Hello all. I have an 11 month old that needs to take prednisolone. We just finished 5mg 2x a day for 5 days and just went to 1 5mg pill a day until symptoms resolve, which I'm not sure how long that will be. I feel like this medication is a little hard on her. At first her appetite wasn't the best, she seemed anxious or nervous, and would kind of just sit around and stare, as well as be a bit more aggressive with our other cat. It seemed to mellow out a bit and she started eating normally, but I'm definitely seeing some behavior changes. She is usually very active and absolutely LOVES to play. That's her thing. I've always said I would know somethings wrong if she ever doesn't want to play. Well she doesn't seem interested much in play. She does a bit, but it's very short lived. I guess it chilled her out, but it's just not her usual self. I've read the side effects do say there could be loss of energy and behavior changes so maybe it's normal? I'm currently waiting on my vet to speak with me about this and make sure the dosage isn't too much for her. I just wanted to see if anyone experienced any big changes in personality with their cats and if so once the treatment was over were they back to their normal happy self? Just kind of worried about her and hope its not causing her any major discomfort or even cause long term behavior changes or issues.
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Prednisolone behavior changes and side effects
- Thread starter MikeJ523
- Start Date
Hello - no experience here, but I did want to send my support and to echo your thoughts/hopes that it isn't a long-term thing 
Hi. All cats can react differently to meds, so absolutely check with your vet about what you are seeing. Why is an 11-month-old cat on steroids? Just curious.
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- #4
Furballsmom
Thank you!
FeebysOwner
She is on it for Pillow Foot. I actually just spoke with the vet and we are going to wean her off of the medication. He said that the medication is typically well tolerated in cats, but really I should just see some like increased hunger and they should typically be their normal selves. He said that a lot of times they don't even treat the pillow foot if the cat is able to walk and most of the time it doesn't bother them much. I'm not really sure if I like that answer so a second opinion with another vet might be something to consider. This Dr has been working with cats only for 40 years so I'm not really sure what to do or think. I would like to see the pillow foot go away really.
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Our boy was on prednisolone for over a year for asthma. The only things I noticed were increased appetite and huge pee clumps in the litter box. There were no personality changes. For most of the time, the dose was 2.5 mg every other night.
Did they try antibiotics first, such as doxycycline? Doxycycline is an antibiotic, but it also has immunomodulating properties and can be effective in treating plasma cell pododermatitis (which is what pillow foot is).
Plasma Cell Pododermatitis (Pillow Foot) in Cats - Veterinary Partner - VIN
Plasma Cell Pododermatitis (Pillow Foot) in Cats - Veterinary Partner - VIN
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- #7
arr
thank you for your response. Yes according to my vet that sounds like how cats should react to it.
FeebysOwner
We did not try this. The vet didn't even suggest it and I had mentioned it to him before. He said we can, but also mentioned the risk of damage to the esophagus which I really don't like. I know water has to be administered after, but I would never forgive myself if something happened and got damaged especially since she's not even 1 yet. Barely even starting her life. Maybe that will just have to be the route we take to get rid of this. Just a little scary. Got a lot to think about and decisions I'll need to make. Just want to make sure I do what's best and the right thing.
IMO, it is worthwhile to try it. There are so many ways to give this med to cat to avoid esophageal trauma. Lickable treats are a great example. It doesn't have to be administered via dry pill.
Doxycycline (Vibramycin) - Veterinary Partner - VIN
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- #9
Ya I think I am probably going to end up this route. The only option that may work is liquid. Which she absolutely hates and fights when we've had to do this in the past with other meds. She is an extremely picky cat so I don't think I can do the lickable treats since she won't have anything to do with the regular kind of those. Now if they made it in a freeze dried treat she would probably devour it, she loves those things. I did see they make it in a chewable treat kind of thing, but it will depend on the consistency of them. If they are soft and chewy it will be a no go, if they are on the harder side I may have some luck with those.
I have no idea if Wedgewood Pharmacy would have such a thing, but they are fairly responsive to general requests about med options.
Veterinary Pharmacy for Compounded Pet Medications (wedgewoodpharmacy.com)
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I hope your kitty is doing well! My 5-year-old cat was diagnosed with plasma cell pododermatitis last year. Her vet recommended switching to steroids after 1 week of doxycycline. I decided to continue doxycycline because everything I had read indicated a minimum trial of 4-8 weeks, and I was nervous about the side effects of steroids. I started noticing improvement after 6-8 weeks, and we ended up doing 12 weeks total of doxycycline twice/day. She has been off meds for 3 months now and is doing great! Mine is quite picky too, and I feel lucky that she loves pill pockets - they made it so easy. I hope you find something that works for you. Good luck!
