After 5 Weeks of Baytril...

Mimzy has been being treated for a red and weepy eye (steroid drops finished up after 5 days) and general snottiness/inappetance/sneezing since the 18th of March with .1 ml baytril twice a day and 1/2 gram benebac paste once a day. It's been 5 weeks and other than continuing the benebac for another few days, I'm wondering how to best ease his stomach back to normal after this long regimen. His cecals are disappearing regularly but he does leave a smudge on his habitat floor after eating them, so I know alls not quite right there. It could be from the extra veggies he gets each time I dose him or the baytril itself, although his stomach does best on this abx.
We still have snow, so wild forage is impossible. Any store bought greens or herbs that can help normalize him? Or do I lessen his veg and pile on the hay?
Many thanks in advance for any advice. Hope you all are having a lovely day today.

Grim leaves smudges too so it might well be the baytril, but if he's eating less hay then that's less fibre which has the same effect.

I would slowly reduce his veg and increase his hay and see how he does. Could you buy a dried herb or forage mix online to mix in with the hay and get him excited?

How is his health now? Has the baytril cleared up the sneezing etc?

Hello Jenova, thanks for your reply.
Yes, he's doing much better, thank you. I do fear a bit of relapse once the meds clear his system, but I hope not. He's always had a runny/goobery nose and tested positive some years ago for something called 'branhamella', but his dentist told me she sees a few abnormalities in his nasal cavity that she figured were due to recurrent pasturella infection. It's never shown up on his tests and his teeth just got burred recently so we just treat the symptoms when they show up. This is the longest he's ever been on baytril and I can tell he's getting weary of seeing that syringe coming at him.

I do have a mixture of tonic herbs that include hawthorn leaves and flowers, green oat tops, strawberry leaves and elder flowers, but it's one teaspoon twice a week at most. He isn't wild about it either. He also has a strawberry leaf/rose petal/plantain hay topper and raspberry/timothy cubes for extra roughage. He sometimes neglects his hay for those though, so we don't have them if he's not eating hay.

If only our dandelions and hayseed were growing! We've got nice weather but the snow just isn't melting as quickly as we'd like.
He also takes metacam twice a day for early onset arthritis (.2 ml per day) and has done so regularly for the last year or so. He probably has a cast iron tum but I've had a few stasis episodes with him before so I keep a close eye on any sudden changes to his diet and the resulting differences in his eating pattern. He's about five years old...being an abandoned bun that we took in back in July of 07, I can't be sure of his true age of course.
One thing that showed me how much better he felt on this treatment was his helicopter ear returned after a long absence. Plus dry nose and clear eyes are always welcome. I hope he stays that way this time!

Snuggles to dear Grim and Smoo. I often peruse the boards to see what they've been up to lately!

MimzMum said:

Hello Jenova, thanks for your reply.
Yes, he's doing much better, thank you. I do fear a bit of relapse once the meds clear his system, but I hope not. He's always had a runny/goobery nose and tested positive some years ago for something called 'branhamella', but his dentist told me she sees a few abnormalities in his nasal cavity that she figured were due to recurrent pasturella infection. It's never shown up on his tests and his teeth just got burred recently so we just treat the symptoms when they show up. This is the longest he's ever been on baytril and I can tell he's getting weary of seeing that syringe coming at him.

I do have a mixture of tonic herbs that include hawthorn leaves and flowers, green oat tops, strawberry leaves and elder flowers, but it's one teaspoon twice a week at most. He isn't wild about it either. He also has a strawberry leaf/rose petal/plantain hay topper and raspberry/timothy cubes for extra roughage. He sometimes neglects his hay for those though, so we don't have them if he's not eating hay.

If only our dandelions and hayseed were growing! We've got nice weather but the snow just isn't melting as quickly as we'd like.
He also takes metacam twice a day for early onset arthritis (.2 ml per day) and has done so regularly for the last year or so. He probably has a cast iron tum but I've had a few stasis episodes with him before so I keep a close eye on any sudden changes to his diet and the resulting differences in his eating pattern. He's about five years old...being an abandoned bun that we took in back in July of 07, I can't be sure of his true age of course.
One thing that showed me how much better he felt on this treatment was his helicopter ear returned after a long absence. Plus dry nose and clear eyes are always welcome. I hope he stays that way this time!

Snuggles to dear Grim and Smoo. I often peruse the boards to see what they've been up to lately!

Click to expand...

I'm glad he's feeling better.
Did you ever think of trying a nebuliser? I use saline solution for Grim which is a natural decongestant, so even if he is a bit snotty it helps clear it out. And it saves putting more medication into him.

I've heard of using such a thing but am not certain how well Mimz would cope with it. Need to research how to put one together. My vet told me it might even help to put him in his carrier and keep him in the bathroom while I shower so the steam can clear him up. I fear he'd overheat though.
So a nebulizer doesn't need medicine piped in to work? I didn't realize it's just saline.

MimzMum said:

I've heard of using such a thing but am not certain how well Mimz would cope with it. Need to research how to put one together. My vet told me it might even help to put him in his carrier and keep him in the bathroom while I shower so the steam can clear him up. I fear he'd overheat though.
So a nebulizer doesn't need medicine piped in to work? I didn't realize it's just saline.

Click to expand...

It can be used with medication but for Grim I buy the sterile saline solution meant for contact lenses. Thumps_ makes her own I think. It pumps air through a tube into a container which causes the solution to break into hundreds of little particles in the air, like steam but not hot. I put Grim in his carrier with a towel over it and push the nozzle through the carrier door.I put him in for 20 minutes a day when he's really snuffly.

I wonder if you'd be able to rent a nebuliser from the vets or even a hospital/doctors to try it?