Prednisone

[Guest DorasMom]

Hi All, Coach has been prescribed Prednisone. I was reading the package insert (it came from the human pharmacy) and it says to take the meds before 9am. Any idea why?

[Aerosmom]

Cricket has been on Prednisone for a long time...never heard about the 9 a.m. stuff but I do know that you should give it to them with food as it can irritate the stomach. She's had pm doses too -- so the before 9 a.m. doesn't make sense unless there's some other reason?

[Guest charmsmom]

In humans, prednisone is a steroid that can cause alertness and excitability. Taking it after 9 am can cause sleeping problems. That doesn't apply to animals, I don't think, but you can always double check with your vet.

[ahicks51]

We always give it before 9 AM because Coco needs to pee before 5 PM. Give it too late (after noon or so), and they need to wake you up to go out.

 

Probably not the correct answer, but that's the answer around here!

[Fiona3]

Hobbes has been on Prednisone for two months. He takes an AM dose with food & a PM dose approx. 12 hours later, again with food. He also gets a 10 mg. Pepcid twice a day to prevent problems with his stomach. Does Coach only get one pill per day? When Hobbes took Prednisone before he was getting one per day and I usually gave it to him with his morning meal. We've had other greys on Pred. before and I've never heard of the 9:00 am time frame. Maybe it just applies to people?

[Guest snowberry]

We always give it before 9 AM because Coco needs to pee before 5 PM. Give it too late (after noon or so), and they need to wake you up to go out.

 

Probably not the correct answer, but that's the answer around here!

 

That was the answer my vet gave me! It increases the need to pee, so better off having the hours of "peak flow" when you're awake

 

[Burpdog]

Because that is when your natural pred kicks in--right around then. One reason I don't like a split dose and many doctors don't either is that morning is more "normal"

[Guest DorasMom]

Thank you for the answers everyone!! I thought it was something like that but wanted the opinions of others who have pups on the same drug.

He is supposed to take one a day for 5 days,1/2 tablet for 14 days and then a 1/2 tablet every other day for 2 months. We have tried EVERYTHING possible for his very loose bowels and nothing has helped. I've had him for 4 months with no improvment. My vet now thinks he has IBS but doesn't want to rush with doing a surgical biopsy. She wants to see if this will help at all first.

[ahicks51]

We have tried EVERYTHING possible for his very loose bowels and nothing has helped. I've had him for 4 months with no improvment.

 

Have you tried adding beet pulp to the diet?

[Burpdog]

Or raw? Metamucil?

[patricia]

Cody Angelo takes his at 5:00am and 5:00pm.

[Fiona3]

Hobbes had a similar problem and it turned out to be Giardia. The older test kits don't always pick up on Giardia in the stool. You could ask your vet use the Giardia Snap Test 15 - it's more sensitive and caught his infection when other tests missed it.

 

If the Prednisone & diet doesn't help, it could be this type of infection.

[Guest DorasMom]

I have used the beet pulp to no avail and he has had a giardia snap test done, negative.

I have not tried metamucil though, that's a thought.

As for feeding raw, I can't afford to really, you can't get any type of meat around here for under two dollars a pound!

[Trudy]

Have you had him tested for food allergies?

 

If Ryan eats kibble with wheat in it, I just pick up mush.

[Guest DorasMom]

My vet is reluctant to do the allergy tests because she said you get way to many false positives for it to of much help. He doesn't have any skin allergies or any other types it seems. His coat was very dulland wiry when I brought him but it's beautiful and soft now. He was 12 pounds underweight also and now he is right where he should be. We tested his digestion and it's perfect. he was tested for all the parasites out there, he had tape worm and we treated that. We ran more parasite tests a month after and he is clear of all of them. We tried beet pulp, pumpkin, digestive enzymes and antibiotics. The antibiotics firm him up really well but we don't want to keep him on them forever. He has been on Canidae, Solid Gold and is currently on Wellness. He was kept on each kind for almost six weeks but was no better really any one of them. I'm out of ideas. Oh, we also did a months worth of the Fortiflora.

Edited October 19, 2007 by DorasMom

[Guest Greensleeves]

Is the *only* problem loose stool? You know that they'll be loose on the pred, right? Because it increases thirst, and the increased water intake means more water in the stool. Our vets were quick to point that out to us with Whistler.

 

If the only thing "wrong" is mushy poop... maybe he's actually fine, and that's just what passes for normal for him. If he has no other symptoms (pain, discomfort, etc), and he seems otherwise happy and healthy, I'd be inclined to ease off on all the tests, etc.

 

YMMV, of course, but it's just a thought. Whistler never had what most Greytalkers consider "perfect poop," and it never bothered him. So I never let it bother me.

[Guest DorasMom]

His poop is not just mushy, it's past that stage. No matter what he eats he has bad, very loud gas. Don't mean to sound gross but you can actually hear him going to the bathroom from about 35 feet away.

[GreyPoopon]

My vet is reluctant to do the allergy tests because she said you get way to many false positives for it to of much help.

 

Well, she may be right about the false positives, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any benefit. If you avoid the positives, and things improve, you're ahead. Testing has sure helped with my girls.

 

[Batmom]

The antibiotics firm him up really well but we don't want to keep him on them forever. He has been on Canidae, Solid Gold and is currently on Wellness. He was kept on each kind for almost six weeks but was no better really any one of them.

 

Two clues here.

 

-1- Make a chart of those foods and then go out and find one that's a lot different. FWIW, the brands you mention generally do not work well in my dogs; Wellness in particular produces instant liquid poop here. In your position, I would try ProPlan or Iams Adult or Science Diet Lamb and Rice; if I have a poop problem, I can almost always solve it with one of those foods. The high-end brands that get the great ratings in Whole Dog Journal etc. work better on paper than they do in the dog, at least in my experience.

 

-2- If the antibiotics help, it shouldn't hurt him to stay on. Especially if it's metronidazole. If the dog tolerates it, you can keep him on for months with no ill effects. Doing better on metronidazole would be an indication that he's got either some type of bacterial overgrowth or inflammation or both.

 

Good luck!

[GreyPoopon]

-2- If the antibiotics help, it shouldn't hurt him to stay on. Especially if it's metronidazole. If the dog tolerates it, you can keep him on for months with no ill effects. Doing better on metronidazole would be an indication that he's got either some type of bacterial overgrowth or inflammation or both.

 

Tylocine can be used long term too. I've used it a lot with Minnie (IBD) and Edie.

[krissn333]

Just out of curiosity, what is the main ingredient in all of the foods you have tried? I think I recall Canidae being lamb based, what kind of Solid Gold have you been feeding (if it is the Hund-n-flocken, I believe that's lamb too)? I don't know about Wellness but if it is lamb too you might try switching to a beef based food...Nutro makes a Beef based food, Avoderm does also. We have fed ProPlan Beef and Rice here with good results as well.

 

My dogs DON'T do lamb, not a single one of them. We have INSTANT diarrhea, and I do mean instant...it takes about 5 minutes after they eat something with lamb for them to start squirting (sorry to be gross). I never recommend lamb based food to our adopters, I have just never seen any of the dogs do well with it. My male greyhound can't have poultry based foods either, so we have to stick to beef or salmon foods.

 

At present everyone here eats ProPlan sensitive skin and stomach formula (salmon based). They all have soft beautiful coats and nice, formed poos, and even my little guy, who had the opposite problem in that his poo was too large and hard on all of the other foods I tried for him, now has good poops!

 

As far as the Pred goes, as someone with lupus I have been on several courses of pred over my lifetime. I know that I take it in the morning (especially when I'm at a higher dosage) because it makes me feel like I'm on speed sometimes...I am chatty and I work quickly, I am extra super thirsty which means I have to use the bathroom extra. I know if I ever took pred and tried to sleep there's no way I could. I would assume it's probably the same logic for dogs regarding the potty breaks and the hyperness, although, Pinky has been on pred for about a week now for her lupus (yes, lupus girl adopted lupus dog )and I haven't noticed any extra activity from her. She has been drinking more but doesn't seem to need to pee more. She also hasn't had upset tummy from it either though, so I guess it affects dogs differently just like it affects people differently.

[Fiona3]

We had a Dalmatian with terrible Irritable Bowel. Our vet put him on Flagyl (Metronidazole) 250 mg daily and a 10 mg. Prednisone given every other day. He was on this for 1-1/2 years. It's the only thing that was finally able to clear him up. His diet was eventually changed to Nutro Lamb and Rice with a little boiled chicken on top. When he passed away at 15 years it was from his heart condition, not the Irritable Bowel. He never had any side affects from this medication.

 

I know how frustrating it can be to deal with the bowel problems. We've had two dogs with very different causes but trying to find the cure can take a while. It is really hard when they have "explosive diarrhea" which sounds like your Coach is having. Hobbes "normal" stools now are more like pudding. As he is on a 35mg. dose of Prenisone daily, he will never be as firm as our other greys.

 

Let us know how Coach is progressing.