To medicate your pet, especially with antibiotics, without first consulting with a specialist is a common practice that needs to be erradicated as it could have fatal consequences in dogs or cats.
Many pet owners, “prescribe” medications to their sick pets (wihout even really knowing if the animal is sick), risking their pets’ lives, as some of these drugs are highly toxic and can cause the death of the animal.
“In veterinary medicine, like in human medicine, we always try to regulate the indiscriminate use of antibiotics,” says veterinarian zootechnologist Noé Hernández Cruz, director of the local veterinarian hospital El Arca de Noé (Noah’s Ark).
He explained that the tendency among specialists is that if a canine requires attention with antibiotics, a low-range one is prescribed to prevent the bacteria from developing, as it is done with humans.
Veterinarians at Noah’s Ark perform sensitivity tests to identify the microorganism that causes the disease and how it reacts to the drugs, in order to have better elements to prescribe and design a therapy.
Veterinarian Hernandez Cruz points out that antibiotics are usually prescribed to dogs with gastrointestinal and respiratory complaints, urinary tract infections, skin problems, traumatism and bites from other animals. “We make the use of antibiotics as rational as possible,” he said.
Hernández Cruz added that in some cases, there are medicines for human use that can be administered to dogs, but the right person to make that decision will always be the veterinarian. The criterion of the expert when prescribing a drug is based first on the weight of the pet and, later, on factors such as breed, age and if it presents any other pathology, for example, kidney, liver or heart problems.
“As in humans, there is the minimum and maximum dose for a dog or cat; If the patient is very ill, a high dose is used, but if it is not, a low dose is preferred. Everything that enters the organism goes through a process of metabolization and elimination; If you get too much of a drug or medication, your liver and kidneys have to work a lot to process and eliminate the toxins. ”
Hernandez Cruz emphasized that the recommendation to the owner of a sick pet is to go to the veterinarian so the animal can be prescribed with the correct medication, according to its weight, breed, age and the pathology phase.
TYT Newsroom with information from yucatan.com.mx
