Mary, how large is the dose? My cat has taken Prednisone for years for his asthma, and the side effects have been minimal - persistent hunger and thus, weight gain. My parents' Golden has taken Pred occasionally for swimmers ear, and he's a-ok. It's a tough decision to make, but I'd suggest at least trying it. Good luck!

I understand totally what your saying and why your hesitant. Working here at the hospital I see everyday how each patient reacts differently to medication so I think you should atleast try him on it . It could make him a well dog : ) I've asked all my doggie friends and none of them have had dogs on pred. so I can't give you anymore first hand info. Your in my thoughts.

OOps forgot ...on a much happier note. What a awesome event at the pool !! That is totally cool they did that and Spencer and Katy had such good manners. : )

Oh what memories those pics brought back. When I was a child, my sisters and I would ride our bikes to the city pool nearby. Our beagle dog, Sox would follow us. He KNEW he was not allowed in the pool, so he would sit innocently outside until we were in the pool. Then he would trot through the open dressing room and do a belly flop right in the pool.

This would be followed by the lifeguard blowing his/her whistle and yelling at us by name to get our dog out of the pool. One of us would have to take the dog home and beg Mom to keep him inside this time. This was repeated more than a few times each summer.

On the prednisone. I have had to use it personally several times (but never on a dog). It can literally be a miracle drug but the side effects can be grueling...hunger/weight gain/mood changes. However, these things are temporary and I believe are something you could get through and the medicine could very well help him greatly.

On a side personal note, I have less side effects when I receive it by injection as opposed to pills. The makeup is a little different. I'm not sure that is an option with animals.

Good luck!

What a great day at the pool! Cool that they made a special day just for the pooches. Sorry to hear about Spencer's illness and I hope you can find the information you need.

Poor puppy! My late :( schnauzer, Bentley, used to have to go on prednisone in the fall b/c his skin would get unbearably itchy. He suffered no noticable side effects. I work in the pharmaceutical biz and grew up with my pharmacist dad imparting lots of knowledge around the dinner table. Prednisone in his eyes, is a great drug for short-term use, but not something you would want to use long term. It should reduce the swelling. Prednisone is probably in the top 30 most commonly prescribed drugs (in Canada) and although we're all a bunch of crazy socialists, I don't think I would bat an eye, if my dog was given a prescription for it again. THAT BEING SAID - I would not give this STERIOD to my dog unless I knew he was cancer free... or it was going to be short term treatment. Then again, we could all just be talking out of our arses. Perhaps you could get a second veterinary opinion? Or check with your local pharmacy?

hey Mary, that's very upsetting news about Spencer. My pups' Uncle Buster used to have to take periodic doses of prednisone for a bulging dachshund-disk. I really believe it prolonged his wonderful furry life, and he was happy to the end of his days. I wouldn't hesitate to put one of my pups on it, should the need arise, as a short-term treatment.

Sorry Spencer's not feeling well. I think if the prednisone is a short course (measured in days or weeks) you should be ok. As I'm sure the doctor told you, you MUST taper him off it or bad things can happen to him via his adrenal system. One of my cats had a couple of short courses of prednisone in her life (I forget what) and she lived to be 17 and had pretty much the same personality the whole time. I think you'll be ok.

my dog takes prednizone because his lypmh nodes are swollen and he has a comprimised immune system. with out the pred to keep them small, he really can't chew/walk with out a lot of pain. he's on them permanently, which i am not happy about (knowing the long-term effects), but it's better than having a dog who can't stand without pain. that said, i haven't had any bad side effects, just an increase in hunger/smallish weight gain. no bad mood swings, etc.
so, i think in the short term, it'd be fine for your dog to be on pred...but really pay attention to when/how many milligrams you give and when to start tapering off.

The only experience I've had with prednisone is when my dog Cammie was on it for itchy skin. She was on a short course, and her worst side effect was leaking urine, especially while she was lying down or sleeping. (But she's a bit of a leaky dog anyway. She's on Proin for it now that she's 13.) Best of luck to Spencer.

And it's so fabulous that y'all could take dogs to the pool! I wish we could have done that with our Sasha. She would have absolutely LOVED it.

I had a dog who was on prednisone for about six weeks after having a mast cell tumor removed. I can't say much about how it affected his personality because we'd only had him for a few weeks when the tumor was removed. I would be concerned about putting a dog on prednisone for a really long time, but for the short term it wasn't too bad. Our biggest issue was that our dog became absolutely ravenous and I didn't want him to gain too much weight. I combatted this by feeding him a slice of bread a few times a day -- whole grain bread will ease the dog's hunger but not be too many calories. (Alternatively, if your dog likes veggies, you can give more of those as snacks.) If you have any specific questions, I can ask some vets or a pharmacist that I know what their experiences have been with prednisone in dogs.

Hi,
My dog (12 yrs old) has a collapsed treichiea and the vet put him on pred about 1.5 months ago... after the first month on it, i called to get a second months prescription because of how well he was doing on it.
but very shortly into the second month with it, he was urinating soooo much it was insane... he would just stand there and pee, without moving a muscle! I didnt even know he had pee'd until he walked away and there would be a puddle!

And also, he started becoming lethargic and not so active and so i immediately stopped giving him the pills. Well, 2 days after I had stopped giving it to him, his eyes were a bit gookey one morning, but not too much to be concerned over but I let him out the back door and he just wondered into the pool!
He walked straight in, as if he just didnt see where he was going at all!
I had to jump in after him! It was terrible and so scary!
He has been off the pills for about 4 days now, but all he does is sleep and pee! He drinks a TON of water!!! And then pee's a river! He is eating good though.
But I am wondering when this pill will get completely out of his system and he will go back to normal?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Stacy