Posted by:
Kelly_Haller
at Wed Aug 15 13:03:07 2012 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Kelly_Haller ]
Doug,
Oxytetracycline, as with the entire tetracycline group, is considered a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and is effective against some gram negative bacterial species. However, this antibiotic group does not have great effectiveness on the bacterial species that are mainly responsible for the majority of bacterial infections in snakes. It has however been used successfully to treat other types of bacterial infections in domestic mammals and birds, and in some cases turtles. The main problem is that it is not well absorbed by snakes either orally or by injection and therefore the bioavailability is low with this group of antibiotics when used in snakes. The other problem is that it does cause some tissue damage when injected, and therefore its use by injection in small snakes should be discouraged. Doxycycline is another in this group and it has a wider spectrum of activity, and is more bioavailable, so it would be a better choice out of the tetracycline group, however you would still have the same drawbacks listed above for oxytetracycline.
I would probably only use oxytetracycline or doxycycline in those cases where susceptibility testing showed that this was a good choice against the causative organism of the infection. The only time I could see using it otherwise would be in cases where organisms of the genus Mycoplasma were the suspected or proven agent of the infection, and then only in conjunction with tylosin. It has been shown that when these two antibiotics are given together, they appear to express a synergistic effect against Mycoplasma.
There are other more effective and safer antibiotics that can be used with colubrids, specifically cephalosporin class antibiotics, ciprofloxacin, and some aminoglycosides when used carefully. Thanks,
Kelly
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Use of oxytetracycline.... - Kelly_Haller, Wed Aug 15 13:03:07 2012