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Bordetella help

J

Jadeyjade1988

New Born Pup
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Good evening, I'm hoping that someone can give us some advice.. after months of our piggies being ill and many vet appointments, they were finally been diagnosed with Bordetella. They are now on their 3rd and final antibiotics they apparently can have and it isn't helping. (roughly around 6 weeks in total) Is anyone able to give some advice or has anyone experienced antibiotics not working and what happened to their piggies etc
We feel so stuck as luckily up till now the local store have been paying for the vet bills (as we bought them with this problem without knowning), but their head office are now refusing for the gps to be referred to a specialist and we are very tight for money with covid impacting on us hugely in financial term. But i am so concerned that left without any meds they will die but at the same time the meds aren't helping anyway 🤦🏻‍♀️ we really don't know what to do!
 
Mine whole herd had 2 rounds of sulfatrim whether showing symptoms or not. Thankfully it killed it off but I had to do deep clean every few days and make sure everything I had was continuously disinfected so things didn't linger. I did sadly lose a few piggies due to it as well. I'm sorry the drugs are working for you, have they thought about trying a different antibiotic?
 
Flutterby said:
Mine whole herd had 2 rounds of sulfatrim whether showing symptoms or not. Thankfully it killed it off but I had to do deep clean every few days and make sure everything I had was continuously disinfected so things didn't linger. I did sadly lose a few piggies due to it as well. I'm sorry the drugs are working for you, have they thought about trying a different antibiotic?
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! We are doing regular cleans too atm we have had 4 different antibiotics now, the one we are on now is apparently the last one they can have. I just feel helpless for them
 
Have any of the antibiotics worked in the sense that they've alleviated symptoms and stopped them getting worse?

I can't say it's Bordatella as we've never had confirmation but here is my URI experience...

My boys have an underlying respiratory illness that no antibiotic has cured (bad breeder story). However when they're on Baytril they have a good quality of life and seem like regular piggies if you didn't know.

They've been on a Baytril since 1 January. Before that, for 5 months we tried multiple courses of different lengths and different types of antibiotics - even injections. Nothing cured it - the symptoms and deterioration came back when they were off the meds - but Baytril seemed to keep them in a content and manageable state.

The specialist we saw and our usual vet both agreed that this antibiotic route isn't ideal but it is ok as it was giving the boys a decent quality of life. They think it's an underlying infection that's well entrenched in their system and the antibiotics just keep it at bay. We haven't followed up with tests for confirmation as we tried all the usual antibiotic options and nothing worked -- the vets both said tests wouldn't change their recommended approach at that point so didn't encourage us to pay for them.

The other treatment options on the table were all costly and with no guarantees, so for various personal reasons we've decided to carry on with long term antibiotics as long as they remain stable on them. Touch wood, we're OK at the moment.

They have a probiotic every day to help with any potential gut issues. The only other risk the specialist mentioned was resistance - if that happens we'd have to try another antibiotic again or another route entirely. I don't know how long we've got - they're only 9 months old so they've had a rough start and will probably have a very reduced life.

I wanted to reply, not because I can offer any advice about the Bordatella at all, but because, by my experience and from what my vets have said, it is possible to keep them on medication if they have a quality of life still and aren't deteriorating. My usual vet has just written a prescription so I can buy the Baytril much cheaper online - about 1/5 of the cost of their direct charges so that will help me massively money wise.
 
I’ve never had an outbreak of Bordatella (luckily) but I remember having a conversation with our vets about it. They couldn’t recommend Zithromax (Azithromycin) antibiotic enough to tackle something like that.

so sorry you’re having such a tough time
 
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