|
Post by Curtis & Moet on Sept 25, 2024 19:46:12 GMT -7
We got the culture result back yesterday, and unfortunately Moet has MRSP again. We are going to start her on Nitrofurantoin again tomorrow after the prescription is refilled from the specialty pharmacy. I did some more reading on Nitrofurantoin to treat MRSP and it seems like the best choice for her with this bacteria: www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1189374/full . We don't have the directions from the vet yet, but very likely will do every 8hrs for 7 days. The culture indicated only susceptible to Chloramphenicol and Amikacin as well, so the bacteria has gotten worse since last time. Last time Clindamycin would have worked, but it's resistant to that now. This time it's Intermediate on Gentamicin, and last time it was to Doxycycline. Chloramphenicol is a relatively dangerous drug for humans to handle, so we are going to avoid that one for now, and the specialist vet we went to last Summer for MRSP said that Amikacin is known to work well for MRSP but is injectable and should be reserved for more of a last resort treatment. I'm not sure that we are ever really getting control of any of these bacteria, frankly, because we have never gotten a clean culture from her since we started down this path in 2021. We just seem to be trading one for another, and they are possibly kept dormant in some deep tissue only to emerge again later. Our primary vet, Dr. Blonien, said that unfortunately all of this is just a symptom not being able to completely express her no matter what we do, especially with her enlarged bladder wall.The good news is that Moet is 100% acting normal still, well, minus a serious increase in appetite lately due to the Temaril-P. The food she's been on for the trial is not as calorie dense as her normal food, plus the steroid increases appetite too, so she has been VERY vocal over needing snacks and getting 3-4 meals a day! Her weight is holding steady, so I guess she is ok to make such demands, haha.
|
|
PaulaM
Moderator.
Member since 2007: surgery, conservative . Montana, USA
Posts: 19,884
|
Post by PaulaM on Sept 26, 2024 12:50:56 GMT -7
With all that must be heavy on your mind dealing with this most troublesome of recurrent UTI's, thank you for reporting the good news from Moet's perspective. A healthy weight and acting her 100% normal self. She is a precious and cute girl with truly outstanding parents.
|
|
|
Post by Curtis & Moet on Oct 4, 2024 22:14:07 GMT -7
Good news. The Nitrofurantoin seems to have been a success. We did 7 days instead of just 5 after consulting Dr. Blonien. We are still having some urine in her diaper between changes, but not nearly as much as before, and we have not seen any mucus in her urine or diaper since last week. Now we have to decide if we want to spend another $350 on a culture to confirm the bacteria is gone, or just wait for the apparently inevitable time that she starts showing symptoms again.
We have also start giving her a bit of boiled chicken as a challenge for the food allergy test, so will be monitoring for any intense itch or licking.
|
|
|
Post by Romy & Frankie on Oct 5, 2024 13:54:17 GMT -7
I am happy to hear that the Nitrofurantoin seems to have been successful. Fingers crossed that the bacteria is gone.
|
|
|
Post by Curtis & Moet on Oct 8, 2024 6:50:19 GMT -7
Well, once again, 4 days after we stopped the Nitrofurantoin we got quite a bit of mucus out of her when expressing and her urine smells again, ugh. This is a different smell than before, so suspect it's not MRSP anymore.
We need to find a cheaper place to have cultures done. Any suggestions around DFW? If not, I guess we will just have to start calling different vets to ask what they charge. The prices with Parker Animal and Bird Clinic varies $275-350 each time.
|
|
PaulaM
Moderator.
Member since 2007: surgery, conservative . Montana, USA
Posts: 19,884
|
Post by PaulaM on Oct 8, 2024 9:01:05 GMT -7
|
|
|
Post by Curtis & Moet on Oct 13, 2024 21:09:54 GMT -7
We went ahead and had another culture done on 10/11 Friday and should have the results this week.
We figured out one cost savings with cultures. In July they charged $248 for one, but the one last month was $350. Turns out that most of the time they have run both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria cultures looking for more types of bacteria. I reviewed all of the culture results and found that not once have they detected an anaerobic bacteria, so we will do only the aerobic from now on to save about $100 each time. If we end up with a clear one (which we haven't had since we started this a couple years ago now) but are still seeing symptoms, then I think we'd consider an anaerobic possibly.
Also, Texas A&M has prices for these tests listed on their site for $17 for aerobic, and $33.75 for both aerobic and anaerobic.
We mentioned this to our vet (vs the IDEXX that they run), and asked if any way of sending to them, but our vet said they don't have the relationship setup with Texas A & M for cultures.
We are going to reach out to TAMU to see who in DFW that they do work with so that we could try and get lower prices cultures through them. There is obviously a cost for the cysto, packaging, and shipping of the sample to TAMU, but maybe it would be cheaper still for someone that sends to TAMU. We'll report back.
|
|
PaulaM
Moderator.
Member since 2007: surgery, conservative . Montana, USA
Posts: 19,884
|
Post by PaulaM on Oct 14, 2024 8:39:38 GMT -7
Wow, Curtis, you detecting how the "system" works. What a find! Hope to hear back there is a DFW entity associated with TAMU who you can work thru.
|
|
|
Post by Curtis & Moet on Oct 16, 2024 19:45:44 GMT -7
Culture results back and two isolates. Enterococcus (not sure which exact species), and Proteus mirabilis again.
We've started on Baytril for 30 days this time instead of Cipro (which causes Moet to vomit often) or Zeniquin (which doesn't seem to work as well as other antibiotics since she's been on it so often and still battling this).
Our normal Dr. is out for a few weeks, so we are working with another Dr. at the vet right now who acknowledged that proteus mirabilis is very hard to get rid of. This is at least the 3rd person at our vet who has mentioned this about proteus.
|
|
PaulaM
Moderator.
Member since 2007: surgery, conservative . Montana, USA
Posts: 19,884
|
Post by PaulaM on Oct 17, 2024 8:48:37 GMT -7
Dang, Enterococcus (unknown species) back again with Proteus!
|
|
|
Post by Romy & Frankie on Oct 17, 2024 13:28:11 GMT -7
I am sorry you both are going through this again.
|
|