New med, an alternative to Levamisole

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi,

Our trusty fish vet has just introduced us to an alternative to Levamisole, a cattle and pig worming product called Ivomec. She said that trials have proved it to be more effective than Levamisole but at this stage there is little information on its use in fish.

A good mate of mine has agreed to trial it on his fish, well he was the one who went to the surgery ! I hope it works as I for one would love to put the Levamisole back in the cupboard for ever. I'll post his results after the treatments.
MAC

[mistakes r crucial]

Sorry, posted this in the wrong section. Can admin please move it. Thanks.
MAC

[fishgeek]

ivermectin has been about for age's and isnt exactly a new drug
it is a pretty broad spectrum medication, having in mammals effects against both internal and external parasites of the nematode,cestode, trematode,arthropod and probably other groups i cant remember(noddy?)

i was always(an i dont know why) under the impression that it was not safe in fish
i have read many articles about it's use in salmon to delouse and have a veterinery text reference for it's use against lernea
has your vet seen some new information on further usage ?

single correct dosing can cause irreversible and permanent paralysis in chelonia
certain dog's have genetic susceptibility and will suffer from toxic signs whilst at seemingly the correct dosage - this gene has been marked and can be tested for in dogs now

with fish i would assume there will also be these variations between species(and prehaps even individuals within species) that will make it hard to evaluate without large numbers of test fish


andrew

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Fishgeek,

Maybe I should have said new to me as I have not come across it before. I have only read a bit about it today and I agree that there are some not so good reports on using it with Salmon. However, the vet we use up here I trust implicitly, she is very, very good and we will try this drug on a few fish and see what happens. Obviously we are not going to see long term affects but I'm sure it can't be any worse than the short term affects of Levamisole on young fish. That one I have seen first hand and it's not good.
MAC

[fishgeek]

any more info on this mac?

andrew

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Andrew,

The mate I referred to used it and as far as I am aware all went well. However, he slightly over dosed a few runt peppermints to see what would happen and it killed the lot so at this stage it looks like you have to be spot on with the dosage. Not much of a bandwidth to play with there at all by the look of it.

Personally I think I'll be sticking with Levamisole for my Discus until there is far more information out there.
MAC

[fishgeek]

Mac do you get over the counter dog and cat chewable worming medications?

I have been using panacur(it contains fenbendazol) the fish actually just eat these if i crumble them into the water

in theory the drug shiuld be useful against both nematodes and protozoan parasites , at presetn i cant say it works as i have no ill fish
i can say that it doesnt appear to be a problem as far as palatability or toxicity at the dose's i have used

i will slowly titrate up
do you have shirley's? bob martins? things like that available in australia

andrew

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Andrew,

Apologies for the delay in replying, been flat out just lately. I can remember my Father using Bob martin's 30 years ago on his greyhounds but no, I don't think we get them over here.

As far as Ivomec is concerned it was shock horror this morning. My mate rang me just about in tears, the Ivomec, for some reason, has reacted with his water and killed $20,000 of fish. He's lost all his Zebra Plecs that were just about at breeding age, a load of L333's, around 15 grands worth of pepps and a breeding pair of Discus. I just felt sick in the gut.
MAC

[samir]

sorry to hear about that

here's a link for Panacur (Fenbendazole) drench.
http://www.wormboss.com.au/LivePage.aspx?PageId=729
a lot of people do use it for discus without any ill effects.
I did look for Panacur for dogs a few months ago but couldn't find it anywhere.

[mistakes r crucial]

Edit: Incorrect information below, sorry but he's very old LOL! He used the Ivomec without any problem. It is Doxycycline Hydrochloride that has killed the fish. The rate he was told to dose is the same as below, 1.8gms per litre of water.
MAC

Andrew (Fishgeek) and any other vets we have on the forum,

Re the above post.

I visited the friend that lost all his fish this morning and he told me the dosages that were recommended to him and I find them simply unbelievable. I am no vet but he was told to administer the drug at the rate of 1.8gms per litre of water. When he told me this over the phone earlier I said that he must have meant milligrams and not grams. He confirmed he meant grams and when I saw the container it was there for all to see in writing, 1.8 grams per litre. In other words, he used 1.8kg of this drug in 1800 litres of water! Maybe this is right but I would be very grateful if this can be confirmed by one of our professionals. I find it very, very hard to believe.
MAC