Baytril Solution/Injection

[littlepiper]

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, my smallest chin, Suki (8 weeks), got very ill yesterday. We took her to an emergency vet and the vet gave my baby a shot of Baytril, and sent us home with some hand feeding food and more Baytril solution.

After a while the baby passed away, after having seizures and struggling to breathe, so at least she isn't hurting anymore. It even more upsetting that she was a little 'lap-chinchilla' who would love to just sit on me and let me pet her, which I hear are rather rare.

But anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any information on this medicine. I read in another forum that this medicine has a tendency to kill chinchillas and should be given as a last resort.

If anyone has information I would be grateful.

Thank you,
-Piper

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

It doesn't kill chinchillas. Oral baytril will make them go off their feed so many of us tend to steer away from it for that reason. Plus that is a "big gun" antibiotic. It really should be used as a last resort. Somedy, we may find that overuse of baytril will cause resistance to it and when we need it the most the chins will not respond to that antibiotic treatment.

 

[ticklechin]

I may be wrong but you don't use baytril on kits if I recall correct.

 

[Carol~Anne]

I had a little guy who was about two months old, maybe a bit more come down with a upper respiratory infection last February. It seemed to come on very suddenly and I rushed him off to the vet when I noticed a tiny droplet of mucous in his nostrils. I believe he was put on TMS or maybe it was something else (memory is getting bad) but it wasn't Baytril. He passed away a couple of days later. Chinchillas can go downhill so fast when they get a URI, especially little ones. I am sorry your Suki has passed. I didn't even get a chance to name my little guy b/c I only had him for such a short time.

 

[ticklechin]

I often wonder when I hear the stories of sudden death after baytril if chins can have allergies to antibiotics like humans.

 

[starleomach]

I use Baytril All the time

 

[Claire D]

I often wonder when I hear the stories of sudden death after baytril if chins can have allergies to antibiotics like humans.

I think you're absolutely right about allergies, Dawn.
Any living creature can have an allergic reaction to a "foreign" substance entering the body so I don't see why chins can't have reactions to antibiotics. Having said that, though, I often think that chins die because they are sometimes "too far gone" by the time they get antibiotics - I think that antibiotics sometimes "get the blame" for a chin dying even when it's not the case.




Generally Baytril is not recommended for kits under 6 months because of the effects it can have on cartilage growth (if memory serves - I don't have my exotics formulary to hand right now).

 

[Kalandra]

It is reported to cause cartilage lesions in young animals. In the following link it mostly talks about young dogs. http://www.baytril.com/13/Safety_and_Toxicology.htm

 

[Claire D]

Ooh, nice link. :thumbsup:


I know we don't like extrapolating things from one species to another but I would suspect that it is better to be safe than sorry with chins, especially since the majority of medications prescribed for chins are not actually licensed for them.

Quinolones have been demonstrated to cause cartilage erosion in the joints of growing dogs.