From:
AFERRETVET@cs.com
Date: 2001-05-19 23:59:03 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] RE: more ivermectin questions
From: AFERRETVET@c...
Full-name: AFERRETVET
To: tansy@p...
Hi Tansy,
I will try to answer your additional questions about ivomec
for ear mite treatment.
The "in the ear dosage" (topical dose) is actually the same
as the low end of the injectable dose. The 1% ivomec is
10mg/ml. When you dilute it 1:20 with propylene glycol
it becomes 0.5mg/ml. When you put 0.2 to 0.3cc into each
ear, you are putting 0.1 mg to 0.15 mg into each ear. This gives
you a total dose of 0.2 to 0.3 mg (both ears) per ferret. Again the
injectable dose is 0.2 to 0.5 mg/kg. If your ferrets are roughly
1 kg (2.2 pounds) then the topical and injectable are in the same
range. There are 3 reasons why the topical route may not be as
effective
as the injectable route. 1) You have to clean the wax out of
the ears prior to each treatment. 2) It is hard to get 0.2 to 0.3cc
of the diluted ivomec into the ear canal. You also have to treat ALL
of the ferrets (and other pets) in the household. It also helps to
wash
their bedding (towels, blankets, hammocks, etc.) with each
treatment.
3) Some of the ear mites will leave the ears and will be on the
skin, so
the "in the ear dose" does not kill these "out of the ear" mites.
The injectable dose will get those mites in the ear plus those mites
on the skin. Giving ivermectin orally will also do this.
The high dose of 1 mg per ferret is also from Dr Fox's book. It is
the
dose that Marshall Farms uses to treat their jills, so they do not
give ear
mites to the kits. They used to give 2 mg per jill, but they had
problems
with congenital birth defects at this very high dose. The GI signs
at
a high dose of 1 mg would not surprise me. Deaths at this very high
dose is possible, especially if they have heartworms. Were autopsies
done to determine the cause of death?
Personally I use the 0.3 mg dose injected SC and repeated in 3
weeks.
This has work very well in my experience. Sometimes they will
need a third dose. I have also used Revolution and Frontline to
treat ear mites with good results in both ferrets and kittens.
Jerry Murray, DVM