Ciprofloxacin

Question

Skin Culture Report  

Culture Report Page 2   My dog has tested positive in a skin culture for pseudomonas and needs to take ciprofloxacin 250mg tablets twice a day. He has also tested positive for MRSP-4+ and could not tolerate chloramphenicol. I am having the vet give him almost daily chlorhexidine baths and using muricin topically. But my main question for you is can the 250mg cipro tablet be crushed and added to food? He has refused to take in pill form no matter how it is disguised. Can this pill be crushed into a powder safely? Thank you very much.

Answer
Ciprofloxacin tablets in the dog are not well absorbed if at all!!! Almost half of the dogs given tablets in experimental studies did not get much of a blood level to ciprofloxacin.  Cipro in a liquid form is somewhat better, absorption is almost 70%...still not very reliable.

Enrofloxacin (Baytril) or Marbofloxacin (Zenequin) would be much better to use if you are going to use a fluoroquinolone type of drug.  These drugs are well absorbed from the dog and are converted to ciprofloxacin within the dog's body.