Posted on 09/02/2021 4:18:19 PM PDT by billorites
At first, it seemed odd when an unfamiliar customer bought ivermectin, an animal dewormer.
At Nashua Farmers’ Exchange – surrounded for several miles by concrete and cityscape – the drug meant for treating large animals wasn’t in high demand, but the store regularly kept it in stock. Judy Rata-Harrington, an assistant at the shop, couldn’t imagine another use for the product.
When a couple more customers came in asking for the same animal dewormer, Rata-Harrington knew something was awry. She and her husband, the manager at the store, decided to stop selling ivermectin.
“I just don’t want to get involved with this anymore,” she said.
Across the country, demand for ivermectin has peaked as some believe the drug will cure COVID-19, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support that claim. Though the drug is FDA-approved in humans to treat certain parasitic worms and lice, some have turned to local farm supply stores to purchase animal-grade ivermectin, where the drug is available without a prescription, frustrating store owners and irritating farmers.
Veterinary formulas of ivermectin are often highly concentrated and dangerous for human consumption. Ivermectin overdoses can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, seizures, coma, and in extreme situations, death.
Thankfully, it seems purchasers of ivermectin either haven’t taken the medication yet or haven’t ingested enough to become severely ill. Ivermectin-related calls to the Northern New England Poison Center has remained constant from 2018 through 2021, according to a spokesperson from the center.
“There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin,” a press release from the U.S Food and Drug Administration read. “That is wrong.”
Despite the agency’s attempts to debunk the myth, increased demand for the animal dewormers have forced farm supply stores to change the way they sell the product. At the Chichester Tractor Supply Co., yellow containers of ivermection are kept behind a locked cabinet with a large warning label, “Ivermectin HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED by the FDA for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 ... These products are only suitable for animals and are clearly labeled as such.”
An employee at another local animal feed store, who asked not to be named because she did not want to attract more ivermectin purchasers, said after one woman came in and bought 44 boxes of the dewormer, they decided to only sell the drug to regular customers who they know own farm animals.
The run on ivermectin has made it difficult for farmers who rely on the drug to keep their animals worm-free.
Katie Anthony, who uses the drug to periodically deworm her two horses in Sutton, said in March, after her Amazon subscription was backordered and her local farm stores were sold out, she decided to use some expired ivermectin she found in her barn.
Then, her pony, Bella starting showing symptoms of worms, which Anthony attributes to the long period between their dewormings.
“I have goats, dogs, and kids, so making sure we keep a handle on communicable parasites is really important,” she said.
Beth Glasmann, who owns a hobby farm in Goshen, said she is down to her last tube of ivermectin and hasn’t been able to find a refill at her local farm stores or online.
“It makes no sense to me,” she said. “If you use it on goats, you have to withdraw from drinking the milk for seven days and from eating the meat for 14 days. So, why people think it’s a good idea to put that into their body I have no idea.”
Must be the same people that wrote stories after the 2020 election that said some believe the election was fraudulent, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support that claim.
Thanks!
That was a good primer on how to use Ivermectin for horses and how to buy it. :)
Good Lord. I spent 90 seconds on Wikipedia this morning and found that ivermectin is a well known, tried and proven treatment for parasites in HUMANS. Human life would be a LOT more miserable without it. God I HATE “journalists”. What they don’t know would fill the Pacific ocean to overflowing.
I check their score also, anything less than 3, I run fecals because there are other causes of anemia. I rarely have to worm them but when I do, I don’t mess around.
I use http://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/ for Johnes, pregnancy and any other blood tests, requires being able to draw blood.
I have had mixed results with the WADDL Johne’s ELISA test. Drawing blood is no problem, but the ELISA test for sheep can throw false negatives. We had one animal that skinnied right out. She was isolated, and after euthanasia an analysis of tissue samples confirmed Johne’s.
A PCR test using a fecal sample seems to be a reasonable test, well at least for sheep.
It wouldn’t be in high demand did it not work. It is used for humans, also. The dosage is different and is actually based on body weight, specifically for bodies over 200 pounds.
That’s no good. I’ve never had any issues here but I keep a closed herd and any new animal gets quarantined for a month and all tests run.
A friend of a friend just used it successfully. He came down with the WuFlu, a test confirmed it, and took some horse paste ivermectin along with zinc and vitamin D3. He was over the worst in a day and feeling better.
Sure, pal, just keep your eyes closed and keep penning these articles and you'll never see anything.
“Horse paste” is the new “Orange man bad”
yeah, but mfgs or regional suppliers stock is based on prior sales. Triple or quad the sales, and either there’s a shortage until demand subsides, or the mfg decides to retool to produce 4x the amount. It’s not a moneymaker and it would cost more to up production than would pay for retooling, so the more likely result will be shortages and ticked off ranchers
Yup, it was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine because of its use in HUMANS. Anything that says otherwise is either a knave or a fool.
Pulling out all the stops....lol
The medical profession is TOTALLY to blame.
The concentration of Ivermectin in the apple flavored horse paste is identical to that in a Mayo Clinic article and in an Indian study on treatment of COVID in humans - 1.87%
Yes, one complete tube will treat a 1250lb animal. However, the plunger of the tube is graduated at 50 lb (body weight) intervals.
I called it COVID-2024, and got banned from a forum.
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