? Does anyone give their kitty prednisone or prednisolone

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Teresa & KitKat

Teresa & KitKat

Member Since 2017
If you give your diabetic cat either of these for any reason I would like to talk to you. My cat Buddy is very sick with pancreatitis and I believe these meds would help him, I talked to his vet who sold me prednisone for his civvie and she told me to go ahead and give Buddy a prednisone pill and see if it helped him. The problem is she did not give me any ideas on what to do about dosing his insulin, prednisolone caused him to be diabetic and he got very sick but he had no insulin. If any body has any information on insulin dosing while taking prednisone it would be a great help, it might save his life. She told me prednisone and diabetes do not go together.
 
Teresa & Buddy said:
If you give your diabetic cat either of these for any reason I would like to talk to you. My cat Buddy is very sick with pancreatitis and I believe these meds would help him, I talked to his vet who sold me prednisone for his civvie and she told me to go ahead and give Buddy a prednisone pill and see if it helped him. The problem is she did not give me any ideas on what to do about dosing his insulin, prednisolone caused him to be diabetic and he got very sick but he had no insulin. If any body has any information on insulin dosing while taking prednisone it would be a great help, it might save his life. She told me prednisone and diabetes do not go together.
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If anyone gives prednisone or prednisolone for any reason I would like to talk to them. I just would like to know the amount of the medicine they gave and how it affects their kitty's BG.
 
tiffmaxee said:
Cats do not metabolize prednisone well. They have to convert it. It’s less effective than prednisolone but basically the same drug.
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Thank you, my vet did not bother to tell me this. My vet gave one of my civvies prednisone for allergies and she said I could try giving Buddy one and see how he did. This morning I gave him 1/2 of a prednisone pill, don't know if that will help. I learn more on FDMB than from any vet.
 
Teresa & Buddy said:
Thank you, my vet did not bother to tell me this. My vet gave one of my civvies prednisone for allergies and she said I could try giving Buddy one and see how he did. This morning I gave him 1/2 of a prednisone pill, don't know if that will help. I learn more on FDMB than from any vet.
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I learned the hard way. When Tiffany was diagnosed with lymphoma the rotten oncologist put her on prednisone. I learned from a yahoo group the difference between the two. My sister had prednisolone for her goldens so started using it. I questioned the oncologist about it. Her reply was they are the same. A few months later that office was only using prednisolone. At that point I should have found another oncologist. I didn’t and she killed my cat before her time by missing a UTI and destroying her kidneys. Confirmed by my regular vet btw. Not sour grapes. From that time in I get copies of all tests and have become an amateur vet in training.
 
tiffmaxee said:
I learned the hard way. When Tiffany was diagnosed with lymphoma the rotten oncologist put her on prednisone. I learned from a yahoo group the difference between the two. My sister had prednisolone for her goldens so started using it. I questioned the oncologist about it. Her reply was they are the same. A few months later that office was only using prednisolone. At that point I should have found another oncologist. I didn’t and she killed my cat before her time by missing a UTI and destroying her kidneys. Confirmed by my regular vet btw. Not sour grapes. From that time in I get copies of all tests and have become an amateur vet in training.
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:(:bighug:
 
tiffmaxee said:
I learned the hard way. When Tiffany was diagnosed with lymphoma the rotten oncologist put her on prednisone. I learned from a yahoo group the difference between the two. My sister had prednisolone for her goldens so started using it. I questioned the oncologist about it. Her reply was they are the same. A few months later that office was only using prednisolone. At that point I should have found another oncologist. I didn’t and she killed my cat before her time by missing a UTI and destroying her kidneys. Confirmed by my regular vet btw. Not sour grapes. From that time in I get copies of all tests and have become an amateur vet in training.
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I am so sorry, for what happened to your kitty, I have had very bad experiences with vets in the past.
 
I have a bottle much older. I don’t know If it’s safe to give or at what strength. I wouldn’t give it. Pharmacists will say throw it out. You want to use it for pancreatitis? Or does your cat have IBD? Max had chronic pancreatitis but never was on a steroid.
 
Jess was on prednisolone for two years for suspected IBD. I refused to believe it was the 'c' word. I was in denial from having recently lost my true heart kitty to a battle with colon cancer. (Wes, I miss you so, so much baby)

Vet told me she'd be on pred for life, no other options except their RX food. At least I knew enough from Wesley having Hyper-T/EPI/colon cancer that I didn't go there. And same as Elise, I had to tell them I wanted prednisolone because they first prescribed prednisone.

Prednisolone is what tipped her to diabetes, we were expecting the possibility and she hung in there for about a year but then we finally got the FD DX. In the meantime I never gave up and kept trying diet change after diet change, it was a long process.

She started at 0.5ml (5mg) once a day. Timeline is a little fuzzy, I didn't keep notes like I do since diabetes DX but I remember we played with the pred dose after the initial starting treatment phase until we found her lowest possible maintenance dose - ended up being 0.3ml (3mg) daily.

We dosed the insulin around the pred. Her BG numbers weren't great but they were good - mostly yellows and blues touching the occasional green and the odd pink once we got her regulated. Greens started showing up more regularly when we tapered down the pred dose earlier this year.

My FDMB spreadsheet starts when we were halfway through tapering the dose down on our way to an off the prednisolone trial.

I gave a panic dose of pred June 20th. (She had started vomiting again and losing weight) It didn't spike her BG, but you can see it definitely raised the BG a bit for a couple of cycles.
 
tiffmaxee said:
I have a bottle much older. I don’t know If it’s safe to give or at what strength. I wouldn’t give it. Pharmacists will say throw it out. You want to use it for pancreatitis? Or does your cat have IBD? Max had chronic pancreatitis but never was on a steroid.
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I wanted to use it for pancreatitis, I gave Buddy 1/2 of a 5mg prednisone this morning and I cannot tell any difference. Buddy, is so sick all the time if something could give him some relief I am willing to try it.
 
tiffmaxee said:
I learned the hard way. When Tiffany was diagnosed with lymphoma the rotten oncologist put her on prednisone. I learned from a yahoo group the difference between the two. My sister had prednisolone for her goldens so started using it. I questioned the oncologist about it. Her reply was they are the same. A few months later that office was only using prednisolone. At that point I should have found another oncologist. I didn’t and she killed my cat before her time by missing a UTI and destroying her kidneys. Confirmed by my regular vet btw. Not sour grapes. From that time in I get copies of all tests and have become an amateur vet in training.
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:bighug::bighug::bighug:

.
 
Shelley & Jess said:
Jess was on prednisolone for two years for suspected IBD. I refused to believe it was the 'c' word. I was in denial from having recently lost my true heart kitty to a battle with colon cancer. (Wes, I miss you so, so much baby)

Vet told me she'd be on pred for life, no other options except their RX food. At least I knew enough from Wesley having Hyper-T/EPI/colon cancer that I didn't go there. And same as Elise, I had to tell them I wanted prednisolone because they first prescribed prednisone.

Prednisolone is what tipped her to diabetes, we were expecting the possibility and she hung in there for about a year but then we finally got the FD DX. In the meantime I never gave up and kept trying diet change after diet change, it was a long process.

She started at 0.5ml (5mg) once a day. Timeline is a little fuzzy, I didn't keep notes like I do since diabetes DX but I remember we played with the pred dose after the initial starting treatment phase until we found her lowest possible maintenance dose - ended up being 0.3ml (3mg) daily.

We dosed the insulin around the pred. Her BG numbers weren't great but they were good - mostly yellows and blues touching the occasional green and the odd pink once we got her regulated. Greens started showing up more regularly when we tapered down the pred dose earlier this year.

My FDMB spreadsheet starts when we were halfway through tapering the dose down on our way to an off the prednisolone trial.

I gave a panic dose of pred June 20th. (She had started vomiting again and losing weight) It didn't spike her BG, but you can see it definitely raised the BG a bit for a couple of cycles.
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Thank you, so much for sharing your story. My Buddy has chronic pancreatitis and his vets want me to do all the usual things that don't help. He is miserable all the time, I have to force feed him every meal. He wants to eat but just can't.
 
Teresa & Buddy said:
When he takes mirtazapine and ondansetron he has problems
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You were wise to discontinue, Teresa. That's not a good drug combination. Both of them can elevate serotonin levels (greater risk of causing serotonin syndrome).

drugs.com lists this as a MAJOR drug interaction.

Major Interaction: Highly clinically significant. Avoid combinations; the risk of the interaction outweighs the benefit.


Mogs
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I'm not advocating this, I'm inquiring of the smarter minds here. Curly, my dog, has been diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was advised to try GastroElm. I ordered some, and he hates it. If I give it him before food, he won't eat. If I put it in his food, he won't go near it. But I have heard and seen almost miracles with it in dogs. Don't know if it works with cats.
 
Critter Mom said:
Both of them can elevate serotonin levels (greater risk of causing serotonin syndrome).
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That's a bit old school, there is more recent research on at least ondansetron. Here are a couple papers:
Ken Gillman, “Regulatory Agencies (WHO, FDA) Offer Ill-Conceived Advice about Serotonin Toxicity (Serotonin Syndrome) with 5_HT3 antagonists: a Worldwide Problem”, March 2015
and Carlos H. Rojas-Fernandez, “Can 5-HT3 Antagonists Really Contribute to Serotonin Toxicity? A Call for Clarity and Pharmacological Law and Order”, October 2014, Springerlink.com

Note that ondansetron and mirtazapine bind to the same receptor. Mirtazapine may over rule the effects of ondansetron if both are given. Cerenia binds to a different nausea receptor. If you are going to continue mirtazapine, you might want to talk to your vet about switching anti nausea meds.

As Elise says, the newer form of mirtazapine (Mirataz) is rubbed on the ear and absorbs more slowly. The side effects are supposed to be greatly reduced.
 
Shiloh & Rhonda (GA) said:
I'm not advocating this, I'm inquiring of the smarter minds here. Curly, my dog, has been diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was advised to try GastroElm. I ordered some, and he hates it. If I give it him before food, he won't eat. If I put it in his food, he won't go near it. But I have heard and seen almost miracles with it in dogs. Don't know if it works with cats.
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Sorry to hear about Curly's Dx, Rhonda. :(

Isn't it lousy when you learn about a possible treatment that works well but it's not one that your own critter will accept or their bodies tolerate. :( <sigh>

According to the GastroElm website, it can be used to treat cats. There's a niggle in my mind that dandelion root may be contraindicated in cats with CKD but I'm too exhausted right now to check online whether this is accurate.


Mogs
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Critter Mom said:
Isn't it lousy when you learn about a possible treatment that works well but it's not one that your own critter will accept or their bodies tolerate.
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Most definitely! He has an issue about once a week where he won't eat, has horrible gas, gurgling tummy. But normally the next morning he will eat. I know it's probably not a good thing for him, but I have been putting the leftover "juice" from Sassy's food on his food, and he has only rejected it like twice.

@Teresa & Buddy , sorry for hijacking your thread.:facepalm:
 
I gave Buddy prednisone 1/2 of a pill this morning and 1/2 this evening. When I took his Bg it was 496, that scared me and I gave him extra insulin, hope I did not give him too much. This high was before his 1/2 of his pred pill this evening. I guess this is what they are talking about taking insulin and pred.
 
My vet had phoned in a script to Kroger for prednisolone, When I went to pick it up they gave me prednisone, which made me mad. The pharmacist came out and told me they did not carry prednisolone and by that time it was to late to get it ant where else. I did not feel that Buddy had that much improvement with the prednisone, but this morning he ate a small amount of dry food, he is looking out the back door and seems more like Buddy. When I talked to his vet, he told me lets take this slow, so I guess for the present time Buddy will be taking the prednisone.
Last night I gave Buddy extra insulin and this morning he was in the 200's, which I will be happy with. Any information anyone has I would like to hear. I really appreciate all the info that we received on this post.
 
Shiloh & Rhonda (GA) said:
Most definitely! He has an issue about once a week where he won't eat, has horrible gas, gurgling tummy. But normally the next morning he will eat. I know it's probably not a good thing for him, but I have been putting the leftover "juice" from Sassy's food on his food, and he has only rejected it like twice.

@Teresa & Buddy , sorry for hijacking your thread.:facepalm:
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That is alright, I do the same thing all the time.
 
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