weekly zithromax?

Re: weekly zithromax?

mariette asselbergs — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:16:09 GMT

Does anybody use F10 vapor inhalation ? (1:1250 used in birds and zoo animals with chronic resp problems).

Mariette

Re: weekly zithromax?

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:33:20 GMT

have you tried dispensing a sachet of Bisolvon? I find a lot of cat flu cats that get bunged up do respond to a small pinch on the food once a day, breaking up the mucus so its easier to sneeze out and therefore clears the airways a bit more

Re: weekly zithromax?

Jo Cobbett — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:02:26 GMT

Has anyone used/had any success with Flumax (Vetplus) yet?

Re: weekly zithromax?

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:23:28 GMT

Train owner to inject cat. Dispense some Engemycin. Simples.

Re: weekly zithromax?

Kate Richardson — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:54:54 GMT

[quote user="Stephen Courtney"]

Is it OK to give doxycycline with milk products? I always thought that was a no-no

[/quote]

Not something I was aware of I have to be honest, but just checked the formulary and it does say absorption is reduced by calcium, however I am not sure how clinically significant this is?

[quote user="james herriot lied"]If these infections are undifferentiated or herpes positive, I'll often also suggest lysine at 500mg/day for an average cat. Hard to tell if it does anything, and it's only really suggested for herpes infection. Anybody else using it?[/quote]

I find it can be useful in herpes positive cases when they are having a flare up (if the cat is compliant), but more for eye cases. Its supposed to reduce shedding and it can shorten the duration of the flare up, but not sure its been sccientifically proven

Re: weekly zithromax?

Stephen Courtney — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:44:58 GMT

Is it OK to give doxycycline with milk products? I always thought that was a no-no

Re: weekly zithromax?

james herriot lied — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:41:41 GMT

If these infections are undifferentiated or herpes positive, I'll often also suggest lysine at 500mg/day for an average cat. Hard to tell if it does anything, and it's only really suggested for herpes infection. Anybody else using it?

Re: weekly zithromax?

CatherineThomas — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:26:08 GMT

Thanks for the help!

Re: weekly zithromax?

CatherineThomas — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:25:36 GMT

Yes it has had chronic rhinitis going on for a few years now. I've just looked back through the history, it had a snap test several years ago which sowed up positive to FIV. The mention of sneezing started in 2008. At first it would come in for occasional convenia injections. Over the past 2 years it's been coming in more frequently. We have tried courses of ronaxen and synulox with varying levels of success. When he was on ronaxen the owner reported that it did seem to work well but she found it very difficult to give him the tablets.

He was seen a few months ago by a locum who suggested this weekly protocol of azithromycin if the convenia injections were no longer working.

My colleague is the one dealing with the cat at the moment, we've discussed it and she is going to speak to the owner and offer some options of treatment, not including a weekly dose of zithromax as we can't find any information to back it up.

Re: weekly zithromax?

Kate Richardson — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:11:20 GMT

I assume the cat has chronic rhinitis, in which case you are only treating the secondary bacterial infection. Doxycycline would be a great first choice of antibiotic for this, is he on daily ongoing treatment or courses as needed? Has she tried different ways of giving the tablets eg directly, crushed and mixed into water/milk and syringed in, crushed into flavoursome food (tuna/cheese/pate etc) or butter, smeared onto paw/nose so cat licks it off?

Have you tried any other antibiotics? Alternatives would be cephalexin, amoxycillin, amoxyclav- ie many licensed medications before going off licence, not that I am against off licence meds at all, in cats there are often no alternatives, but you have to be able to justify it. If the cat is really difficult to medicate I would consider Convenia as well, you may find that a sustained amount of antibiotic in the cats system will settle the clinical signs for longer than hit and miss oral dosing, and may be able to use this intermittenely, ie not continuously every 2 weeks.

Azithromycin should not be used if any hepatic dysfunction, and with caution/reduced doses if renal disease, so I would want to check bloods/urine prior to using. BSAVA formulary suggests treating q48hrs at a dose rate of 5mg/kg. I would worry about resistance using it less frequently and given the current concerns about antibiotic use by vets, I don't think it sounds like a good idea.

Other things that will help the cat would be steam inhalation therapy daily if possible- either put the cat in the bathroom when having a hot shower or bath, or sit the cat in its cat box and creat a tent over the box with a sheet or similar and place a bowl of steaming water under the sheet (outside the box obviously!) so the cat sits in a steamy environment for 5 minutes

useful owner info on FAB website http://www.fabcats.org/owners/cat_flu/nasaldischarge.html

Re: weekly zithromax?

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:16:37 GMT

Azithromycin has a variable half life, it can be up to 72 hours in cats. However I've never tried dosing at weekly intervals; it seems quite optimistic. Alternate day dosing was something I tried initially (in Saudi) and it was inferior to daily dosing. On a daily dose it worked enormously well. However some flu-ey cats stopped responding to it, making me wary of the bacteria developing resistance. (personal anecdote.)