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A preliminary study on the use of carbenicillin in snakes
Author(s) -
LAWRENCE K.,
NEEDHAM J. R.,
PALMER G. H.,
LEWIS J. C.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of veterinary pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1365-2885
pISSN - 0140-7783
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2885.1984.tb00887.x
Subject(s) - carbenicillin , dose , pseudomonas , pseudomonas aeruginosa , antibiotics , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , biology , veterinary medicine , chemistry , gentamicin , bacteria , genetics
The results of a 10 year survey on the in vitro antibiotic resistance patterns of Pseudomonas spp. isolated from clinically ill reptiles, showed a high degree of sensitivity to carbenicillin. On the basis of sensitivity testing, carbenicillin was used to treat nine snakes of four different species, with confirmed Pseudomonas infections. Plasma carbenicillin levels were assayed, by a microbiological agar diffusion technique, at intervals of time after a single intramuscular injection at a dose rate of 400 mg/kg. Peak plasma levels of 177 and 270 μg/ml were reached 1 h after the initial injection and therapeutic levels persisted for at least 12 h. This initial study indicated that a suggested dose regime in snakes, derived by extrapolation from mammalian dosages, of 100‐125 mg/kg daily was insufficient to produce plasma levels of sufficient magnitude and duration to effectively treat Pseudomonas infections in snakes.