Worried about antibiotic dosage for hamster

genegenie

Hi there!

My little Campbells Russian Dwarf hamster has an ongoing respiratory infection and has had a couple of courses of Oral Baytril from our local exotics vet. The infection has returned, so I brought him back to the vet today to get more antibiotics. Unfortunately the exotics vet is on holidays, so I was seen by the small animal vet. Instead of Oral Baytril solution (that the exotics vet usually gives me) he gave me Baytril tablets with the instruction to give the hamster a quarter of a tablet per day. When I asked him why he gave me tablets instead of the oral solution he said that the tablets usually work better. I have never heard of hamsters being prescribed Baytril tablets, only the oral solution. The tablets are for cats and dogs as far as I'm aware. I feel a bit dubious about this and the dosage he prescribed, so I need some advice.

The dosage that my hamster usually gets from the exotics vet is 0.05 mL of Baytril 2.5% oral solution. Doing some calculations, in a single 0.05 mL dose my hamster gets 1.25 mg of antibiotic.

The small animal vet wants me to give him 1/4 of a 15mg tablet, which works out as 3.75 mg of antibiotic.

This is three times the usual dose the exotics vet prescribes.

I know that antibiotics aren't well tolerated in hamsters and should be given with extreme caution due to the high risk of ileitis or colitis. Also my hamster is very small, only weighing about 40g. This is why I'm extremely suspicious of giving my hamster this high dosage.

So, what do you guys think I should do? Any advice is very much appreciated!

Our man in Havana

TBH I would go back & demand he look at the notes or your file. A dose that big will probably kill the hamster!

genegenie

Thanks for your quick reply Faye, you confirmed my suspicions. I'm gonna ring him now, but since I'm off for the next few days I'm thinking that a trip up to Bairbre O'Malley is in order. The things we do for our littlies!

Our man in Havana

Thats true we do - do some mad things for our pets!

Sigma Force

Usually with an animal that small the dose is the same for gerbils/budgies/cockatiels and guineapigs just one drop of liquid Baytril once a day (or twice sometimes depending) the tablets I could imagine would be very hard to give to a hamster. Also if the vet can give you a pro biotic to give to him too while he's on antibiotics and for a week or so afterwards.
I have used Baytril on all the above animals and the one drop rule always did the trick.

What kind of bedding do you have for the hammie, sometimes certain bedding can effect smallies. Since he has respiratory problems avoid woodchips like the plague something like Carefresh is a lot safer. Also other things to double check is if anyone is smoking in the same room or using spray polish, scented candles etc these can all effect smallies.

Hope that helps and hammie gets well soon

dudara

Wow, your poor little guy. All mine have always been healthy, and touch wood will continue to stay healthy.

That dose sounds too high, so I would ask for a revised opinion, or indeed a second opinion. It does take a good vet to manage little dudes, I was lucky when I lived in Cork that the nearest vets were also the on-call vets for Fota Wildlife Park, so they were pretty used to exotic animals.