Poor Old Ron

[AlbertaGirl]

Ron is having a tough time with the antibiotics. She had terrible diarrhea last night. She's supposed to be on them for 14 days, but since there hasn't been any more blood and since she's obviously not feeling well, I'm going to ask the vet if we can reduce that time at all. I'm going to give her a little pedialyte today to try to offset any dehydration that she may be experiencing. My poor old girl.

 

[Sasha]

Awe, I'm sorry to hear about this. I'm sure you can work it out with her vet. Have you been giving her probiotics to help replenish the ones lost to the antibiotics in her GI system?

 

[AlbertaGirl]

Yes, she gets probiotics every day, but they don't seem to be helping much. I feel so awful for putting her through this.

 

[Sasha]

What is the cell count of the probiotics? I wonder if it's not enough. For example, with the chins when they are sick usually they get a capsule a day which has a cell count of in the billions. If it's not extremely high, then the probiotics are just killed in the stomach and don't make it to the intestines to replenish the ones lost to the antibiotics.

 

[shetland]

Poor Ronnie. Its so awful. Poor little girl just doesn't understand why she does not feel well. Thank goodness you are keeping her hydrated. Hopefully Nancy will have a suggestion or two for our beautiful little angel.

 

[Tanya]

I only buy probiotics that are kept refrigerated and sold in dark glass bottles.Even the hot lights of nonrefrigerated retail shelves will damage probiotic products.
I hope Ron gets well soon!

 

[Jeanette]

Poor little thing!

Spiny's having 2 types of antibiotics for 21 days so he knows how Ron is feeling!
I have to give one of the meds 2x per day and the other one 1x per day. It's so hard seeing them like this.

I hope that Ron will have a better time with the meds soon!!

 

[AlbertaGirl]

What is the cell count of the probiotics?

That is a question I don't know the answer to! It's Bene-bac, which the vet gave me. It's kept in a dark container in the fridge.

I spoke to the vet earlier and told him what's been going on. He said to go to 7 days and then stop. Any earlier and there is a risk of the infection coming back resistant to antibiotics. We're assuming it was an infection since she hasn't had any more blood since starting the meds. That's just two more days, so I hope she isn't too uncomfortable. He said I could give her more of the probiotic as well to see if that will help.

 

[Sasha]

Just be careful with Bene-bac as it does have sugar in it listed in the ingredients. If you could just give her plain acidophilus (you can get capsules w/ the powder inside) maybe that would be better? I don't know if she drinks the pedialyte by herself or if you syringe it, but you can mix the powdered acidophilus in her food or in the pedialyte I suppose. You can't overdose on the acidophilus, but since the Benebac has sugar I would be weary about giving too much.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

I didn't know that. So if I bought something like this: http://well.ca/products/jamieson-lactobacillus-acidophilus_2918.html would that be appropriate?

 

[Kalandra]

I use human acidolphilus different brand but similar to the one you posted in that link. Keep it cold to keep the bacteria alive though. I don't like benebac at all, in fact I found an ingredient listing for it recently that listed ethoxiquin... ewwwww.

Try upping the amount of acidolphilus you give her. And try to give it exactly mid way between dosages. I've yet to have a hedgehogs have a negative effect from large doses of acidolphilus.

 

[FiaSpice]

When Litchi was sic a couple months ago, I was told not to give BeneBac because some preservative was known for giving cancer. I bout some 5 billion count probiotric instead.

 

[Courtney]

Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie.... stop making your mom worry about you like this!

Sandi, I'm glad she's had no blood since going on antibiotics. I hope that's a good sign. When Hemi was ill, she had no blood for a few months after being on antibiotics, but then it came back. I really hope this isn't the case with Ronnie.

Get well soon, Ms. Ronnie!

 

[AlbertaGirl]

I'll go and get some acidophilus right away. I had no idea that Bene-bac had those bad things in it.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

Got the acidophilus and gave her basically the entire contents of one pill. I hope it will help - her appetite is down to almost nothing. Just two more doses of medicine to go!