I just noticed this: chewable antibiotic tablets for cats and dogs. They’re available in America and are FDA approved. They are manufactured by Piedmont Animal Health and the product is Baytril Soft Chewable Tablets.
The antibiotic is enrofloxacin which is good for skin, urinary, eye, respiratory and other infections. Clearly chewable antibiotic must be very welcome for cat owners because of the difficulty of administering standard hard antibiotic tablets to domestic cats.
The tablets use ‘meat-free cubes made without water, heat or an extrusion process which allows them to be infused with an active pharmaceutical ingredient’ (americanveterinarian.com).
Enrofloxacin is a ‘synthetic chemotherapeutic agent, class of the quinolone carboxylic acid derivatives and it has antibacterial activity against a broad spectrum of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria‘ (drugs.com).
Update: please note this comment:
“Cats will not chew them and most decent DVMs who treat cats don’t use enrofloxacin unless it’s a last resort. The monster DVM who killed our Kitten gave her an injection and overdose of over twice the safe limit for a cat. Aside from being blind she died from liver failure. There are safer quinolones for cats if they need this class of antibiotics. Even at the safe dose there is some evidence that these side effects may occur especially in older cats, dehydrated or any cat with compromised kidneys.
Enrofloxacin is called Baytril the trade name from Bayer and Putney puts out a generic tablet. There may be several other makers by now. Always ask if the antibiotic your DVM prescribes is a Floroquinilone and if there is a safer antibiotic that will work. Antibiotics in this class are black boxed for humans but veterinary drugs have no such classification. These are failed chemotherapy drugs. The only safe form of this drug for a cat is the trans-dermal gel.”
Thanks ME for sharing your valuable first hand experiences.