Dear Elayne:
 
>I am posting this request for information for another person and hope
>Dr. Williams can give us his opinion on the situation.  They have a 6 year
>old ferret with ECE that their vet was treating with albon (I know that is
>not the recommended drug, but her ferret does not tolerate amoxi and there
>doesn't appear to be any Baytril available in her small town).  She was
>working on getting the medication changed to something more effective,
>when the ferret was accidentally medicated with 10 times the recommended
>dose of albon.  Now their vet does not want her putting the ferret on any
>other drug until she is sure there has been no damage from the overdose.
>The overdose occurred on the morning of the 25th.  We are worried about
>the old girl getting a secondary infection from the ECE while the vet
>watches her for signs of overdose damage.  Dr. Williams, do you think the
>risk outweighs the benefit of waiting before starting her on Baytril?  She
>first showed signs of ECE around the 23rd of January.  She has been eating
>(baby food) and drinking throughout this entire ordeal, but her activity
>level is very low.  We would really appreciate your opinion on the
>situation.
 
My opinion is: OUCH!  Not good.
 
Albon is a sulfa drug, and overdosage, or dosage in face of dehydration,
can result in precipiation of crystals in the kidney and toxic renal
damage.  Hepatic damage can also occur, as well as rare blood dyscrasias.
But the possibility of renal damage is probably the most important here.
 
10 times!!!??  Someone needs a good explanation for that one.
 
It is more important to manage the possibility of renal damage here than
to worry about another antibiotic.  The first thing that should be done is
to put her on subcutaneous fluids - I am concerned that the lethargy may
indicate existing dehydration and the ECE may add to this problem.  This
is not a patient that I would allow to self-manage as far as fluid intake,
and force feeding may not be enough.  I would go with 40-50 cc per kg per
day subq to keep fluid going through the kidney.
 
Next step - bloodwork to assess renal function, now and again in four or
five days.
 
And a bland diet.
 
I'm not going to even worry about the other antibiotic at this point.  We
only recommend antibiotics for a week after infection to prevent secondary
bacterial infection, and that week is almost up, anyhow.
 
This one'll probably come out okay, but we need to be very careful here.
[Posted in FML issue 3314]