Aviverm vs Avitrol

[Southerrrngirrl]

I'm going to try bird wormer on my loaches for this wasting disease thing they may have. Went to the LFS to buy the Aviverm, only to find they had none. But they had Avitrol syrup. Does anyone know if Avitrol is just the same as Aviverm? I noted that the Avitrol contains Levamisole Hydrochloride as well as Praziquantel.

[Jennifer]

"Avitrol Plus" has both praziquantel and levamisole so it will kill nematodes, cestodes and trematodes (roundworms, tapeworms and flukes). "Aviverm" is just levamisole so it will be most effective at killing nematodes (roundworms).

I don't know the concentration of these products so I can't comment on dosages.

[Southerrrngirrl]

Arghh.. I didn't take any notice of the concentrations.

[ryanjury]

Depending on centrations of the drugs it would be awesome.. Mind you you can overdose heavily on levamisole (upto 25mg/L when 2mg/L is the recommended) with no harsh effects so might be ok..

[Southerrrngirrl]

I was able to find the composition for Avitrol. It is Levamisole hydrochloride 10 mg/mL, praziquantel 2 mg/mL. Can't find Aviverm composition. Does that help?

[Jennifer]

For both levamisole and praziquantel, the standard dose for fish is 2mg/litre tank water. It can sometimes be beneficial to use higher doses of praziquantel to target some flukes and tapeworms but it is not usually more effective to use higher doses of levamisole since roundworms are much more susceptible to the chemical in the first place.

You say the concentration of the Avitrol is: levamisole 10 mg/mL and praziquantel 2 mg/mL. This means that you will be giving an overdose of levamisole in order to give an adequate dose of the praziquantel. It is unlikely to cause any problems at low doses but it would be better to dose at the rates that you need.

Anyway, just add 1ml of the Avitrol per litre of water and do a large water change each day for a couple of days afterward. repeat in 2 weeks.

HTH

[Southerrrngirrl]

I'm not worried about trying to benefit from the praziquantel as I've tried dosing with it before although it was in tablet form.

I've since found an article online discussing the use of levamisole and it names Avitrol Plus as a product that can be used. So will give it a go!

With the method you suggest do I add the levamisole then do the water change the next day, not straight after? And large would be 50%?

Thanks so much for your help.

[si_sphinx]

Gravel vac and water change the day after treatment.

[Jennifer]

Ideally you would dose by feeding or providing a medicated 'bath' that lasts for 6 to 20 hours. All it needs to do is achieve adequate blood levels to deliver the medication to the intestines and that should occur fairly rapidly so a 6 hour bath should be more than sufficient but many people prefer to leave it in longer. The worms will die, even if you see them pass and they look like they are still moving, they will die.

After the bath, it is best to remove all traces of residual chemical so that you do not promote worm resistance from exposure to lower levels of the chemical. The chemical does break down some but not entirely so adding carbon or providing a water change can remove the rest.

Depending on the species of your fish, a 100% water change could be stressful so just change as much as you feel your fish would be happy with - 50% is a safe amount. Since there is still going to be low levels left in the tank, repeating the water change the next day is a good idea.

[Southerrrngirrl]

Alrighty. I'll go with 50%.

Thanks!

[Southerrrngirrl]

Anyway, just add 1ml of the Avitrol per litre of water and do a large water change each day for a couple of days afterward. repeat in 2 weeks.

HTH

I've got myself a 25ml bottle.. it says on the box that the Active Constituents are actually Levamisole 8.48mg/mL (as the hydrochloride)and Praziquantel 2.0mg/mL. Not 10mg/mL levamisole as previously stated.

Anyway, according to your advice I need 1ml per litre of water, so I need 150 mls of Avitrol??? Surely that can't be right. That means I need 6 bottles of this stuff @ $20.80 each?? I think it'll be cheaper to get new fish lol

[Jennifer]

The dose rate of 1ml per litre is based on the limiting factor of the effective praziquantel dose rate of 2mg/L. I see you now mention that you are more interested in treating with levamisole, and not praziquantel, in which case you could dose levamisole at the suggested dose rate of 2mg/L (disregarding praziquantel) which would mean that you would add .25mls of dewormer to each litre of water. Yes, it will be a lot, especially if you have a large tank. That is why people tend to buy the levamisole sheep wormer, since it comes in large quantities and is very inexpensive. Remember, you are treating a very large 'animal' that is your body of water. The alternative is to take the fish out and give them a medicated bath in one litre of water and then place them back in the tank.

[ryanjury]

It isn't very economical at that rate, even for the prazi..

In comparison a bottle of aviverm is 50mls and contains 230mg Levamisole per ml and costs around $15-20.

Droncit tablets are around $1-2ea and have 50mg of prazi in them, it would take 25mls of your avitrol to achieve the same dosage.

Jenniferh have you managed to find the sheep wormer in smaller quantities? The issue we have with it here is it is sold in 4L packs which aren't cheap and noone will decant it for us.. If a whole heap of fish keepers were to go in on it then it would work out but unless that happened it is almost unusable.

[Jennifer]

I haven't worked in large animal practice in many years but I know it used to come in 100ml bottles.....for injection...but that was in the States, not sure about here. It has issues with resistance so it has gone out of favour with many vets. I just haven't seen in practice in many years.

Many clinics will decant many dewormers but not the less common ones like levamisole which is not used by many farmers so it has to be ordered in. Fenbendazole (trade name Panacur) is one of my top personal choices as it is a very broad spectrum dewormer and it does come in smaller sizes as well as granules and liquid forms. It has issues with solublility but I prefer feeding it which is more effective and you don't have to worry as much about how soluble it is in water.

It might be good to ask a local farmer to see if they use levamisole, or as you say, to go in with some other fishkeepers and share.

[ryanjury]

Have you used Fenbendazole on fish? I had heard it was pretty nasty and caused sterilization etc..

[Jennifer]

Yes, I have used it and other benzamidazoles in clinical practice and in my own colony fish and have not noticed any problems. However, each type of animal is different and use in fish is 'off-label' (as is most medication for fish) so you never know what you're going to get when dosing, particularly between different species of fish.

Again though, the benzamidazole type anthelmintics are very safe and I have used them in breeding fish and have not heard of any problems nor have I noticed problems in my own breeding pairs. That said, I do not generally deworm as a preventative measure so I cannot speak for those who use it repeatedly in any given year, perhaps that is where some of the side effects can occur. I also tend to feed it in a one off event rather than expose the tank to fluctuatng levels of the drug. Even so, I have a lot of confidence in this class of drug as a whole. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't use levamisole though. For most people who deworm only when necessary, there is probably little risk of parasite resistance with levamisole but if it is all you have used, and you treat several times a year, then I would be concerned with resitance issues with any deworming drugs.