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ChloramPHENICOL

BobaTheGuineaPiglet

BobaTheGuineaPiglet

Junior Guinea Pig
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Does anyone have experience with ChloramPHENICOL oral med. Has your Guinea pig ever been on it? My sow got prescribed this medication for her stubborn bacterial infection and I was advised to wear gloves while handling the medication as it can cause irreversible damage to my bone marrows if it enters through my skin. Kind of scary that this medication is supposed to be given to a tiny Guinea pig.

Let me know! Any advise is appreciated.
 
One of my pigs took chloramphenicol a few years ago. I had the same gloving precautions as you were given, although it was explained to me that the risk of this was small even if I was taking a human dose myself, and even less from potential skin contact, though still possible.

From my understanding, it's not used as first-line med in humans anymore because of a small but serious risk of aplastic anemia developing after use (basically the bone marrow stops making cells.) This is really serious, potentially fatal. It also can't be used in animals in the food industry because of the risk of humans ingesting meat containing the drug and theoretically being exposed that way. My vet said that the aplastic anemia risk really isn't there in animals and that it's safe to use in guinea pigs (who have less antibiotics available to them generally because so many things safe for us upset their gut flora to a dangerous extent.)

I get feeling cautious about it, though, and you can always ask your vet if there's something else to try first. If this has been resistant to treatment in the past, though, it may have been chosen because you are running out of antibiotic options and there may not be a lot of other options available.
 
Freela said:
One of my pigs took chloramphenicol a few years ago. I had the same gloving precautions as you were given, although it was explained to me that the risk of this was small even if I was taking a human dose myself, and even less from potential skin contact, though still possible.

From my understanding, it's not used as first-line med in humans anymore because of a small but serious risk of aplastic anemia developing after use (basically the bone marrow stops making cells.) This is really serious, potentially fatal. It also can't be used in animals in the food industry because of the risk of humans ingesting meat containing the drug and theoretically being exposed that way. My vet said that the aplastic anemia risk really isn't there in animals and that it's safe to use in guinea pigs (who have less antibiotics available to them generally because so many things safe for us upset their gut flora to a dangerous extent.)

I get feeling cautious about it, though, and you can always ask your vet if there's something else to try first. If this has been resistant to treatment in the past, though, it may have been chosen because you are running out of antibiotic options and there may not be a lot of other options available.
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Thank you for your response!


Yes, unfortunately she has two antibiotic resistant bacteria infections happening. She’s been having reoccurring UTI for the past couple of months. She’s been on every med the doctors could prescribe and chloram was specially ordered for her from another pharmacy since this case seems to be rare and they don’t even carry the medication in their clinic. I guess my main concern was if this was going to affect her badly. Did your Guinea pig experience any side effects? What precautions did you take for your Guinea pig?


Just as an FYI, one of the bacteria is called corynebacterium and the other is called forgot :(
 
BobaTheGuineaPiglet said:
Thank you for your response!


Yes, unfortunately she has two antibiotic resistant bacteria infections happening. She’s been having reoccurring UTI for the past couple of months. She’s been on every med the doctors could prescribe and chloram was specially ordered for her from another pharmacy since this case seems to be rare and they don’t even carry the medication in their clinic. I guess my main concern was if this was going to affect her badly. Did your Guinea pig experience any side effects? What precautions did you take for your Guinea pig?


Just as an FYI, one of the bacteria is called corynebacterium and the other is called forgot :(
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No, my piggie had no side effects. She actually liked the chloramphenicol, apparently it tastes sweet. She hated her Baytril with a passion! The precautions we took were mainly for us- I wore the gloves to give her the meds and didn't let my kids pick her up during the course of meds, just because the idea of it made me nervous in case she still had some medication around her mouth on her fur or something. They just got to pat her on the back instead.

She had this nasty grease-gland abscess that she took the chloramphenicol for around age 2, she ended up having the abscess surgically removed in the end. She lived to be about 6.5 years old, no long-term effects of the meds or anything like that.

I hope your piggie gets well, it's so worrisome when they're sick! Good luck with everything!

Editing to add: It's been years since I had this piggie and I honestly can't remember what bacteria was the culprit, but the did a culture and thought this was the best match.
 
Freela said:
No, my piggie had no side effects. She actually liked the chloramphenicol, apparently it tastes sweet. She hated her Baytril with a passion! The precautions we took were mainly for us- I wore the gloves to give her the meds and didn't let my kids pick her up during the course of meds, just because the idea of it made me nervous in case she still had some medication around her mouth on her fur or something. They just got to pat her on the back instead.

She had this nasty grease-gland abscess that she took the chloramphenicol for around age 2, she ended up having the abscess surgically removed in the end. She lived to be about 6.5 years old, no long-term effects of the meds or anything like that.

I hope your piggie gets well, it's so worrisome when they're sick! Good luck with everything!

Editing to add: It's been years since I had this piggie and I honestly can't remember what bacteria was the culprit, but the did a culture and thought this was the best match.
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You have no idea how at ease your response made me feel! Thank you so much! Glad to know my piggie will be fine taking it😭
 
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