Baytril Questions

[Morrigan]

I see a lot of people here give Baytril to younger rats. I'd always assumed that was okay. Baytril generally seems to be a pretty big to for respiratory issues in rat keeping communities. However, my vet said it shouldn't be given to rats under 9 months.

I'm planning to go further into vet medicine, and I'm still a freshman vet tech student.

So, I'd like clarity: what is the issue with Baytril? Why do I see so many different stances on it? On a cursory glance, it seems like people give very different ages for when they think it's appropriate too. Or is it a matter of how poorly the rat is doing?

 

[SQ]

Here is some information from a vet approved medical site for rat owners http://ratguide.com/meds/antimicrobial_agents/enrofloxacin_baytril.php
You might also want to do a literature search of peer reviewed journals to see what the recent research reports

According to the link I posted:

It is also important to note that although the use of fluoroquinolones have not been recommended for initial treatment in pregnant and nursing does or juvenile rats (under 4 months) due to the risks of cartilage abnormalities (Egerbacher et al., 2000), in cases where other antibiotics are not helping, or if the infection is deemed severe, the benefit of using fluoroquinolones (alone or in combination with other compatible antimicrobials) may, in fact, outweigh the risks.

Different vets will prescribe it for rats younger then 4 months at varying ages, and if necessary in order to save a baby's life, will prescribe it for young babies as well ….. EDIT: however, as you likely know azithromycin and clavamox are baby friendly

I am sure that lilspaz68 and Jorats can give you much better answers

 

[lilspaz68]

The initial worry was baytril would cause bone growth issues like it did in some puppies. I'm not sure they actually discovered it being a problem with growing rats in the end. Sometimes the only antibiotic an owner has is baytril and that's better than no treatment at all. Or the youngster is too sick so you go with the big guns. I usually have a pediatric-friendly cut off of about 4 months of age.

 

[Morrigan]

Never properly thanked people here for the responses. Thank you! The answers were really enlightening and gave me an idea what to look further into too.