Can you take animal antibiotics

Answer 1

No, humans should not take antibiotics that have been prescribed for animals. The major reason for this is that humans, dogs, cats, cattle, horses and all other species have species-specific differences in how they respond to antibiotics. A safe dose in one species may be anything between completely ineffective and lethally toxic in another species. Also, although the active ingredient in an antibiotic is the same between human and animal formulations (such as amoxicillin, tetracycline, neomycin, etc), the carrier or inert ingredients may be very different and again render the antibiotic anything from completely ineffective to lethally toxic.

Minor reasons for humans to not take animal antibiotics is access (the United States is unusual in that livestock antibiotics are sold over the counter - most countries limit this to veterinarians), legal ramifications (diverting a prescription drug is generally illegal, and all antibiotics are prescription drugs), and lack of diagnosis (just because a person thinks he needs antibiotics doesn't mean that he actually does - there are many infections that don't respond to antibiotics).

Finally if antibiotics are used incorrectly or when not actually needed the bacteria gradually learn/evolve to tolerate them and become resistant to the antibiotics, making them ineffective when really needed to treat someone. This has already happened with several antibiotics and we are not far off being taken back to the medical situation before antibiotics were first discovered. We will have nothing that works against germs except our own immune response. A thorn prick will soon once again be able to kill you.