Is my cat's vomiting caused by prednisone for purple paw treatment?

You have a very valid question. Here is the problem, your kitty does not have a diagnosis for why the cell counts were low. This makes it difficult to know how to taper meds like pred nor how long to provide treatment. Has your kitty been tested for feline leukemia/FIV? Was there any additonal testing done other than a CBC? It really would be important for you to discuss your concerns with your family vet who should be open to a discussion about a med that can have long term side effects. We typically do slowly taper drugs like pred for several reasons and your vet will be able to tell you why he or she picked that particular tapering schedule. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Cats are normally very resistant to the side effects of Prednisone, so the signs you are describing are very usual to see in cats. Was Elliot started on any other medications that may be causing these symptoms? I would definitely discuss any changes in his Prednisone dosing with his veterinarian. Sometimes we can get away with lower doses, but need to decrease the amounts carefully. We normally do not recommend decreasing the amount by more than 50% at a time, so decreasing from 1 mL twice daily to 0.5 mL once daily would be decreasing the dose by four times, which might be too extreme for Elliot (even after only 6 days on the steroid). The good news is that we do not tend to see heart problems with oral steroids (only injectible steroids), so you do not need to worry about heart problems with oral steroids. I hope that answered your question. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It does look like it could be an inflammatory condition like pillow paw. Sometimes these flare up when the immune system is activated, such as reacting to fleas or food allergies. Many time they need long courses of antibiotics like doxycycline and immune-suppressant medications like prednisone or cyclosporine. I would recommend that you have Sugar re-evaluated by the vet since it didn't respond to their treatment. I am sure she is very uncomfortable and may benefit from pain medications. If it doesn't respond medically, then surgical removal of the paw pad is an option.

Pillow paw is also known as plasma cell pododermatitis. It is believed there is an immune basis behind the development of the disease, so treating the immune reaction is the focus of treatment. As such, there are not treatments at home that you can do for your cat. Peanut will need to see a vet to diagnose if he does have pillow paw, and then vet can prescribe the treatment of choice for it, oral doxycycline.

Doxycycline can be helpful in these cases. In severe case, immune suppressive therapy with steroids or cyclosporin may be needed. Antibiotics may be needed for secondary infection. Surgery may also be needed in very severe cases in which ulceration has caused the underlying pad tissue to protrude and become damaged or infected.

Typically cats get really bad vomiting episodes with IBD and occasional diarrhea. The prednisone likely is treating for inflammation or an immune mediated condition of the gut, which can include lymphoma, IBD, or a condition called lymphocytic plasmocytic colitis. At any rate, if the prednisone is helping, then I would continue with therapy as indicated. A lot of the times you can only get a final diagnosis with gut diseases by having a surgical biopsy taken of the intesines. As you can imagine this is a very invasive procedure, so response to therapy is typically the route we taken when making suspected diagnoses. I would also highly consider getting Beau on a hypoallergenic diet to help make it easy for her gut to digest food. My top picks here are Royal Canin hypoallergeic hydrolyzed protein, Hill's Z/D, OR Royal Canin Selected protein (rabbit/potato). Ask your vet for a prescription if interested! I hope this helps and best wishes with your pet Beau and her chronic loose stools. Take care.

Hello. This is a reasonable thing to do, but please discuss this with your veterinarian first. Your vet has all the particulars on your cat's condition, so for me just to say its OK to start cutting back on a medication without having any information on why the medication was started in the first place would not be right & may be harmful to your pet. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.