Ampicillin for aspiration pneumonia

[TheMrs]

My 7-8 week old grey squirrel developed pneumonia possibly from aspiration, (very zealous eater), though none that we had noticed during feedings, or from moving away from heat to bigger cage. I read on one of the threads that ampicillin is safe, but it's it effective for pneumonia? I started him on it this morning and this condition is barely any better. A bit more energetic, but still refusing food and water. Have had some but minimal success with of water and formula amounting to drops and a few bites here and there. It seems he'd see more improvement after 12 hours. I did read that ampicillin is significantly less readily absorbed given orally could this also be a factor?

[Spanky]

My 7-8 week old grey squirrel developed pneumonia possibly from aspiration, (very zealous eater), though none that we had noticed during feedings, or from moving away from heat to bigger cage. I read on one of the threads that ampicillin is safe, but it's it effective for pneumonia? I started him on it this morning and this condition is barely any better. A bit more energetic, but still refusing food and water. Have had some but minimal success with of water and formula amounting to drops and a few bites here and there. It seems he'd see more improvement after 12 hours. I did read that ampicillin is significantly less readily absorbed given orally could this also be a factor?

Ampicillin is not effective for aspiration pneumonia (AP)... it is better than nothing, but very unlikely to to successfully resolve AP. Where did you get the dosing instructions?

If you can locate some Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Baytril (enrofloxacin) Augmentin (AKA CLavamox; these are a combination of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid), Bactrim (SMP/TMZ), doxycycline... and if you find anything else, post what the drug is and someone will advise. We'll need the weight of the squirrels to extrapolate the dosing.