My kitten has URI. Is clindamycin effective or are there better meds?

Hello, sorry to hear about Gimli. It is really dependent on what kind of infection you kitten has. Most upper respiratory infections are viral which antibiotics cannot treat. Therefor, you must await for the virus lifecycle to end. You may talk to your vet about using lysine gel or topical anti-virals to help shorten the virus life cycle. Hope this helps.

This is a great question. Doxycycline falls into the category of antibiotics called tetracyclines. Other tetracyclines- namely oxytetracycline- are shown to disturb bone and teeth developement in fetal skeletons or in young growing animals. Doxycycline is MUCH less likely to do this than other tetracyclines. Even so, the formulary recommends considering the risks and benefits before prescribing. Though I don’t routinely give this to kittens (I prefer clavamox) I do often give it to puppies. I have not yet seen or heard of a case of abnormal bone developement with doxycycline in kittens or puppies - but it could theoretically happen. In my opinion, doxycycline is a great drug for upper respiratory infections in cats- especially in a shelter situation which may not have the labor, funding, or storage abilities of my suburban clinic. I also feel that - especially in a shelter situation - the benefits far outweigh the risks. I am far more worried about a kitten in a shelter dying from complications from a URI than I am about the minuscule chance of affecting bone development. Of course, if your shelter had plenty of liquid clavamox and people to administer it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to switch the young ones to something like that. Hope this helped clarify some things! Thank you for all you do!

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. In regards to the test results, I would contact your vet to find out what the results were. For the cats you havestarted on doxycycline, the respiratory symptoms may not be due to a bacterial infection but rather a viral infection, in which case, an antibiotic won't treat if it is purely a viral infection. Sure it will treat secondary bacterial infections that may be going on as a result of the primary viral but I wouldn't rely on an antibiotic solely to treat this. I recommend using lysine supplementation. Many times in kittens, they pick up the herpes virus from the mother. Lysine works by lessening the severity and possibly shortening the duration of a herpes viral infection. Duralactin with Lysine is the supplement I recommend to help treat the infection which can be found online. If the infection worsens, a nebulizer may help and sometimes antibiotics are nebulized in severe cases. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

This may be a virus and not a bacterial infection. If that's the case antibiotics will not help and the virus needs to run its course which can take up to two weeks. As long as she isn't getting worse, running a fever and is eating I would keep monitoring her. If at any time she does get worse or isn't getting any better after 7-10 days, I would call your veterinarian. Let her rest unless she wants to play. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

No, I would not give Myla human augmentin to treat an upper respiratory infection. For one, it's never recommended to self treat your cat's health problems as you may accidentally do more harm than good. In addition, URI in cats are typically caused by viruses, so antibiotics will not help at all. I would have Myla seen by a vet. The vet can prescribe medications to treat her symptoms.

They are safe to use together however clavamox has a high rate of causing nausea/loss of appetite too. Of course consult with your veterinarian as I do not know what condition your little baby has and one of or both of those may be uneccesary. With all of these antibiotics I also definitely recommend a probiotic like benebac gel. Best of luck to you and the kitten!

Clavamox and Convenia are not suitable antibiotics for this type of infection, azithromyacin is a very good option and should solve the problem, if it doesn't i would recommend asking your vet to try Doxycycline or Veraflox next.