Anyone try to wean off prednisolone

[kristinaroe]

We are trying to wean our girl off (or at least reduce to every other day) prednisolone - she has been on 5 mg a day since July and we are finding it is making her sick when we take it away. We were doing 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening. The vet told us to stop one of the doses and she became very lethargic and wouldn't eat. It happened to coincide with some BG's in the 100's which she is never that low so we thought she was reacting to the low numbers but then the next day was the same thing - so through process of elimination we figured out it was the lack of steroid so right now we have her on a 1/4 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening and even this small reduction makes her lethargic not to the extreme as taking the whole dose away but still noticeable. She is tired on the 1/4 dose in the morning but is her old self after her normal evening dose. Is this normal? We were figuring a week at this dose than take the evening dose to 1/4 also - anyone have the same stuff going on and any advice on the best way to do this?

Thanks

 

[phlika29]

Hi

I can sympathise with you here. My cat remi has been on prednicare for quite a while. When ever I have reduced his dose I have always done it very slowly. Let it settle and reduced it again very slowly.

I am not giving advice to you but this is what I did. I reduced remi first by switching to every other day dosing. Then after that settled I went from 5 mg every other day to alternating between 5mg and 3.75 eod. So say Monday 5mg, nothing Tuesday and then 3.75 mg on Wednesday , nothing Thursday , 5 mg Friday, etc. then after a week or so bring it down to 3.75 eod so no switching back up to 5 mg. then after a week steady at 3.75 mg eod repeat same process switching between 3.75 and 2.5 mg eod.

Ofcourse you are on every day so cutting off alternative days might be too much. I don't want to give to advice on what to do but maybe that gives you some ideas.

Sarah

 

[Peg and Toby]

Hi I'm Peg and my cats name is Toby. Toby has been on prednisolone for a little over a year now. He was diagnosed with
inflammatory Pancreatitis. Put on 5mgs at 2.5 mg twice a day. The same thing happens when I try to get him off it. Even in the beginning with the tapered dose he would get sick and have to be put back on. I've tried 5mg one day and 3.75 the next
which is just a quarter less than the day before. I tried this for two weeks and he got sick with that . I tried several times. He
got so sick he'd vomit and was lethargic. Had to give 10mg for a few days till he got better. Also had to syringe feed for 3 or 4 days until he felt better. Every time he would lose weight and take about a month before he started feeling better. My vet. and
I talked it over and decided his quality of life was better with it than without it. He is diabetic and has high numbers now. He
was on PZI insulin. Couldn't get him regulated so switched to Levermir. As of now he is on 4.75 units starting today. Hoping
to be able to get his numbers down. Don't think he will ever get OTJ but at least he feels good . We are taking one day at a time. I know this probably don't help. I hope someone can tell you how to get your kitty off. Best of luck Peg and Toby

 

[kristinaroe]

Thank you for the information - atleast I know the reaction if fairly normal. We are going to give her a few more days at this reduced dose and see if she perks up after she gets used to it. Even with this 1/4 reduced dose we are seeing a difference in her numbers but we will not make her suffer through getting her off - she is 16 so we are more concerned with quality of life than getting her numbers right. We are going to take it really slow - Any idea how long it usually takes for them to adjust to a reduction or it is cat specific? We figured once her activity resumes to normal we would assume she is used to the reduction but I don't want to keep her there forever if she just cant be reduced.