Low doses of Antibiotics

Mitten's story goes back 5 years, but I am going to fill you in on the last 6 months. Ever since Mittens had a PU done in December of 2005, he has had infections one right after another. For the last 2 years, he has had only 2-4. Since January, he has had 4. He just finished Clavamox last Thursday and yesterday noticed he was peeing blood. We took him this morning and the vet confirmed that he will have to be on a lose dose of antibiotics for the rest of his life. He has given him Zeniquin 25 mg for the next 10 days. I take him back on Tuesday for a recheck to see if the bleeding has ceased. I just don't understand what is going wrong. Is it just because he is getting old or the surgery has just ruined his life?

My concern is how is this going to affect his overall quality of life...is he going to still have infections? He is about 10 years old. How many of you give your pets medication daily? I just don't know how common it is and I really don't know if I should keep him alive if he is contining to suffer. And, how can I tell if he is suffering? I am just so lost. He is my baby, as you all know what I am feeling. What are your opinions? Please help me.

I have several kids at school on permanent, low-dose antibiotics for bladder infections. As far as I know, they haven't had any additonal infections and they have a great quality of life. In case that helps.

If Coco dosent get better this time she will be on low does Antibiotics forever also. She is on bottles number 6 right now and has 3 more refills then she will get another urine test. She is on Clavamox Pills now.

I personally have had horrible experiences with antibiotics. Not with the cats, but with myself. I always get red flags when I hear about long term antibiotic use. I was recently on them for over 2 months to fight an infection. They nearly killed me.

But here's what I've learned. Make sure that the antibiotic that is given actually treats the bacteria that you are targeting. A lot of strains of bacteria are natural to your body and help you. If you over take antibiotics that kill off the good bacteria alone (and aren't effective against the bad ones), you can harm yourself.

Read up on what the antibiotics are targeting and ask your vet a lot of questions about the effectiveness of them. And see if you can switch them around from time to time so that they don't stop working. Antibiotics can be great if given the right way.