How Much Antibiotics Is Too Much?

[greg1229]

Ellie B. is fighting a bout of hookworm and has a bad rash on her neck. So we finished the 2nd round of drontal. And the 2 weeks of cephalxin for the rash. The rash cleared up, but 4 days later it started back up again. Is there a stranger antibiotic that can really kick the rash out of her??

Edited August 14, 2008 by greg1229

[ahicks51]

Did the vet do a skin culture to determine if the rash was due to a bacterium?

[Batmom]

Ditto the culture question.

 

If it is due to bacteria, then yes, it could well take several weeks to knock it off even with the right antibiotic.

[ahicks51]

Come to think of it, if the rash is bacterial, it is frequently better to treat with topical antibiotics; you can only give so much of the stuff orally before you cause an overload, poisoning the host. But a much higher concentration can be applied topically in many cases without causing undue harm; for resistant bacteria, this is sometimes useful.

[greg1229]

Went to the vet today with Ellie...

 

Two things...

 

She still has hookworm but the fecal sample showed a lot less eggs then a month ago, so vet is doing one more round Drontal Plus. But she has gained some weight so the vet say that is a good sign since a lot of the times when they are infected as badly as she was they lose weight even though they keep eating.

 

As for the rash, skin scrape showed no parasites. Since the rash pretty much cleared up but came back after two weeks of antibiotics we probably should have given her one more week. So now she will 3 weeks of antibiotics plus he gave her a shot of Prednisone (sp) and some spay on topical. It could be a seasonal allergy, but he wanted to see if this clears things up before doing a $300 allergy panel.

 

If anyone gets Cephalexin prescribed for their dogs..have the vet write the script and take it to wal-mart or any of the stores that have the generics for $10 for a 90 day supply. Trust me. It's costing me $18 for the meds (had to get 2 scripts for the different dosages) as opposed to getting the pills from the vet for $48

 

Aside from that Ellie B is one happy pampered houndie

 

Give ya the next update in Sept when she goes back

 

Greg

[Guest sheila]

I found with Kiowa (my accident prone boy) that over time some anti biotics stopped working after awhile. For example with the first incident he was given Primor. He was given Primor for the second incident and it worked, but took longer. On a third incident the Primor seemed to have no effect at all and he had to be switched to Clavamox.

[feemandvm]

Why are you using Drontal Plus for hookworms? Although ti works... you are paying for medicine that you don't need.

 

Droncit = Praziquantel which is a medication used to treat TAPEworms (dogs get tapeworms by eating fleas or small rodents)

 

Drontal = Droncit + Strongid (Pyrantel); pyrantel is used to treat hookworms and round worms

 

Drontal Plus = Drontal + Febantel; Febantel is used to treat hookworms, roundworms and whipworms.

 

The Droncit base in all 3 of these products is not needed to treat hookworms and is pretty $$$. Pyrantel is dirt cheap and Panacur (Fenbendazole) would be just as effective for hooksowrms. Either drug should be a LOT less expensive as well.

 

I'd also wonder about allergies as an underlying cause of the skin issues.

 

 

[Guest paulamariez]

Our vet prescribed Panacur for our hounds when they had hookworms and it was inexpensive (we treated 4 dogs with it) and it worked very well. We had to give our guys two or three doses (I forget which) spread out over a couple months to get rid of the subsequent hatches. Then the vet had us give our pack Interceptor heartworm/deworming medication for a full year (no skipping the cold months). We never had any recurrences of the hooks at our household. As far as the rash, Tiger has a skin allergy that he gets during the month of August every single year and it lasts to the first hard freeze. He has to get allergy meds or prednisone (depending on how bad it is that year) during August and September and then it tends to get better as the months get colder. I feel so sorry for him during these months because he itches so bad. I'll keep your sweet hound in my prayers for a quick and complete recovery!!