ivermectin sensitivity

one of my champagne/nzr/harlequin mix mutt bucks had mites so i gave him an ivermectin injection about three days ago. he hadn't been eating much the subsequent days, so i was preparing to move him to a hospital cage for closer observation this evening and found him dead in his cage. he was in otherwise great health before outside of some nerve damage in a hind foot from a dog attack a few months ago (he still got around fine, he just had an odd gait and his toes didn't spread right.) i had tried to breed him around the first of the month and unfortunately my does didn't wanna cooperate so i don't think i'll get any kits from him, sadly.

i'm pretty convinced he had an allergic reaction to the ivermectin as like i said, he was otherwise in perfect health, and a voracious eater. he will be the second animal that i've lost to a medication allergy, the first being a 6 week old kitten that died after being given a dose of albon, a coccidia medication.

i know that vienna markings can predisposition rabbits to having ivermectin sensitivities, but is that the only breed/marking known? i ask mostly out of curiosity - how common is it that rabbits have this issue, and also because i have that rabbit's mother and if there's a breed predisposition i would like to know in case she also gets mites or something in the future. i've always heard that rabbits with white feet will generally be sensitive, i'm assuming this is related to the vienna and not that any brokens will be sensitive? i don't have any vienna rabbits but i do have some brokens, and i'm going to be picking up a pair of blanc de hotots in the near future and with how rare/expensive they are i'd hate to kill them after a routine ear mite treatment or something.

I admit I'm pretty clueless about medicating rabbits (having had little illness in my herd and preferring the natural route where possible) but I have to ask: is it standard procedure to inject ivermectin in rabbits? I thought it could be used topically for mites, which I would think would be safer.

(Don't be afraid to correct me if I'm wrong about this, folks. As I said, my experience with ivermectin is nil.)

as far as i know it's dependent on the kind you use, but you can either inject or use topically. the only variety i could find that i was comfortable in my ability to properly dose as the injectable. i'd given it to a couple other rabbits before (recurrant ear mites and pinworms,) and they did fine. he's the first one i've had that reacted poorly to it. i fortunately don't have too many issues either, but the previous rabbits were ones that came from outside and presented once i got them home. at least the ear mites i was warned about first, the worms i wasn't :down:

I have only given one rabbit ivermectin before for ear mites and suspected internal parisites. I injected it and the only reaction I saw was that the ear mites went away. I'm thinking it is very possible that your rabbit was allergic. But I did want to say I've injected ivermectin before without an issue.

It is standard to inject ivermectin. It is definitely possible he had an allergy to it but it is not common at all.

My apologies, Shazza. I hope I didn't upset you with my previous post.

Thanks to all for the clarification. I don't know why I can't recall reading about injecting ivermectin before now. Maybe my brain slipped a cog. :?

oh no you're fine! i'm not upset at all haha

i don't think it's as common to use injectable outside of livestock animals. certainly when i need to worm my cats/dogs it's usually oral or topical in the case of mites. if you go to a farm supply store for ivermectin it's usually as an injection or a paste formulated for horses or cattle. oral is really hard to dose for rabbits, so injection is usually the easiest to get and use properly. there's pretty much no rabbit-specific medications out there unless you go to a vet, it seems

MaggieJ":3ik48znq said:

My apologies, Shazza. I hope I didn't upset you with my previous post.

Thanks to all for the clarification. I don't know why I can't recall reading about injecting ivermectin before now. Maybe my brain slipped a cog. :?

Click to expand...

I would say that was a pretty valid question. I wasn't sure that injecting was standard practice on rabbits, only that I had done it before with no issues. That certainly didn't mean I did it right :x :lol: Thank you for your clarification AmberRae!

You can inject it but pretty much all formulas work orally or topically with equal effectiveness. It was just shown to be a little slower spreading through the body and versions with a lot of bulking ingredients like paste is of course a bit messy for topical use. The simple injectable version for livestock I've used both orally and very often topically in dozens of rabbits, even more guinea pigs, and a few other small animals effectively and without side effects. Although with a source of revolution not requiring a vet I prefer to spend the extra cost. While minor reactions are more common like localized hair loss deadly reactions are less and cats can use it when they are too sensitive to Ivermectin at very useful dosages.

I have heard dutch gene breeds often react to Ivermectin but not any others consistently. It does happen and especially if you have an unknown mix there could be a risk. It's not that common across breeds given how much it's used for its ease to acquire but can be devastating because the reaction is definitely genetic based so wipes out large breeding groups when they turn out to be sensitive.

hmm, hearing that it can be familial is kind of disappointing. i have the sister of the dead buck too and she is quite valuable to me. i suppose if i need to give her any wormer or mite treatments i'll have to use something else just to be safe. i know revolution is typically use topically - is there a wormer that i could get over the counter? i've only had worms once but i like to have things on hand when i need them, just in case.

I've never needed an internal dewormer for small animals except a cause of E.cuniculi spread by birds into my colonies that I used ivermectin. That's why I just order revolution off petshed.com for external parasites of most types for most critters. Gerbils to rabbits to cats to dogs it works safely and more effectively than meds already used heavily for a longer time if you just get diabetic syringes or veterinary 1cc syringes to measure the dose. I know praziquantel can be used but I don't know dose or precautions and Piperazine kills pinworms. Most internal parasites require ingestion off the ground and most rabbits aren't on the ground so it's not well spread knowledge.

Fenbendazole can be used for rabbits. However, I'm not sure how useful it is against ear mites. I'd have to do more googling, a quick search didn't show much.