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Which fillers, binders, and preservatives are used in oral ivermectin tablets for pets and livestock?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows that oral ivermectin products for animals come in multiple formats—tablets/capsules, chewables, pastes and oral solutions—and that inactive ingredients vary by manufacturer and formulation; some product listings explicitly name starch and hypromellose for capsules and glycerol/propylene glycol for liquid/injectable forms [1] [2] [3]. However, comprehensive, product-by-product lists of all fillers, binders and preservatives used across commercial veterinary oral ivermectin tablets are not consolidated in the provided sources (not found in current reporting).
1. Product formats determine most inactive ingredients
Ivermectin for animals is marketed in tablets/capsules, chewables, oral pastes and liquid formulations; each format uses different classes of inactives (e.g., capsule shell materials for capsules, flavoring and palatability agents for chewables, solvents for oral liquids) rather than a single universal set of fillers or preservatives [4] [5] [6]. The active molecule is the same across forms, but manufacturers tailor excipients to delivery [7].
2. What specific excipients appear in available listings
Some vendor pages and product monographs name a small number of inactives: one online seller lists “starch and a vegetable cellulose (hypromellose and water) capsule” for a 3 mg ivermectin capsule [1]. Injectable/oral solution ingredients are documented more often: several official product inserts and databases describe ivermectin solutions formulated with glycerol formal (glycerol formal is named) and propylene glycol [2] [3] [8]. These solvent/vehicle ingredients explain why liquid products mix well with glycerin or propylene glycol in compounding [9].
3. Chewables and palatability agents: commonly mentioned but not exhaustively listed
Commercial chewable combination products (for example, Iverhart Max) emphasize palatability and list active ingredients such as ivermectin and pyrantel pamoate; the marketing and retail pages stress flavoring but do not provide a full inactive-ingredient roster in the cited extracts [6]. Compounded oral liquids sold by pharmacies often include added “flavors” and other excipients tailored to the patient, and customer notes show concern about synthetic flavoring chemicals—again indicating variability and proprietary formulations [10].
4. Regulatory and manufacturer documentation gives more reliable formulation detail for some products
FDA/label-style sources and dailyMed entries for livestock products give precise solvent compositions for injectables and pour-on products (e.g., 1% ivermectin in solutions with 40% glycerol formal and propylene glycol q.s. ad 100%), which shows that regulatory documents are a better source for authoritative excipient lists where they exist [3] [8] [11]. By contrast, many retail or informational pages for pet tablets/chewables do not publish exhaustive inactive lists in the provided extracts [12] [13].
5. Gaps in the publicly available extracts: tablets’ fillers, binders and preservatives
The provided documents do not contain consolidated, comprehensive ingredient lists for typical commercial oral ivermectin tablets (e.g., microcrystalline cellulose, lactose, magnesium stearate, cross-linked PVP, starch derivatives, common preservatives) — these common excipients are not cited in the current sources. Therefore, an authoritative, complete list of fillers/binders/preservatives used across veterinary ivermectin tablets is not available in the provided reporting (not found in current reporting).
6. Practical implications and viewpoints
Veterinary and regulatory sources repeatedly warn that formulations differ and animal products are not intended for human use; the active is identical but excipients and concentrations vary by product and species, which affects safety and palatability [7] [5]. Some vendors and compounding pharmacies emphasize customized excipients (flavors, solvents) to meet pet needs, while product inserts for livestock focus on solvent systems for injectables and topical applications [10] [3].
7. How to get definitive ingredient lists for a specific product
For a particular tablet brand or SKU, the only way to know exact fillers, binders and preservatives is to consult that product’s official label/package insert, the manufacturer’s technical data sheet, or the pharmacy compounding record—documents that frequently list excipients in full for regulatory or safety reasons [3] [8]. The sources above show that regulatory dailyMed/label pages contain the most detailed composition data where those pages exist [3] [8].
Limitations: the supplied sources include some ingredient examples (capsule cellulose, starch; glycerol formal and propylene glycol in solutions) and product-type descriptions, but they do not provide a comprehensive catalogue of all excipients used in oral ivermectin tablets for pets and livestock (not found in current reporting).