Ivermectin For Ranchers -- September 1, 2021

 

On a whim, I checked my formulary .... Silver Script/Aetna - I'm 65+, so it's an addon to Medicare.

Anyway, lo and behold, under "Anti-Infectives, Miscellaneous", Ivermectin is listed as a Tier 3 medication and a generic equivalent of "Stromectrol".

The Tier 3 level  is truly middle of the road.  It isn't subject to prior authorization, step therapy, limited access, quantity limits.  It's available mail order.  It's not classified as high risk.

So, it'd be under $50 bucks, but it's still a fixed cost to the patient.  The cheapest, Tier 1, are $8.  When you get into Tier 4 and Tier 5, the patient has to pay either 33% or 50% - no limit to the total dollar.

Looks like it's a 3mg tab

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For people with "farm animals", there's no vet prescription required.  It's available in a variety of delivery systems (a concentrate to be diluted and poured on (how we'd use it on cattle), or a paste to be smeared on a horse's gums, or a vial to be injected - again typically administered in that fashion to horses.

People used to have big walk-thru vats to dip cattle and sheep.  Very prevalent when crossing livestock in from old Mexico.  There'd typically be some wooden or concrete slats for an animal to cross (cleaning their feet), then there'd be a sloped tank.  Somebody would have a pole with a big notch and as the animal finished crossing the tank, the guy would submerse the critter's head.  Then, there'd be a little set of ridges so excess dip would drain back into the tank as the animal exited.  Those big dip tanks are out of vogue.  You'd have to try to keep animals off feed for a day - no poop in the tank.  And, it is a wasteful process.  You have to keep adding juice, it's hard to keep the solution clean, and when you're done dipping you have a bunch of leftover solution that needs disposal somehow.

For awhile, people would dilute the mix in a big spray tank mounted in the back of a pickup - and they'd try to drive thru a herd slowly and spray.  That was literally "hit or miss", so the concoction was refined and now if someone has cows with scabies, they'll just pour it on.  It's somehow formulated to adhere pretty well rather than just running off.

That's cattle.  I have no idea what you'd do with a wooly sheep.

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Horses are not as inclined to scabies, so the use is typically for deworming.  Our horses had plenty of room to roam.  Big grassy pastures.  So, we never had to deworm.  When people keep horses in stables, or smaller pens, then worms are more of a problem.  People who haul horses to rodeos, horse shows, trail rides, etc. have to deal with many more health issues.  There's lots of cross-contact with other critters.  So, to deworm they either use that paste (some of it is apple flavored and the horses LOVE it!) or as an injection.

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Every rancher I know would have a couple gallons of the concentrate for cattle and most would have a couple syringes of the paste and/or vials of the injectable.