The American Beagler Forum

Long story short - I wormed my dogs on Tues. w/ Equimax (i've used equimax and / or safe-gaurd for yrs. w/ no ill effects). I always try and worm them real good right after rabbit season ends. Yesterday, I noticed one dog not acting right - almost like they were blind or disoriented. Then this morning I had 2 more dogs acting the same way...one was acting much worse than the other two. Trouble walking, dizzy and acting as if blind. All of them ate and drank fine.

I loaded up the worst one and went to the vet and he said most likely Ivomec toxicity and that it should be out of their system w/in 5 days of consumption. He seemed to indicated their sypmtons were temporary, but did not say for sure that they would be 100% back to normal w/ in 5 days.

My question is have any of you all experienced this? If so, did your dogs return 100% to normal? Also, did you do anything or give them anything to help them get over the ivomec toxicity? I'm just giving plenty of food and of course water. They continue to eat good.

The vet seemed to indicate the only other thing it could be was a stroke or tumor...but no way I had 3 dogs have a stroke on the same day 2 days after I gave them Equimax.

I've done alot of reading on the internet and seems that while many folks give Equimax and Safe-gaurd to dogs w/ no trouble, it is possible that the medicine is not equally distributed in the paste and so you could potentially be giving one dog a lot of ivomec and another dog very little out of the same tube.

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
-Pete

That's why I use the liquid. It's easier to measure. Know it dosen't help now, maybe in the future.
Thanks,
Bob

I had the same thing happen the dog was blind for 3 or 4 days. He had no muscle control for 2-3 days at all, he just lay there twitching and jerking. He wanted to eat but couldn't. I am not sure if he was overdosed or just had a reaction. The vet couldn't say and it was the first time I had given it(equimax) to him. I have never given it to him again and he shows no signs of ever having anything wrong. When he started coming around it seemed slow but obvious. I came very close to putting him down but the vet talked me out of it. The way he put it was; he is either gooing to be better by 5 days or gone anyway, and he came around and has been one the best running dogs I have ever had. Sucker never got a flea, tick or worm for 2 years. lol

Could have been a bad batch. Then again sometimes a reaction can come out of no where to food or medicine even in humans. I had a dog have a bad reaction once from wormer from the Vet.

I talked w/ the vet again on the phone and he said it is very likely that the ivomec is not evenly distributed in a paste tube of equimax. He also said sometimes for whatever reason even the right dosage of ivomec can seep into the dog's nervous systems and causes this type of reaction. I think this is common in some breeds of dogs like herding breeds, but pretty uncommon in hounds and beagles.
-Pete

Hard to tell. I have argued with people on here to no end about proper dosing but it looks like it was the Ivermec. I would switch to the liquid and only give them .1 cc per 10lb.

I overdosed the crap out of my lab the first time I gave the liquid Ivomec. I read the dosage wrong for some reason. He never had any reaction.

same thing happen to mine, with the Equimax.

took about 3-4 days, i switched to zemetrin gold , havnt had any probles in years

hate to here that bout your hound. that is why i never give this to my dogs for that reason along. panacure is the safest way to go.

I've give Equimax once a month for all 7 of my dogs . I've had no problems at all. I give a 1/4 cc for each 25-30 pound beagle. I've even give the same dose for a 10 pound beagle with no side effects. I keep my meds at room temp. (Indoors) but I've seen many guys keep meds. in barns, trucks and rooms with unstable temps. I don't recomend that.

I would have a hard time taking the answer of too much Invomec( main ingre. in Equimax). I gave a dog with a skin condition once many , many times the recomed dose. I gave him a 1/4 cc daily for 4 weeks. No side effects. His coat and skin did clear up but unless given ivomeck once a week ....it soon started to look bad again. No side effects

Any chance they could have drinked from a water sorce (in the wild) with some kind of toxin in it???

How much Equimax did you give???

I read that if you give them to much they would start shaking like they could control it,I give the liquid ,I give myn 1/10 of 1 cc for ever 10 pound of a dog ,so if there 20 pound they get 2/10 of 1 cc

The dosage for demodectic mange is much higher than for hart worm ,the liquid cattle and swine A good book on this is The old country vet Dr. Busby In his book it says to work up dosage gradually. Personaly I wouldn't trust the paste

had female with skin condition my vet said 1 cc every day for 2 months this i did cleared her up dont think its i vomec i over dosed 1 dog years ago with eqimax got alright n 5 days same way your dog was acting .

Its possible they were infected with heartworm and the ivermec killed worms and caused blockage, just a thought?

Hey Fellas
I have a bitch that has a reaction to it every time i give her equimax. One of her pups is the same way. But she has no reaction at all to ivermec. I have also treated a litter of week old pups that had mange with ivermec, thought the vet was crazy. But it cleared it up without any short term effects.

Shoot Straight
DEA