Use of Animal Antibiotics

Armageddon Medicine has an article on using a couple of different veterinary antibiotics:

Procaine penicillin is probably used most often nowadays for strep throat, though with the abundance of effective oral meds, its use has become less common.  The adult dose for moderately severe to severe respiratory infections, tonsillitis, or pneumonia is 600,000 to 1,000,000 units/day via intramuscular injection for 10 days.  It can also be used to treat certain stages of syphilis, rat bite fever, anthrax prophylaxis or treatment of cutaneous disease, and diphtheria (see CDC for guidelines). 

As for lincomycin, when I used to work in Appalachia it was a popular choice for a variety of patients including:

1. those suffering from pneumonia who were almost, but not quite, sick enough for hospitalization
2. those whose compliance with oral medication was questionable
3. those who preferred injections – and there were many.

According to the (human) product insert, Lincocin Sterile Solution is “indicated in the treatment of serious infections due to susceptible strains of streptococci, pneumococci, and staphylocci. Its use should be reserved for penicillin-allergic patients or other patients for whom, in the judgment of the physician, a penicillin is inappropriate. Because of the risk of antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis” (C diff) “before selecting lincomycin the physician should consider the nature of the infection and the suitability of less toxic alternatives (eg, erythromycin).”  Some cross resistance has been noted between clindamycin and erythromycin, meaning if either of these antibiotics are not effective, Lincocin may not work either.

In my personal experience, this drug worked great!  ...  The adult dose is 600 mg IM (= 2 mL injected intramuscularly) once daily for serious infections, or twice daily for very serious infections.    It can be used in pediatric patients over 1 month of age at a dose of 10 mg/kg (5 mg/lb) every 24 hours for serious infections, or twice daily for very serious infections.  I have never used this drug in children – mostly only in sick COPD patients.  It should be reserved for life-threatening infections and is not the first line treatment for anything.  However, it could indeed be life-saving at TEOTWAWKI.

The article mentions that currently neither requires a prescription, but warns that this may change in the near future.