Baytril

[Revler]

My female Sambava Yolie has been batteling a candida infection for over a month now. It has put one lg. sore and two smaller sores on her side. These sores are now healing up nicely due to an oral antibiotic and an oral antifungal I've been giving her along with a topical antifungal. BUT now for some reason she's started throwing up her crickets. Not all of them mind you but, about every forth or fifth cricket she eats she throws it back up. My vet said that it could be due to the prolonged use of Baytril -- has anyone else heard of that??? Vet also said it was more important at this juncture that she gets the Baytril than she gets the extra food and that because she was still keeping some food down and not losing weight yet that she should be ok..... This makes me worried has anyone else ever had a situation like this and if so any suggestions??

 

[kinyonga]

What is the oral antifungal?

 

[Revler]

Oral Antifungal

itraconazole is the oral antifungal

 

[Dave Weldon]

itraconazole is the oral antifungal

Howdy Nika,

What strength (mg/ml etc.) itraconazole and at what dose was it prescribed? What info did the vet supply about giving it? Same goes for the Baytril .

 

[kinyonga]

It wonder if it could be the itraconazole? I think it must have a taste that is terrible to chameleons because one of the chameleons that I had to give it to used to try to wipe it off his tongue on the side of a branch. He also threw up once but I had put it up to being fed pinkies to help it maintain its weight. (It was a Parson's.) (I've never had a chameleon throw up from being on baytril.)

Also...just my curiosity...how did the sores look?? Do you have a picture?

 

[jmyeager]

Itraconazole is a great systemic antifungal, however it can cause GI upset in almost any species. It is certainly possible that this is the cause for your cham's regurgitation. Had she been regurgitating since starting this med, or did this begin to happen more recently? If it only just started happening, then something else may be more likely to be causing it. There are several other systemic anti-fungals, however all of the azoles seem to have about the same effects on the GI. Some of the other classes of antifungals have even worse side effects and thus probably should not be considered in her case.

Long-term use of any antibiotic can also change GI flora, even though baytril is one of the more easy abx on the GI tract. I think your vet was probably reluctant to stop the meds because it sounds like they are improving her condition and your vet is probably worried that if you stop administering them, she may worsen, perhaps beyond the point of fixing.

A lot of the things we use to treat our animals with have both pro and cons. It becomes a matter of taking what has the potential for the best outcome. As your vet eluded to, if your chameleon begins to loose weight, then something absolutely needs to change. At that point weight loss and poor nutrition would be worse than the risk of infection coming back worse than before or not resolving.

 

[kinyonga]

Itraconazole may have caused anemia and liver enlargement in the chameleon I was talking about too....but it cured the Nannizziopsis vreisii (fungal infection)....and the chameleon lived.

 

[Revler]

The Baytril is 4mg/ml solution that is oid in the morning .1ml. The Itraco....whatever is 1mg/ml solution oid .15ml in the evening. We have now been on the Baytril for five weeks. We've been on the other anti-fungal just two. The vomiting started just after the first week mark on the antifungal. The sores seem to have healed with a whitish paper thin skin, no scales at all...I don't know if this is good or bad I've never had a cham get more than a love bite before this. I've also been putting topical miconizole on the sore area. I just fed her not ten minutes ago and the same routine happened she ate four crickets in quick succession and then vomited one back up. It is disconsirding and I think if it happens again this week a secondary trip to the vet for a med change is in order. HOWEVER she hasen't had any significant weight loss in a week, so I really don't know what the vet will do except make me feel better. By the by my digital camera is MIA so I will post pics when it is relocated.

 

[Revler]

I just was reviewing the posts and saw Dave Weldon's comment about what info did the vet supply. Unfortunatly none, I just read the label. My vet's really bad about that. Which, in turn, is why I've been posting on here about alot of things.