Re: UPDATE Re: Frank's not feeling well

In article <1lhdf5n1pfmm0.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Inge Grotjahn
<inge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear Marina,
>
> Am 14.08.2005 schrieb Marina:
>
> > Another reason why I'm reluctant to give him ABs is that he's had such
> > a
> > lot of them in his life. I'm afraid that, instead of building up his
> > immunity, they are breaking it down. I know there are two schools of
> > thought on this.
>
> you should ask TED to make an antibiogramm (sorry, I don't know the
> english
> word for it). A blood sample is taken to determin, which antibiotic is
> still working on this special cat. Then the proper antibiotic is chosen
> to
> treat hin. This procedure makes sure, that the prescripted med. is
> working
> as it should.
>

I'm not absolutely sure which test you have in mind. Normally, we do a
culture to identify bacteria, and, as a second step, determine
antibiotic sensitivity. While there are newer methods, the disk
inhibition test is easier to visualize.

In that method, once the bacterium has been isolated, a suspension of it
is spread evenly over the surface of an appropriate solid culture
medium. Think of a stiff jelly. Onto the surface are also placed small
disks containing different antibiotics.

The culture is then incubated until there is visible bacterial growth.
Those antibiotics that kill the specific bacteria taken from this cat
will have a clear zone around them, where the bacteria won't grow.

Sometimes, once antibiotic therapy has begun, blood samples are taken to
measure the concentration in the patient (human or cat), to see that
there is enough to be effective. This is coupled with a test called
minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), where tubes of liquid media have
increasingly dilute antibiotic solutions are added, and then the pure
bacterial culture is put into the tubes. The MIC is the tube with the
least amount of antibiotic in which there is no bacterial growth.

As long as the measured blood concentration is greater than the MIC, the
antibiotic should be effective. MIC and blood concentration techniques
are rarely used even in human medicine, outside research environments.
They are most commonly used when the period of antibiotic treatment is
expected to be long, and also when the antibiotic is especially toxic.

I'm not sure if this is what you have in mind. Much more specialized
techniques are needed when the bacteria, such as mycoplasma, treponemes,
ureaplasma or chlamydia, won't grow on conventional media.
.

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