I am staying with my parents right now and they have a 9 lb maltese-shi tzu mix that recently had her teeth cleaned. The vet said there was severe tooth decay and rx antibiotics! I don't know the exact name but it had amoxicillin in there somewhere. I think she's been on it for 4-5 days now.
Anyway, they (my parents) are going out of town this weekend and told me she needs it twice a day till it runs out. To me it just sounded ludicrous to prescribe antibiotics for tooth decay. From what I've been learning about humans, it's a malnutrition problem that causes the teeth to basically get osteoporosis. My mom said she didn't know enough about it to argue. I do know a little about it, and wouldn't give abx to my dog, but what should I do now?
Should I continue giving the abx since they've been started? (I remember reading somewhere that abx are prescribed for a much longer time than they are generally needed anyway.) Or should I stop and maybe feed her some probiotics or yogurt or something to heal her little tummy? I don't think my mom would be mad if I did, just as long as there was a sound reason for whatever I chose to do.
BTW, the dog eats really good (expensive) dog food, plus table scraps. I think my mom buys it at a healthy/natural pets kind of place. Last one I remember she was giving her hundenflocken (sp?) Solid Gold. I used to joke that you know your pet is spoiled when you feed them solid gold!!
Anyway, they (my parents) are going out of town this weekend and told me she needs it twice a day till it runs out. To me it just sounded ludicrous to prescribe antibiotics for tooth decay. From what I've been learning about humans, it's a malnutrition problem that causes the teeth to basically get osteoporosis. My mom said she didn't know enough about it to argue. I do know a little about it, and wouldn't give abx to my dog, but what should I do now?
Should I continue giving the abx since they've been started? (I remember reading somewhere that abx are prescribed for a much longer time than they are generally needed anyway.) Or should I stop and maybe feed her some probiotics or yogurt or something to heal her little tummy? I don't think my mom would be mad if I did, just as long as there was a sound reason for whatever I chose to do.
BTW, the dog eats really good (expensive) dog food, plus table scraps. I think my mom buys it at a healthy/natural pets kind of place. Last one I remember she was giving her hundenflocken (sp?) Solid Gold. I used to joke that you know your pet is spoiled when you feed them solid gold!!
