Any kitties out there on Budesonide

Status
Not open for further replies.
Harley and Pattie

Harley and Pattie

Very Active Member
Harley was put on Budesonide 6 months ago when he was diagnosed with IBD. He started on 1 ml and is now on 0.8 ml. He has no symptoms of the IBD. The vets I usually go to are at the University of MN. I have 2 civies and when I took them to my primary vet, she was talking about how bad it was to keep Harley on the Budesonide. She said that one side affect was Cushings.

Now I am worried sick. Harley already has the pot belly that comes with the budsemide.

Can anyone calm my fears? Or at least tell me about your experience.

Pattie
 
Odie's on Budesonide. He's been on it since early March 2010. He gets 3mg 1X daily.

He used to be on Dexasone, but this caused him to get diabetes, so we switched.

According to Odie's internal medicine vet, Budesonide acts more locally in the gut than Dexasone, so is less likely to have systemic side-effects. I think having them on any steroid long-term has potential risks, but in Odie's case anyway, there's not really any other choice (he's also on Cyclosporine and Chlorambucil to control his IBD). I remember when I switched, she told me "don't panic when you go online and read all the human side-effects... cats do not react the same way to Budesonide".

Odiesmom
 
Bear man developed Iatrogenic Cushings Disease after many years of taking steroids for severe IBD, often using sub Q Dexamethasone, or high doses of Prednisolone. It is a possible side effect of steroid use. My understanding is that Budesonide is supposed to have less of a systemic effect than other steroids, but it is still a steroid. If he has had good response, and his symptoms are in remission, perhaps you could try continuing to slowly taper him off? Steroids should be used in the lowest dose, and for the shortest period of time possible, but if they are needed to control his IBD, you may have no choice but to continue. Budesonide is probably the least likely steroid to cause problems.
 
Hmmm, I hadn't heard that before. Bix has been on Bude since his diabetes diagnosis, going on 2 years now (1mg/day for starters, now up to 2mg/day). I haven't noticed any side effects from it. Has your vet already had you try weaning him off of it? I think that is the protocol - with Bix we tried a couple times and his symptoms returned, so he's a lifer. I don't know if other cats can come off of it once it's started, but I believe I read that, that the protocol is to do a course of it for a couple months or something, then reduce the dose/wean off. Don't try that on your own though please, been there done that with a civie who was on Pred w/o asking my vet... disaster... don't recommend that! But you might ask your vet.

I wouldn't worry yourself sick over the possible side effects. There are several kitties around here who are on it, it seems to work very well and doesn't affect the BGs too much, so IMO it's the least of many evils - for Bix it has been a lifesaver, he couldn't keep food down w/o it or Pred (which caused the diabetes for him :evil: ).
 
totally agree with linda/odiesmom. honestly, budesonide seems to cause the least problems, steroid-wise. harry's been on it for a long time (1ml daily) and his BG level is still great (went up about 20 points but we're talking from 50 to 70). no ill effects. as with any steroid, we had his heart checked before we started and no problems there.
 
May I ask what is "a long time"? Am I looking at a life time here, which would be ok if it keeps Harley symptom free.
Thanks for everything.

Pattie
 
That's interesting. I hadn't heard anything about Cushings. Unfortunately, Blanco is an example of budesonide affecting the blood sugar. He takes 1 mg of budesonide a day. He actually came out of remission after six months on the budesonide. However, we also had him on a higher carb food and our vet thinks that Blanco is probably a borderline diabetic on the best days and the low steroid pushed his numbers higher. The diet switch has already done wonders. Our vet is hopeful that we may be able to take him off insulin and once we've done that, we're going to try to reduce the budesonide dose to every other day.

Prior to the diabetes, we had absolutely no problems with the buedesonide. It's also been a bit of a lifesaver for us. Blanco was miserable with IBD. Some days he would loaf in one spot and look so uncomfortable, you just knew. His quality of life improved just days after starting the budesonide.
 
Since I went down to 0.8ml of the Budesonide, Harley has been acting the same as you described. Just loafing around during the day but does go outside (I supervise). He also has been crying a lot when he is up and is quiet when I feed him. I wonder now if I should go back to the 1 ml that was before.

Pattie
 
harry's been on budesonide a year and a half. his dose has fluctuated between 1 & 2 ml daily.
we did a full workup (blood/urine tests + cardio/GI ultrasound & xray) prior to starting him on budesonide to clear him to start it.
2 months ago i had all those tests redone and so far so good.

because cleo is diabetic, i go ahead and BG test all my civies once a month also. harry went from BG 50-52 prior to starting budesonide (plus three 10-day courses of prednisolone) to now BG 70-72.

there are pros and cons to all kinds of things. problem with untreated IBD is risk of lymphoma. i didn't really want to add the risk of diabetes to harry's potential issues so we did budesonide instead of pred. with it, we're controlling the IBD and keeping him healthy. he went from losing weight and looking totally bedraggled before budesonide to being very strong and solid and healthy again. i especially like the fact that budesonide targets the GI tract specifically, which is exactly what we need treated and nothing else. to me that minimizes risk of other things a systemic steroid could cause.

chicklit, guessing a combo of things turned your cat diabetic but the high carb diet is probably the worst culprit, not the budesonide. if they're genetically predisposed toward diabetes, hi carb food is like lighting a match to some tinder. even if they go into diabetic remission, here we say to stay away from hi carb food if at all possible because of the greater likelihood they'll need insulin again. that's why we technically call them diet-controlled diabetics if they no longer require insulin.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top