Different diagnosis, but Beau has been on prednesone for a while. Over a year. He started out on 50 mg of pred with 50 mg of imuran. When we got his IBD under control and he started to regain the weight he had lost, we lowered the pred. For several months, we would take him out every 3 hours round the clock (set an alarm for 3AM) and we would feed him as well. He needed to gain, the pred made him ravenous so it worked out. I had someone (my son) come by the house during the day to let him out to pee and feed him. That went on for 6 months.
Holding at between 7.5 mg and 10 mg (which is low for a gh and not the therapeutic dose) he seemed kinda flat. We weren't sure if it were the pred, imuran or just Beau.
Because of the pred, he is suseptable to skin issues, he has lost a lot of hair. He used to have a thick lush coat. Now it is very thin. But he is alive and doing OK. How can I complain about hair!!!
With greyt reluctance we switched from pred to budesonide (Fewer side affects) and we are at about 2 weeks now. I am not 100% sure how it's working right now, but he doesn't seem to be as flat so we will see.
There are some other dogs on GT that have been on pred for a while. Hopefully, they will chime in.