Baytril and azithromycin

Question
You said that baytril and azithromycin cannot be given together, could you tell me why that is? My vet is a rat vet, and that is what we are using on one of our rats, plus I have not come across any contraindications for these two medications in my med books that suggests these would not work together. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Baytril is a bactericidal antibiotic while zithromax
bacteriostatic, but can be bactericidal as well, depending on the dose used.  Using a bactericidal and a bacteriostatic antibiotic together sometimes can cancel each other out unless using them together will provide synergy. Also, using two powerful antibiotics can create problems for the immune system long term.

Usually with a stubborn respiratory infection, baytril or zithromax can be used in combination with other drugs and using them in combination also creates synergism. This will help not only to combat myco but also a possible secondary infection that baytril alone or zithromax alone cannot destroy.
These drugs that can be used with both baytril or zithromax are:
amikacin or gentamicin), amoxicillin,clindamycin, and as stated earlier, doxycycline (for mycoplasmosis.)

However, since the rats metabolic rate is so fast and their life span is so short, some vets simply figure that if the benefits outweigh the risks, why not use what works?  In many cases though, other drugs used in combination have worked without having to result in using two top gun antibiotics together that have the same mechanisms of action.


You stated that your vet is a rat vet. Since there is no such thing as a vet that is specifically for rats, are you saying that the vet you see is one of the vets that are brand new to the most current specialty, which is now known as the Exotic companion mammal specialist? These vets just completed the very first state board exam offered to Vets in order to further their education in exotic medicine and the animals that they are seeing as a specialty are ferrets, rodents, lagomorphs etc....  I have yet to find one with this title so that is why I asked. Please let me know your location and the vets name so if ever someone needs to see a vet that holds this title I can steer them in the right direction.  It is very exciting that they are finally offering a specialty for our small mammal friends but again, I did not know that any vets were graduated from this course and practicing yet.
If you want to make the next follow up private thats ok too but I am sure your vet wont mind the business.