Dogs on prednisone

So now we're trying prednisone because maybe my dog has colitis. He's on 20 mg for ten days, then tapering down, he's a 40 lb dog - it seems like a high dosage! Does anyone know what side effects to expect in a dog? I forgot to ask. Will he be hyper? Will he have to pee a lot?

The vet tried to sell me 50 20mg pills for 20 bucks - I don't think so! That's about four dollars worth of prednisone! I'm just using my leftovers.
Erica

Erica - my dog has Cushings which is the same thing as being on Prednisone. She drinks a lot, eats a lot, pees a lot, and pants a lot. She had a lot of weight gain (which she has lost since being treated), but that probably won't happen to your dog short term.

I wish she had Addisons, since the treatment for that is cheap. Her pills cost $50.00 for 8 of them. She only needs two a week, but when her cortisol levels get up there, I have to give her one or two a day for a while. She's the one that just had surgery yesterday....expensive dog!

I didn't know it was safe to give prednisone to animals, i'd hate to have to give any animal that stuff either, it would be painful watching them go through the side-effects and not being able to do anything and what would make it harder to watch would be the animal wouldn't understand whats happening to them, at least with a human even a child you can sit them down and explain whats happening.

Hope your dog doesn't have to be on it long Erica

Sorry your dog has to have the dredded pred! When Sally was on it it made her quite snappy & bad tempered as well as the munchies, peeing and hyper. Same when my cat was on it.
Sandi, hows the dog doing what was the op for?
Hope everyones pets are ok
Julia

I've had cats on prednisolone. The vets have told me they metabolize it differently (after seeing the look on my face when it was recommended). They were never on for more than a couple of weeks...Rudy wheezed a bit in the spring, so it might have been allergies. He was on 5mg tapering down to 2.5.

Oh, by the way, I had the vet write me a prescription that I filled at Walgreens for about 1/4 of what the vet would've charged. "Rudy Cat" became a Walgreen's customer in the computer.

Shelby is doing good, thanks. She's eating now and walking around a bit more. Still has bloody urine but the vet said that is normal for now.

She is in the Walmart computer as "Shelby canine" for her meds.

Erica - how is your dog doing?

Dogs are doing about the same. All happy and relaxed enough. The ancient one on Rimadyl was pacing starting at 4am. The one with colitis on prednisone is peeing buckets. Somebody, either the pacing girl or the prednisone boy, peed all over their blankets on the floor last night. The big foster guy is perfect as always, if a little naturally stinky. We met a new neighbor dog today, so the big guy will have somebody to play with who isn't ancient or fragile.

Fargo, prednisone boy, has had a problem for a few months now with straining horribly on his stool, and gross stinky loose stool, and not enough of it. That's what they now think is maybe colitis. We thought it was an obstruction, he eats things like carpet and bedsheets, but xrays look clear. They thought maybe allergies so he's been on the ultra prescription diet food, I think it's made out of gold flakes or diamonds or something. Then he was on dog probiotics for a few weeks, that made things worse. So we're trying the pred. He's the one with recurring pancreatitis but this has been different. As soon as they said colitis yesterday I said - why don't we try prednisone - oh my gosh if this works I'll be so relieved but also so mad. We could have tried this first.

Every vet bill is $500 plus or minus a random two digit number. It's wearing...
Erica

Oh I am right there with you! Shelby was on prescription food for two months trying to dissolve her stones....didn't work. I also had to cook her vegetables every day. For the last year and a half, I am jumping up every five minutes to let her outside to pee. She had a urinary tract infection constantly for over a year. In the snow, it looks like someone was murdered in our front yard. I finally decided I was tired of being worn out every evening (not to mention how she feels) and she had the surgery.

Two week supply of food - $60
Pills every two weeks - $40
Surgery - $500.00
Sandi's happiness - priceless!

Good luck to you!~

You know things are bad when prednisone is the best answer!!!!! I hope it works.

Hope prednisone is working.

Our late granddog had to be on it a couple times when a puppy - only side effect she had was she didn't hurt. Thank heaven whatever it was passed and she never had to go on it again. One of our grandcats had to be on it for a bit too without side effects.

Sandi hope your baby is doing well.

Our cat is Killian Cat at Target's pharmacy and Killian Cat at the human pharmacy nearby. She's so special we can't just be with one pharmacy