Hi there,
My cat is almost 8 years old and slightly overweight at ~15 pounds (but I swear most of that is his excess fur!). He was diagnosed a few years ago with IBD but we finally got it under control almost 3 years ago with 5mg of Prednisolone and a Royal Canin dry food diet of Pea Protein/Venison (which of course they're starting to discontinue). Also note: my cat will not touch wet food sadly.
My vet and I always shifted the Prednisolone dosage from 5mg every other day, to 2.5 mg the other day, etc. etc. except when IBD flare-ups would occur...then we would up the dose to 5mg everyday for about a week. This was the routine we were on for almost 2 years (with bloodwork checks every 6 months that were normal), until we added in Purina's Fortiflora Probiotic Powder to be sprinkled on top of his dry food 1x a day. With this addition, we were able to decrease to 5mg of Prednisolone every other day, and 2.5 mg on the other days for 11 months with no IBD flare-up. Then all of a sudden, with no warning my cat has another flare-up that seemed to go away very quickly by increasing the Pred again to 5mg every day, and even 7.5 on a couple of those days. However, after just a few days the flare-up came back, only this time he had increased thirst and urination so of course I got worried and brought him in. They tested his urine via urinalysis and it showed that he was "borderline diabetic." My vet said to immediately decrease the Pred to 2.5 mg for the next 3 days, and then decrease that to 2.5 mg every other day and see how my cat does. We are supposed to go back to the vet to have his urine re-tested in 2 weeks after being on this regimen - it is everyone's hope that it was the prolonged and increased use of the Prednisolone that caused him to show up as "borderline diabetic" and that by decreasing the steroids, he will hopefully go back to normal urine/glucose levels.
I am of course going out of my mind and am incredibly nervous for how these next 2 weeks will go and what will be - so I am desperately asking if anyone has been in this situation before with a potential "prednisolone-induced diabetic episode" or if you think my cat would have developed this anyway? Or does anyone have any advice for how to get a steroid-induced diabetes back in remission and fully recover?
Thank you so, so much for any and all advice! My cat and I really appreciate it.
My cat is almost 8 years old and slightly overweight at ~15 pounds (but I swear most of that is his excess fur!). He was diagnosed a few years ago with IBD but we finally got it under control almost 3 years ago with 5mg of Prednisolone and a Royal Canin dry food diet of Pea Protein/Venison (which of course they're starting to discontinue). Also note: my cat will not touch wet food sadly.
My vet and I always shifted the Prednisolone dosage from 5mg every other day, to 2.5 mg the other day, etc. etc. except when IBD flare-ups would occur...then we would up the dose to 5mg everyday for about a week. This was the routine we were on for almost 2 years (with bloodwork checks every 6 months that were normal), until we added in Purina's Fortiflora Probiotic Powder to be sprinkled on top of his dry food 1x a day. With this addition, we were able to decrease to 5mg of Prednisolone every other day, and 2.5 mg on the other days for 11 months with no IBD flare-up. Then all of a sudden, with no warning my cat has another flare-up that seemed to go away very quickly by increasing the Pred again to 5mg every day, and even 7.5 on a couple of those days. However, after just a few days the flare-up came back, only this time he had increased thirst and urination so of course I got worried and brought him in. They tested his urine via urinalysis and it showed that he was "borderline diabetic." My vet said to immediately decrease the Pred to 2.5 mg for the next 3 days, and then decrease that to 2.5 mg every other day and see how my cat does. We are supposed to go back to the vet to have his urine re-tested in 2 weeks after being on this regimen - it is everyone's hope that it was the prolonged and increased use of the Prednisolone that caused him to show up as "borderline diabetic" and that by decreasing the steroids, he will hopefully go back to normal urine/glucose levels.
I am of course going out of my mind and am incredibly nervous for how these next 2 weeks will go and what will be - so I am desperately asking if anyone has been in this situation before with a potential "prednisolone-induced diabetic episode" or if you think my cat would have developed this anyway? Or does anyone have any advice for how to get a steroid-induced diabetes back in remission and fully recover?
Thank you so, so much for any and all advice! My cat and I really appreciate it.