most cat owners know that medicating a cat can be challenging. That’s probably why many veterinarians as well as cat owners celebrated when Convenia, a long-acting, injectable antibiotic, came on the market in 2008. Convenia is manufactured by Zoetis, formerly Pfizer animal Health.
The idea of a one-time injection, instead of giving regular antibiotics in pill or liquid form once or twice a day for two weeks or more, seemed like a terrific solution to the problem.
However, as opposed to regular antibiotics, which are rapidly cleared from the body, Convenia stays in the body for two months or longer following injection, even though the antibacterial effects only last for two weeks. All drugs have some side effects. While some cats may do just fine with Convenia, others may have side effects ranging from mild to life threatening. and with a long acting drug like Convenia, there is no way to simply stop giving the medication – it’s already in your cat’s system.
A must read before you agree to Convenia
I recently came across a comprehensive article about Convenia by Dr. Lisa Pierson, the founder of catinfo.org, one of the best and most comprehensive sites about feline nutrition. In her article, Dr. Pierson weighs the pros and cons about administering this drug to cats:
Convenia: worth the Risk?
Dr. Pierson’s article is a must read for all cat owners.
Amber was one of those hard-to-pill cats, and after careful discussion with my vet, I agreed to use Convenia following a dental procedure, which I’ve now come to learn is an unsuitable use for this drug. At the time, I only had misgivings about it because of its long-acting properties. Thankfully, she had no side effects other than some mild diarrhea, which is a common side effect of most antibiotics. After that, none of my cats ever got Convenia, nor will I ever allow Convenia to be given to one of my cats.
Editors’s note: comments about your experience with Convenia are welcomed and encouraged. comments that are disrespectful of others or malign the veterinary profession or individual veterinarians will be deleted. Please read our comment guidelines for more information.
References to other resources and/or sites or Facebook pages about Convenia which may be provided in the comments section are not endorsed by the site owners.
Photo: istockphoto
Ingrid King
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807 comments on Convenia for Cats: Sacrificing safety for Convenience?
JG says:
August 26, 2022 at 10:29 am
In the spring of 2018 Dexter, my 6 month old kitten, wasn’t feeling well and I took him to the vet. He had a fever and they said they’d give him a shot of antibiotics and some pills for me to take home. I’d had my dogs given a antibiotic shot before to get things into their system quickly followed up by more antibiotic pills, etc, so I figured that’s what we were doing. I am normally one to ask tons of questions and not do anything before researching it, so I never thought anything sounded out of the ordinary. He was totally fine the next day. I don’t recall now what the pills they gave me were, but I was surprised the next to day to realize they were NOT the additional daily antibiotics I thought they were.
Three days later I woke to find my sweet kitten gasping for breath and rushed him to the vet. They said his lungs were filling with fluid and his heart was enlarged and they could do nothing but recommend putting him to sleep. They said it was probably something he’d inherited called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy – something some breeds were prone to get – and that getting it so young had a low chance of treatment. He had NO symptoms prior to this – and there are many. He was also thoroughly checked out 3 days earlier on his first check out and there was nothing that concerned them.
I tried to get him to another vet for a second opinion, but ultimately I had no choice but to bring him back to put him to sleep later that afternoon as he was dying very quickly. It was devastating and hard to write about even now. Dexter was the sweetest kitten I’d ever had.
Weeks later I happened to read on a cat forum I’m on about something called Convenia and it’s side effects and right away ran to get my vet records from when I took him to the vet 3 days before he died. sure enough – the shot he was given was Convenia I called them and asked WHY they had given this to me. Their only answer was that it was “hard to pill cats”. They never asked if I could pill him and give him regular antibiotics – they even gave me other pills to give him that day!! So why give him this shot? I would have never agreed to a 14-day antibiotic shonullnull
