Ivermectin Overdose - a close call

[JSwan]

Since the crisis is over I don't think I'll jinx myself by posting this.

I de-wormed an incoming horse with Ivermectin last week. Horse is difficult to de-worm so I mixed it with some feed and he gobbled it up as usual.

Or so I thought. He must have spat some out and I didn't see it on the stall floor or wall. I'm very careful with dewormers and know ivermectin to be toxic to dogs in large doses... but somehow I missed it.

Around 3 or 4 I turned the horses out and started to clean stalls - my dog Homer went into a stall for what I thought was a mad dash for a bit of manure. I called him out immediately. He wasn't chewing or licking - I didn't think any more about it.

The rest of the day and evening he acted normally.

He woke me at 3am - he was stumbling around the bedroom. Turned the light on.

He was blind. Ataxic. Hypersensitive to noise. Salivating. Terrified. Put two and two together - figured he'd eaten ivermectin. But how much?????

Got him to the ER over an hour away.

By 4am he was unable to walk - he had to be carried in.

It was touch and go the first 24 hours. They had to sedate him as he started to have seizures. Lots of charcoal, IV, and a dark quiet room.

Eventually he started to recover.

He could stand up. Then he could walk with a person assisting him - then he walked by himself if he could press against a wall. Then his vision returned. But a thunderstorm caused such panic he tried to go through a window at the ER. They discontinued the charcoal and discharged him.

He's home now but isn't back to normal. An occasional twitch, little energy, but he improves every day.

We don't know how much wormer he ingested but it was enough to almost kill him. If we hadn't had that ER close by - I doubt he'd be alive today.

No moral to the story - no real point in posting it. Just never saw the wormer - the dog didn't appear to have eaten anything - and yet - in a split second - he must have. And it was enough to almost kill him.

:no:

[Daydream Believer]

Oh no! I'm glad you caught it in time! Jingles for his full recovery!

Is he a herding/collie type dog?

[JSwan]

German Shepherd mix.

He's been de-wormed with Ivermectin before (but dosed according to weight)

[Maybeapril]

Thank you for posting. I've never even thought about my dogs being in danger when I worm the horses. I'm going to be sure and clean up anything they spit out from now on!

[carp]

Glad he made it. A lot of dogs have a mutation which makes them susceptible to ivermectin poisoning. There's a test for it now. Probably worth it for farm dogs--sure is cheaper than a session at the emergency clinic.

[JSwan]

The ER vet mentioned that test when we were admitting Homer. I'd heard of it but had never had it done.

I was oh so certain I was careful with vet drugs on my place. Yeah, right. :rolleyes: Everything locked up, careful with feed for different species, careful with wormers.....

I didn't see the point in testing because at that moment I thought I was seeing my dog for the last time. When the vet said - yes - let's wait on that I figured she was thinking the same thing.

One thing I did not know that there is a substance used in conjucntion with charcoal therapy on severe cases. I can't remember the name of it right now but it helps flush the chemical out of fatty tissues or something. If I think of the name I'll post it though I hope none of you ever need to get ahold of it.

Yes - the test is no doubt much cheaper than the vet bill - which was less than estimated but still more than my first car.

[Bluey]

That is an important warning to all, to be sure we get what we are giving to the right animal.

Some 35+ years ago, when the first pelleted dewormers came onto the market, organophosphates, if I remember well, when all horses were still tube dewormed, we happily fed the pellets to all our many horses.
Those in paddocs, with trees the wild turkeys roosted in at night, dribbled some of it on the ground, evidently and those turkeys cleaned up after them.

Well, in the middle of the night, turkeys started dying and flopping off the trees into the horse paddocs and in the morning there were over 50 dead turkeys in and around the pens and horses mixed in and out of the pens.:eek:
That must have been a wild night for all there.:no:

Sometimes we do what we think is right and it really backfires on us.
I would not feel guilty, JSwan, just chalk it to one more and very hard learning experience.:(
Glad that he will be ok after all.:yes:

[mlranchtx]

This reminds me of a story I heard recently about a farmer we know who was worming cattle with Ivermectin (probably the pour on type?).

He got it on his hands, forgot and got a dip of snuff... he must have gotten quite a bit of wormer in his mouth as he ended up in the hospital and almost died.

:eek::no::eek:

I doubt he'll quit dipping but I bet he'll be more careful.

Glad you dog's ok!

[harveyhorses]

Glad he is recovering. Scary

[Cielo Azure]

Oh no! I'm glad you caught it in time! Jingles for his full recovery!

Is he a herding/collie type dog?

It doesn't matter if it was an overdose. Ivermectin is incredibly toxic to ALL dogs at high doses. What she described was an overdose.

Otherwise, yes. I agree about border/Aussies/sheltie/collies, etc. Either get your collie type dog tested or don't give them ivermectin.

Another thread and someone was writing how they let their dogs play with the empty horse worming tubes. shudder. A disaster waiting to happen.

[Robin@DHH]

The farmer who was dipping snuff must have gotten an overdose
because ivermectin is used in humans in Africa as treatment for a
worm that causes blindness. The drug did not get US approval
because (so I'm told) Merck didn't think they would recover the
cost of testing for human use in western countries but the UNHCO
folks were confident it would help the African problem so used the
drug without American testing.

[Mozart]

Scary, glad it turned out ok.
I did not know dogs were so susceptible to ivermectin overdose.

On the bright side, you won't have to give him any heartworm meds for a while :eek:

[MunchkinsMom]

Wow, hope your dog will be okay.

Just wanted to share this one. Years ago, my BO had a puppy that she had placed in the barn office for about 10 minutes. In that 10 minutes, the pup ate an entire tube of Ivermectin.

We immediately called the vet, who said to giver her hydrogen peroxide orally to induce vomiting - which really, really works!

Then to makes sure that the pup had puked it all up, we emptied another tube next to it, to compare the volume.

We were pretty sure we got it all, but she took the pup into the vet as a precaution.

Thanks for sharing your story, it might prevent this from happening to anyone else in the future.

[chai]

JSwan, I'm sorry you had such a scare but it's such good news that he survived. Back in 1991, the same thing happened to our dog, a pound puppy that was a collie/golden mix when he picked up a tiny piece of apple that one of the horses dropped out of her mouth after I administered Ivermectin. Just like with your dog, 'Burns' was just fine...I didn't know he had gotten any Ivermectin. I wormed the horses at night and by the next morning, 'Burns' was ataxic and out of it. I rushed him to the vet and brought the Ivermectin box with me to show the vet. He asked me to leave Burns for observation, then called me later to say they x rayed Burns's hips and it was hip dysplasia! I thought that was odd, but I brought Burns home and kept an eye on him.
Within hours I knew the vet had to be wrong. I called the vet and insisted that it had to have something to do with the Ivermectin because nothing else had changed in Burns's' life. He called me back ten minutes later to tell me to get Burns back to the clinic asap, and they treated him for Ivermectin poisoning. It's a miracle they didn't kill him with the muscle relaxants and pain meds they gave him for the misdiagnosed hip dysplasia.
Burns made a full recovery, so I hope my experience gives you hope that your dog will be ok and bounce back after such a terrible scare.

[Pony Fixer]

Oh, Homie!

I'm glad your dog is okay. I lost my dog Homer 2 weeks ago...:no:

[veebug22]

I know you said there was no real point in posting, but actually, this is a really helpful post. I had never even thought about my dogs being in the barn after worming the horses. I will think twice next time. Thanks for sharing!!

[avezan]

I know you said there was no real point in posting, but actually, this is a really helpful post. I had never even thought about my dogs being in the barn after worming the horses. I will think twice next time. Thanks for sharing!!

I agree. My horses spit out wormer all the time. Sometimes I try to scoop it up and put it back in their mouths, but I never considered the dogs or cats eating it. I have collie breeds too. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad your dog will be alright. I'm curious about how much your first car cost, though. ;)

[sunridge1]

Yes thank you for posting! I would have never even given it a second thought. Perhaps my dogs have been lucky all these years. I normally don't mix with feed but I have and the dogs eat feed like great dog food.:lol: My little Mattie wouldn't have a chance.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f100/sunridge/giviner.jpg

[Acertainsmile]

Glad to hear your boy is on the mend, what a scary situation for you!

Thanks for the heads up... never realized Ivermectin could do that to dogs (or turkeys)....

[Indy-lou]

Thanks for alerting us to this potential for poisoning. I hope your dog recovers completely. My dogs are always at foot in the barns and elsewhere, so something like this could so easily happen.

[citydog]

Yikes! I'm glad you were able to get him in for treatment.

I've been told to exercise caution esp. with dogs who are known or likely to have the MDR1 mutation with access to manure from animals who've been dewormed with Ivermectin as well.

[ReeseTheBeast]

Oh no JSwan, I'm so sorry you guys went through that :eek: :(

I'm glad to hear he's doing better now, but jeez... how scary and awful. :no:

[[[HUGS]]] to you both, what an ordeal.

[MistyBlue]

JSwan...so glad Homer is continuing to improve. That's scary as hell.

Sunridge...I am not normally a fan of little dogs...but that is one seriously adorable little hover dog you have there! :D

[JSwan]

Wow - glad Homer's adventure was educational for some of y'all - but I think Homer would rather not have been made an example of. :lol:

sunridge - that dog is so cute there oughta be a law against it. :) Yeah - that little fella would have been a goner. Same with my beagle, Peanut.

Ok - for those unfamiliar with the symptoms and treatment I'll quote from the vet records they gave me. I didn't get the name of that product but it is described here, along with symptoms of ivermectin toxicity in canines.

"Monitoring Homer closely for the next 12-24 hours for progression of clinical signs. Can see tremors, ataxia, anorexia, blindness, bradypnea, depression, stupor, mydriasis, coma, death. Ivermectin has a long half life of 2-3 days.
Recommended dose of activated charcoal if stable and alert enough... with sorbitol and continue Q8hrs for 24-48 hrs post exposure monitoring for hypernatremia. There is a lot of enterohepatic recirculation and the charcoal helps with reabsorption. Symptomatic therapy with heat support, nursing care, atropine for bradycardia if needed and if tremors severe valium. If CNS signs worsen can consider lipid rescue (fat source feeding supplements) given IV will help bind the fat soluble drugs and can decrease effect of the medication. "

Looking at the records Homer received valium about 2 hours after we brought him in as he got worse. He was blind for at least 24 hours.... vision starting coming back after that.

He's ok now - or at least seems to be. He started eating again which had worried me a little - he wouldn't eat for several days after coming home.

I don't use the organophosphate products as I have poultry, wild turkey and other wildlife that could be injured/killed.

I didn't think to ask how much the genetic test was... I thought the ivermectin problem was limited to collies? Homer is a mutt but he looks like he's got Beagle in him. Well - no matter - he ate too much regardless.

All's well that ends well. :)

[Cloud Walk]

My Aussie had a similar situation as your dog only it took us awhile to narrow it to Ivermectin. I never saw him eat the wormer, but I had just wormed my horses the day before his seizures started. All the other tests (lead, etc) came back clear. He was in the dog ICU for 10 days in 2001.

In doing research, we did learn one of the possible contributors to his lengthy coma, was the valium that was given to him. The vets obviously did a great job not knowing the cause of seizures and the standard of care (at the time anyway) was to give valium. If I remember correctly, the class of drug is somehow similar to ivermectin and when the valium was discontinued (should have given it to me), he slowly improved. I am sure there are many people on this board who are very drug class savy and can provide further insight.

My dog, did improve and within several months was back to himself with no residual issues. When he was discharged, the vet said he honestly never thought the dog would have lived. Sorry you had to go through the scary experience too.

[2Horse]

The farmer who was dipping snuff must have gotten an overdose
because ivermectin is used in humans in Africa as treatment for a
worm that causes blindness. The drug did not get US approval
because (so I'm told) Merck didn't think they would recover the
cost of testing for human use in western countries but the UNHCO
folks were confident it would help the African problem so used the
drug without American testing.

I was put in the hospital for extreme diarea(sp?) several months ago. They couldn't find out what was wrong with me. Grasping at straws, they did give me a pill of Ivermectin.:eek:
I laughed so hard when I seen what it was. All these years I have used it on horses, now it was being used on me! :lol:

So it is being used in the USA for humans:yes:

Come to find out I DIDN"T have worms! They never did really find out what was wrong with me, even after being in the hospital for a week!

[myrna]

It could have been any wormer,not just an ivermectin based product.

[FatPalomino]

JSwan, so glad your dog's better. What a sharp cookie you are to figure that out at 3 am. I can barely spell my name at that time :)

Scary stuff.

[broughton_sporthorses]

I agree with others, their definitely was a point in your post! I didn't even know Ivermectin was so harmful to dogs. I will be much more careful in the future. I'm glad Homer is getting better now, and that he survived.

[cssutton]

http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v27je03.htm

[cloudyandcallie]

you can buy the activated charcoal mixture very cheaply from Jeffersequine. It comes in a huge tube and you can use it on horses and dogs and cats. I have a tube at the barn, just in case of poisonous weeds.
You don't need to buy the expensive gun, you can break the tube to use it for animals and use your own big syringe or turkey baster.

[blue&blond]

That must have been so very tramatic and scary JSwan. I'm so sorry for you and the dog but so happy to hear he's improving.

I must echo others, thank you so much for posting this. I think it's alerted many of us that never really thought about the dangers.

I have a question though. Do we need to also be concerned with the manure produced after worming with ivermectin? If so, for how long?

I generally mix the ivermectin with a bucket-o-goodies just because that works for me. But doggies nibble on what gets dropped and also on manure here and there.

Again, I'm so glad to hear he's improving. Please keep us posted.

[wateryglen]

Jingles for Homer! Poor baby! You I mean!!! :winkgrin: thank you for sharing your experience. Could've happened to any of us. Why if I had a dollar for every pile of goop I've left on a stall floor.........honestly!
Best wishes!

[hoopoe]

A note re the snuff dipping farmer

cattle Ivermectin has a secondary ingredient that is used in the cattle only. It should not be used in other species.

It is also highly concentrated. The danger of a product is in its dose as well as species specific potentials. While Ivermectin is used in humans, the danger is in the inappropriate dose as with Swans dog

plus nicotine is /was used as a dewormer in days gone by. It acts as a bowel purgative.

poor dude

Swan I am glad your dog is OK. It sounds like your emergency vet is a good one

[pj]

That is an important warning to all, to be sure we get what we are giving to the right animal.

Some 35+ years ago, when the first pelleted dewormers came onto the market, organophosphates, if I remember well, when all horses were still tube dewormed, we happily fed the pellets to all our many horses.
Those in paddocs, with trees the wild turkeys roosted in at night, dribbled some of it on the ground, evidently and those turkeys cleaned up after them.

Well, in the middle of the night, turkeys started dying and flopping off the trees into the horse paddocs and in the morning there were over 50 dead turkeys in and around the pens and horses mixed in and out of the pens.:eek:
That must have been a wild night for all there.:no:

Sometimes we do what we think is right and it really backfires on us.
I would not feel guilty, JSwan, just chalk it to one more and very hard learning experience.:(
Glad that he will be ok after all.:yes:
Had pretty much the same thing here but with a flock of chickens. They didn't even ingest the wormer directly but got poisoned picking through the wormed horse's poo!!!
It was awful....chickens dropping everywhere!
Glad your boy is going to be okay.

[CarolinaGirl]

I work at a vet clinic and we had a dog come in this week that had been given Ivomec. Well when you know the dosage and do it correctly it's fine as a heartworm preventative. These people had been told by their friend who raised dogs that they could use it as a cheaper alternative to heartgard. Anyway seemingly the friend had told them how much to use, but they must of misheard or didn't remember correctly because they gave the dog 5cc's straight Ivomec (about 500X the dosage required)!! Dog seemingly stumbled around and such like your dog did. He didn't seem stumbly when he came into the clinic but definitely wasn't seeing all that much. There isn't a whole lot you can do for them.. so we gave him IV fluids and put lube drops in his eyes and monitored him. Went home for the night and then came back the next day for bloodwork and he was seeing and acting normally.

[ponygrl]

The farmer who was dipping snuff must have gotten an overdose
because ivermectin is used in humans in Africa as treatment for a
worm that causes blindness. The drug did not get US approval
because (so I'm told) Merck didn't think they would recover the
cost of testing for human use in western countries but the UNHCO
folks were confident it would help the African problem so used the
drug without American testing.

Ivermectin is approved by the FDA for use in humans for strongyloidiasis, onchocerciasis, and scabies.

[talloaks]

Are any of the horse paste wormers toxic to cats???

[JSwan]

Are any of the horse paste wormers toxic to cats???


Yes. So are poultry wormers. Any deworming product will be toxic if it's a large enough dose - and what "too much" is will depend on the species, too.

[Benson]

About a year ago I had the exact same experience with feed falling out of a horse's mouth just after worming. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Aussie trotting down the aisle, dropped his head mid-stride, scooped up no more than 4 oats that had dropped out of the mare's mouth, and kept on trucking out the other end of the barn. I, too, thought nothing of it, loaded my horse in the trailer, went riding with a friend and when I got home 4 hours later the dog was staggering, blind and salivating profusely.

Long story short, he spent a week in critical condition, showing only rudimentary reflexes, before we decided to put him down. JSwan, you are a lucky woman.


We have changed our entire worming protocol based on this experience. All horses stand in the same spot, on empty feed bags to be wormed and the dog is in the house. Everything is cleaned and trash is thrown in the dumpster. The dog (also Aussie) is not allowed off leash for 3 days after worming.