> Well, it certainly causes diarrhea in humans, I can vouch for that. I've
> recently had 2 courses of the stuff for a tooth infection:-). Luckily it
> didn't kill me. But as the gut flora of rodents, especially grass-eating
> ones, plays a much more crucial part in their digestion, this would make
> perfect sense.
>
> Sue
Mostly it's because you're big enough to take the hit, actually. The dose
to kill something of your size is considerably larger, but still possible
(as your example shows) to kill a human. The "theraputic index" (the amount
which will do some good but not kill) is much tighter in smaller animals.
There is problably a theoretical amount of Amox which could help a gerb, but
actually giving them that small a dose may be an impossibility. (Actually,
by way of anecdote, it could kill you too. I had a stomach infection a
couple years back which killed all the other bacteria in my system. I got
so sick I had to be hospitalized for two days for re-hydration. Bacteria
aplenty in our own systems.)
This is a VERY good object lesson to the list, however, in the dangers of
self-medicating pets (and humans, for that matter). The amount needed to
cure or kill may be very different in a different animal (or person). The
moral of the story? Unless you KNOW what you're doing, don't. You may end
up hurting or killing the one you want to help. This applies to most all
medications, BTW.
