Prednisone

Hi everyone -

Happy Tuesday!!!

Question for you all.....Our yellow lab had really swollen, red eyes last week; just woke up one morning & they were infected.
:confused:

The Vet prescribed Prednisone & Amoxitab and she's doing better. She's drinking ALOT of water & even had an accident in her "room" during the night last night because she's drinking so much water. That's fun to wake up to... :rolleyes:

My question is: I've been seeing on various web sites that we should ween her off of the drug, instead of abruptly stopping it. Vet didn't say anything about it to us, do you have any idea?

(She's going to the Vet tomorrow to have her hips x-rayed, so I'll ask then, but just wondering if you've had experience w/ Prednisone?

Thanks!
Amy :

My experience with Prednisone is to always lower the dosage, gradually. We have usually had to use it for itching problems. They do experience a huge appetite for water, thus the "peeing" problems. My only advice would be to watch closely and let her out more often than usual.

Hope everything will be ok soon!

Logan

I agree with Logan completely. :D

Our dachshund took it for skin allergies when he was first diagnosed. When it was time to get him off the prednisone, our vet said never just stop - to gradually wean him off. By doing that he never had trouble. But he too drank what seems like gallons of water and had accidents all the time. We also noticed he seemed to eat a lot more.

I don't know if these are the same pills, but when our cat, Fister got Prednisolone, he had 1 pill for 5 days and then 1/2 for the next 5 days. I don't think it's healthy to be on these for longer. Fister got pretty fat during this time, but as soon as he stopped, he lost it again.

Thanks so much!! I will definitely wean her off (skip tonight's dosage and just give her morning doses until she's done (only 3 more days), instead of twice daily...I may even go every other day if the Vet agrees tomorrow).

AND...you'd better believe I'm going to bring this up when we see our Vet tomorrow...wonder why they wouldn't tell us about the weaning???:confused:


Anyway, thanks again for your help!!! :)

Amy

Hi! When I need to take prednisone for myself my own doctor has the dosage wean down. When I seen another doctor this past spring she felt it was more effective to continue the same dose till done. As for the vet my vet never weans the dog off the predisone - keeps on the same dose till finished. So believe it depends on what vet. Prednisone does increase eating and drinking. Mght depend on the strength of the medication think it runs from 2mg to 20mg and 40 mg.

When our RB Keisha was on Prednisone for cancer on her nose, she was thirsty ALL the time, she couldn't get enough water.
And we also weaned her off of it slowly.