What are the typical inactive ingredients (excipients) in veterinary ivermectin paste for horses and cattle?
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Executive summary
Veterinary ivermectin pastes for horses are concentrated oral formulations that combine the active ingredient ivermectin with a viscous paste vehicle plus minor additives such as pigments and flavoring; regulatory product labels and summaries most commonly list titanium dioxide as a declared excipient and manufacturers advertise palatable flavors like apple [1] [2]. Cattle “ivermectin” products are more often injectables or pour‑ons with very different excipient sets, so one cannot assume horse‑paste ingredients apply to bovine formulations [3] [4].
1. What is being asked: “inactive ingredients” means the paste matrix and additives
The user is asking not about the pharmacology of ivermectin but about the non‑active components that make up an oral veterinary paste: the carrier (a viscous vehicle that holds and delivers the drug), flavoring agents to encourage acceptance, pigments or whitening agents, and other formulation aids (stabilizers, preservatives or humectants) that are typically described on product labels or in the summary of product characteristics (SPC) rather than in high‑level product marketing copy [5] [1].
2. Ingredients explicitly documented in regulatory product labels: titanium dioxide and similar declared excipients
Regulatory documentation for marketed equine ivermectin pastes lists titanium dioxide (E171) as a named excipient — for example the Eqvalan SPC cites Titanium Dioxide 20.0 mg per gram as part of the composition [1], and multiple product listings repeat titanium dioxide among listed excipients [6]. Dailymed product pages and FDA summaries for commercial horse pastes identify the paste form and reference full excipient lists in their formal labeling, indicating that manufacturers declare at least some inert components on those official documents [5] [7].
3. Flavorings and palatability agents are commonly used and advertised
Commercial horse paste manufacturers and retailers routinely describe flavoring or palatability as part of the product — for example some Durvet horse ivermectin pastes are sold with apple flavoring to encourage dosing compliance [2]. Product marketing from other firms likewise emphasizes that the paste is a ready‑to‑use, single‑dose syringe formulation, implicitly relying on a palatable vehicle to ensure swallowing [8] [9].
4. The paste “matrix” and unlisted formulation aids: typical but not consistently published
While labels will sometimes name pigments and obvious additives, many of the functional components of a paste (the viscous carrier such as glycerides, polyethylene glycols, sorbitol, or similar humectants/emulsifiers, and preservatives) are not always detailed in every public product summary; regulatory SPCs or full Dailymed PDFs are the most reliable place to find full excipient lists when manufacturers choose to publish them [1] [7]. Available reporting shows explicit naming of titanium dioxide and flavoring, but does not provide a complete, uniform list of every excipient across all brands in the public snippets supplied [1] [2].
5. Cattle formulations differ: pour‑ons and injectables use different excipients
It is important to separate species and dosage forms: ivermectin used in cattle and swine is frequently formulated as injectables or topical pour‑ons rather than oral pastes, and those products contain solvents, carriers and preservatives suitable for parenteral or topical use — not the same paste matrix ingredients used for horses [3] [4]. Therefore, identifying typical excipients in a horse oral paste does not translate directly to what is in a cattle injectable or pour‑on.
6. Bottom line, and reporting limitations
The concrete, consistently documented inactive ingredients that appear in the supplied regulatory and product sources are titanium dioxide (used as a pigment) and flavoring/palatability agents such as apple flavor for certain commercial horse pastes, plus an unspecified viscous paste vehicle described in product labels and SPCs [1] [2] [8]. The reporting provided does not include a full, standardized ingredient breakdown for every brand, so for exact excipient lists the primary SPC/Dailymed PDF or the manufacturer’s full label should be consulted; the supplied sources show where those lists exist but do not always reproduce them in full [1] [7].