Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read a study were scientists gave 2.5 mg of penicillin to lizards every 72 hrs. to help them over come an infection. None of them died and the penicillin gave better results. I am considering giving it to my monitor. I recently posted an add explaining his severe repiratory infection. Has anyone here given or know anyone that had a vet give their sick reptile penicillin before? Or does anyone know any more information on the research on the drug. thank you for your time!

It's kind of a mute point since the drug used should target the pathogen based on a culture and sensitivity. From most of the case studies I've seen, pennicillin was not the most affective drug.

I cannot rate a study without seeing it, but if all that was done was imperical pennicillin injections without identifying pre and post populations of bacteria and suspected pathogens, then it doesn't really discover anything.

Ian

There are several issues concerning the use of penicillin with reptiles. One problem is the limited spectrum of activity, as penicillin will only be effective against a small number of bacterial species that cause illness in reptiles. Another critical point is that bacterial resistance to penicillin develops rapidly, and many species are now resistant to it. One nice thing however is that penicillin is quite non-toxic and has a large margin of safety.

Penicillin group antibiotics, including extended spectrum ampicillin and amoxicillin, have short half-lives in the body and must be given daily. Additionally, they require large doses as in 50 mg per kg body weight or more to be effective. The small dosage (2.5 mg) and the time frame between doses (72 hours) that you mentioned more closely resembles that for an aminoglycoside or other type of toxic antibiotic. As Ian said, there are other types of antibiotics available that would be much more effective than penicillin. These would be cephalosporin, macrolide, fluoroquinolone, and aminoglycoside group antibiotics.

Kelly