Is twice-daily Cephalexin for dog skin issues safe long-term?

Cephalexin is a safe antibiotic and I am not aware of any side effects of long term usage. Using an antibiotic for a long period of time can however result in antibiotic resistance which is a major problem for animals and people. It is difficult to say how long is too long when you're talking about risk for antibiotic resistance. There are general guidelines regarding safe and prudent antibiotic usage - talk to your vet if you have concerns.

Ceohalexin once per day is not recommended. It needs to be given 2-3 times daily. That is likely why the infection keeps returning- it is probably never completely gone because the medication is not given correctly. A normal course of antibiotics is not likely to damage the liver or kidneys. You are making more of this possibility than you need to. That may happen 0.0001% of the time. I have never seen antibiotics, when used correctly, cause this problem in 25 years of my experience. Antibiotics are very useful drugs and needed in some cases like this. If you want a once a day antibiotic you can ask your vet for cefpodoxime. It is made for once daily dosing. He probably keeps getting these hot spots due to an underlying allergy. You can’t completely avoid this until you identify the underlying allergy. He needs allergy testing. You can try this topical medicated spray to see if it will help treat the spots. ( https://www.entirelypets.com/douxomicro200.html ) You can bathe him with the same product shampoo once a week to see if you help prevent the spots once they are healed. USE AS DIRECTED. ( https://www.entirelypets.com/duoxoc16.html )

Normal ALT range for dogs is 20-98. Bruno's level is normal. Give him ALL the cephalexin as directed by your vet until it is gone. Do not stop giving it just because you think the skin looks better. You are overly worried about the cephalexin causing liver problems - that is EXTREMELY rare. It is not necessary to give Bruno Silymarin but if you want to give it you can. The Canitone is better to give as it specific for dogs.

It is indeed a long treatment course but it would depend on the underlying reason. For example skin diseases/infections may require up to 4 weeks of treatment. Please give us more informations about it to receive more specific answers from us.

The Cephalexin bottle should have an expiration date on it. Also it is not recommended to give antibiotics if you cannot give them continuously for at least 7-10 days duration. So if you don't have enough or if they are expired, then I would not proceed with giving Nike the Cephalexin. Also it is good to get Nike re-evaluated because he may not even have an infection if there is no pus or bumps on the skin. The antibiotics in this case would be unnecessary and would not help with his itching. Instead he needs allergy medications +/- topical medicated shampoo's sprays available through your vet. Until you can get Nike in to the vet, you can try over the counter pet formulated fish oils, which helps to provide a natural anti-inflammatory property to the skin. You can also try an oatmeal based or aloe based shampoo topically if you want to try an over the counter approach. Just keep in mind however that most pets with true allergies require stronger meds at the vet. I would also recommend ensuring that Nike is on a high quality flea preventative such as Nexgard, Comforitis, Trifexis (flea and heartworm prevention), Bravecto, Seresto collar or Simparica. This may be a flea allergy that he is having. I hope that you get his itching resolved soon. Best wishes and take care.

It is a high dose (22 mg/kg is average although there is a range because of capsule sizes) and in some cases we would dose reduce this drug with kidney failure (but if your pet has early changes this may not be necessary, is case dependent). I would call your vet to check the dose, he or she may have a reason for this high dose. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hello. There are all different causes of skin eczema, but if your veterinarian put you on a combination of an antibiotic & anti-fungal medication, I would guess Bruno has a pretty serious skin problem. If he does have a fungal element to his skin disease, I just do not believe 5 days is long enough to do anything at all. Sometimes, these things need to be treated for 6-8 weeks before a cure is achieved. Does Bruno have any underlying organ dysfunction. I was not familiar with the trypsin , bromelain, rutoside preparation, but I found a paper where it was used to ameliorate the course of chronic renal failure in a rat model. Without knowing the exact diagnosis of Bruno's condition I cannot comment on your veterinarian's course of action. Perhaps he is just being cautious, but in my experience, most of these skin issues do take quite a bit more time to resolve than 5 days. Stay in close contact with your vet & follow all recommendations, but the actually drug amounts that were prescribes are reasonable to use over time. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.