How Soon Do The Side Effects Of Prednisone Start?

[cello]

My eight year old female Greyhound was started on 20mg. of Prednisone twice a day yesterday. (40mg/day total dosage) She is taking this for her Protein Losing Enteropathy and some other GI issues. I am holding my breathe waiting for the side effects to kick in. How long does that usually take? The internal medicine specialist has warned me about excessive thirst and urination. I know not to limit her water - she needs that to maintain her hydration level. So far so good .... just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

Second question for those who are familiar with prednisone. Is this a large dose? Lady is about 70 pounds in weight. She is scheduled to be on this dose for two weeks, along with special super low fat prescription kibble. After the two weeks we will retest her blood protein levels and see if we can taper the pred down a little.

 

Thanks for anyone who can share their experience with this. It is the first time we have had a dog on pred.

[GreyPoopon]

Peeing should start any time now, if it hasn't already. Some dogs are more sensitive to it than others, and Lady might be one of the lucky ones that isn't hit hard.

 

It's a pretty good-sized dosage, yes. Years ago Minnie was briefly on 40 mg twice a day; she was underweight at about 40 lbs at the time, and I was told it was the maximum dosage. She was off it for years, and was recently put on 5 mg _once_ a day for appetite; that's a minimal dosage and it didn't have much impact on drinking/peeing, but it has made her eat.

[Hubcitypam]

Buddy was on 20mg twice daily for 10 days, then one a day for 10 more days, then one every other day. He weighs around 90 pounds. The drink and pee fest started fairly soon. I honestly had to put down a second water bowl and refill both several times a day. I REALLY appreciated the dog door.

[rascalsmom]

Jack was on prednisolone, very high doses, and he started pretty quickly with lots of peeing. I was taking him out upwards of 13 times every day....usually hourly.

[tbhounds]

Would rather have seen your vet prescribe budesonide for ple/IBD. Did you see an internist???

[cello]

Would rather have seen your vet prescribe budesonide for ple/IBD. Did you see an internist???

Yes, we saw an Internal Medicine Specialist at a large vet specialty practice.

[tbhounds]

Yes, we saw an Internal Medicine Specialist at a large vet specialty practice.

 

Well then kinda surprised as budesonide is increasing becoming the preferred corticosteroid for that disease. The lovely thing about budesonide is you don't have all the known side effects that pred produces.

[cello]

Well then kinda surprised as budesonide is increasing becoming the preferred corticosteroid for that disease. The lovely thing about budesonide is you don't have all the known side effects that pred produces.

 

I am really not sure. There was no discussion about which steroid to use. Lady has more then just IBD, there are other issues as well, so maybe the pred addresses those additional issues better?

Perhaps she also choose the pred since a one month loading dose of pred (20mg/bid) cost me $10.07 at Costco, and a one month loading dose of budesonide (3mg/bid) would have been $810?? Since this is a drug that my dog will potentially be on for a long time, maybe the vet took that into account?

[rascalsmom]

Don't know about IBD or PLE, but Jack had lymphangiectasia, and the vet wanted to eventually put him on budesonide, but the pred was going to initially get the disease under control a lot faster, and that's why he was on pred. Unfortunately he developed blood clots and had to leave us.

 

Maybe that's the vet's reasoning--hit it hard with pred, then switch to the other?

[4My2Greys]

 

I am really not sure. There was no discussion about which steroid to use. Lady has more then just IBD, there are other issues as well, so maybe the pred addresses those additional issues better?

Perhaps she also choose the pred since a one month loading dose of pred (20mg/bid) cost me $10.07 at Costco, and a one month loading dose of budesonide (3mg/bid) would have been $810?? Since this is a drug that my dog will potentially be on for a long time, maybe the vet took that into account?

Carol Ann, if you haven't already check the price of budesonide through SBH Medical. I've gotten several drugs from them at a substantial savings. One of the chemo drugs Beanie was on was going to cost anywhere from $400 to $600, I got it for less than $100 through SBH. Just wanted to let you know that if you wanted to eventually try the budenoside.

 

http://www.sbhmed.com/sc_veterinary_compounding.php

[cello]

Carol Ann, if you haven't already check the price of budesonide through SBH Medical. I've gotten several drugs from them at a substantial savings. One of the chemo drugs Beanie was on was going to cost anywhere from $400 to $600, I got it for less than $100 through SBH. Just wanted to let you know that if you wanted to eventually try the budenoside.

 

http://www.sbhmed.com/sc_veterinary_compounding.php

 

Thank you for the link - I will hang on to that for future possible use. I did call them, and they are unable to make a standard commercial dose, so they would have to adjust for that. The cost with shipping from them for the budesonide would be $80 per month.

 

Are there no others who have experience with dealing with pred side effects? We are on day three now, and so far all we are seeing is a slightly increased appetite - especially at dinner, and some panting. No excessive drinking or peeing so far. I so hope that Lady can catch a break on this and maybe get the results she needs without the side effects. Eleven more days until her recheck blood work!!

[4My2Greys]

Beanie was on prednisone as part of her chemo regimen the 1st month. She started at 2mg/kg the 1st week and it was reduced by 0.5mg each successive week. It was really tough on her. She panted heavily all the time and lost quite a bit of weight.

[cello]

Beanie was on prednisone as part of her chemo regimen the 1st month. She started at 2mg/kg the 1st week and it was reduced by 0.5mg each successive week. It was really tough on her. She panted heavily all the time and lost quite a bit of weight.

I am so sorry that Beanie had such a difficult time. That must have been every bit as hard on you as it was on her. Watching these precious dogs when they are ill is just so gosh darn hard.

[Fruitycake]

Allie is 34# and is on Pred and her drink/peeing fest started after about 24 hours. She is on 30 mg twice a day. She's been on it two weeks now, and we're looking forward to being able to taper her after a month. We are controlling her water intake with the vet's OK, and when we give her a bit too much she still can't go over 4 hours without peeing (unfortunately in the house, as we have no dog door or fenced yard). Maybe her extreme issue with it is because she's getting probably twice the dosage per pound as your girl.

 

I hope she gets better soon, and that her issues never get as extreme as Allie's have been!

[cello]

I thought that I would update this thread on Lady's progress on the pred. So far, and we are on day twelve, so I am guessing that things are what they are - Lady has had periods of pretty heavy panting. She is drinking slightly more, but has been able to hold it without problems except for one time early in the morning. Since I am at home all day I have been letting her out every three hours instead of our usual four and she is fine with that. Still waiting for this big appetite to kick in. Getting her to eat is a big challenge - especially in the morning. But she eats enough so that I can get her pred into her, then finishes up the rest at lunch. Dinner is much better and she eats the entire bowl at one sitting. The only issue is that for her evening pred, 12 hours after breakfast is 7:30 pm and it is difficult to get her to eat less then two hours after dinner so that I can give her the evening dose. I think that I will ask her Internist on Tuesday if we can possibly give her the pred with her dinner around 6:00pm even though it is not quite twelve hours apart.

 

The only major issue I am seeing is that Lady has gotten skinny. Really skinny. I am feeding her as much as she will eat, but it looks like this extremely low fat kibble is not providing enough calories.

 

I am hoping and praying that her protein levels will have increased when she has her next blood test on Tuesday. It hit me a couple of days ago that I have been counting down the days and assuming that things will have improved after 14 days on the pred, and that maybe that might not happen. I am so stressed lately I feel like I could break in half.

[GreyPoopon]

Pred can cause muscle wasting, so that might be part of what you're seeing.

 

I hope that Lady's blood tests provide encouragement, and that everything else can be resolved as well.

[4My2Greys]

 

I am hoping and praying that her protein levels will have increased when she has her next blood test on Tuesday. It hit me a couple of days ago that I have been counting down the days and assuming that things will have improved after 14 days on the pred, and that maybe that might not happen. I am so stressed lately I feel like I could break in half.

Carol Ann thank you for the update. I so feel your worry over this . I hope the bloodwork brings positive results and if she can't be taken off of the pred and switched to budesonide it can at least be reduced.

[EllenEveBaz]

Adding our for you and your girl.

[Batmom]

Is she getting something for her tummy, such as Pepcid? That could help her appetite. Best wishes for your girlie.

[Finnsliz]

We had the same muscle wasting issue with Birdie on pred. We started giving her 4 meals a day, kibble plus rice/meat/veggie combo. We also gave her meds in a peanut butter sandwich each time. That has helped quite a bit. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your pup. You are luckier than we were with the peeing issues. It was a total pee fest here for about 3 weeks. We are lucky the room the dogs are in is pretty pee proof. We had 2 or 3 large puddles a day for a while.

[rascalsmom]

Jack also got really thin. He was dropping weight in a very alarming fashion. Vet said it was a combination of the ultra low fat food and the disease, which was also a protein-losing disease. She didn't think it was from the pred, so who knows. He was eating over 7 Cups of that food daily, with handfuls of it as treats, and still losing weight. And it was the ONLY thing we were allowed to give him.

[cello]

We had the same muscle wasting issue with Birdie on pred. We started giving her 4 meals a day, kibble plus rice/meat/veggie combo. We also gave her meds in a peanut butter sandwich each time. That has helped quite a bit. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your pup. You are luckier than we were with the peeing issues. It was a total pee fest here for about 3 weeks. We are lucky the room the dogs are in is pretty pee proof. We had 2 or 3 large puddles a day for a while.

 

Unfortunately we are only allowed to feed Lady the ultra low fat kibble and boiled white meat chicken. She has lost four pounds in the last two weeks. They gave her a shot of B12, and took blood to run a full chemistry panel. I should hear later tonight what her protein levels are now. Please let them have increased!! We are now allowed to either give all the pred in the morning or to split it but give it with breakfast and dinner, so that should make life easier. We are also going to try her on the Hills Low Fat ID kibble and see if she likes that better then the Royal Canin.

 

I did ask about why we were using pred rather then budesonide. There are very specific reasons why she is using pred, and they certainly made sense to me. She said that perhaps down the road that drug might be an option, but right now it is not. Since she is the board certified internal medicine specialist I think that she knows best!

[cello]

NORMAL protein levels today!!! The evening pred has been cut in half, and we will recheck in three weeks!!

We are so thankful. Now let's just get her eating and we will be thrilled!

[4My2Greys]

That is wonderful news.

[brandimom]

To me 20 mg is not a large dosage. My Brandi was on pred for 7 years. I did not see the increase in thirst for water but she always had to pee and there were several accidents in the house. I think the first day she was on the pred I noticed the frequent urgency to pee right away. She started off on 60 mg and eventually was weaned down to 20 mg every other day. Just be sure to keep check on her values such as the liver and kidney. She went into acupuncture every three weeks and my holistic vet really thinks having the acupuncture done helped keep in values in check. When she crossed over to the bridge her liver and kidney values still looked good.