# Medical dopers question on Omnicef **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731 "2007-03-13T10:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/1 "2007-03-13T10:54:51Z")
I know I should be contacting my Dr. but he is out of the office for the next three days and his covering doctor is known for not returning calls. I have been on Omnicef for eight days now although I missed 2 doses in a 24 hour period (Taking every 12 hours) The instructions say to discard any remaining medicine after 10 days. My leg is still red and warm so I know the infection is still active. What I need to know is if it is safe to continue taking the Omnicef past the 10 day mark until my Dr is back in his office. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/2 "2007-03-13T14:21:19Z")
I’m not a medical Doper, but is there a local nurse line you can call? I’m guessing that this question teeters on the edge of soliciting medical advice. (And it seems to me that perhaps the state licensing board – or whoever – might be interested in hearing about a doctor who never returns calls from patients, especially when he’s supposed to be covering for someone else.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/3 "2007-03-13T14:25:30Z")
Don’t call your doctor (well, call him if you want) call your _pharmacist_. Doctors know about bodies, pharmacists know about medications. Since the question is the safety of the medication, the pharmacist will know better. (And he may indeed tell you to call your doctor, as well, but start there.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/4 "2007-03-13T15:28:13Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Don’t call your doctor (well, call him if you want) call your _pharmacist_. Doctors know about bodies, pharmacists know about medications. Since the question is the safety of the medication, the pharmacist will know better. [/QUOTE] Rather a broad brush, no? I’d hate to have our pharmacists managing my patients’ questions and problems with their interferon, or hypoglycemic agents, or anticoagulants (to name merely a few). After all, the pharmacist will have no idea of the patient’s white count, or last HgbA1C or most recent creatinine, or INR when he tries to advise them about their dosing. I, however, do have that info, and understand how it applies to their clinical situation. Don’t get me wrong: Competent pharmacists have helped me manage medications and saved me from errors for decades now. But competent doctors understand medications, and actually _see_ how they affect patients over time. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/5 "2007-03-13T15:29:45Z")
As for the OP, I generally don’t freak out if my patients tell me they missed a few doses, so they just took their antibiotics until they were gone. But I’d want to hear from them about it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/6 "2007-03-13T15:41:07Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] Rather a broad brush, no? I’d hate to have our pharmacists managing my patients’ questions and problems with their interferon, or hypoglycemic agents, or anticoagulants (to name merely a few). After all, the pharmacist will have no idea of the patient’s white count, or last HgbA1C or most recent creatinine, or INR when he tries to advise them about their dosing. I, however, do have that info, and understand how it applies to their clinical situation. Don’t get me wrong: Competent pharmacists have helped me manage medications and saved me from errors for decades now. But competent doctors understand medications, and actually _see_ how they affect patients over time. [/QUOTE] The OP’s question was about the safety and effectiveness of an antibiotic past its expiration date, not about diagnosis or treatment strategy. Hence it is the perfect question for a pharmacist. Any ethical or competent pharmacist will decline to answer any questions about diagnosis or treatment, or other advice outside his scope of practice. He’ll tell you to call your doctor, as I already said. But a good pharmacist can answer this and lots of questions quickly without the headaches of trying to get a covering doc unfamiliar with the case and notorious for not returning calls to get back to you in a timely manner. My dad is a pharm d., and I like to support his field as a viable and \*active \*part of patient care, not just as pill counters. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/7 "2007-03-13T18:29:59Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] The OP’s question was about the safety and effectiveness of an antibiotic past its expiration date, not about diagnosis or treatment strategy. Hence it is the perfect question for a pharmacist. [/QUOTE] Gotcha. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/8 "2007-03-13T18:40:22Z")
The instruction to discard the remaining pills after 10 days is likely to discourage patients from inappropriate antibiotic use of leftover doses, rather than the med actually expiring ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/9 "2007-03-13T21:50:51Z")
My understanding of the OP was that he had finished his prescribed course for a soft tissue/skin infection but was still having symptoms and was wondering if he should continue taking it. The sidebar about missing two doses thrown in for completeness’ sake. As such, a pharmacist is not the person to ask. Someone who has seen the patient prior and can compare the progress of the infection should examine the patient and determine if the antibiotics need to be changed. ---
**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/10 "2007-03-13T21:51:05Z")
I’m not a pharmacist, but I am a pharmacy tech, and work in a pharmacy… I wouldn’t take the Omnicef or any other liquid antiboitic after the 10 days. The 10 day counter starts the day it is reconstituted, after that the medicine does go bad. Now, how it goes bad I don’t know, but I wouldn’t risk it. If you think you still need the medicine I would see about getting another script for it. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/11 "2007-03-13T22:09:19Z")
To clarify I was given the script Tuesday 3/6 today is Tuesday 3/13 so it’s the 7th day I have 3 more days to reach the 10 day mark. I know I caused a setback by not taking it for 24 hours (2 doses). Having someone who works in a pharmacy state it does go bad after 10 days is all I needed to hear. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t something like Well it will last 3-4 months but we tell you to discard it so you don’t use it for the wrong illness. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/12 "2007-03-13T22:23:44Z")
If it’s a liquid, it may well go bad in 10 days(it may well not), but the pill form of Omnicef certainly lasts longer than that. My cite is, well, how about the sample box I got from my last job just before I was fired. That was in October '06, and the pills are still good until February 2008. Fat lot of good it’ll do me. I had a lovely reaction to it last time, so no more Omnicef for me. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/13 "2007-03-13T23:25:07Z")
I’d be bloody well surprised to hear it goes bad after 10 days in any form. It could be perhaps less effective, but I’d expect any dropoff in effectiveness to be miniscule over such brief time periods. ---
**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/14 "2007-03-14T01:34:55Z")
Far be it from me to disagree with **Qadgop** , but as far as I know, most of the reconstituted antibiotics do go bad after a short period of time. Thinking more about it now, I think its 14 days, not 10, that it goes bad. There is a reason that it wasn’t prepared till you picked it up (or at least it shouldn’t have been). As I said, I don’t know how it goes bad, it could just be a reduction in strength, but the pharmacists I work for are normally pretty serious about it. I would seriously recomend that you contact your pharmacist before taking it after the experiation date. Right now I’m only a pharmacy tech, which means everything I know is just from listening to my pharmacists at work, and I could just be talking out of my ass. Remember, internet medical advise is worth exactly what you paid for it… Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-dopers-question-on-omnicef/395731/15 "2007-03-14T02:02:08Z")
Well, I am recalling the days when I had to not only examine, diagnose, and prescribe but also dispense, including dispensing reconstituted antibiotics. I recall the package inserts and bottle labels on the cephalosporins (ceclor and keflex mainly back in that era) stating the mixes would be good for 14 days, once reconstituted. So I’d not hesitate to tell my patients to take the missed doses, even if that stretched the Rx out until day 11 or 12. And urge them to contact us if they failed to improve. Bottom line: The cephalosporins do not form toxic breakdown products after expiration. So I’d not fear for patient safety if they were taking such meds a few days after expiration. As long as the patient followed up appropriately if expected improvement had not occurred.