I raise dogs and like to place my females on antibiotics before they whelp. OUr local vet charges quite a bit for antibiotics and you cannot get it though vet catalogs without a prescription. In the vet catalogs they have antibiotics for fishes that do not require a prescription. I believe I once saw that you could use these antibiotics on dogs and other livestock . Is this so? Does anyone out there who raise dogs do this?.

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), December 04, 2001

Answers

I buy antibiotics at the feed store for my goats, you might call them and see if they have what your looking for. Marilyn

-- Marilyn (marilyn@intellex.com), December 04, 2001.

Jeffers has a cat/dog page on line. I don't ahve addy handy but it should come up in a search. hope this helps.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001.

amoxicillin, tetracycline, penicillin, etc 'for aquarium use only' is the same exact thing a vet or doctor prescribes for dog or human use. Just pay attention to the dosage amount. The 'fish-mox' I use is 250mg. I've ordered from here and gotten good service.

http://lambriarvet.com/catalog/antibiotics1.htm

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), December 04, 2001.

We can get antibiotics, syringes and shot needles for our hogs at the local feed store. Like stated earlier, you would need to get the proper dosage from your vet, but it would work just the same.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), December 04, 2001.

We have used the fish pills for ourselves before! No gills yet! So don't see why you couldn't use the same on your animals. Your feed co-op should be able to order them for you if you can't get what you want from the site above. We have some cephalexin that came in a bottle of 60, 250 milligram capsules that cost around 12 or 14 dollars.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 04, 2001.

What is the advantage of placing the dog on antibiotics before she whelps? I would think that disrupting her digestive tract right before she would need all her strength to whelp and feed puppies would be contraproductive, a healthy dog should need no anitbiotics of any kind, and I would think the antibiotic residues that would pass into her milk would cause weird sorts of antibody reactions in the puppies, and even cause scours from distrupting their digestive tracts that have no proper intestinal flora yet.

Basically, I would think you are killing off the right kind of bacteria in the gut of the puppies, putting them at increased health risk.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 04, 2001.

Totally agree with Annie! But you can purchase most antibiotics through livestock catalogs, jefferslivestock.com jefferspet.com What exactly are you trying to prevent? That would help in trying to help you pick which antibiotic. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 05, 2001.

To Annie, Why I use antibiotics is called prophylaxis. Women are cultured before giving birth for beta hemolytic strep and are given antibiotics while in labor. Dogs are much more susceptible to pathogens especially being so low to the ground . I feed my girls cultured foods while on antibiotics as buttermilk, cottage cheese and yogourt.Pregnancy is a very taxing condition and a little amoxicillin never hurt anyone unless you are allergic or on it too long.

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), December 05, 2001.

To Dave and Nan. Thank you for your comment. I will go ahead and order those antibiotics. Knew I saw somewhere where they were the same ,just not sure. Thanks again. Terry

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), December 05, 2001.

No disrespect intended Terry, but this attitude is why we have so many antibiotic resistant bacteria now, there is no medically approved method of using antibiotics for "prophylaxis", just creates more resistant bacteria! I urge you to discuss this effect fully with a good vet,and why antibiotics ought to remain Rx only to prevent such abuse.

Even the medical communities use of preventing anthrax in exposure cases is a tremendous risk, we are developing more resistant anthrax strains by doing this, just ask your doctor his/her opinion on that one.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 05, 2001.

I think if amoxicillin is still in the milk when she is nursing her pups, the pups could develop allergies to it. I had to take it while nursing a couple of times, and the children I nursed while on it became very allergic to the drug.

-- mary (mlg@aol.com), December 05, 2001.

All us dairy goat folks are snickering at you. Oh that we wish a little amoxicillin would get rid of staph! ;) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), December 05, 2001.

even though I occasionally use amoxicillin at my own discretion, I agree with Annie that antibiotics are overused. I keep a little fresh penicillin in my 1st aid kit but so far have never used any. You should only use them when they are absolutely neccessary and then for only a short period. I would not use antibiotics as a preventative treatment.

-- Dave (somewhere@somewhere.com), December 05, 2001.

I'm with Annie on this one! What exactly are you trying to prevent with prophylactic antibiotics?

As to women being given preventative antibiotics before childbirth, I know nothing of this actually, except that I know I had none. If they were being targeted for strep because of a test first, wouldnt it be prudent to do the same for one's dog before assuming she needs drugs? As far as dogs being more susceptible to pathogens, I couldn't disagree more. Animals rarely need our intrusion in the reproductive process, and those who do should most likely not be used for breeding. Dogs in good health can endure WAY more bacterial interference in their lives than we can.

I know you didnt ask for advice, and all these comments are probably tickin you off; sorry about that.....just my three cents. If you are determined to do this, I do applaud your wisdom to add some beneficial bacteria to her diet.

Good luck,

-- Earthmama (earthmama@yahoo.com), December 05, 2001.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=0&cat=1466&articleid=856

Here's a page with the drugs listed that may or may not be used on pregnant dogs. I refer to it allot. All I have ever given my pregnant girls is Panacure. They get their boosters and such before they are bred. I don't mean to tell anyone what to do either, just posting this page because it's a good reference.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 05, 2001.

Yes, Vicki, "a little amoxicillin" is way more dangerous to use than a full dose, ten day treatment as recommended by drug manufacturers and doctors/vets. There is only one prudent, responsible method to dose animals or humans with antibiotics,a full twn days with missing a dose. Why? Those bacteria that are not killed, and it takes ten days to do so, are now resistant to what you were trying to kill them with.

This is why we now have staph bacteria, especially in hospital settings, that we have nothing that WILL kill them, not a "good" thing at all, and entirely caused the the improper dosing and overuse of antibiotics.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 05, 2001.

Sorry for the typos, should read, "a full ten days without missing a dose".

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 05, 2001.

Howdy all! I figure that antibiotics are like everything else. They can be used to great benefit or abused! Not long ago my daughter had strep throat. At the time, funds were extremely low. I knew it was strep because of the huge swollen tonsils and the awful white splotches on the back of her throat. My husband convinced me to try the fish pills. We have used them rarely, but never on our kids. I gave her the medicine for 10 days and poof! NO strep! If you use them as the tool that they were intended to be, they are a Blessing! Just ask all of those that lived before the pennicillin days! My great grandfather practiced medicine around the turn of the last century and he called pennicillin a miracle! Most people know not to take something unless they need it. Don't fix it if it aint broke! I haven't a clue about raising dogs so that comment wasn't meant for that. Just wanted to get in here and get to say my part! heehee! :~)!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 06, 2001.