How Long For Antibiotics To Work?

[NeylasMom]

Curious if anyone has used antibiotics to treat a urinary tract infection and NOT seen improvement within 3 days? Bonus if your dog tested negative for infection but you treated prophylactically and the symptoms eventually resolved with the course of ABs.

 

I started Neyla on Tuesday night on Baytril and the vet feels we can be certain it's not a UTI (very unlikely based on the negative culture anyway), but I don't want to take any chances of missing something. I would just keep her on it longer except that I think it may be upsetting her stomach just slightly, not enough that she won't eat dinner, but she's been picky about taking her meds.

 

Interestingly, I just read that all of these symptoms can be seen, rarely, with Deramaxx use (something like 2 dogs in each of their safety studies).

[tbhounds]

If it was a uti and if it was the proper ab then you should have seen signs that it was working within 12 hours.

[RobinM]

Never. Chloe is prone to them and usually after one pill, I see a difference. And yes. She has tested negatively and has "gotten better". Now I give her a cranberry pill 1 x a day and she has been much better since Dewey.

[3vagreys]

My Echo had a very bad UTI and she didn't show improvement until second day. It was slight improvement but it was there. She also got a yucky tummy and I gave her pepcid before every meal and yogurt with probiotics as a mid-day snack. I know the antibiotics probably got rid of the probiotics right away but it seemed like it was helping.

[greyhead]

Shane was recently started on AmoxiClav-Potassium even before his culture came back positive for E. coli. It took three days before he was notably improved, but this UTI had been going on for a while, I think. Even at that, he's needing a second round of the a/b just based on behavioral observations. We'll retest after that. (He was off the a/b for a day and a half, and he perked up in 12 hours after it was restarted.)

 

Maybe Baytril isn't the right a/b?

ETA: I was concerned at no improvement by second day. Vet then said it could take 72 hours to see improvement. Fortunately, it didn't take that long!

Edited December 4, 2010 by greyhead

[NeylasMom]

It took three days before he was notably improved, but this UTI had been going on for a while, I think.

Assuming you saw some improvement before then since you said "notably"?

 

This morning was the end of day 3 (our 6th pill) and I can't say I've seen any improvement. I do see more concentrated urine on the incontinence pads when she has accidents so I suppose it's possible she's drinking slightly less, but I haven't been able to tell based on watching her. And volume of accidents hasn't changed really. She's already been on Clavamox as well (5 days in that case).

 

I think this is not an infection, I just want to be absolutely sure before I stop the antibiotics that there's no chance they need longer to work. I suppose I could do one more day just to be sure...

 

Really though, it sounds like they should have worked by now. You guys are only confirming what my vet said.

 

Thanks for the responses.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Sam had a UTI. He seemed to feel better after about 18 hours on the antibiotics, but the infection was still there days later in the urine samples. For Sam, diagnosed on July 20, 2008. On July 29, he was drinking so much water he was peeing almost pure water...with infection showing in the tested urine. We changed from Clavamox to Ciprofloxin for 14 days, and it still didn't completely clear up. We were going to keep him off antibiotics for two weeks, then culture a urine sample, but he got hurt and had to go on antibiotics (cephalexin) for the injury. By the end of the cephalexin, the UTI was cleared up, but we never figured out what AB fixed what on him.

[greyhead]

Assuming you saw some improvement before then since you said "notably"?

Yes, the initial improvement was so subtle we weren't even sure it was improvement! He had been almost lethargic before the a/b and not very responsive to his name or to touch; so the initial improvement was that he became easier to rouse and slept somewhat less. It wasn't until the third day that he became perkier.

[Guest Honeysmom]

Cali tested negative for a uti but still had one. My vet told me that will happen. She started on antibiotics and had relief within 12 hours. They worked for her it seemed almost immediately but I'm going to say 12 hours.