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What should Vets Do When Thinking About my Pet’s Treatment?

  • They need to make sure that your pet has a bacterial infection.  This is done through using specific clinical signs and if necessary doing lab tests on identifying the bacteria and checking what antibiotics will work.
  • Many vets may not use antibiotics routinely after low-risk surgery, such as small lump removal.
  • Some conditions need topical antibiotics, such as a cream that contains the medicine.
  • The dose has to be at the correct level and given for the appropriate length of time.  That’s where owners come in.  If an owner doesn’t make sure their pet gets medicines as instructed that can lead to the development of resistant bacteria.
  • Some of the antibiotics used will be older type antibiotics, such as penicillins – called ‘first tier’.  This is because they can be as effective as the more modern drugs.
  • The newer drugs can be more prone to becoming resistant and are often only used where the vet thinks that the first tier medicines won’t work.

Author – Elaine Pendlebury BA BSc  BVetMed DMS MRCVS  Senior Veterinary Surgeon (Science & Welfare) PDSA

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