What are the common inactive ingredients (excipients) in equine ivermectin paste and gel products?

1. What the labels and retailers say — flavor, form and packaging

Retail product pages and manufacturer descriptions for commonly sold equine ivermectin pastes emphasize concentration (1.87%), syringe dosing calibrated by weight, and palatability — most mention “apple-flavored” paste in a calibrated syringe for horses up to 1,250 lb ^{[4] [7] [6]}. These listings focus on indications, dosing and storage rather than a full excipient breakdown; the snippets on these pages repeatedly note apple flavoring and syringe delivery but do not list a complete set of inactive ingredients for the paste formulations ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

2. What human ivermectin product inserts reveal about common excipients

Full prescribing information for human ivermectin products provides concrete excipient examples that commonly appear across formulations: ivermectin tablets list microcrystalline cellulose, croscarmellose sodium, colloidal silicon dioxide, pregelatinized starch and magnesium stearate ^[1]. Topical and lotion/cream ivermectin inserts list emollients, surfactants, thickeners and preservatives such as cetyl alcohol, cyclomethicone, glycerin, propylene glycol, oleyl alcohol, polysorbate 80, carbomer, methylparaben and propylparaben ^{[2] [3]}. These human-product excipients illustrate the classes of inactive ingredients manufacturers typically use to make solids, pastes and topical gels usable and stable ^{[2] [3] [1]}.

3. Reasonable inference for equine pastes and gels — vehicle, binder, preservative, flavor

Given the paste format and syringe delivery described in equine product pages, the same functional excipient classes seen in human formulations are likely: a paste vehicle (oils/waxes or glycerin-based humectants), binders/thickeners (starches, carbomers or cellulose derivatives), preservatives (parabens or other antimicrobials), surfactants/emulsifiers (polysorbates or oleyl alcohol) and flavoring agents (apple) for palatability ^{[4] [6] [2] [3] [1]}. However, specific brands’ full excipient lists for equine pastes are not shown in the retailer/manufacturer snippets provided, so exact ingredient names per product are not available in the current reporting ^{[4] [7] [6]}.

4. Why excipient lists matter — safety, allergies and off‑label risks

Excipient differences matter for allergic reactions and for human misuse of veterinary products. Human ivermectin package inserts explicitly warn about inactive ingredients and advise reading labels because topical products contain inactive ingredients “that haven’t been evaluated for human consumption” ^[8] and list preservatives and solvents associated with irritation risks ^{[2] [3]}. The veterinary product pages highlight dosing and adverse reactions tied to parasite die-off (e.g., reactions in horses with heavy Onchocerca microfilariae burdens) but the product snippets do not address excipient allergies in detail ^[9].

5. How to get a definitive list — check the package insert or contact the manufacturer

The only way to know the exact inactive ingredients in a specific equine ivermectin paste or gel is to consult the product’s full package insert or the manufacturer directly; the provided retailer and manufacturer summaries emphasize active drug, dosage and flavoring but do not publish full excipient lists on the pages cited ^{[4] [5] [7]}. For human-equivalent formulations, DailyMed and drugs.com host full inserts that list excipients for tablets, creams and lotions ^{[2] [3] [1]}.

Limitations: available sources do not list complete excipient disclosures for the specific equine paste/gel products named on retailer or manufacturer pages, so this report relies on the excipient classes and examples documented in human ivermectin product inserts and reasonable formulation logic applied to paste/gel dosage forms ^{[4] [5] [7] [2] [3] [1]}.