Frankie's E. coli infection
Bactrim has some pretty serious side effects. Dry eye and liver disease are some. We are keeping a very close eye on him while he is in this. Hoping this finally does the trick. Oh.. I'm allergic to Bactrim, so the pharmacist said to where gloves while giving it to him. Lisa Franke and Mattie |
|
|
| FWIW, we have several kids at school who are on long term, daily doses of Bactrim. And I am talking years. I have a rule about cultures - if two cycles of antibiotics or antifungals or antivirals don't do the job, I insist on a culture and sensitivity. |
| Bummer! Oscar has had E Coli overgrowth a number of times as well. Quick question. Is Frankie intact, or neutered? I ask because when Oscar (neutered) was having prepuce problems a couple of years back, they did an ultrasound to look at his prostate. Their concern was that perhaps he had an undescended testicle that was causing trouble, or an inflammation of the prostate. His prostate was almost undetectable on the ultrasound, it was so tiny, which they said was normal for a neutered dog. If your vet suspects this to be the case, it might be worth doing an ultrasound. (Oscar just stood there, while the doc and I sat on the floor, under him, doing the ultrasound - no anesthesia, no drugs, nothing invasive. Oscar was a very good boy.) We also go through this round-robin of culturing every time Oscar has a skin lesion. It's really the only way to make sure we are using the correct antibiotic, especially today when there are so many drug resistant strains out there. I do wonder about culturing a week after treatment is done though. With Oscar, we have found that he often needs a week or two of antibiotics past the recommended timeframe in order to kill everything completely, and not leave any hardy cootie stragglers.  Also, we have discovered that the bacteria can morph during treatment, becoming resistant to what we are using. Scary. Plus, other bad bacteria can take the place of what you are killing, and may need to be targeted as well. So here's what we do. Once we have an antibiotic to target the current cooties, we treat for a week to ten days, and culture again. It takes a week to get the culture results, so we keep Oscar on the current antibiotic until we get the new culture results. When we get the new results, we tweak treatment, based upon what we are seeing, changing antibiotics if necessary. We culture every week, until we get an all clear, which means Oscar is generally on an antibiotic about a week past the actual clearing of the bacteria. This might sound extreme, but Oscar has had dozens of drug resistant infections (MRSA, MRSI, C Dif, Campylobacter, Pseudomonas, etc.) and it's the most logical and effective way we have found to get the job done. Since you have been dealing with this for months already, it might be worth a try. (BTW, both of Oscar's vets are MSU grads.  They are the best!)Laurie and Oscar, the Cootie Magnet |
| Another thought. Have they tested for anaerobic bacteria (which thrive in low oxygen environments)? When we have faced a stubborn infection, my vets have done a test for anaerobes, and we have found some nasties. We have even found some in Oscar's leg lumps and bumps. My boy is special!!! Laurie and Oscar |
So sorry to hear that poor Frankie is battling E Coli.  hugs to both of you! |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|