# Ivermectin Dose for chickens



## mpete

I recently inherited over 150 chickens. I have culled down to around 75(ish). I need to do parasite (inner and outer) on them and want to use Ivermectin since I have that on hand and it will take care of everything, but I cannot find any useful information on what the dosage is. I would prefer to put it straight into the water source.


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## Cyngbaeld

I don't recommend it at all. It would be off label for poultry and has been known to cause serious morbidity in them. 

Put 1/4 tsp of copper sulfate per gallon drinking water and it will take care of parasites. You'll need to do it pretty continuously. It will also keep algae from growing in the water.


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## akane

Ivermectin is used off label for a lot of things. Most companies don't want to bother doing the testing required for adding birds and small mammals to the label so you often have no choice. I think the only approved dewormer for chickens only treats roundworms which is pretty useless.

Personally I prefer to treat all my animals individually by hand for the accuracy and stability of the medication compared to treating through water even if that means I spend hrs catching and treating everyone for the day. It's not like I have to do it that often. If I do then management of my animals is in question. The dose for the 1% is .15cc per lb of body weight. However I've heard the dose for use in water is 1ml per quart for 3 days but I've never done it.

External parasites are better treated by adding a dust bath with some sevin dust and I usually remove all bedding and spray all wood surfaces with poultry protector if I actually see a mite or lice infestation. Most of the time though just giving them a good dusting area and not over stocking your coop will prevent external parasites. I've found like internal worms these parasites are only really a problem if my animal management is not up to par by keeping too many birds in the coop, not letting them out enough, not giving them dust bathing areas, not cleaning enough, etc... If I fix those problems the mites often go away without treatment.


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## mpete

Thank you.... these chickens are from a blood line from South America )true araucanas. some are rumpless. They were kept in a pen approx. 10 ft wide by 25 ft. long. They are a mess inside and out... A lot of leg mite issues. Cocci ofcourse is also an issue. I haven't done a fecal yet... haven't really thought of it. I have most of my recent experience with peafowl and goats. I have sold the ones I thought were not going to improve the bird. The ones left I hope to build breeding pens for. They are now kept in a 12 X 30 during the day and let out to range for bugs and vegetation during the day. They get layer and scratch to go to roost with. Their feathers are starting to grow in quite nicely now.


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## akane

Vaseline on the legs supposedly suffocates leg mites. I'm not sure whether I believe that's the reason it helps but many chicken keepers will swear it makes a big difference when treating leg mites. I've never had to try it since when we got leg mites I just put the sevin dust in their dust bath area and treated the coop.


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## Cyngbaeld

Dusting sulfur in the dust bath is safer than sevin and is at least as effective.


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## oberhaslikid

This is what I do
I buy Normectin 1% injectable (water based)
Worms and external parasites
Sml bird â 4 drops
Med bird â 6 drops
Lge bird â 8 drops 
You can place on the skin under the wing or neck.

If I mix with water I mix 6 cc to a gallon of water.


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## bantams

We use Ivermectin for our show chickens.

We use 1 cc per 20 pounds of chicken body weight (take an average of your birds' weights), and dilute it in the amount of water they will finish within one day.


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## weendogmom

I have privermectin, which is ivermectin .08%, and Valbazen 11.36% Albendazole on hand. They are both oral. Any suggested dosages for their waterer? I have 16 chickens that are about 16 weeks old. Water bucket holds about 2-3 gallons. Would like to do preventative worming before laying starts next month.

Also, does anyone use permethrin (garden dust) in their dust baths?


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## mekasmom

Cyngbaeld said:


> I don't recommend it at all. It would be off label for poultry and has been known to cause serious morbidity in them.


I always do it. We just catch each chicken, force open their beek, and shove in about 1/4 pea sized glop of horse paste. I've never killed any of them doing it. Serious morbidity? I've done 100 at a time, and none died.


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## HayBabies

How long after treating with ivermectin can you eat the eggs and butcher for birds??


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## mekasmom

I don't butcher the birds. It's just too much work for a small amount of meat on the old tough hens. Plus, I figure if they lay good for me, they deserve to live out their lives in ease. It's probably been 10yrs since we actually cleaned a chicken. Skinning is easier, but still a lot of work.

Honestly, I just skipped a couple days on the eggs, and gave the eggs to the dogs. I wasn't that worried about ivermectin hurting us because it is used as a human drug too. I don't know the official withdrawl time though. Sorry.


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## bonnie in indiana

I have had Araucana bantams for 40 years. Last year was awful for Scaley leg. 
The Chicken Health Handbook says--by mouth, bantams 5-7 drops of Ivermectin/Normectin and 1/4cc for standards.

At the time I did not know the above info. I gave 3 drops in mouth and squirted their legs with Ivermectin. I also put one drop under their wings. My bantams are very small and NO ONE died. And within 3 months their legs looked like *new*. There are only 2 birds that I will have to retreat this year. As I do not eat their eggs-I was not worried about withdrawal time. I did the treatment after hatching season.

After 40 years and trying all the talked about treatments--I am sold on Ivermectin/Normectin.


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## ChickenMan2

bantams said:


> We use Ivermectin for our show chickens.
> 
> We use 1 cc per 20 pounds of chicken body weight (take an average of your birds' weights), and dilute it in the amount of water they will finish within one day.


Hi there,
what form of ivermectin do you mix with their water... injectable or pour on or ?
Thank you.


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## robin416

ChickenMan2 said:


> Hi there,
> what form of ivermectin do you mix with their water... injectable or pour on or ?
> Thank you.


Neither. My vet said the injectable is meant to be injected to the body. That the GI tract will negate any efficacy. The pour on is strictly pour on, it could poison the birds if ingested. And that pour on will not work on internal parasites like it will on mammals. 

Pour on can be put on the skin, 1/4 cc for bantams, 1/2 cc for large fowl. It will only kill external parasites. You will still need to use a wormer for internal parasites.


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## RJ2019

robin416 said:


> Neither. My vet said the injectable is meant to be injected to the body. That the GI tract will negate any efficacy. The pour on is strictly pour on, it could poison the birds if ingested. And that pour on will not work on internal parasites like it will on mammals.
> 
> Pour on can be put on the skin, 1/4 cc for bantams, 1/2 cc for large fowl. It will only kill external parasites. You will still need to use a wormer for internal parasites.


Where'd you get this info? Can you provide a link? Thanks.


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## robin416

That came from my large animal vet. We were chatting about something and some how veered off into discussing Ivermectin and how it is used. She explained why it won't work in the guts of chickens and why the injectable won't work in waterers. This is a discussion from years ago so the details of all she told me have faded a bit. 

Since then I've seen references that it will not kill internal parasites because it is not formulated for birds.


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## RJ2019

Cool, thank you.


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## robin416

I haven't looked into the ivermectin question in quite a few years so I went looking to see if anything changed. Other than there being recognition that it is safe to use topically nothing on using it any other way on chickens. 

One thing I found was a statement that it can be toxic orally. But that was not a scientific report so I hesitate to accept the accuracy.


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## RJ2019

robin416 said:


> I haven't looked into the ivermectin question in quite a few years so I went looking to see if anything changed. Other than there being recognition that it is safe to use topically nothing on using it any other way on chickens.
> 
> One thing I found was a statement that it can be toxic orally. But that was not a scientific report so I hesitate to accept the accuracy.


I did look into it some more. This person is knowledgeable and has access to a large compilation of data. According them, you are mostly correct. Ivermectin doesn't work for internal parasites in poultry. However, oral doses of the injectable formulation do seem to be effective in stopping external parasites. Pour on can be used topically, NOT orally. Only works for external parasites, once again.

Thank you for prompting me to research this more. I learned something today, always dosed mine for internal nasties with either pour on ivermectin or oral cydectin. I see now that only one method was effective!


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## robin416

Yes, the injectable given as an injection does kill the external parasites in the same way the pour on does.

The problem with saying this or that product does this for internal parasites is just words without confirmation the parasites were there in the first place. I stopped worming my birds ten or more years ago as an experiment after reading a study on horses. Turns out blindly thinking chickens have internal parasites 365 without treatment is not true either. Without fecals for confirmation it's just guessing on internal parasites being present unless it's an overload and they can be seen in the droppings.

Over the years I've come across so many old ways when it came to chickens that I realized it was best to research before taking things on faith. The birds I was raising at the time were not for egg or meat production and some were valuable so it made sense to be as educated as possible on them.


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