Double-checking Marbocyl dosage

[Danielle Smith]

Gizmo, my rescue boar, has had symptoms of a URI for over a week now. The vet prescribed Sulfatrim in the first instance (0.2ml twice daily) -- this helped a tiny bit but he is still streaming from his eyes and nostrils bless him. She recommended we move to Marbocyl for a week and see if that shifts the infection. Now I've come to give him his first dose (the 2% injectable given orally), I've realised the amount she has prescribed is rather high (0.96ml once a day, which equates to 19.2mg). The vet was lovely with him, but was new to the practice and hadn't seen many if any "exotics" before. This meant she did a lot of checking of best practice and appropriate dosages, but I'm still worried there may have been a slip-up somewhere.

All ranges I've seen online (including here on TGPF) are around 5-10mg, which makes me reluctant to give him this high dose. Of course I'm going to check with the vet first thing but just wanted a sense check! Also, will Gizmo suffer from not having his next set of medication started tonight (or as soon as possible)?

 

[Princess Dustmop]

I'm not familiar with Marbocyl, but it looks like it's a brand name for marbofloxacin, which is a fluoroquinolone, like enrofloxacin (Baytril), though with some quick research, it looks like dosage is lower than Baytril ...

"fluoroquinolones (marbofloxacin, 4 mg/kg/day, PO; ciprofloxacin, 10–20 mg/kg, PO, twice a day; enrofloxacin, 5–10 mg/kg, PO, twice a day for 14 days"
Source: Merck Vet Manual

19.2 mg per day does seem quite high, as I imagine Gizmo does not weigh close to 5kg. I would be very wary of giving a dose that high.
The dose seems closer to dosing for enrofloxacin (19.2mg q24h ≈ 9.6mg q12h).

As for skipping a dose, starting and stopping a medication is bad, but since you haven't started, that's not really a factor. So the concern would be in postponing treatment, which of course is letting any infection continue to grow. I think I would rather risk postponing until morning when I could call the vet than overdosing, but you know your piggy and how he's doing. I would consider continuing the Sulfatrim that was originally prescribed, if you haven't exceeded the original prescribed course, but I'm not a vet, and I cannot recommend that you give any medication outside of vet recommendations.

 

[Bertie & Jelly]

My piggie has just finished a course of Marbocyl. The vet made it up into a suspension and it was given orally by syringe twice a day. It was a higher dose than the other antibiotics he was prescribed. Hopefully you‘ve now got reassurance from your vet and his URI clears up promptly.

 

[Danielle Smith]

The vet explained to me that the injectable 2% Marbocyl was diluted 1:1 with sterile water, so the dosage was actually just under 10mg. Wish they'd put that on the label but oh well. Feeling much more reassured, although Gizmo has informed me it tastes disgusting by spitting some of it back out at me.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Glad that that has been cleared up for you. Hopefully the new meds can now get to work and clear up the UTI

 

[Princess Dustmop]

Ah! Glad you got to the bottom of it! Too bad the dilution didn't help the taste ...

Latte says Gizmo should get a goody after each dose ... and maybe before, too!

 

[Bertie & Jelly]

Ah that’s reassuring. Bertie also says that a nice mint leaf goes down well afterwards!