XL Vets equine factsheets

Antibiotics are pharmaceutical products which kill or prevent the replication of bacteria. Veterinary surgeons use them in equine practice for the treatment of bacterial disease. Antibiotics are broadly classified into two categories – they are either bacteriostatic, whereby they inhibit bacteria from growing, allowing the animal’s own immune system to deal with them, or bacteriocidal, where the antibiotic itself kills the bacteria. Bacteria can also be classified as either Gram positive or Gram negative depending on how they appear when stained and examined under a microscope. Different antibiotics are good at targeting different bacteria. Those with the widest range of activity are known as broad spectrum antibiotics.