Worming with Ivermectin - Can I feed the milk to my chickens?

[The Egg Bandit]

Hi y'all. I'm going to be worming my heavy milkers today with ivermectin. I hate to waste all that milk, but they are losing condition and I have to worm them now. Can I give this milk to my chickens and still eat their eggs? I'm gonna post this on BackyardChickens too, but I'd love y'all's input too. Thanks!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I don't think that'd be a good idea. You may as well be drinking the milk if you're going to do that.

Why don't you use it as fertilizer instead? It's good as a fertilizer if you dilute it with water.

 

[Chirpy]

I've not fed it to my chickens (since we eat their eggs everyday) but I do give it to my dogs and cats.

 

[The Egg Bandit]

I don't like to give too much milk to my dogs and cats, due to the goopy poo it seems to generate. But maybe a little to them and a little to the fruit trees.

Can I give it to the pullets and cockerels that aren't in the laying flock yet?

 

[Chirpy]

You are right about the milk and dogs and cats. I should have mentioned that I only give them a little and not every day when using it on my milk goats.

I don't know any health reasons why you could not give it to younger chickens (who are not laying) but I'm not a vet either so hopefully someone will jump in here if that's wrong. I wouldn't give it to them until you know for sure it cannot hurt them in the diluted milk.

 

[chandasue]

I could be wrong but the problem I see with giving it to the chickens would be that it's like giving them a diluted dosage of the wormer and could lead to the worms becoming more resistant to the drug.

 

[The Egg Bandit]

Very interesting. So maybe my chickens' worms develop an immunity to the wormer I am using to clear up my goats. But maybe my chickens don't have worms. ? They seem perfectly healthy.

EEK! This is all so complicated.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we do this (give withheld milk to chickens and dogs/cats) without any problems.

but we only use it as a wormer once a year. unless you use it a lot i cant imagine that your hens would develop a resistance to it.

remember that ivermec is used to treat people too:

http://www.stromectol-ivermectin.in...n_Treating_Parasitic_Infection_in_People.html

see the side effects (pretty much none unless you have existing liver problems). but by the time it cycles thru your goat and thru your chickens i'm not sure how much would be left by the time it gets to you.

i know one woman who only withholds her just-wormed-goatmilk for 3 days.

but everyone has their tolerances for how they manage their barnyard.

 

[freemotion]

Am I the one who withholds it for three days? I do. Only because one of my dogs told me to.... I give him a tablespoon or so of milk when I strain it and he refused to drink it after worming with ivermectin last year. He refused it for three days. He's never refused it, ever. So I decided to trust him.

I would have no problem giving it to the pullets and cockerels. It is so diluted. I would give it to the layers and pigs, too. I have not wormed my chickens, though. Do you worm your chickens with ivermectin? If it is a different class of wormer, then the residual ivermectin will have no impact on resistance.

I ended up freezing the tainted milk in ice cube trays, transferring it to ziplocs once frozen. I make soap with it. A year later, I still have some, as my doe was really producing for those three days!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Oh, one more thing about feeding the ivermectin milk to dogs.....ivermectin is HIGHLY deadly to some breeds like collies and australian shepherds!!! Make sure you don't give it to breeds with an ivermectin sensitivity!