Tylan When We Dose Drontal Plus?

[Guest driser]

I've posted several times about our guy's bad stool issue seemingly due to hookworm which he's battled since we got him 15 months ago. A quick recap: latest vet, after getting another positive hookworm test, thinks that because his hooks went undiagnosed and he has therefore had hookworm for so long that he has "larvae migration" where they imbed in the muscles of the intestines making them harder to kill. so our plan of attack has been:

 

-transition to a limited ingredient unique protein source food to give his beat up digestive system a break

-dose him with Drontal Plus every other Mon for 5 months

-give him 1/4tsp Tylan for first 21 days of this new plan

 

He's transitioned wonderfully to Nature's Balance LID (limited ingred) & grain free Venison and Sweet Potatoe kibble with a little bit of same in canned food for "gravy". His poop has never looked better nor been more consistent. Granted we have a few days of soft stools after heartguard/frontline dose and then again as Drontal Plus dose is doing it's work.

 

My question today is could we/ should we give him Tylan the week his is being dosed with Drontal Plus? He did so well while on Tylan (unlike Metronidzal which made his stools worse). I have read some posts that people use it daily long term. Would there be any harm in backing down to a 1/8tsp daily until he's completetly finished with Drontal Plus every other Monday 'til Thanksgiving?

[rschultz]

I don't know about Drontal but Lexie was on Tylan for a few years. It worked wonders for her. Hopefully someone will know.

[JJNg]

Have you asked your vet this question? The Tylan and the Drontal Plus are treating two different things, so there shouldn't be any reason to change your Tylan dose while he's on the Drontal. Tylan is an antibiotic that changes the balance of the GI bacteria and also decreases inflammation in the intestines through its effects on the immune system. Drontal Plus is a dewormer to kill the hookworms.

[greyhead]

We've been on Tylan for years, using Drontal-Plus 2-3 times a year, and have noticed no issue with using both at the same time. (We also have a permanent case of hookworm in this dog.)

[Guest driser]

We've been on Tylan for years, using Drontal-Plus 2-3 times a year, and have noticed no issue with using both at the same time. (We also have a permanent case of hookworm in this dog.)

 

ah, someone with a similar dog.

Do you think Tylan (I know it's an antibiotic) helps your dog's system while Drontal Plus (I know it's a dewormer) is killing hooks? Our vet had us cease Tylan after 21 days so the Drontal Plus doses have been without Tylan and we're noticing some softness the week he gets a Drontal Plus dose but not Tylan.

[greyhead]

Similar but, happily for you, not identical dogs. Ours started with hookworm that went undiagnosed for the first 9 months we had him. We treated with Panacur and some other things, but it was too advanced to ever be knocked out for good by then. A couple years later he developed SIBO after post-dental antibiotics, which also went undiagnosed for way too long. And then he developed IBD, also permanent. So what we found was that along with a regimen that addresses hookworm and IBD, Tylan was the final piece of the treatment that firmed up the stool.

 

When he has an IBD flare, we put him back on metronidazole and even budesonide if it's a bad one. Sometimes, we've found, what we thought was a pure IBD flare was actually a hookworm-induced problem, because using Drontal-Plus or even his monthly wormer at that point has fixed it, without the need for additional meds.

 

But our experience with this dog has been that if we don't keep him on Tylan, we get soft-serve. In the best times, he gets 1/8 tsp. once a day. But most of the time it's twice a day. On the hookworm issue I should add that his internist said to administer his "monthly" Interceptor every three weeks instead of four. We found that it worked better at that rate (because it matches the hookworm life cycle better) and does no harm. We just switched to Trifexis since we can't get Interceptor, and I have yet to ask whether that also can be given more frequently than the label recommends.

 

You can probably surmise that I highly recommend doing everything that can be safely done to stay on top of hooks! And I wish you and Bus the very best! Sometimes we don't know exactly how meds work their magic, not even aspirin. Hooks are beyond irritating, they dig channels in the intestinal lining. Tylan may soothe that in some way and discourage bacteria from over-colonizing the area. But I think if Tylan seems to help Bus, you should let your vet know this and request that he continue to get it as needed. It's a relatively mild antibiotic that does much good nontheless.

 

ETA: I should mention that our IBD dog is almost 12 years old. With a younger dog like yours, you may want to give more serious consideration to whether some degree of soft-serve is worse than the purported risk of some germies developing resistance to Tylan now and then being unable to use it somewhere down the road in the future. (My vet mentioned that to me, but it's the least important variable in our particular situation.)

Edited September 12, 2012 by greyhead

[Guest driser]

Similar but, happily for you, not identical dogs. Ours started with hookworm that went undiagnosed for the first 9 months we had him. We treated with Panacur and some other things, but it was too advanced to ever be knocked out for good by then. A couple years later he developed SIBO after post-dental antibiotics, which also went undiagnosed for way too long. And then he developed IBD, also permanent. So what we found was that along with a regimen that addresses hookworm and IBD, Tylan was the final piece of the treatment that firmed up the stool.

 

When he has an IBD flare, we put him back on metronidazole and even budesonide if it's a bad one. Sometimes, we've found, what we thought was a pure IBD flare was actually a hookworm-induced problem, because using Drontal-Plus or even his monthly wormer at that point has fixed it, without the need for additional meds.

 

But our experience with this dog has been that if we don't keep him on Tylan, we get soft-serve. In the best times, he gets 1/8 tsp. once a day. But most of the time it's twice a day. On the hookworm issue I should add that his internist said to administer his "monthly" Interceptor every three weeks instead of four. We found that it worked better at that rate (because it matches the hookworm life cycle better) and does no harm. We just switched to Trifexis since we can't get Interceptor, and I have yet to ask whether that also can be given more frequently than the label recommends.

 

You can probably surmise that I highly recommend doing everything that can be safely done to stay on top of hooks! And I wish you and Bus the very best! Sometimes we don't know exactly how meds work their magic, not even aspirin. Hooks are beyond irritating, they dig channels in the intestinal lining. Tylan may soothe that in some way and discourage bacteria from over-colonizing the area. But I think if Tylan seems to help Bus, you should let your vet know this and request that he continue to get it as needed. It's a relatively mild antibiotic that does much good nontheless.

 

ETA: I should mention that our IBD dog is almost 12 years old. With a younger dog like yours, you may want to give more serious consideration to whether some degree of soft-serve is worse than the purported risk of some germies developing resistance to Tylan now and then being unable to use it somewhere down the road in the future. (My vet mentioned that to me, but it's the least important variable in our particular situation.)

 

 

I REALLY appreciate your input! He is young, (finally) has very good stools the weeks we don't dose with Drontal Plus, so I think we'll avoid Tylan use unless truly truly necessary. Thank you thank you!

[greyhead]

Glad we could help, and even gladder that it sounds like Bus is doing okay!