Prednisone question
Hi. Lucy had loose stool/diarrhea for about 2 months, which mostly cleared up when she went on 10 mg/day of prednisone, then cleared up entirely when she went to a raw turkey diet. I slowly tapered her off the pred over a few weeks. When she had been off the pred for a week she stopped wanting her turkey diet, ate other food, and had a bout of vomiting. I put her back on pred for a short time and weaned her off again. She then stopped wanting her turkey diet again, ate other food, and got diarrhea. So I put her back on again and started the tapering right away. She was doing great again until I got to 2.5 mg pred every other day, a few days ago, and then she stopped wanting her turkey diet again, eventually ate some other food (turkey baby food and a little bit of EVO dry) and her stools got a little loose again and her appetite decreased. This is my question. I think she does really well when she is on 2.5 mg of pred per day. My preference would be to keep her off pred entirely, since steroids can have side effects long-term. My understanding, though, is that 2.5 mg/day is a fairly low dosage. I am thinking about just keeping her on it for at least a few weeks, maybe longer. She feels good, eats her turkey diet well, and has pretty normal bowels when she is on 2.5 mg/day, and she starts having some problems whenever I taper it lower than that. I have read of cats being on much higher dosages for months. Does anyone have any thoughts as to potential problems with 2.5 mg/day over weeks or months? Does it sound reasonable or problematic, or both? She weighs a little over 9 pounds. There other thing I was thinking of trying is going to 1.25 mg/day and seeing if that works better than 2.5 mg every other day. Any thoughts? The vet I am using now puts cats with IBD on 10 mg/day for months at a time, and does not think there is much of a problem. I am asking you guys because I want a somewhat more nuanced opinion, and I know that some of you appreciate how helpful steroids can be, as I do, but also are wary of the side effects long-term, as I am. Thanks, Michelle
Re: Prednisone question
I would keep her on the 2.5 for at least 2 weeks and see what happens. I don't think that dosage is high enough to do as much harm as not eating, and the vomiting, etc If she does well for 2 to even 3 weeks on 2.5, then I would taper her to 2 and give it another 3 weeks at least before tapering it to 1 and a half, etc When I dealt with ibd I had to taper very, very slowly, and we stayed most of the time on some sort of dosage. Now my cat already had kidney disease before we found out about the ibd, and he was young. Maybe 5? He lived to over 10 with both, and I think he would have made it longer if I had noticed his weight loss before it was too late by the time I got him to the vet. (He went into kidney failure) Also, he really needed daily sub-q which I was not able to give him by myself, so once I broke up with my boyfriend he didn't get it daily as he should have. t[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi. Lucy had loose stool/diarrhea for about 2 months, which mostly cleared up when she went on 10 mg/day of prednisone, then cleared up entirely when she went to a raw turkey diet. I slowly tapered her off the pred over a few weeks. When she had been off the pred for a week she stopped wanting her turkey diet, ate other food, and had a bout of vomiting. I put her back on pred for a short time and weaned her off again. She then stopped wanting her turkey diet again, ate other food, and got diarrhea. So I put her back on again and started the tapering right away. She was doing great again until I got to 2.5 mg pred every other day, a few days ago, and then she stopped wanting her turkey diet again, eventually ate some other food (turkey baby food and a little bit of EVO dry) and her stools got a little loose again and her appetite decreased.This is my question. I think she does really well when she is on 2.5 mg of pred per day. My preference would be to keep her off pred entirely, since steroids can have side effects long-term. My understanding, though, is that 2.5 mg/day is a fairly low dosage. I am thinking about just keeping her on it for at least a few weeks, maybe longer. She feels good, eats her turkey diet well, and has pretty normal bowels when she is on 2.5 mg/day, and she starts having some problems whenever I taper it lower than that. I have read of cats being on much higher dosages for months. Does anyone have any thoughts as to potential problems with 2.5 mg/day over weeks or months? Does it sound reasonable or problematic, or both? She weighs a little over 9 pounds. There other thing I was thinking of trying is going to 1.25 mg/day and seeing if that works better than 2.5 mg every other day. Any thoughts?The vet I am using now puts cats with IBD on 10 mg/day for months at a time, and does not think there is much of a problem. I am asking you guys because I want a somewhat more nuanced opinion, and I know that some of you appreciate how helpful steroids can be, as I do, but also are wary of the side effects long-term, as I am.Thanks, Michelle
Re: Prednisone question
Hi Michelle, My 19 yr old Inky is on pred for possible IBD..My vet wanted me to start him at 10mg a day for 3 weeks then taper to 5mg for another 3 wks...but I have started him on 5mg a day...He was vomiting and had the bouts of runny stool and straining...He hasn't seen the vet though as he has never been sick his entire life so I didn't want to stress him out if we can get it under control this way...so far so good...his stools have firmed up and doesn't seem to be straining...I am also going to do the ground turkey or chicken, too..Right now he is on sci diet I/D topped with a little tuna so he will eat the pill..I don't think it will hurt to leave yours on the pred at a low dose...I was told and have read that it may take a low dose to keep them regular.. You just have to find that right dose as you taper down. I did have a kitty on 20 mg of pred for 3 yrs...as she had a tumor on the back side of her tongue and the pred was the only thing that would keep the inflammation down enough for her to eat...I think it helped to shrink it some for quite awhile because she lived over 3 yrs with it...she was even able to eat dry food again and not choke.. Her skin did get very thin as people do when on long term steroids...but other than that, she didn't have any other problems..Bandy's doctor treated this kitties grandmother with high doses of pred for the rest of her life as she had lymphoma and after chemo was finished she remained on 20 mg of pred for 9 months... Those of the only cases I have had to use such high doses of pred..I didn't like it either, but it seemed to give them a good quality of life for quite awhile.. Kerry and Bandy Relax. Yahoo! Mail virus scanning helps detect nasty viruses!
