Best Antibiotics for a Prepper’s Emergency Supply

Finally, you can get antibiotics for emergency storage. Everyone needs a medicine plan for emergencies, and one of the main battles when storing antibiotics is simply getting them. Getting FDA-approved antibiotics requires you to have a prescription, which is thankfully much easier now with emergency prescription companies.

With a quick survey and review with a doctor, prepper antibiotic issues are in the past. There are a few options to consider when it comes to antibiotics for prepping long-term medical storage: value, antibiotic type, ease of obtaining, etc.

This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best antibiotics, put in the physicians’ orders, and now the results are in: the overall best, a budget option, and an option for pets. If you need antibiotics that will help you stock your medical kit, one of our picks will help fill it.

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Contents (Jump to a Section)

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Jase Medical has changed the game. Gone are the days of squirreling away antibiotics like contraband, they’ve actually managed to make getting antibiotics easy and relatively cheap! Their teal case is becoming quite iconic and includes these medications in the base Jase Case:

• 28 x Amoxicillin Clavulanate (875 mg), generic Augmentin
• 6 x Azithromycin (250 mg)
• 28 x Ciprofloxacin (500 mg)
• 120 x Doxycycline (100 mg)
• 30 x Metronidazole (500 mg)

You can also throw in these add-ons easily, making it an extremely versatile solution:

• 4x Fluconazole (150 mg)
• 21x Ondansetron (4 mg)
• 20x Ivermectin (3 mg) 
• 40x Ivermectin (3 mg) 
• 1x Epinephrine Pen (Epipen)
• Many types of OTC medication

When I went through the process, I was surprised at how fast but thorough it was. The questionnaire asks many questions about your medical history for the doctor to review but the survey only took me 5 minutes to complete (including the time for me to document the process!) You can find the full write-up on my personal experience with the Jase Case further below.

If you are looking for emergency antibiotics, EpiPens, Ivermectin, or other add-on medications, the Jase Medical Jase Case is simply the best scaleable option out there.

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Contingency Medical has launched the most comprehensive prescription medicine suite on the market. This kit is organized in an actual Pelican case and includes all of the top antibiotics and more.

Their top-tier kit comes with:

The Pelican case is a nice touch, but the real draw here is the lifesaving drugs included like the EpiPen and Narcan, which can be quite expensive on their own. With this all-in-one approach, you’ll be able to address a huge range of illnesses in an emergency.

With a hefty price tag, the Contingency Medical Ultimate Pack is for those serious about stashing prescription medicines well beyond antibiotics.

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Aquarium antibiotics are under fire from the FDA, which has issued warnings to most sellers that they are not allowed to sell them without a prescription. This is to combat the growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, which are medically needed by humans for serious infections. They match up to antibiotics you may recognize right on the front of their label, but they are not for human consumption.

Here is what is printed on the labels:

• Fish Mox Forte / Aqua-Mox Forte = Amoxicillin 500 mg, 100 ct – $59
• Fish Flex Forte / Aqua-Ceph = Cephalexin 500mg, 100 ct – $40
• Fin Flox  = Ciprofloxacin 500mg, 30 ct – $65
• Fish Flucon = Fluconazole 100mg, 10 ct – $50
• Aqua-Doxy = Doxycycline 100mg, 100 ct – $96
• Fish Zole / Aqua-Zole = Metronidazole 500mg, 60 ct – $45 at eBay
• Aqua-Zithro = Azithromycin 250mg, 30 ct – $100

Nobody is supposed to be selling this stuff, so you’ll only find it on eBay from private sellers. The FDA has sent letters to all of the reputable vet clinics asking them to stop distributing these without a prescription. We talk about that below where we look at whether fish antibiotics are safe for humans.

Luckily, preppers these days don’t hoard these. Getting emergency antibiotics for human use is possible, and all of these vet-specific medicines can now be left to the pets. Fish can be an important part of hydroponic setups, but that’s the extent of what we’ll recommend them for.

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Everything We Recommend

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The Antibiotics We Compared

Our research narrowed the field down to the several antibiotics suppliers that we compared: Jase, Duration Health, Contingency Medical, traditional prescriptions, Aqua-Mox, Fish Mox, and more.

You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.

We focused on antibiotic tablets and capsules. We excluded topical antibiotics and antiseptics. Those are definitely useful for first aid kits and prepping, but address different issues than oral antibiotics.

We’re always looking for new and better medical strategies, so if you have an antibiotic brand or supplier that you swear by let us know in the comments. We review most of our roundups annually, so we can always try to pick some up for the next roundup round and see if they make the cut and we can see if they will beat out our top picks.

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What to Look For

The best prepper antibiotics for long-term medical storage have several important features to look for:

1. Value
2. Antibiotic Type
3. Ease of Obtaining
4. Size & Weight
5. Shelf Life

When you get the right blend of these, you can find reliable antibiotics that will help you treat a variety of infections and ailments. Below, we break down what each of these features means for the antibiotic brands and suppliers that set themselves apart.

Value: Cost vs. Benefit

The amount of money you spend on something like antibiotics shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. This might be tough if you do not have insurance and are getting a prescription filled.

On the flip side, you don’t want to go too cheap or just plain get the wrong thing. There is no reason to resort to fish antibiotics, homeopathic solutions, or anything else now that antibiotics are readily available to store for emergency use.

You never want to spend too much money on one resource, especially something like antibiotics. While antibiotics are a hot commodity during disasters and emergencies, it’s better to diversify your preparedness equipment to make sure you are covered for a wide range of scenarios. There is a sweet spot where you get high value with not too high of a price, which is where our top pick sits.

Antibiotic Type

Many, many types of antibiotics are useful for targeting specific bacterial infections. Most of these fall into families, with the main families being:

• Penicillins – include phenoxymethylpenicillin, flucloxacillin, and amoxicillin
• Cephalosporins – include cefaclor, cefadroxil, cefalexin
• Tetracyclines – include tetracycline, doxycycline, and lymecycline
• Aminoglycosides – include gentamicin and tobramycin
• Macrolides – include erythromycin, azithromycin, and clarithromycin
• Sulfonamides – include co-trimoxazole
• Quinolones – include ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and norfloxacin

Some bacteria that cause infections (like MRSA) have become resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, while others have resistance to specific antibiotics.

Inappropriate use of antibiotics can contribute to these resistances, which is why antibiotics are prescription-only in most of the world.

Ease of Obtaining

Our top pick wasn’t even an option a few years ago. To get antibiotics for emergency storage, you’d have to get a little creative. Thankfully that’s no longer the case and antibiotics are easier than ever to store.

Doctors are increasingly concerned by bacterial resistance to antibiotics, so it is understandable why antibiotics are controlled behind the counter across most of the world. As long as you understand that you should only use antibiotics under a doctor’s direction, you won’t be contributing to the problem.

Many of these emergency antibiotic companies have you fill out a survey that is forwarded to a doctor for review. In my order with Jase, this survey took 5 minutes to fill out but was extremely thorough about my intended use, medical history, and medical support structure. Their attention to detail highlighted their committed balance between emergency availability and antibiotic stewardship.

No less than 19 hours later, a doctor licensed in my state reached out to me to confirm everything was in order and to reiterate the importance of emergency use and antibiotic stewardship. My prescriptions were filled one state away, so it shipped quickly too and I had the bag in hand three days later.

Size & Weight

If you are taking your prepper antibiotics kit to go in a portable first aid kit, you don’t need an entire pharmacy. Survival kits are optimized to have the lowest weight because you never know when an emergency will require you to hoof it long distances.

Antibiotics, even in stockpile amounts, are lightweight and don’t take up much space. Almost every emergency medical supply company that we reviewed provided a small case to contain the prescription medicine. The cases themselves won’t be showing up on our best survival backpack review anytime soon, as they aren’t very durable- but they get the job done.

Shelf Life

Antibiotics in portable kits may degrade fast, so you’ll need to watch the tags for shelf life. Store them in a cool and dry spot and they’ll last year though. I prefer to keep them out of reach of kids (of course) and in a cool spot so I won’t have to cycle them out until at least 5 years from now.

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Are Fish Antibiotics Safe for Humans?

No, it is not safe to take fish antibiotics.

While you may have historically seen prepping sites compare various antibiotics with fish versions, there are a few major issues. Fish antibiotics are manufactured without regard for safety and health, unlike regular antibiotics, and are not FDA-approved, and sometimes are not even lab-grade.

The FDA recently went after many vet supply stores, including Chewy for selling OTC animal antibiotics, as reported by Reuters in late December 2023. This has resulted in over-the-counter fish antibiotics being almost impossible to find now. It’s just a matter of time before any leftover distributors receive a letter similar to Chewy’s from the FDA.

Just because there are equivalencies between fish antibiotics and what your doctor prescribes doesn’t mean you should self-administer. In a wild SHTF scenario, you might consider it- but why would you have fish antibiotics lying around but not an easily obtained antibiotic kit?

The days of fish antibiotics for prepper emergencies are behind us. Here is a great, rational breakdown of our top pick vs. fish antibiotics:

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Who Needs Emergency Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are an essential part of a survival first aid kit, and those are essential in almost every in-place and mobile survival kit.

At the very least you should have them in your home as part of your in-place first aid kit:

• Survival First Aid Kit

Luckily, they are not as hard to come by anymore. On rare occasions, some people have allergic reactions to antibiotics so you should check with your doctor before adding prepper antibiotics to your kits on hand (if you haven’t already).

Sources and References

All of our experience and the testing we do to determine the best prepper antibiotics supplier is useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:

Aminov, R. (2009). The role of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in nature. Environmental Microbiology. Volume 11. Issue 12. Pages 2970 – 2988. (Source)

Mazer-Amirshahi, M., et al. (2017). Newly approved antibiotics and antibiotics reserved for resistant infections: Implications for emergency medicine. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Volume 35. Issue 1. Pages 154 – 158. (Source)

Zang, W., et al. (2020). Online availability of fish antibiotics and documented intent for self-medication. PLoS ONE. Volume 15. Issue 9. (Source)

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The Final Word

Having antibiotics on hand can literally be a lifesaver during an emergency or disaster. Supply chain disruption and power outages occur with most regional disasters and national catastrophes, and antibiotics will be tough to get. Don’t let an infection threaten your life.

Here are a few related articles our readers have also found helpful:

• The Best Iodine Tablets for Nuclear Fallout Radiation
• The Best Water Purification Tablets for Emergencies and Survival
• Survival First Aid Kit Guide, Gear, and Checklist

We presented quite a lot of information, but as always: if you have any questions let us know and we would be happy to help. Our research and testing found the Jase Case Antibiotics Pack to be the best option given its value, included antibiotics, ease of obtaining, profile, and shelf life.

If you pick up one of our suggested prepper antibiotics kits- make sure you are familiar with them and know when to use them. Don’t contribute to bacterial antibiotic resistance and know the basics of which type of antibiotic is for specific infections.

Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.

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