Reaction To Clavamox Or Just A Virus?

[dkb817]

Just over a week ago, my cat developed a small abscess near her mouth. The vet put her on 1ml of Clavamox twice daily for 10 days (the liquid version as pilling my cat is near impossible). After only the second dose, we noticed that she was borderline diarrhea, but since she also has megacolon, the vet had told us her stools should be closer to runny than not - so we didn't worry much. The past three days, however, she has also thrown up - Today, specifically, has been the worst as she has thrown up multiple times.

To err on the side of caution, I am going to stop the antibiotic (just because I remember seeing something in the paperwork about it potentially causing nausea/vomiting) a few doses early. The abscess that it was meant to be treating seemed to go away on day three, but I know it's important to finish antibiotics in humans so it can't be too different in animals. Is this dangerous or am I okay?


Also, I was sick for a couple of days with a virus that I caught from my baby niece. Is it possible that my cat isn't throwing up from the antibiotic and just happened to catch the virus from me? Is that even possible? If so, what should I do here - just try to keep her drinking?

 

[basschick]

talk to your vet. chances are that he/she can prescribe an anti nausea medication.

 

[Sonatine]

Not many viruses can be transmitted from human to cat, so it's unlikely that your cat caught anything from you. However, it's quite common for antibiotics to cause diarrhea. Vomiting is a fairly common side effect as well. Unpleasant, but fairly normal.

I'm not sure how many doses your cat has had. If the kitty isn't close to finished with the 10 day duration, then I'd be worried about the abcess coming back. Either way, talk to the vet; they can decide if she's close enough to finished with the prescription or not. If not, maybe a probiotic and/or anti-nausea medication could help keep the meds down, as suggested above. If that doesn't work, a different antibiotic might cause fewer side effects for your cat.

 

[silkenpaw]

I completely agree with Sonatine . Human colds do not affect cats. Clavamox can upset some cats’ stomach; I think you were right to stop it after the vomiting, but she may need another antibiotic to finish the course, so talk to your vet about that.

Good luck, please let us know what happens.

 

[dkb817]

The vet called back this morning (after I left a message on his machine at 2 am, #oops ) and originally tried to tell me that he didn't think it was a reaction to the antibiotic as she would have had one much sooner. I'll admit, I'm easily frustrated when doctors of any kind tell me that as I am chronically ill myself and have had all sorts of reactions to medications that doctors tell me aren't possible - so I have little doubt that the vomiting is, in fact, a side effect of the Clavamox. He offered to see her today, but admittedly, finances are a little tight so I couldn't afford the additional cost of an office visit since my girl has to be sedated to be properly examined. I told him we would just keep an eye on her for a few days without the antibiotic (but keeping up with her lactulose, miralax, and mineral oil - megacolon is a real pain in the butt to manage!).

The primary concern the vet had was to ensure she wasn't getting dehydrated, so if I have to, I will give periodic syringe fulls of water throughout the day. She's so used to syringes from her other meds that barring her immediately throwing up the water, it shouldn't provide any issue.


What would you all recommend? Should I leave her water dish in her kitty play area all day and try to periodically get her to eat some kibble - or just really focus on her drinking/getting the water?

How long does it normally take for kitties that have this kind of reaction to Clavamox to move past the vomiting stage once taking them off of it?


(Me thinks it's going to be a long day of cleaning up small amounts of kitty throw up ))

 

[silkenpaw]

I doubt she’s had time to develop anything more than just a little gastritis, so it should resolve quickly, in a day or two at the most.

Is she throwing up everything she eats/drinks, even water? I would just try to estimate the volume and replace with an equal amount of water.

Regarding the abscess, just apply warm compresses to it and rub off any scab that forms. The goal is to keep it open so it can drain.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[dkb817]

The abscess isn't really a concern IMO anymore, as I think it was pretty much gone by day 2 or 3 of the Clavamox. Honestly, I was amazed it worked the fast, but it's very possible I had been overreacting to it from day one (We've been watching a lot of Dr. Pol and various other vet shows lately, so I'm hyper aware of all things animal right now)

She was throwing up everything, yeah. It had initially started as undigested food (which has happened numerous times before as she sometimes eats too quickly, especially if I've been gone all day or something and haven't had the chance to top up her food bowl), but the last few were pretty much just water.

Knock on wood, I don't think she's thrown up much in a few hours - but she also hasn't had more than a couple of kibbles of dry food that she guilted out of me. I just gave her the morning doses of her miralax/water and mineral oil, so if those stay down okay, I'll give her her water bowl to see how that sits and maybe progressively up her food from there.

I don't want to rush things, but she gives the most pitiful meows when she's hungry

 

[dkb817]

It has been over 24 hours since her last dose. However, she's still throwing up - not on a regular schedule or anything (thankfully!), but the poor girl can't seem to eat and keep down more than a few bites of kibble. There are a few spots in her litterbox where she appears to have urinated, but no stools yet (and with her being megacolon, we really can't afford to be getting backed up - but with her not really eating today, I'm not terribly surprised).

Approximately when can I expect it to be out of her system for good? Is just giving her a couple of pieces of dry food every 15 minutes or so the right course here to ensure that she's still eating something until things are back to normal? Should I just withhold food for 12 hours? (that's concerning and toes the line of causing fatty liver, but I cannot keep feeding her just to have her throw it up an hour or two later)


If she's still throwing up tomorrow, we're going to have to consider getting her in to the vet - but if this is just a matter of waiting things out, that's definitely the preferable route.

 

[stephanietx]

I have a cat that throws up after 3 doses of clavamox. Don't ask me how I know this... It can take up to a couple of days to get her tummy settled enough to stop throwing up completely. You can always offer small wet food servings more frequently to see if she holds it down. You can try plain meat baby food, no onions or garlic, as a treat. They can sometimes keep it down better than cat food.

 

[dkb817]

Just got back from the vet - who pretty much agreed that it wouldn't hurt to give her some rehydration and an anti-emetic, that this was likely a side effect of the Clavamox. He also gave her an injection of some different antibiotic because she was running a little bit of a temp (a little lower than when she was at the vet in crisis mode a few months ago, but enough that he still wanted to treat it). This antibiotic is supposed to last ten days and require no upkeep or medicating from me, so that's a-okay in my book.

He also noticed a small bump near her bum, but after a discussion on how much testing I'm willing to do on a 10-yr old chronically ill cat, we're just going to wait and see what's going on with that.

Apparently, one of his vet techs messed up when trying to sedate Ally (she's notoriously hard to handle at the vet so they have to sedate her for everything) and ended up getting scratched, requiring a visit to the ER - so it looks like we'll be headed back to the vet for a day 10 follow up regardless

 

[silkenpaw]

Clavamox has a half life of 90 minutes in humans, presumably similar in cats. That means half of it is gone (and half is left) 90 minutes after the last dose, ¼ is left 180 minutes after the last dose, ⅛ at 270 minutes, 1/16 at 360 minutes and 1/32 at 450 minutes (7.5 hours). By 24 hours after the last dose, only 0.0015% of that dose is left, as close to none as makes no difference.