Antibiotics causing GI distress/vomiting?!?

My 8 yo female tortie was prescribed 14 days of clavamox for a UTI/cystitis.  After symptoms returned two days after completing this cycle she was prescribed a second antibiotic, Baytrin/Enroflaxacin, which I crushed and mixed with her wet food.  After two days she started vomiting 4-6 times in the middle of the night.  My vet put her back on Clavamox, but at a higher dosage yesterday, and with the addition of Famotidine for nausea.  Same vomiting pattern last night as previous, but with diarrhea, as well.  

Obviously the antibiotics are wreaking havoc on her already sensitive GI system.  And the vet can't do an accurate urinalysis until she's been off antibiotics for five days.  The urinary symptoms have subsided (for now).  X-rays indicate "possible" small intestinal thickening (ileus, IBS, lymphoma?), but nothing conclusive (note: she has a hx of proximal partial small bowel obstruction thats never been conclusively diagnosed). Bloodwork (although NOT tested for pancreatitis) came back normal.

My vet is talking Hill's ID bland food diet, ultrasound, endoscope biopsy.  I'm thinking d/c all meds, put her back on smaller portions of her regular grain-free wet food (Only Natural Pet well hydrated with water), but with the addition of a pre-biotic to rebuild stomach enzymes, and if the urinary symptoms return (difficulty urinating, small dots of blood in urine), then do the urinalysis anyways.

Anyone else had GI issues related to antibiotic usage?

Random thoughts on how to proceed?

I am sorry you are going through all this with your kitty.  Yes antibiotics can can GI issues.  I would probably wait and see how she does off of the antibiotics and back to her regular food.  If the GI issues continued then I would have further diagnostics done.

There are safer fluoroquinolones than enrofloxacin. The new generation are safer and have a higher threshold of safety especially when dealing with retinal toxicity.

Marbofloxacin, pradofloxacin, and orbifloxacin have much lower risks at label

doses.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...pvQfm-Bj0tOm9h9DJ7ayOA&bvm=bv.119745492,d.bGs

This is a PDF file. Acute-on-chronic-kidney disease in a a cat.

It gives some of the best descriptions of antibiotics to cats I have seen as an online source. It's a good resource for all of

GI upset is common with antibiotics.

Sometimes its best if you feed her some food before the meds.

Also maybe try asking the vet to give her Pepcid half an hour before she eats/meds etc and see what they think. Do they have those meds available as injection? Maybe it could help stop with the vomiting.

Poor baby-hope that the vomiting stops soon..also if you hold off food after vomiting-usually 3 to 4 hours and try to feed bland food=see if that stays down after you have waited 3 to 4 hours.

you can try babyfood meat-beechnut or gerber-only read the label and make sure no onions or garlic-but usually this is easier for them to digest-

I have done this for my cats when they have been prescribed antibiotics as they always seem to vomit it-so I feed a jar of babyfood-wait 15-20 min then give the antibiotics-usually it stays down better.

Also don't crush and mix meds in food-this will cause a food aversion and that's asking for trouble down the road-can you get some empty capsules at the health food store and put them in there so it cant be tasted or smelled? you can try pilling by rolling the pill in butter then pilling-then follow with 5ml of water to ensure the pill gets to the stomach-their esophagus is much longer than ours.

One of my cats absolutely could not take Clavamox.  It was even in his chart because it gave him such problems, mostly with vomiting. 

since you are aware of pre-biotics, are you giving pro-biotics while giving the anti-biotics, with a few hours in between.  Just like with us humans, it's always a good idea to do that, to keep the gut flora healthy.

Personally, I like your idea better than running all those tests.  Good food, extra water, pre and pro biotics, and try to keep her stress down.  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/six-surefire-strategies-to-reduce-stress-in-cats

She is adorable, BTW    Absolutely adorable!!!!!