On another forum there is a discussion about the dosage of Ivomec.
Do you that use the 1% injectable dilute it with proplyne glycol?
I will start dosing my dogs again soon, and I want to be sure I am doing this correctly, because I've never reduced the injectable with PG. I've given them .01cc orally (straight from the bottle) for every 20#.

The Ivomec 1% injection I have, made by
Merial has 1%ivermectin, 40%glycerol formal,
and propylene glycol q.s. ad 100%(whatever that means) Is this ok to just draw out and dose as I posted above? Or should I be giving more poison by adding in the PG to dilute it more? So confusing!

This article was linked in the discussion as reference:
http://www.dogaware.com/health/ivomec.html#30dilution

I don't know much about this, though I do worry about folks getting the measurements correct, and also about the mdr1 issue if they don't. I also worry about them starting treatment if they haven't tested at the vet's, if dosing has been interrupted.

Also, propylene glycol is not necessarily benign:
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/polyethylene-glycol-side-effects.html

But, I really know nothing about this, so I'll stay out of this....

I should have put PREVENTATIVE in the title, not treatment. not sure that can be edited to correct?
Thanks Lisa, it is confusing, and the mdr1 is another source of concern. It would seem that vets would routinely test once for it before just giving out the heartworm preventative as they do now.

I changed the title , I didn't even notice!

I think some vets test for the mdr1 mutation when treating for heartworm, but not necessarily for regular preventative stuff.

Thanks again, Lisa!

no problem. I hope you get some useful input here.

I used to do my own years ago, really a long time ago so I don't remember a while lot. I just used to inject it into a chuck of hamburger and give them the hamburger.

Jane, I paid close attention to the other thread and I ran the figures by a chemistry prof because it's been too long since I did that sort of figuring. Right now I only have the dosage for Nikon, but I will try to convert it into a formula so you can plug in the dog's weight. I had her figure the dosage based on the actual micrograms per pound, not the mL/cc of fluid, if that makes sense? The dosage for Nikon (76lbs) is about 1/4 of a mL, so 2.5 on my 1cc syringe. That is about 8 times the dosage of a Heartgard pill.

There is a big controversy over the proper dosage. The actual dosage needed for heartworm is SO LOW. If you look at the heartworm pill for our sized dogs it is 272mcg or something close. To dose 272 mcg from the liquid you would need to dilute it to be measurable as the dog would only need aprox .002cc of the stuff to equal the 272mcg. This math is written out on the dogaware site.

That said, the tolerance of ivermectin for most dogs is high. When I thought Penny might have mange the vet had me do like 1.7cc a day. The same vet said to use like .2cc for heartworm each month. So we did for a while. Then we moved and our new vet said it was fine to increase it to cover worms too, 1/10thcc per 10# body weight which is what most people use. But know that yes this is way overdosing in regards to what is needed for the heartworms.

If you have a small dog or puppy I would be more concerned with the proper dosage. Or with this new flea prevention comfortitis. FDA warns of interaction between it and high dosages of ivermectin. Given the 1/10thcc per 10# is way overdosing the interaction would concern me and my current vet told me not to use the comfortits if I am giving the ivermectin.

So I started diluting it with PG as Penny is on comfortis. But I have found that giving her .2cc straight ivermectin doesn't cause her a reaction and is easier on me to draw up and dose.

Disclaimer: Not a vet, not giving dosing advice. Just sharing our experiences.