our vet. No issues (other than the mange going away )…[/QUOTE]
I’ve heard that.:yes: I’m just too chicken to try it. But I’m glad you’re getting good results.
I did some reading about this last night and it seems treating dogs with other methods of Ivermectin is just as common as with GPs. Perhaps not the paste, but it can be used safely. The reason paste is a viable option in the GP world and someone took the time to calculate it, is that mites are usually a one shot deal on intake and it’s often not worth investing in a bottle of injectible or pour-on. Monthly use and a long shelf life would make the injectible a better deal for dogs, but not so much if you’re doing it for a two pound animal fairly randomly.
What I really came back to ask, though, is how sensitive are dogs supposed to be if Heartgard has a dose that covers 50-100 pounds? A few of the comments I read in favor of using alternatives is that people feared their 55 pound dog was getting overdosed on HG. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that they are susceptible to the tiniest overdose if the parameters are pretty wide with Heartgard.
Posting without proofreading before this horrible storm knocks out my power! :lol:
[QUOTE=Auventera Two;5784583]
Typically I only use an over-the-counter dewormer for dogs about 2x per year and I don’t do the monthly pill for a few reasons that are beyond the scope of this post.[/QUOTE]
I’ll bite… What OTC dewormer are you using? You do realize that you are treating potential intestinal parasite infections but since heartworms are bloodborne parasites you’re not doing anything to prevent/treat microfilaria?
There is NO substitute for a monthly preventative, in whatever forn you choose. And if you are going to try and dilute to use a large animal ivermectin, use the cattle injectable, it is much easier that trying to do the paste! The 0.1cc/10lbs dose is a little high for routine heartworm prevention, but is still quite safe for 99% of dogs.
Katherine
Vet Tech
a friends young JRT( a few years old) got into some ivermectin and nearly died. she went blind for a week or so, also. Please be careful and do right by your dogs.
I’ve used Panacur on my vet’s suggestion and dosage advice to worm my Jacks for over 5 years. It’s one click per dog for 3 days. Each tube does 3 dogs. It specifically does NOT do heartworms.
While my vet did give the formula for liquid ivermectin, and many of my large kennel breeder friends use it religiously to efficiently keep their dogs heartworm free.
Every shelter I’ve ever worked at has used liquid ivermectin for heartworm preventitive. However, it is LIGHT sensitive, does not mix well, and does expire in the liquid form–only unlike HG, the expiration date is not plainly listed on each dose you dish out so proceed at your own risk there…not worht it to me. We also did the .1mg/pound dose.
We also also used liquid ivermectin once daily to treat demodex, and it worked like crap…if you don’t do the dosages right orally it doesn’t work. Although truthfully, that was just the stress of a kennel environment was a rank place to treat a stress-born illness in the first place. Advantage multi or revolution weekly tended to work a lot better (on sarcoptic and demodex)… INJECTING ivermectin worked well but it burns like heck.
Also used it as the ‘slow kill’ method as the shelter couldn’t afford/ didn’t bother ‘risking’ the immiticide treatment. Gave your regular dosage of ivermectin each month…just did 3 weeks of doxycycline first along with it.
There is NO, NO OTC dewormer that treats HW. And ivermectin is NO preventative…it just kills off the larvae once a month so they don’t develop into the further stages.
If you can get the giant bottle of liquid ivermectin from tractor supply and can get a vet to dose it appropriately for you, it WORKS…I’d never, ever ever even attempt it with dewormer ivermectin paste. But I just spend the money on Advantage Multi. I’d rather NOT be subtly overdosing my dog, or have a reaction (or get heartworms from an underdose) and then have no level of accountability.
And the VERY nice surgical specialists clinic I’m sitting in right now working overnights would burn me alive if they caught me relaying this information. Not kosher 
We used regular old giant bottled white liquid panacur to deworm all puppies at the shelter, and liquid strongid for the puppies and kittens. Generally 3ccs/10 pounds for the panacur and strongid depended on who you asked and how the wind was blowing that day.
And to add to the DE: DE will kill the ants in your cupboard but thats about it. It is dirt cheap but it never did me a lot of good except for dumping it over mounds in the backyard. Shelter I worked at also forced it on people as a flea preventative/all around awesome everything and fed it to the dogs daily on peanut butter bread…I didn’t think the stuff was that phenomenal but the kennel didn’t have a flea problem at all, pretty astounding for 60+ dogs.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
