Budesonide questions

Hello, I found this site because I was looking for budesonide information and there seems to be a fair amount of experience here. My cat doesn't have diabetes although I'm concerned about the potential. She was taking prednisolone for IBD but it was making her hungry and chubby and I was concerned about her blood sugar, so asked the vet about switching to budesonide. My question is, has anyone found either that it creates stomach upset (oral 5 mg capsules) or makes cats voraciously hungry (more so than pred)? I give it at about 10 pm and by 11 pm she's frantic for food and this goes on all night, every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until about 730 am, and when I do offer food she inhales it as though she hasn't eaten for days, complete with huffing and lip smacking, so fast I'm afraid she'll choke. And therefore she's getting even fatter, which is of more concern for potential diabetes. I'm not sure if it's just making her hungry, or it's upsetting her stomach and eating relieves it. Getting no useful suggestions from vets unfortunately other than to try prescription diet food. There is no way to lock her out or ignore her and it would be cruel anyway. Thanks!

 

Wait, she's getting 5mg budesonide? I've never heard of a cat getting that high of a dose. The highest I've seen for a cat is 2mg daily.

I'm a human and I take 3mg!

 

[I used to give some of my cats 1mg once daily. That is the standard dose but it can in increased to 2mg once daily, I had one cat on 2mg once daily. I didn't see any problem with GI upset or being hungry.

 

@Jan-L , can you please confirm the budesonide dose? 5mg is an extremely high dose for a cat.

 

Tagging @PerfumedCatMom (as always lol) because although budesonide is easier on the BGs, I believe the prednisolone is still best, at least for SCL...not sure about IBD.

 

Sorry! 0.5 mg, I was thinking of her old pred dose.

 

0.5 mg, I was thinking of her old pred dose.

 

*PHEW* I wouldn't expect any side effects at that dose.

 

My Neko started out a 1 mg, and we went down to 0.75 mg budesonide after a while. I got it compounded as a liquid, which made it easy to change dose if needed. And it was much easier to give. I didn't see any of the symptoms you mention. I did feed Neko with an automated feeder (Petsafe 5) with regular meals. She got so she stared at the feeder instead of hounding me for food.

Have you looked at a novel protein diet? https://www.ibdkitties.net/