ok, i’m here——and thank you for posting this on the CF, Leland!
various thought and questions—
-imo, this entire forum in general gives an undeservedly bad name to a very good antibiotic that is often overutilzed to be sure, but usually works very well w/ minimal side effects when properly dosed. some of the newer herp lovers here have it easy——just 15 years ago we were still using gentamicin injectable as our best herp antibiotic, and i could almost literally tell you how much of the kidney i was going to destroy by how much gent i had to use. things are better! with that being said, ciprofloxacin (baytril’s common human sibling) has become less expensive in it’s generic form, and is often superceding enrofloxacin nowadays in terms of kill spectrum. particualrly with Pseudomonas; i’ve had many cultures in the past years becoming resistant to Baytril but still susceptible to cipro. addl’y, cipro is available in many oral forms, eyedrops, etc.
-baytril has a massively wide dosing schedule across species, and often translated poorly into the herp world. additionally, the injectable form is well known for causing “sterile abscesses” and should usually never be given (injectably) more than once in the treatment, if at all. in chams it’s worse as they usually turn black at the injection site for a few days, but that does resolve in 99% of cases.
-@ flux--without a doubt, the #1 and #2 reasons for causing antibiotic resistance is dosing for too short a period of time and stopping, followed by prescribing a low dose for a very long time. happy to discuss further if you like.
-so, to the OP’s post. i almost NEVER give chams Baytril on a daily basis. other herps maybe, but cham metabolism appears slow to process it as compared to other herps, the injectable solution is incredibly bitter and sometimes causes them to stop drinking——>dehydration; and imo that’s why chams appear to have an overabundance of renal side effects. the “classic” Baytril dosage is thus: no more than 2.5mg/kg injected at any one time, and orally 5-20mg/kg/day. again, i think that’s too frequent for cham metabolism. luckily there’s a lot we can do to change the recipe.
-my recipe depends completely on where the infection is and the apparent severity. a soft-tissue only infection is dosed completely different than one that’s in the bone (which may be on Baytril for 4-6 months). for a classic URI i usually either begin w/ an injection or a 1½-2x oral dose, and typically would use a minimum of 10mg/kg q 48 hours, bone infections up to 20mg/kg q 48-72 hours. i may have the patient take the first few doses daily for 1-3 days, q 48 hours for another few doses, and perhaps q 72 at a higher doasage for long-term therapy. age of patient is a big factor. hydration must be maintained; if they’re not drinking they get SQ fluids q 24-48 hours @ 10ml/kg/day. i don’t give forced oral fluids much anymore to chams as that volume at one time often leads to aspiration pneumonia, and it’s too stressful to split it up orally several times daily. SQ is much easier for the patient.
-other things—as the injection is so bitter orally, i would strongly suggest coloring it w/ applesauce or something fruity; you don’t want him to go off food/water just due to a lousy taste in his mouth. also, i don’t think you ever wrote the volume that you are giving, just the dosage. my calc’s assume you are giving 0.14ml daily? (10mg/kg x 350g w/ 25mg/ml solution?) need to make sure that part’s correct.
i cannot tell you to change your dose to X; it’s illegal (and you do mention your cham is getting better). i can say theoretically i may have tx’d your boy for a few days at one dose, and then slowed/increased dose to something like 15mg/kg/48 hours.
is that volume of 0.14mls correct?
o-
