Updated September 25, 2023
Convenia® is the most widely used antibiotic in Australian cats. Yet despite it having major problems no owner has ever questioned my decision to use it. Hopefully after this you will.
After all, part of the reason vets use it so much is because we think you want us to.
What Is Convenia?
Convenia is a long-acting broad spectrum antibiotic called cefovecin. Once injected, it attaches to blood proteins and works for up to 14 days.
When Convenia first came on the market it was a godsend, or so we thought. Here was the answer to all those cats and dogs who just couldn’t be given pills. And to our fears that owners would miss antibiotic doses.
And in truth it is a remarkable antibiotic. It’s generally safe, highly effective and not too expensive in smaller animals like cats. For these reasons it’s changed the very nature of veterinary practice around the world.
So where’s the problem? It’s right there in the name.
Convenia Is Too Convenient
There are two good reasons why cefovecin is usually not the best antibiotic, but no others are so easy to administer. This leads are some of the following thoughts a vet might have:
- I bet this cat is hard to give tablets to
- I doubt this owner can give the medication any other way
- If I use it I’m more confident that my treatment won’t fail
- Owners prefer it when I give their animal a shot
- My boss says I have to give Convenia for this
- If I don’t give it, they’ll go elsewhere
And some of these could even be true. So, faulty as it is, it’s the popular choice. Even for things we just shouldn’t be using antibiotics for at all, like:
- simple diarrhoea
- cystitis (lower urinary tract signs) in young cats
- routine surgery or dentistry
There’s also the added pressure that once we make up a vial, it needs to be used within a time limit or we throw away several hundred dollars.
So what were those two reasons it’s not so good?
1. Convenia’s Side Effects
When Convenia came on the market, vets were understandably excited. It opened up a whole new way of treating difficult cases. But fairly soon we started to hear stories of adverse reactions.
Cefovecin contains the same base structure as penicillin, and so allergies can occur. When they happen with other antibiotics, we just stop them. With Convenia, blood levels are known to persist for 65 days.
That’s an out of control roller coaster you can’t get off.
However, let me be absolutely clear. It is still an excellent choice in three situations:
- Resistant infections
- Severe life threatening illness
- When cats simply will not allow other medications to be given
Serious reactions are rare enough that when my cat was sick, I still chose Convenia to get her better. The daily fight to get her to take the pills was ruining our relationship. But perhaps if I’d known then what I know now I would have tried harder.
2. Convenia’s Wider Effects
Nobody has ever come to me with what I am about to say. I have learnt this only by finding the information myself. It’s the silence of a guilty status quo that needs to change.
It turns out that cefovecin is a “highest priority critically important antimicrobial”. It’s supposed to be a third line antibiotic, only used after the first and second choices fail, or after culture and sensitivity testing. This is when you swab and grow a bacteria to work out which antibiotics it’s sensitive to.
A recent Australian study found that vets were only performing cultures 0.3% of the time. Even when they did they always started the Convenia before the results anyway.
I am included in this behaviour. It can be hard to convince an owner to spend the extra 100+ dollars on testing and the results take several days to get. Usually you just want to get on and treat.
Why Does It Matter?
Antimicrobial resistance affects us all. We tend to blame doctors for overprescribing, or the agricultural industries, but people in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. The rate of antibiotic resistance in dogs and cats is comparable to that in humans and certainly higher than farm animals.
The use of third-generation cephalosporins like cefovecin is known to lead to the development of multidrug resistant organisms in people. Convenia is probably a worse offender due to the long ‘tail’ between 14 and 65 days when antibiotics are present in the body at sub-lethal doses to bacteria. This is a boot camp for resistance.
The problem isn’t just for ‘society’. If I give your cat Convenia when I could have used a first or second line antibiotic, their resident flora will probably develop resistance too. That means important antibiotics could fail later when we really need them, even possibly for you if you pick up those bacteria.
So What Should We All Do?
The path out of this mess is actually quite simple. Here are some suggestions for cat owners:
- Proactively tell your vet if you think you can give oral medications. We are often time-pressured so you might find you don’t get a choice otherwise.
- Even if you think you can’t, you mostly can. Common diseases like hyperthyroidism and chronic kidney disease tell us that every cat owner can do it when the chips are down.
- If it still seems impossible, visit my page on giving cats tablets. You’ll see that I stress the importance of roping in a second person to help, even a neighbour.
- As a last resort, most practice nurses will give tablets or injections for no extra fee if you come down at a set time.
- Antibiotics aren’t just tablets. Most can be made in liquid form, which is generally easier. And would you believe that giving a daily injection is easiest of all once you know how. Most recently a 90-year-old client of ours totally aced it!
For vets, who are in the driving seat it’s even easier:
- Vets should ask owners about their capabilities and wishes. If owners want to try we should give them support from the practice.
- We need to take a good hard look at whether some conditions really need antibiotics at all. Part of the problem here is our tendency to be risk averse (see below*).
- If antibiotics are needed, we should ask ourselves whether we can use one of low or medium importance instead.
By saying all this I don’t want to set myself up as a saint or criticise other vets. Until recently I was using Convenia way too much, often for the wrong things. The authorities can’t criticise either until they’ve made a decent effort to get the information in front of busy vets.
After all, they’re the ones who registered it, allowed it onto the market and then stepped away.
Sources
Hardefeldt, L., Hur, B., Verspoor, K., Baldwin, T., Bailey, K. E., Scarborough, R., … & Gilkerson, J. (2020). Use of cefovecin in dogs and cats attending first‐opinion veterinary practices in Australia. Veterinary Record, 187(11), e95-e95
Norris, J. M., Zhuo, A., Govendir, M., Rowbotham, S. J., Labbate, M., Degeling, C., … & Ward, M. P. (2019). Factors influencing the behaviour and perceptions of Australian veterinarians towards antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance. PloS one, 14(10), e0223534
Singleton, D. A., Rayner, A., Brant, B., Smyth, S., Noble, P. J. M., Radford, A. D., & Pinchbeck, G. L. (2021). A randomised controlled trial to reduce highest priority critically important antimicrobial prescription in companion animals. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-14
The National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship
* One problem we don’t talk about enough is the pressure vets feel to practise defensive medicine. I recently treated a limping dog whose owners told me at the outset they wouldn’t have xrays done. So I treated the dog the best I could and when the dog turned out to have bone cancer (as I suspected), they made a complaint anyway. This sort of attitude gives us very little room for manoeuvre to not use antibiotics. If we are wrong even 1% of the time, we could still be held responsible.
Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.
Took my cat too vet.she was skinny but she ate alot.vet drew blood for tests gave her a shot of convenia.found her dead the next day. 1/2 cc shot convenia.im convinced this killed her.it was too quick. Vet said she had hyperthyroidism and kidney problems. Steve
Hi, Andrew, thank you for this article. My cat Zeus had anal gland issues since October 2022, (I didn’t know it was anal sac gland till Feb 2023.) He had been bleeding but we weren’t sure it came from him since the other cat has had constipation issues as well and given many enemas. We finally realized it was Zeus who was bleeding and took him in February, they said he had arthritis and anal gland issues, he was given the metrozondale antibiotic and cerenia for the vomiting, that didn’t work for lomg and he kept bleeding and was constipated again, we took him back in march he got calvamox and enema then in April 7th we took him back, the bleeding started again and she gave him a few enemas and Convenia shot, she did palpitate the glands before the enema but no biopsy was taken. he went back April 21st. she had communicated with me before april 21st that since the Convenia shot worked the first time that we could give him that again and that it was okay to do so so i without doing my research on this and that if i knew that should not give 2xs in one month because it stays in the system for 65 days, i would have said NO! april 29th and april 30th he started to show signs of not walking right and then his legs collapsed totally on may 5th, took to emergency may6th ultrasound did not diagnose fully cancer but said ibd suspected or cancer and ivdd, what the hell! xray saw arthritis and constipation but none of what they then said after ultrasound and this is after the legs collapsed. nothing about the side effects of convenia which now i know thats what it was cause in the end was kidney failure when his kidneys were fine back in october and my vet who did the anal glands expressing said she didnt feel a tumor. but emergency vet said possible ibd when they said they did not see it in ultrasound but that could be cause he was on steroids by that time, dont know. i know how ibd cancer is i had a cat with 6 years of ibd then it morphed into cancer, how can this be IBD in Zeus when he had no signs of it until what recently? that cant be! i know what ibd looks like and its progressive and so is kidney! he was fine except for the anal gland which thats probably all it was, how can he die on May 13th from kidney failure? or from cancer? this is what they told me in the end. he was not able to poop or pee properly from not being able to use his legs to sit stand or squat, but he did pee a lot all the time for those two weeks on himself and he did poop but why did he get that way? he was dragging his poor body around until he no longer had even the strength to do that! it looks like to me he got Ataxia or something because all this couldnt have come from anal gland issues? and about ivdd the neurologist didnt think it was that because its rare for cats and dogs get that most… but it was like all of a sudden his spine gave out on him and he got neurological issues then he died may 13th, we had to put him to sleep he just got worse and worse as the days went by. this was 2 weeks after the second shot of convenia that he couldnt suddenly walk. Can you please help me figure this out cause i have not stopped crying. Why did i okay for this vet to give him another shot? this antibiotic i did not know stays in the system for 65 days and she never told me this!!! or about the side effects!!! hew as only 11 yrs old and 9months. he did not even make it to be 12. Me nor my mom think it was cancer because we had 4 cats with cancer and that’s progressive not all of a sudden. Uless it was anal sac cancer but the vet didnt feel a tumor noe did we see one in the xray or ultrasound. they tried to push for a MRI but thats $5,000! here in Connecticut USA. What would the MRI tell us that ultrasound would not? They just wanted our money and in the end he died from their malpractice in using a shot that should NOT have been used 2xs in one month!
Hi Venus. What you’ve been told is not exactly correct; the drug can be used at 14 day intervals – although it stays in the system for much longer, it is at too low a dose to be effective in most cats. Therefore, it needs to be repeated to maintain blood levels when it is required. As for kidney disease, this is not a common side-effect of antibiotics in this class, and personally I would not think it was related to the Convenia.
Thank you for your reply. I did look back on more medical records of Zeus and found that on October 11th he was diagnosed with UTI and the vet did give him his first convenia shot then (the second one was April 7th and third was April21st.) she then did lab work October 13th and the 14th came back with results, found something wrong with his kidneys and was worried, i heard back on my voicemail messages for that one… but then after that he was fine, he was eating and drinking fine, peeing and pooping good and we didnt think anything else was wrong, we were going to take him back to vet to do more diagnostics but she decided he didnt need fluids or anything else if he was back on track… and he put back the weight he had lost so we thought he was back to normal until the anal gland issues which now i believe it must have started in december but didnt know which cat was bleeding until we caught it was Zeus in February/March around there. by then i think whatever was wrong was too late. was it the convenia shot because he got it when he had a UTI that made it worse and downhill from there? or was he doomed for kidney failure no matter what and not anything to do with the shot because it was kidney issues left untreated? I ask because your article says it should not be given for UTI issues. he did not have crystals in his urine the vet said from what urninalysis test back in october revealed so that wasnt the issue, it was just a urinary tract infection and was given the prasozin and convenia on october 11th. i just find it odd she did the blood work after the shot on october 13th and the result was not good for kidney, could the shot have had an effect on the results? and should it not been given for the UTI? i am trying to figure out if any of this had to do with the end results on May 13th and was it spiral down hill from there. also i wanted another cbc done for him in May after the ultrasound but i couldnt afford it from the emergency vet bill was already insane, only could afford from our regular vet but she didnt want to do it yet because the results would be tainted by the steroids that were already prescribed to him after the emergency vet visit. i think they all misdiagnosed him for the cancer, we really dont think it was cancer after viewing the medical records now and listening back to the messages the vets left us when giving back lab results, we think it was kidney issues left untreated that may or may not have contributed to the convenia. i wish we would’ve had more lab work done before May 13th and after October 13th, the in between months, would that have saved him? at least to prepare for treatments? what do you think now about it because of the UTI?
My other cat has had many UTI issues in the past too and he’s okay now with it but if it’s not safe to give it in case he got another one sometime in future i want to be prepared and say no to that antibiotic. what antibiotic should be used instead for UTI then?
Hi Venus. You are right that I said we should not be giving antibiotics routinely for urinary tract infections, but that’s because the vast majority of these cases are not caused by bacteria. You can find more information by searching for cystitis on our website, but the treatment of this disease is more about controlling environmental factors than in using antibiotics. Of course, there are exceptions where antibiotics will be necessary, which I see more commonly in elderly cats. It’s not that the use of antibiotics themselves is harmful, it’s just that it’s not the best treatment most of the time.
Convenia is not working on my cats sinus infection. Next we will most likely have a culture and/or scan done.
How long after a Convenia shot, can we start a different antibiotic?
Hi Sally. As long as the new antibiotic will not interact with the Convenia, it can usually be started straight away. This is true for most other classes of antibiotics.
I would never give this convenia injection to any animal period !! And it takes 65 days to leave the body. In my opinion it’s a very dangerous drug keep reading about it and you’ll find out what I did.
My cat who is 8 had upper respiratory infections since January. He had 3 shots of the 3 day antibiotic. Now he on his 3 of this antibiotic. He had the injection yesterday and today he under the bed lethargic . He also on steroids as he now all of a sudden got asthma.
Hi Susan. There are other antibiotics that last for three days, that are generally well tolerated and not the subject of this article. I hope your kitty gets better.
My 26 year old cat was given Covenia 2werks ago, he wasn’t getting better. I had Keflex and dosed the capsule out per kg of weight. So far, I have used almost one 500 mg capsule , I still have 2 doses left , my cat is 6 lbs now. He after 2 days was completely well. Now worried about the resistance the Covenia will possibly cause going forward.
This product killed my cat! Extremely unsafe. I sure wish I had researched this antibiotic before I relied on my vet’s advice.
Hi Joyce. I’m very sorry to hear that. For the sake of balance, I need to say that it’s very hard to prove the cause of death in individual cases, but my general misgivings about this product are well known.
This killed my healthy 6 year old cat. He was given this injection for a UTI, came home, ran upstairs, and fell over dead.
Hi Leigh. It certainly sounds plausible, given the timing and what I assume was the absence of any other health problems except urinary issues. Of course, in any individual case, it’s impossible to prove that the drug caused the death. In his case, if it did happen so fast, I would assume that any penicillin derivative would have done the same. Your experience brings up one of my other problems with the use of antibiotics here: most cats (especially male ones) with the signs of a UTI do not actually have an infection.
Convenia killed my cat too. She had 13 symptoms from the Pfizer/Zoetis UK research. It’s reported in Zoetis leaflet. First vet who gave my cat Convenia without me knowing, gave her Depo-Medrol to counteract the allergic reaction from Convenia which made her worse. Second vet said she had a drug eruption. He gave her fluid therapy, but she was too far gone. The Convenia had killed her good bacteria and she was turning to stone. And she could’t move, her mouth was agape, and she could hardly breathe. She died a day later. The first vet ruined my trust in vets forever. I know you’re one of the good ones, but there is no consequence’s for the bad ones. They just do what ever the drug sales reps tell them to do.
Money, money, money, mon-ney.
Hi Valentina. I’m so sorry to hear about your kitty, but I also feel the need to defend the vets you have seen. They are almost always under great time pressure, and in fact, the use of Convenia is often cheaper than using an injection of another drug plus tablets or drops to follow. For nearly all of them, it’s more that they honestly believe that this is the best treatment and the one that is most likely to work. I can promise you that no vet anywhere wants to use something that would cause harm. Whether it did in this case is of course impossible to prove, but I’m not letting the drug off the hook either as you can see from the article.
All a bunch of scare tactics I myself have treated my cats with Convenia for UTIs and not one single issue. My sister has treated her dogs, and a few friends NOT one issue.
Talk to your Vet as I have they treat hundred if not thousands of animals personally my vet has been using Convenia in all types of animals and the biggest side effect? Soreness or tiredness. Nothing is 100% safe that’s life don’t let these the sky is falling articles take away from doing what’s best you your pet and you
Hi Mark. Reactions to cefovecin are not common, and so most people (and indeed most vets) have not seen them. I have seen it personally only once. This does mean it is generally a safe drug and is better used than no antibiotic at all. However, no one in the field would argue that it’s better to swap the convenience factor for a lower priority antibiotic given every day, as long as it’s achievable for the owner.
My cat , who is approx 2-3, he was a neighbourhood cat who started eating our cats food so we neutered and adopted him in December 2022. He developed dermatitis so we brought him to the vet in Feb, he was given a steroid & antibiotic injection and we found out he has fiv, we booked two weeks later to check up and see if he got better. He did not get better and was given another steroid and antibiotic injection. He has not gotten any better and has in fact gotten worse, I took him to the emergency today because he wasn’t eating and was showing signs of fever, they cleaned his skin and gave a steroid and antibiotic injection. I doubt this course of antibiotics will work and I’m not sure what to do/ask the vets to do. I was hoping for a referral to a feline dermatologist but have not been offered that and I am very worried about the risk of antibiotic resistance, especially since he has fiv I am sure we have many infections ahead.
Hi Celina. Although it’s often the right treatment, sometimes giving a steroid at the same time as an antibiotic can prevent full elimination of the infection, as the steroid is usually immunosuppressive. You can ask for a referral and it sounds like a good idea.
You reason you not the only person in the world. LOL my guy just because u never had a problem doesn’t mean there aren’t hundreds who have.
You sound like a Bonefied sheep, “personally my vet has been using Convenia in all types of animals and the biggest side effect? Soreness or tiredness” even if u work in the vet office….With all those treated animals you do NOT know how they all reacted . especially if the pet parents never came back
Thank you for writing on this. My 12yo cat has an infection in multiple of his nail beds (underlying cause not known). It was quite bad by the time we caught it and brought him to urgent care earlier this week. They clipped and cleaned his claws under light sedation and sent us home with Clavamox, 1ml every 12 hours. This was after swabbing and observing cocci in cytology (but not doing a full culture).
Today at the three-day follow up the doctor was concerned about his GI issues from the Clavamox (diarrhea and very little eating – neither of which he was experiencing before starting the Clavamox). Vet recommended a Convenia shot and discontinuing the oral antibiotic and we went with that,
I hadn’t read much on Convenia and now I am wondering whether there are risks in using it after beginning a course of a different antibiotic. Is there anything I should be looking out for?
(He was also prescribed pro-pectalin to help with the diarrhea. I haven’t seen this stuff before, but the cat has made it very clear there is NO WAY he’s eating it. )
Hi N. I don’t think the previous use of an antibiotic will increase the risk, which is very low. If cats won’t take their meds any other way, it’s a reasonable decision to use it.
I hope your cat is ok my cat had this and antibiotics didnt work the infection in the nail bed was sadly caused by cancer which had spread to the nail beds
My cat is 18 years old. She has been a healthy happy cat her entire life but has presented with some early signs of kidney problems and dental problems in the last year. In recent days she started to drool from her mouth, lost her appetite a bit and would pace around restlessly. It appeared on the surface to be gum disease, especially the way she was dropping her food and the condition of her mouth and gums.
My local vet gave her Convenia less than 24 hours before posting this. He asked no questions about it, or advised me what he was giving her. However, as she is 18 years old I suspect the vet is pulling out the last stops to prolong her life a bit.
I am hopeful but know my dear old girl is on borrowed time.
I am not a vet but your story makes me think of our Suzy. She was also an older cat when she started having dental problems. Since she was so old and had kidney disease our vet decided against a dental procedure. She got antibiotics instead and it ended up helping her and we could avoid the dental surgery. Maybe this will be the case with your cat as well. Our Suzy also had kidney disease. We placed water bowls all over the house for her and got her a drinking fountain to encourage her to drink a lot, we also switched her to can food only. She died at the proud age of 19 1/2!
Hope the antibiotics helped your cat as well and she is eating better again. Don’t be afraid to ask your vet questions.
Best wishes for you and your pet, Bianca
How long before symptoms show up? Our cat had the injection twelve days ago. He seemed to be feeling so much better until yesterday. He’s not gotten into anything that we can tell, but he’s showing a lot of the side effects. Lethargy and no interest in eating. Do the side effects subside on their own or do we need to get him in to see someone? It’s Christmas Eve now and we have no emergency vets close, but obviously we want him taken care of. We are having an impossible time finding answers.
Hi JB. Although I am on record as not preferring this particular antibiotic, it’s important also not to overstate the risks. In your case, it’s almost certain that what you are actually seeing is the antibiotic wearing off and the original disease returning, not side-effects from the medicine itself. Therefore, you had better find a vet.
Hi. My cat had the shot yesterday. He ate and drank last night but a couple of hours (if that) he started moaning as if he was in pain and completely lethargic doesn’t want to be bothered at all. He moves around the house very very slowly and when he lays down he moans. He moaned all night. I tried to give him soft food that he loves and water, he refuses and walks away. I need help. Been to the vet 4 times and no progress.
Hi Carrie. It’s important to differentiate the symptoms of the disease that you took him to the vet for, and any treatment side-effects. In this case, it sounds more likely that it’s the underlying disease, of which it is still too soon to respond to the treatment. The best thing to do is stay in touch with your vet.
Thanks for this very useful information. I find that some vets are now prepared to do the more “invasive” treatments without seeking the owners permission e.g injected medications, needle into the bladder to get a urine sample. Its NOT ok by me. I will let my vet know she must seek my INFORMED permission. We pay vets for their expertise after all – they should tell us the facts and not just opt for the easiest course of action for them.
Hi Mary. That’s certainly excellent in theory, but practically it’s very difficult for vets to give informed consent for everything they do. For example it would take longer than there is time available just to go through all of the possible choices of drugs and their reactions. To some extent you’ll need to put your trust in the vet of your choice. By highlighting areas of concern, I would hate it if it meant people felt they had to question all areas, as it is likely that that this would lead to a relationship breakdown and result in worse care for their pets.
Are pre/probiotic supplements, or anything helpful for a pet (cat) who’s received a Convenia injection to re-gain a healthier bacterial resistance? My cat was recently given one after an enucleation. This may be his second in three years. Two weeks after his surgery and the injection, he’s not himself. He’s eating ok but losing weight and low energy. I will say he’s had a rough few weeks- just a few days before that surgery, he had dental extractions and was given clavamox.
Hi Jacqueline. Pre- and probiotics may help. I would doubt that his low energy and weight loss are being caused by the Convenia though. Therefore a follow up check with your vet is a good idea.
My cat had a UTI, and my Vet decided without my consent (during the exam that I was not allowed to be present for) to give her the shot. Before getting the culture results that I requested, due to previous experiences with vets. It didn’t work. My poor kitty was doing better for only three days before her symptoms started up again, even more severe then before. I’m so upset and disappointed in the care she received. They charged me over two hundred dollars for this shot, and administrated it before I was able to consent.
My 6 year old cat recently passed away from cardiomyopathy/heart attack. She had a nonspecific immune disease that attacked her soft tissue and was on chronic steroids. She had frequent vet checkups and had never been diagnosed with any type of heart disease. 4-6 weeks ago she had a URI and my boyfriend took her to the vet, they injected her with Convenia. Since the shot she had lethargy, shortness of breath/congestion and diarrhea. I’m convinced she died of Convenia induced cardiomyopathy. Is this a possibility?
Hi Lovereet. It almost sounds like you are describing two separate problems. Certainly, when cats have severe allergic responses, they can get respiratory problems so that would be a possible side-effect if a cat reacted badly to Convenia. Cardiomyopathy on the other hand, is probably not an immune mediated disease, especially the common form (hypertrophic). This can occur even in quite young cats and it does not have a known cause, so I would not think the antibiotic injection could be responsible.
my cat aged 7 was injected with covenia without my consent and is now deaf also her quiet nature has changed. Will her hearing come back after 65 days, I fear your answer.
Hi Frank. As much as I’m sad it was done without your consent, Convenia is an unlikely reason for a cat to go deaf. Therefore I can’t predict what might happen next but it would be worth talking to your vets about what else might be causing it.
I lost my cat I strongly believe to Convenia after reading many reports from other cat owners who lost their cats. I wasn’t informed she was given this antibiotic after the vet came to talk to me after the evaluation. The vet suspected a UTI without completing an urinalysis She was never Ill never had an antibiotic she was 9 years old. After reading your article I believe this is what caused her death. I also wasn’t asked if she was hard to pill either
Thank you for writing this article. I am struggling with finding a vet who dies not recommend it. I started going to a new practice. The first vet at this practice didn’t talk about Convenia.
The second one recommended a second round and said that even though i don’t like Convenia, it would be better for a respiratory infection. I said no thank you.
The previous practice injected my cat with it without my permission during a dental. Even though i said i don’t want it and the plan fir the dental clearly specified a different anti-biotic
I’m furious with my local vet whom told me she was going to give my kitten an antibiotic injection for an infected spay wound. I assumed it was just the first shot that would be followed by oral antibiotics. However she told me afterwards that the injection lasts two weeks, so I can only assume it was convenia. I would never have agreed to my kitten having such a large dose of long acting drug injected into her body had I known. Surely this isn’t informed consent?! My kitten is much sleepier and more subdued than usual and not eating as much.
After reading your post I’m even more upset that she’s had a 3rd line antibiotic. Where’s the accountability…thank you for your enlightening account.
Thanks Andrew! I’m so excited to see you talk about antimicrobial resistance on this platform. As you said, it’s not just a human issue, it’s a global threat and we all need to do our part to use antimicrobials wisely.
We get our new puppy in 4 weeks so I’ve been looking for a vet and came across your amazing blog. Needless to say I’ve booked her in at your clinic and for puppy school.
Thanks for the kind words Lisa! I look forward to meeting you and your new puppy.
thank you for writing fearlessly and frankly – antibiotic resistance is a huge issue for humans and everything you said re Convenia (the name sounds like a spoof!) could apply to how we use antibiotics. we’re all guilty of wanting convenience and silver bullets. i’m a new pet owner and in all the sea of opinion and advice your blog is refreshingly honest. thank you!
I would be very interested in your views, or if you have ever written an article on the use of Gabapentin in dogs.
Hi Margaret. Gabapentin is a fairly uncontroversial second-line treatment for arthritis.