Can antibiotics make you feel like crap?

I had dental surgery (apicoectomy) 18 days ago to deal with a failed root canal and was on standard antibiotics for a week. Everything was going fine until this past Sunday/Monday, when I noticed some pain in the tooth, so per my oral surgeon's instructions, I called him and went in. There was no tissue inflammation, but he put me on a stronger antibiotic (875mg augmentin twice a day for 10 days) to handle any potential infection in the tooth.

Since I started taking the augmentin Tuesday, I've felt like crap and I don't know how much is attributable to the antibiotics. Definitely the gastro-intestinal issues (diarrhea, lots of stomach gurgling), which are listed as a primary side effect, but I've had constant headaches/migraines since then as well and while I'm prone to them, I'm on daily medication to control them, so I don't have them this bad too often anymore (at least not this bad day in and day out while taking migraine medication on top of other meds). I also had a bit of a fever on Wednesday, which led to me having to cancel my Remicade infusion today, I ache all over, and just feel like crap.

Could all this be because of the antibiotic or is something else going on? I really wish my mouth had picked a different time to have all these issues than the past year, but when it rains, it really does pour. :)

Good to know I'm not the only one running to the bathroom gumby! After nearly four months of constant constipation, I have to admit there's a little part of me that doesn't mind the cleaning out, but it's only a very small part, as the past few days have been very uncomfortable.

I think I just needed someone else to tell me to switch back--just called the dentist's office and they're calling in a script for amoxycillin. I think I wanted to stick with this one in hopes that it would make the tooth stop hurting because it was a stronger antibiotic, but it's just not worth all the side effects. I'm just going to have to stick with the amoxycillin and cross my fingers.

I just recently finished a 10 day stint of antibiotics. My gut and tushy were happy...but yeah they warned me about the D. I actually snickered at the pharmacist and said "I have Crohns...the D can't get worse". Boy was I wrong!!!!

I think how antibiotics affect your gut depends on your bacterial level to start with. I have heard several others do very well on regular antibiotics...I seem to like them in my gut too. But now I know...antibiotic = must have bathroom immediately accessible, pain killers = no going at all.

Last time I was on antibiotics I had green poo.

I only ever took antibiotics in hospital. The first couple of times I was admitted with all the symptoms of a severe Crohn's flare-up, the hospital acted like I had a massive infection which would kill half the hospital instead. I was put in the stuffiest sideroom (dread to think what it would be like now in our current heatwave!) known to mankind, during our one and only week of warm, sunny weather that year in September. I had to give about a million stool samples, all of which tested negative for bacterial infection, and so on.

The first time I took a common broad-spectrum antibiotic (Flagyl), but the second time I was given something more obscure, and I cannot remember its name. Anyway, the antibiotics didn't do me the slightest bit of good and made me feel worse, if anything. Later on, the hospital finally got the message and treated my Crohn's flare-ups as Crohn's after that, and didn't bother with antibiotics anymore.

Thanks for the feedback all! I did a little backsearching on the site and am feeling even better now to have gotten off the Augmentin. It seems like nothing but bad news for people with IBD. Now let's just hope the less intense but much nicer amoxycillin takes care of this infection!

Antibiotics have always messed with me in one way or another, don't feel bad! I've only been put on Augmentin one time but apparently it wasn't the right drug for my situation (or strong enough), because I went from a 100 degree fever and a slight cough to 3 days later 103 degrees, went to the ER, had pneumonia, and was put on Avelox. I will say Avelox was without a doubt the best antibiotic I've been on, as far as side effects. However, I don't think they like to prescribe it unless absolutley necessary. I've been on Cipro more times than I can count, also lots of Amox, Levaquin, and Flagyl. The only way for me to survive those without explosive D was to supplement with Florastor. I take it regularly (though not every day) anyways...but when on antibiotics I up my dose to 2 or 3 times a day, and you'd be amazed at the difference it makes. Since it's yeast based, antibiotics won't kill it off. With the added dosing I experience little to no D at all. Without, I'm a mess!