Recovery Part 2



Ceftiofur. Hello again O-chem.

 Thank goodness, Kwik is back to his normal self again! I called to him Wednesday as I walked into the barn like I normally do, and when he looked up from his hay, I could tell immediately that he felt 1,000,000 times better. We went for a hand graze in the remaining sunlight, and he was sound again, the swelling at the injection site had gone down drastically, and he was back to taking his grazing very seriously. I gave him a good grooming, and then I went home and had my first worry-free sleep in almost a week. Kaptain Kwik gets his staples
out on Monday, and I can start bringing him slowly back to work afterwards. Bliss!

On a side note, I did some research on Excede. Excede is a sterile suspension formulation of ceftiofur, an antibiotic that is effective against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. It is a sustained-release antiobiotic acting over 5 days given IM four days apart in 2 doses (as opposed to 10 daily doses of a comparative antibiotic). Exede is FDA approved, and adverse side effects include swelling at the injection site and diarrhea or loose stool. I also did some forum hunting, and there were some pretty scary accounts of more serious side effects, including laminitis, antibiotic-induced colitis, and death. As a microbiologist who deals with highly drug resistant bugs and "big gun" antibiotics, I'm aware that adverse reactions are a possibility when using any drug, albeit rare. I'm not about to swear off using Excede forever, but I do think its a great opportunity to have a conversation with my vet to better understand the array of antiobiotic options available for treating horses. What are your experiences with equine antibiotics?