Suspected respiratory infection...

[Rory]

Thank you for your time, Tracie.

I do not know the concentration of the medication; it doesn't say what it is on the bottle. He weighs about 480g, and the dosage is supposed to be .5ml once a day.

His temps are good in his tank, though for the life of me I cannot get the humidity much below 35%. This old, drafty house doesn't stay dry, and my dehumidifier doesn't seem to work well. I have been giving him a little water now and again with a dropper, and he took his liquid calcium today without much protest (he sure likes the raspberry flavor!)

He did eat some greens, and he is wandering around his tank and generally being a lizard. Head bobbing at the glass, beard puffies, normal Foster behavior. He has not had any more diarrhea since this morning. The vet told me if he has any more diarrhea, to stop the meds and they would prescribe me something else. I will mention the medicines that you have named.

 

[ShannyBeard]

I do not know the concentration of the medication; it doesn't say what it is on the bottle. He weighs about 480g, and the dosage is supposed to be .5ml once a day.

Can you call the vet's office back and ask this? What we are looking for is how many milligrams per milliliter.

So for every 0.5mL that you give him, we want to know how many mg (milligrams) that is.

It is like if you are sick and your doctor prescribes Cipro 500mg three times a day.

It is 500mg per PILL. Well, the mL is the pill, but it is liquid and not pill.

Does that make sense??

In other words how many milligrams of meds is he getting in every dose? You can ask that.

 

[Rory]

I do not know the concentration of the medication; it doesn't say what it is on the bottle. He weighs about 480g, and the dosage is supposed to be .5ml once a day.

Can you call the vet's office back and ask this? What we are looking for is how many milligrams per milliliter.

So for every 0.5mL that you give him, we want to know how many mg (milligrams) that is.

It is like if you are sick and your doctor prescribes Cipro 500mg three times a day.

It is 500mg per PILL. Well, the mL is the pill, but it is liquid and not pill.

Does that make sense??

In other words how many milligrams of meds is he getting in every dose? You can ask that.

I see what you mean, you mean the concentration of the suspension? Like how many mg of medicine is in it per ml?

Unfortunately, they are closed for the day, so I can't ask. :\

 

[Rory]

Gosh, I'm super worried. I'm reading all these things online about how too much of this medicine can cause renal failure... Should I just stop with the medicine? I gave him his dose today, but there has been no diarrhea yet. It seems like a really harsh treatment and I don't want to make him worse...

 

[Rory]

Seems like I should be using a pro-biotic too, and the vet said nothing about that...

 

[ShannyBeard]

Yeah you should be doing using a probiotic. I use AcidolphiLiz, but some people use soy yogurt. When I give meds, I will give the antibiotic in the morning and the probiotic at night. So you don't really have any answer about the concentration of the medication? Does he have an answering service that you can call and have him paged? Is his office open tomorrow?

 

[Rory]

Yeah you should be doing using a probiotic. I use AcidolphiLiz, but some people use soy yogurt. When I give meds, I will give the antibiotic in the morning and the probiotic at night. So you don't really have any answer about the concentration of the medication? Does he have an answering service that you can call and have him paged? Is his office open tomorrow?

No, they're not open again until Monday, and there's no way to reach them until then. It's not on the bottle or invoice.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Bummer.

 

[Rory]

So do I stop using it, or what? I have no idea what to do, and there is no information at all about it that comes up on Google.

 

[ShannyBeard]

So do I stop using it, or what? I have no idea what to do, and there is no information at all about it that comes up on Google.

I don't know!!

On the one hand, the URI needs to be treated right away. But...I see what you mean about the meds. I think Tracie thought you would get more info from your vet.

I will PM Tracie again and see if she can advise.

 

[ShannyBeard]

I have Baytril at home but Florida is pretty far and by the time I sent it, the vets office will be open. I see you are in Reading, PA and I put the feelers out with bearded dragon friends on Facebook to see if anyone in your area has Baytril. Hope you don't mind, can't hurt to try anyhow. I PM'd Tracie, too.

 

[Rory]

Thank you for what you are doing. It sucks that I have work all day tomorrow, but my roommate is supposed to be keeping an eye on him and making sure he gets his water and food, at least until I get home.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

No, do not give anymore Albon for him right now, it wont do a thing for the respiratory infection. I am surprised the vet did not give you the strength of the solution!
Is there a feed store or something of that nature, in your area? You could try to find some tylan which is used for respiratory issues, also.

How is he doing today? Is he still having diarrhea?

Tracie

 

[twinmommy]

Hey guys,
she said the med was Trimeth -Sulfate which is the generic for Bactrim. Its for resp infections. I don't think this is the same thing as Albon. Its prescribed for URI in humans too and caused my son to have diarrhea. I started him on a probiotic and it helped. No more diarrhea.
The typical dose seems to be 10-50 Mg /kg which is pretty wide (30mg/kg seems to be quoted most often)
and without knowing the concentration we couldn't figure out if it's too much.
Whether you continue it or not, I would definitely start the probiotic.
Good luck to you!

 

[ShannyBeard]

Hey guys,
she said the med was Trimeth -Sulfate which is the generic for Bactrim. Its for resp infections. I don't think this is the same thing as Albon. Its prescribed for URI in humans too and caused my son to have diarrhea. I started him on a probiotic and it helped. No more diarrhea.
The typical dose seems to be 10-50 Mg /kg which is pretty wide (30mg/kg seems to be quoted most often)
and without knowing the concentration we couldn't figure out if it's too much.
Whether you continue it or not, I would definitely start the probiotic.
Good luck to you!

Albon and Trimeth-Sulfa are both sulfa medications. This is true. But they are not the same.

Albon is just the sulfa alone. The generic Trimeth-sulfa that Rory's dragon was prescribed is two medications combined. It's too harsh for the dragon, it isn't just Albon, and the side effects alone from that combo drug are really bad.

Sorry but I agree with Tracie on this one. Unless it was prescribed for your son a long time ago, since this combo has been around since the 60s, or if this was recent and your son was allergic to both quinolones and macrolides. This day and age, there have been more effective drugs developed.