From:
"Tressie"
Date: 2011-07-24 09:54:06 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Excessive bacteria in digestive tract
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
It is possible Jeff that the carpet fibres are getting packed and not passing through completely, especially if he has an already compromised GI tract. I guess it depends on how often he chews on them.
However, the amoxi would not have made any difference. Because you saw improvement and then a decline 3 days after stopping the amoxi, does point to bacteria once again. I suspect he was not on the amoxi long enough.
Trouble now is that you've got a culture that is probably developed some resistance to the amoxi. I would discuss this is a possibility with your your vet and see how it can be best approached - also consider IBD as perhaps the exacerbating factor.
To illustrate an example, of antibiotic resistance:
I have one little guy (3 years old) who is on pred for insulinoma, which we know already knocks out the immune system. He developed a sore on his abdomen, which quickly developed into an ulcer and then became two. I mean literally within days. I was afraid it was some sort of aggressive cutaneous neoplasia.
My vet opted to treat it as an infection as a starting point. He had never been on any antibiotics previously. We started him on Amoxi - after a week, the ulcers grew. I consulted with our back-up ferret expert in the U.S. who suggested an antibiotic resistant strain and recommended switching antibiotics to TMS.
Well it worked within 48 hours, the angry red ulcers calmed down. He was put on the TMS for 3 weeks, in addition to lavage solution, plus Flamazine ointment. But its taking forever for the darn things to heal completely. He's been put on another 3 weeks of TMS until they are gone entirely.
Point of my long-winded case example, is that it would appear, according to our expert consultant that more and more cases of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains are emerging as part of our environment. This clearly impacts humans as we are learning, however, it also impacts our animal companions.
I don't believe you had a case of it to begin with, my worry is that now, those specific bacteria have bounced back and are probably resistant to the Amoxi - at least at the dose you were giving it. Your vet may decide to increase the dose considerably to knock them out once and for good - or to switch to another antibiotic altogether. Of course the big question is, what is the underlying cause that created the infection to begin with??? IBD? Something more sinister??
Tressie
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