Just a few sidenotes on all of this antibiotic usage.  First of all,
when you use any product containing chloramphenicol, WEAR GLOVES!!!
One in 40,000 people who come into contact (absorb it into their
bodies through the skin, mucus membranes etc.) with it can "contract"
a condition called aplastic anemia.  This condition wipes out the
bone marrow and quite simply is fatal in these people (don't know if
bone marrow transplants slow it at all but why find out!).  This is
why the drug is now illegal for usage in food animals.  As for
treating any animal for an extended period of time on one antibiotic,
this has a tendency to create resistant strains of "super" bacteria
which can overwhelm all natural resistance and normal flora and cause
superinfections.  We try not to treat any animal more than two weeks
in a row on one antibiotic here to prevent the potential problems.
I'm sorry to hear about everyone's problems and losses but don't have
any potential answers right now.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0450]