Diminazene aceturate-concentrations in tissues of dogs co-treated with oxtetracycline long acting

Abstract

Diminizene aceturate (DA) is the drug of choice for treating Canine Trypanosomosis and Canine Babesiosis in many countries of the world. However, co-administration of the drug with long acting Oxytetracycline (OXY-LA) has been associated with nervous signs suggestive of its toxicity, in treated dogs, even at the normal dose. To investigate what causes this toxicity, fourteen Nigerian indigenous dogs were randomly selected into two groups that comprised six dogs each and the remaining untreated two dogs were used for preparation of tissue standards. One group was treated with DA (3.5mg/kg) alone while the other was, additionally, treated with OXY-LA, 10 minutes post treatment (PT) with DA. Two dogs from each group were sacrificed at 240, 360 and 480 hours, PT and their livers, brains, kidneys, hearts and skeletal muscles were harvested and assayed for DA. Mean DA-concentrations in brains of the DA-OXY-LA group (19.71± 1.31a; 15.86± 2.96a; 9.11± 3.31a) were higher (P≤ 0.05) than 1.39 ± 0.45b; 1.05± 0.29b; 0.71 ± 0.30b of the DA-alone group at 240, 360 and 480 hours, PT, respectively. Also, mean-DA concentration in kidneys (8.00 ±0.46a) of the DA-OXY-LA group was significantly (P≤ 0.05) higher than 3.76±0.32b of the DA-alone group at 360 hours PT. These results suggest that OXY-LA enhances DA-accumulation in the brain and reduces its kidney-elimination, thus making the normal dose to act as overdose, which causes the nervous signs often manifested by treated dogs.