A Clinical Case from the Archives : 23/05/2006

This eight year old cat has rapidly lost her vision. She is being treated for cystitis – could that have anything to do with the changes you see here?

The cat has been treated with enrofloxacin and while the veterinary surgeon asked for 15mg tablets to be dispensed the nurse misheard and counted out 50mg tablets. Even at a little over three times the recommended dose, enrofloxacin can be retinotoxic, giving this tapetal hyper-reflectivity, vessel attenuation and irreversible blindness. The key paper here is Kirk Gelatt’s from a few years ago: Enrofloxacin-associated retinal degeneration in cats.
Veterinary Ophthalmology 2001;4:99-106. Baytril is fine to use in cats as long as one sticks to the recommended dose of 5mg/kg and goes no higher!

 

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