Snipped from Dr. William's post:
Vets rely on definite indications for the use of antibiotics ( or at least
the good vets do.) I'm not wanting to be an elitist here, but education and
experience with using a range of antibiotics is imperative to be able to
use them not only safely, but effectively.  Antibiotics are not for use
in any illness in animals or man, but there are specific indications for
each one.  The indiscriminate use of antibiotics results in generation of
antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, which in turn endangers us all.
This is not a cautionary tale for people working in ferret rescues, but
also for veterinarians, who, in pursuit of a quick fix and an easy buck
in many cases, are the most egregious abusers of all......
 
I could not agree with Dr. Williams more.
 
I work in the pediatric ER, I am constantly struggling with the decision
to give out an antibiotic prescription.  I have parents upset if they wait
the 2 hours to be seen to be told it is viral, or to wait another 24hours
before treatment.  I have also felt that if the child ended up with a more
serious infection that it would be my fault for not treating- but what am
I treating?  I find that if I take the time to thoroughly examine the
patient, speak to the parents, and order tests that are helpful in making
the diagnosis, I am doing the best for the patient.  I may be spending more
time with the patient, and a quick prescription may have been the easy way
out.  Plus the parents feel better that they can give something, and the
medicine makes them feel less anxious.  The truth is that docs way over
prescribe antibiotics, and because of this there are so many resistant
strains.  Penicillin resistant S.pneumoniae approaches 50% or more in some
communities- the highly resistant forms of this bacteria are also resistant
to Cephalosporins and others, it is a deadly bacteria when it crosses into
the brain to cause meningitis.  Not to mention Methicillin Resistant Staph
Aureus in hospitals.  I have been seeing more and more UTI's resistant to
Amoxicillin, and Bactrim.  The list goes on and on.  In human medicine
there is a strong push towards less use of antibiotics, and a reach out to
patients and their parents to not ask for the antibiotic when it is not
needed.
 
I think vets would be prudent to learn from the mistakes of medical docs,
and keep the antibiotics for times when specific bacterial infections have
been identified.  I also think that it helps if the owners know this as
well, since there are plenty of ways to acquire these antibiotics without
a vets prescription.
 
Patty
 
p.s.  In pediatrics I would almost never treat with an antibiotic until
stool cultures, ova and parasites were done and showed the cause
[Posted in FML issue 3408]