Spring hair

[Marsha Cassada]

A heads up from our local State Park naturalist. This is the time of year when birds are beginning to look for nesting material. Hair from animals dosed with vermicide is hazardous to birds. Spring is the usual time to do our parasite dosing. Just something to think about. Every nest I've found on our property has horse hair in it. I might try postposing my ivermectin until April. I'll see what the fecal test shows.

 

[minihorse]

I'm sure the birds appreciate that you're trying not to have poison on the hairs they want for the nests.

 

[chandab]

I can see it being a problem with pour-on products, but don't see how the oral meds can affect birds through horse hair. But, better safe than sorry, if you have lots of nesting birds around you.

 

[KLJcowgirl]

Wow. That is something I had never thought of. I mean the vermicide being in the hair, not the birds using the hair to nest haha.

I actually just did a round of deworming this weekend... I'll try to keep this in mind for next year!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

A vet told me it takes about 48 hours for the vermicide to show up in the hair. Hard to find this information on the internet; maybe the bird-lovers sites would have more about it. Hair samples are tested for all kinds of things.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Hair is used for human drug testing. https://www.healthline.com/health/hair-follicle-drug-test

 

[MajorClementine]

Yup, as the wife of a cop I can tell you that any substance you take into your body ends up in your hair after a day or two. The swallows around here LOVE to line their mud nests with horse hair. Didn't even think about the de-wormer but it makes sense. Thank you for sharing. Swallows are among my favorite animals since spending my summers in San Juan Capistrano. Would hate to poison the little feathered dudes.