GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The U.S Food and Drug Administration is asking veterinarians and retailers to warn against an animal drug that is being used to treat COVID-19.
The drug, called ivermectin, is an anti-parasite drug intended for animals but some have recently promoted the drug as a possible treatment for coronavirus.
"Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug so the most common usage in pet animals in the home would be heartworm prevention," said Daniel Gray, a veterinarian at Gentle Vet Animal Hospital. "From a large animal perspective, it was one of the first de-wormers that was routinely used as kind of a pour-on for cattle and horses."
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Dr. Jeff Pothouf, the chief quality officer for UW Health, says early in the pandemic ivermectin was thought to be a potential treatment for COVID-19 because it may have anti-viral properties, but there is no evidence to prove its effectiveness.
"In the studies that have been conducted to see if it has anti-viral properties against COVID-19, the data suggests that it probably doesn't and if it does have anti-viral properties it may be at a dose that's so high that it's toxic to human beings," Pothouf said.
The drug can be potentially dangerous. Veterinarians say administering the correct dose of ivermectin is critical. If too much is taken, it can be deadly for animals and humans alike.
"Unless you know exactly what is in there and how to look at the label and read it you can be overdosing and for animals, if we overdose them it is neurological or brain damage that is the result," Gray said.
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Early symptoms of an ivermectin overdose can start with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea and escalate from there.
"You can start having critically low blood pressure, you can go on to have seizures, seizures that don't abate which then land you in a coma and sometimes death from ivermectin overdose," Pothouf said.
Pothouf says experimental drugs like ivermectin have been promoted as alternative treatments throughout the pandemic.
"Hydroxychloroquine is another medication that typically isn't used to treat viral infections but there was some thought that it could maybe be effective and we later learned that it was actually harming patients. Ivermectin is kind of in that same boat," he said.
He recommends that people never take any medication to treat COVID-19 without consulting a doctor and listen to the experts.
"Ask questions of your medical provider," Pothouf said. "Go to sources that can be trusted that you know have the skill set to distill this information."
