Disposition of orally administered cefpodoxime proxetil in foals and adult horses and minimum inhibitory concentration of the drug against common bacterial pathogens of horses.

The research focuses on the study of how cefpodoxime proxetil, an antibiotic, behaves when administered orally in horses – adult and foals, as well as determining its inhibitory concentration against common equine bacterial pathogens.

Research Design and Experiment

• The subjects for the research were six healthy adult horses and six healthy foals, with the latter being divided in age-group (7-14 days and 3-4 months).
• A single dose of cefpodoxime proxetil (10 mg/kg) was given orally via a nasogastric tube to each horse.
• In the 7 to 14-day-old foals, five additional doses were given intragastrically at 12-hour intervals.
• The research employed a commercially available test for establishing the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of cefpodoxime for various bacterial isolates.

Findings & Results

• In the case of 7 to 14-day-old foals, the mean time to reach peak serum concentration was approximately 1.7 hours, maximum serum concentration was recorded to be 0.81 microg/mL, and the calculated elimination half-life was approximately 7.2 hours.
• There were no significant differences in how cefpodoxime behaved in 3 to 4-month-old foals compared with neonates.
• Adult horses displayed a higher maximum serum concentration and a lower time to reach peak serum concentration compared to that of foals.
• The minimum inhibitory concentration of cefpodoxime required to inhibit growth of popular bacterial strains like Salmonella, E. coli, Pasteurella spp, Klebsiella spp, and beta-hemolytic streptococci was also calculated with the values being 0.38, 1.00, 0.16, 0.19, and 0.09 microg/mL, respectively.

Conclusions & Implications

• The research concludes that an effective dosage for treatment of equine neonates with bacterial infections would be an oral dose of 10 mg/kg of cefpodoxime proxetil administered every 6 to 12 hours.
• The implication of this research can have meaningful impact on veterinary practices, particularly while treating bacterial infections in horses using cefpodoxime proxetil.