All of my budgies are showing the early signs of scaly face mites. I have all eight in the aviary, and to treat them all I'll need to catch each one. I will do this, but I'm wanting to know if there is an easier way..Ie, if I got the ivermectin that you have to put in their beak, would it be okay to put some in their water, so all of the birds drink it? Over about 2 days to make sure all of them drink the water with the mite stuff in it? Or if it isn't a good idea to dilute the stuff, can I put it in their seeds or something? Anything that they will eat, anyway, to get the treatment into them so they don't get worse scaly face.

Just wanting to know if it is safe to do that. I don't know, so I am not going to do it unless it is okay.

Thanks.

Edited June 23, 200916 yr by Jen144

The spot on kind is different from the kind that goes in the water. Catching eight budgies for spot on cant be too hard to do.

Edited June 23, 200916 yr by KAZ

jen your best bet is to go to your vet and get him to make the ivomecton drop on the back of the neck stuff cause the other one i have been told by my vet is only a wormer

any way i dont know anything about one you put in their beck but the one the vet makes up works very well it cost me 20 to get enough to treat all my birds their chicks and my 4 teals their chicks my cocky, conour ,cannary and new commers for a year and thats only cause it goes off after a year usually i have some left i treat my birds every 3 months but on the 4 month if that makes sence and keep recorlds of who got it when so they are continully covered

i asked for enough to cover 85 birds

I don't think it's a very good way of treating birds, myself. For one thing, I don't think ivermectin is water soluble so it wouldn't mix very well. The water would evaporate (increasing the concentration - it is inevitable that water evaporates over the day), some birds drink more than others (overdose), some don't drink at all (I've known budgies that refuse to touch water that tastes funny and they just extract water from their veggies to survive - budgies can go for weeks without drinking if they 'have' to, which puts stresses on their kidneys as well).

 

I think it's a very rough and hazardous way of dosing birds because you have no idea how much each is getting - some might overdose, some might under dose and you have no way of knowing if it worked or if your birds are poisoning themselves. Essentially you're changing the concentration to something other than what the vet recommended. (I'm not sure how big the safety margin is for ivermectin, I have heard it is pretty safe, but it's difficult to predict accurately with little birds and their metabolism compared to mammals, which ivermectin is actually registered (and tested) for).

 

Best bet is to be sure and know exactly what they are getting so you know it worked and they are not put in any unnecessary danger.

Edited June 24, 200916 yr by Chrysocome