Prednisolone 5mg Daily Long Term

Kgraham1511

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Has anyone had a cat on prednisolone 5 mg daily long term? What was your experience? Is 5 mg considered a high dose?

So my 11 pound male maine coon is only almost two years old now. Since he has turned one we have had tummy troubles. The only cure after seeing an internal specialist is prednisolone daily.

Recently we have reduce to 2.5 mg a day after about 2 months on 5 mg. After about a week and a half we are having inappetence again and smelly stool. So guess are option in only to go back to 5 mg prednisolone.

The only option seems to be going on 5 mg of prednisolone daily.
 

fionasmom

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Chelsea took 5 mg daily as an initial treatment for intestinal lymphoma. She did take it as a stand alone medication for what I would call long term until we enhanced her treatment with additional meds.

What was the dx for your cat? Long term pred is not a good thing unless it is given for a very good reason.
 
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Kgraham1511

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Chelsea took 5 mg daily as an initial treatment for intestinal lymphoma. She did take it as a stand alone medication for what I would call long term until we enhanced her treatment with additional meds.

What was the dx for your cat? Long term pred is not a good thing unless it is given for a very good reason.
We are looking at IBD. Without the prednisolone 5 mg daily he won't eat and has soft stool.
 

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Is that 5mg once a day or twice a day? Once a day isn't terribly high but twice a day would be.

The only cure after seeing an internal specialist is prednisolone daily.

Did the internal medicine vet rule out gastrointestinal issues such as IBD? Just prescribing steroids isn't a fix for an underlying cause. The steroids will help symptoms but the underlying issues needs to be addressed.

Edit: We posted at the same time. Here's a good web site with info on IBD treatment: IBDKitties – Helping Save Lives…One Paw at a Time

A diet change is often helpful and is part of managing the IBD. What are you currently feeding? Chicken and fillers can trigger flare ups in some sensitive cats.
 
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Kgraham1511

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Is that 5mg once a day or twice a day? Once a day isn't terribly high but twice a day would be.




Did the internal medicine vet rule out gastrointestinal issues such as IBD? Just prescribing steroids isn't a fix for an underlying cause. The steroids will help symptoms but the underlying issues needs to be addressed.
She is treating it as IBD and we are on hydrolyzed food from Hills Science. And it is only 5 mg once daily.
 

LTS3

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IMO, you don't need the hydrolyzed food or any prescription food. Any limited ingredient food in a novel protein diet would be helpful. I feed my IBD a commercial raw diet instead of LID dry or canned food but that's what I've been feeding my cat since he was a kitten. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food :)

Some IBD cats may need additional medication at first to help with symptoms. My IBD cat took antacids, antibiotics, Cerenia, and a few others before he was just on pred. I think his pred dose at most has ever been 4 mg twice a day to start. I also gave him probiotics.

An additional web site: http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/ There's a section there on using probiotics.
 
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Kgraham1511

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IMO, you don't need the hydrolyzed food or any prescription food. Any limited ingredient food in a novel protein diet would be helpful. I feed my IBD a commercial raw diet instead of LID dry or canned food but that's what I've been feeding my cat since he was a kitten. It's ok to disagree with the vet about food :)

Some IBD cats may need additional medication at first to help with symptoms. My IBD cat took antacids, antibiotics, Cerenia, and a few others before he was just on pred. I think his pred dose at most has ever been 4 mg twice a day to start. I also gave him probiotics.

An additional web site: http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/ There's a section there on using probiotics.
How long was he on 4 mg? I am just worried that he won't last long on 5 mg a day. Other than the IBD he is super healthy.
 

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He usually stays on 4mg twice a day for a few weeks before the vet decreases the dose based on symptoms. My cat is currently not taking any pred.
 
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Kgraham1511

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That's good he is not on it long term. How old is he?
 

LTS3

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He's 10. He only needs pred when he starts vomiting liquid frequently. So maybe two or three times a year he goes on pred for a couple of weeks.
 

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I had a terminal cancer cat on it for almost two years. It was the ONLY thing that helped him control his constant drooling from mouth cancer. He was miserable without it. He was a changed cat on it. they said he may develop kidney failure because of it but never did. I had to weigh his quantity of life against quality. Since he was older and was totally miserable without it I gave it. I argued once with the receptionist who told me it was not good to give prednisone for so long, and I answered, "he's dying, if this brings him time I will do what I can to make him more comfortable, it really doesn't matter what you die of does it?"He gained two years, and in a cat's life that is a long time. If it's IBD though and not cancer, you might research other treatments to see if you can find one that has fewer risks. This will gain you time......
 

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There’s some emerging research that IBD is caused by gut dysbiosis. Lots of IBD cats do well on high protein, low carbs limited ingredients diet without long term steroids, with some good probiotics.
 
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Kgraham1511

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Thanks for all the help. We have recently went down to half a pill 2.5 mg a day. And he is eating like a horse and poops are solid.

Called our specialist for a follow up and she wanted to continue the 2.5 mg daily and check back in in a couple of months.

Hopefully we can stopt the steriod altogether.
 

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I had a terminal cancer cat on it for almost two years. It was the ONLY thing that helped him control his constant drooling from mouth cancer. He was miserable without it. He was a changed cat on it. they said he may develop kidney failure because of it but never did. I had to weigh his quantity of life against quality. Since he was older and was totally miserable without it I gave it. I argued once with the receptionist who told me it was not good to give prednisone for so long, and I answered, "he's dying, if this brings him time I will do what I can to make him more comfortable, it really doesn't matter what you die of does it?"He gained two years, and in a cat's life that is a long time. If it's IBD though and not cancer, you might research other treatments to see if you can find one that has fewer risks. This will gain you time......
I just posted about my cat, she's been on Prednisolone for a year (5 mg daily) and now HATeS taking it. Do you have any tricks? Our option was to put her down, or keep her on this, like you I argued and she's been great for a year. If her kidneys go, oh well, we had another year with her!
 

di and bob

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My secret was to get some cat pill pockets, tear a tiny piece off and 'paste' it to a tiny piece if bacon. Sometimes he spit the pull out, but two or three tries and it went down with him begging for more. Once a week I fried up bacon. I also pushed it into a piece of cheese. Cats tend to swallow things quickly and whole if they love it. He ate it for two years.
 

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My secret was to get some cat pill pockets, tear a tiny piece off and 'paste' it to a tiny piece if bacon. Sometimes he spit the pull out, but two or three tries and it went down with him begging for more. Once a week I fried up bacon. I also pushed it into a piece of cheese. Cats tend to swallow things quickly and whole if they love it. He ate it for two years.
She learned about pill pockets, I've even drilled holes in Greenies! PP AND bacon? we'll see!
 

di and bob

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My cats won't eat pill pockets by themselves, I just used tiny pieces of them to stick the pill to what they loved. Fried bacon seemed to be the favorite. A couple of tiny pieces a day didn't hurt them, and a pound lasted a week. My husband used to get upset because I fried up bacon for the cats and it wasn't for him!
 

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She learned about pill pockets, I've even drilled holes in Greenies! PP AND bacon? we'll see!
Twist-a-dose transdermal gel from Wedgewood. Krista wasn't a fan of the wet willy (gel in the ear) either. But it was so much easier than pills or liquid. I gave her dose before dinner. She learned to understand that dinner followed the wet willy and didn't put up much resistance.

Prednisolone Twist-a-Dose Transdermal Gel
 

daftcat75

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To the original poster, talk to the vet about moving to 5 mg every other day rather than 2.5 daily. Pred takes about 36 hours to clear a cat's body so daily dosing always has some overlap. It's safer to do every other day dosing over the long-term.
 
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