How long for Covenia - baytril to start working?

[marko]

Hi members!

Seems little Baci (my 3 year old sphynx cat) got sick real fast this week.
He started spontaneous sneezing which 24 hours later also included coughing and sounded bad and 'phlegmy'. So we booked a vet appointment and yesterday the vet gave him covenia at about 11 AM yesterday.

Later on that day after the radiologist looked at the x-ray she thought it looked like an early pneumonia so she also prescribed baytril for the next 2 weeks at 50 mg/each night. last night he had his first dose of that. He slept fairly poorly last night as he was all 'blocked up' but slightly better than the previous night.

Seems to me that today the sneezing has mostly gone away, but he still sounds very horse and still phlegmy whenever he moves around.

Just wanted to know what members' experiences are with when these meds should really kick in?

many thx in advance

[growler~GateKeeper]

No experience w either but wanted to send some healing to Baci

[hazelrunpack]

In our experience with the dogs, Baytril is pretty fast-acting, but it might take a couple of days. We've never had it prescribed for a respiratory infection though--mostly it's been for UTIs.

Hope Baci is better soon, poor dear!

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by marko

So we booked a vet appointment and yesterday the vet gave him covenia at about 11 AM yesterday.

I've only had one Convenia experience and it seemed to start working within a couple days (was for an oral infection that my very difficult-to-pill senior citizen kitty had). My vet mentioned that the peak period for potential side effects to occur (which, like many other antibiotics, tend to be gastrointestinal - although there are much more serious ones to watch out for even if they're supposedly rare: http://catinfo.org/?link=convenia), is about the 3 day mark.

Originally Posted by marko

she also prescribed baytril for the next 2 weeks at 50 mg/each night.

How much does Baci weigh? My understanding is that the max dose for cats should be 5mg/kg per day. Higher than that and you risk retinal damage.
http://www.tufts.edu/vet/vet_common/..._march2003.pdf
http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/baytril_warning.shtml

Originally Posted by marko

Seems to me that today the sneezing has mostly gone away, but he still sounds very horse and still phlegmy whenever he moves around.

Might want to consider adding about 250-500mg twice a day of Lysine powder to Baci's diet while he has symptoms. http://www.holisticat.com/uri.html 10 minutes of steam therapy a few times a day should also help loosen things up (hang out with him in the bathroom while you run a hot shower).

And absolutely start giving him probiotics! That amount of antibiotics in his system will decimate the good bacteria in his digestive tract and it could get ugly.

Good luck! Sick kitties are not fun.

[marko]

thanks so much for the responses!

SCM baci is about 7kilos but I erred on the 50mg. The tablets are split in 2 so each one is 25mg - so 5mg x7 does put him under the safe dose, but thanks SO much for catching this - you good!

Thing with baci is....he has food allergies so his diet is very resticted. He changed to a prescription ( deer and green pea ) diet about 8 months ago and it has worked wonders.

Thanks for the Lysine advice and steam advice.

In terms of probiotics and potential allergies - any recommendations?

mant thx

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by marko

The tablets are split in 2 so each one is 25mg - so 5mg x7 does put him under the safe dose,

Originally Posted by marko

In terms of probiotics and potential allergies - any recommendations?

Probiotics might actually help with the allergies too. I'm a fan of Natural Factors Ultimate Multiand gave them to Aztec after his Convenia shot. If anyone is going to get diarrhea from antibiotics, it'll be him, but he's been having perfectly normal poopage. What I like about the Ultimate Multi is that it's high potency (billions of CFUs) and has multiple strains of organisms, to provide broad coverage. Plus you get good bang for your buck compared to many other brands out there. You only need a small pinch mixed into Baci's food, say about 1/4 of a capsule 2 or 3 times a day (although I've gone much higher without any issues). Do heed this warning as well, otherwise the probiotics will get wiped out by the antibiotics:

Contraindications
If taking antibiotics, take probiotics two hours before or two hours after the antibiotics are taken. Continue to use probiotics long after the antibiotics are finished.

[marko]

thanks for the extra info SCM

[marko]

SCM - Thanks again for the probiotic advice, I found it within a 10 minute bikeride from where I live. The large bottle was on special at 30 bucks. Seems like it will last forever and I may try some as well.

question though - Can you clarify something for me with in a sentence or two or with a link if it's too much typing?
You wrote

Probiotics might actually help with the allergies too.

why is that?

also if you have a general link on what probiotics do (I know you keep good links) I'd love to know more.

Nutrition knowledge in general is something I need futher education on.

many thx again!