Yeah, I don't do any more than the normal HW dose and I start cutting back as soon as I see improvement, then find a level where equilibrium is reached with minimal hair loss. I continue to experiment with cutting back until the dog seems to have developed the ability to stablize the mite population on its own.
I'm guessing the ivomec "taints" the skin cells. It is also shed out in manure - you can spot the piles of livestock manure on the day they administered wormer because it's not being broken down by dung beetles. It's the piles with all the dead beetles in it.
It permeates all tissues extremely quickly (hence its scary and potentially deadly effect on dogs with a genetically defective and fragile blood/brain barrier). Ivomec is also used to treat mites in cattle and liver flukes in sheep, and roundworms in livestock - several of which don't make contact with the bloodstream, but sort of hang out in tissues to breed.
It's actually not as horrible as a lot of stuff that is given to dogs theraputically - NAISIDs for instance. Certainly not at a normal dose, anyway - I should think anything given at one hundred times recommended, would be asking for trouble, lol. It's a safe drug for pregnant and nursing livestock and can be given to neonatal lambs if needed for something critical (like flystrike - a maggot infestation - yuck).
It shouldn't be the first thing one reaches for - but for the dog in or approaching crisis it's a good second line. And one-tenth the cost of Interceptor. For me it's a no brainer - there's no official known cases of ivermectin sensitivity in BCs but many documented cases of sensitivity to Interceptor. That's why I go this route when necessary.
Becca Shouse: Irena Farm, Semora, NC
Cord, Ted, Gus, Zhi, Maggie, Lynn, Lu, Min and Tully - and Sam!
Waiting: Bubo & Ben
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