Something many cat parents don’t know is that antibiotics are not created equal. You need to match the right antibiotic to the infection. Antibiotics can be life saving if your cat is suffering from a bacterial infection. They can fight all sorts of bacterial infections but it’s so important to be sure the right antibiotic is given.
Does your cat suffer from recurring upper respiratory infections or urinary tract infections? Have they been on antibiotic after antibiotic? Only to get better for a while and to get sick again? Consider asking the vet to do something called a culture and sensitivity test. The culture part of this test takes a sample of the bacteria or fungus that is causing the illness. The sensitivity part of the test checks to see what medicine or antibiotic will work best to treat the infection/illness. This is a lovely thing so that you don’t keep giving your cat an antibiotic which may not be treating the particular infection.
Antibiotic Culture & Sensitivity Test
Of course there are times when our kitties might get very sick and it happens quickly. They may be running a high temp and overall not doing well. In life threatening cases the vet might just offer a broad spectrum antibiotic with the hopes it kills the infection. If so, I would still suggest getting a culture and sensitivity test. It may take a few days to get the results, but it’s worth it to avoid making your cat antibiotic resistant. This way you’ll know if the broad spectrum covers the bacterial strain your kitty is fighting. If not, your vet will change the antibiotic to one that does.
Here is a personal journey with myself and my great dane Ava. For some reason Ava is prone to getting pneumonia. It’s definitely bacterial because it does respond well to the broad spectrum antibiotics. However, in the past 4 year she has probably had pneumonia 8 to 10 times. One vet suggested doing what is called a tracheal wash (they do this procedure on cats too) and it’s to get a sample from the lungs to do a culture and sensitivity on. There are some risks with this procedure, but for a dog like Ava it could be a great tool. I opted out of doing this procedure because I was nervous about it but I’m also happy to say I keep my Ava on a steady dose of our ViraX and this has helped keep her pneumonia infections to a minimum.
Just a quick side note: whenever our cats are on a round of antibiotics, be sure to follow up with a multiple strain probiotic to build back up all the good bacteria that got killed off by the antibiotic.
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