Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are any of you familiar with this drug?
I had a 2 year old black milk that hadn't eaten in about 6 weeks, so I took it into the vet. The fecal showed that it had strongyloides, and the vet said he'd recommend a shot of Ivermectin. He administered it on 9/10. Afterwards I read on the old forums here that it's very toxic to reptiles. Today (9/16) I found the milk dead in it's cage.
Has anyone else had any experiences with this drug?

From my understanding, there are 2 forms of this drug. One for livestock, and one for reptiles and birds. I really don't understand the difference...

I know vets have made the mistake of using the livestock variety and dosing it for reptiles...and killed them.

There was actually a vet in FL who made this mistake with several tagged indigos a few years back and they died.

The reptile / bird form of this drug should be safe if dosed properly.

You may want to check into this...
and please let us know.

Sorry for your loss.

Actually, there is no reptile/avian ivermectin. Ivermectin is actually a large animal drug (swine, bovine etc...). Most veterinarians use it "off label" and should be diluting it before use in any small animal. As stated below Panacur/Fenbendazole should have been used instead. Hope this helps, Good Luck,
Roly

Sorry to hear about that. I don't think that Ivermectin (if given at the correct dose) should have killed your gaigeae. Panacur would have been just as effective and much safer though IMO.
Chris

I have used Ivermectin, for mite extermination, on a variety of snake species and I have never seen any ill effects.
Some species however are known to be very sensitive to Ivermectin, thus you shouldn´t even spray them with it. These species, unfortunately, includes Lampropeltis sp. and Drymarchon sp.
I´m sorry you didn´t recieve this information before treating your snake.
Best regards