antibiotic advise

Question
I Sandra. I need your antibiotic advise, since my vet is on vacation.
I have a 15 month old female rat who has chronic myco and has to be on constant antibiotic treatment. My vet has given me two differnt bottles. doxycyline and septra. (0.2 doxy, and 0.25 Septra twice a day) 370 grams. I should strat witht one med for for one cycle and then switch to the other one when symptoms come back. I noticed that my rat very dislikes the Septra due to the bitter taste, so I had her on doxycyline for 6 weeks. she did well for three weeks without med, then she started sneezing again. I put her on doxy again, as I said, she refuses to take the Septra. first the antibiotic seemed to help but after 6 days I noticed that her breath sounds wheezy (before she did only sneeze), so I immediately put her on Septra. It really most difficult to give her the med. I mix it with her favorite food, but tends to not totally eat it. Whenever she notices the taste she stops eating. I try to make sure that most has gone into her, but I cannot force everything into her. I am afraid at some point she totally refuses any food mixt with it. The med helps though. She is on her second day, and her breezing sounds good. Is it harmful to her that I stop giving her Doxy after 7 days? should I continue giving her both? Is there an alternative to Doxy and Septra? thank you so much!

Answer

Why septra?  Have you tried other drugs?
Septra is effective against  streptococci and some strains of staphylococcus. However, it does not appear to be effective against  mycoplasma since, like most antibiotics, the organism attacks the cell wall in order to destroy the bacteria. With myco, there is no well cell wall and the medication is rendered useless if it cannot attack the cell. Baytril and doxycycline are the two that DO work on an organism that lacks a cell wall as does zithromax. The others are pretty useless.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The septra would be good for a secondary infection though so its a good idea she takes it.  Myco can weaken the immune system and leave her open to another type of infection.
Have you tried dosing her with half the dose of septra, adding it to melted chocolate ice cream, wait 10 minutes and give her the second half of the med mixed in  the ice cream too. The less you use the less bitter it will be and less noticable.

See how that goes and dont worry, the bit of ice cream wont hurt her...what will hurt her is NOT taking the meds. These rats are super slick, arent they?