Antibiotics / Antifungals for SHTF

[Aesop]

The PDR isn't bad, and it may be what you have (or can easily get). But what it is, is an encyclopedic listing of almost everything, in way more detail than you (but not, perhaps, a trained medical professional) will ever want, need, or make use of. Extremely inside-baseball stat freak kind of stuff. For those who don't have one, go look at one in the public library before you shell out cash money for one. Anyone without a medical-field doctorate would likely be far better served by a current-year nursing drug handbook from Mosby, Springhouse, etc. which are to the PDR what the pocket-sized Constitution is to the Code Of Federal Regulations. If one decides they do want a PDR anyway, pick up an obsolescent last-year's or even year-before-that copy, as everyone including medical professionals, hospitals, and insurance companies stock the things, and throws them away annually as well. If you ask nicely, your practitioner may even give you an old(er) one the minute they get their new update. But do not, under any circumstances, shell out 45-50 actual dollars for a brand spanking new one unless it's either a business thing someone else is paying for, or you can deduct it on your taxes. Even then, it's still wasting money for very little bang at full boat price, vs. free or yard-sale clearance rates.
That same $50 gets you a case of MREs, half a shopping cart of canned goods, a couple boxes of ammo, etc. all of which have a longer shelf life than the PDR.

If you start accumulating lots of old ones, the paper is large, thin, and serves other uses, kind of like old phone books.

[arctictom]

Yup get the Vet stuff at feed stores.

[Windy Wilson]

If you start accumulating lots of old ones, the paper is large, thin, and serves other uses, kind of like old phone books.

Or the Sears Catalog?

[doc Russia]

I don't think there is much to add to what Aesop has said. The references are quite good, and are what I use. I might add Robert's and Hedges' clinical procedures
http://www.amazon.com/Roberts-Clinical- ... y+medicine

I have never used them, but veterinary antibiotics *should* work just fine, you just have to be extra careful regarding dosing.

I would also add a couple of things that I use as "rules of thumb" :
Drain any abscess, and drain it early. Much more important than antibiotics.
fevers >102.0F are MORE likely to be bacterial. <102.0F is LESS likely to be bacterial, and more likely viral. not 100%, but mostly a reliable indicator.
viral illnesses USUALLY have a more gradual onset , whereas bacterial infections USUALLY have an acute onset (the patient says "I felt fine, doc, then, while I was driving home, I suddenly flet like crap")
Bacterial infections USUALLY have a locus of infection (An abscess site, an area of growing redness surrounding a scratch you got, a cough without a runny nose, a sore throat without a cough) whereas viral infections USUALLY involve multiple systems (Body aches, fatigue, fever, cough, AND runny nose)
viral infections USUALLY respond better to NSAIDS like tylenol and ibuprofen than bacterial infections.

This information, is also useful in evaluating whether to go to the doctor or not. It really frustrates patients (and I know this) when they feel like crap, they go to their doctor, and then the doctor says "It's just a virus, no antibiotics will help." After all, they just dragged themselves out of bed to be seen, spent an hour in the waiting room, and they come to find out they would have been better off staying home and eating chicken soup.