Pharmacokinetics of cephalexin in dogs and cats after oral, subcutaneous and intramuscular administration

A three-way crossover study was carried out in 10 dogs and nine cats to establish the pharmacokinetic parameters of the semi-synthetic cephalosporin antibiotic, cephalexin sodium, when administered orally, subcutaneously or intramuscularly. Ten dogs received a subcutaneous or intramuscular injection of 10 mg/kg bodyweight cephalexin or an oral dose of three 50 mg cephalexin tablets; the peak serum concentrations achieved were 24.9, 31.9 and 18.6 micrograms/ml, respectively, and the times taken to reach these peak levels were 1.2, 0.9 and 1.8 hours. Nine cats received either a subcutaneous or intramuscular dose of 0.25 ml cephalexin suspension (approximately 20 mg/kg bodyweight) or an oral dose of one 50 mg tablet; the peak serum concentrations achieved were 54.0, 61.8 and 18.7 micrograms/ml for the subcutaneous, intramuscular and oral administrations respectively, with times to peak concentrations of 1.1, 0.7 and 2.6 hours.