Efficacy of two low-dose oral tylosin regimens in controlling the relapse of diarrhea in dogs with tylosin-responsive diarrhea: a prospective, single-blinded, two-arm parallel, clinical field trial

Abstract

Background: Despite its wide acceptance as a treatment for canine chronic enteropathies, the macrolide antibiotic tylosin lacks official oral dosage recommendations. Not even textbooks share consensus about the dose; daily recommendations vary from 25 to 80 mg/kg and dosing intervals from one to three times daily.

Results: All eight dogs responded to the 5 mg/kg dose, and six of seven dogs responded to the 15 mg/kg dose. The mean fecal consistency scores at the 25 mg/kg tylosin dosage were no significantly different from scores at the 5 mg/kg or 15 mg/kg tylosin dosages (P=0.672, P=0.345).

Conclusions: Interestingly, 14/15 (93%) of the dogs responding to a dose of 25 mg/kg tylosin once daily for seven days also responded to the lower dosages at diarrhea relapse. The data indicate that a suitable dose of tylosin for treating diarrhea relapse in canine TRD could be as low as 5 mg/kg once daily for seven days.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the trial. Flowchart of the results of the study enrollment, the allocation to treatment groups, and the response to the two different tylosin dosages.

Figure 2

Mean fecal consistency scores per dog. Mean fecal consistency scores at dosages of 25 mg/kg (n = 15), 15 mg/kg (n = 7), and 5 mg/kg (n = 8) tylosin per dog assessed during the last three days of the seven-day treatment period.

Figure 3

Box and whisker plots of the mean fecal consistency scores. Box and whisker plots of the mean fecal consistency scores assessed during the last three days of the seven-day treatment period at tylosin dosages of 25 mg/kg (n = 15), 15 mg/kg (n = 7) and 5 mg/kg (n = 8). The limits of the box represent the 25^th and 75^th percentile values, the line within the box represents the median values and the whiskers represent the range. The black line indicates the cut-off value for a responder, set at a score of 3 on the mean fecal consistency score scale.