Is my Addison's dog getting too much prednisone for soiling?

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Chlyo, this has been a tough week for him I recommend calling your Vet. Maalox is not my first choice to fix diarrhea and vomiting. Doxycycline is an antibiotic notorious for causing tummy upset, regardless if you accidentally gave too much. High doses of steroids can cause tummy upset. Prednisone can not be abruptly stopped and needs to be weaned and in Chlyo's case is likely needed to save his life if he has immune mediated hemolytic anemia. There are other antibiotic choices to rule out tick borne disease causing his immune disease. My recommendations is to call your Vet and have Chlyo seen again today. If he was my patient I would use cerenia, metronidazole and have him on prilosec or famotidine (pepcid). I would not stop or wean the prednisone unless his red blood cell count was normal. I would temporarily stop the doxycycline until he is eating and the stool is better and consider amoxicillin instead. We can not tell you want to do on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach because the laws in the US require a valid Veterinary Clinet Patient Relationship which means we have to actually touch and examine your dog. We can provide advice but your Vet needs to be the one to tell you what to do with the medications. In my opinion, and I have answered a lot of questions from you regarding Chlyo, is that he is a sick dog and he has been dealing with this diarrhea for 1-2 days and is now getting worse. It is in his best interest to be rechecked and examined by your Vet. I hope this helps and I wish you and Chlyo the very best!

I would consider visiting with your veterinarian about lowering the dose of prednisone. Dogs with Addison’s definitely need prednisone, but they usually just need a low dose, but every patient is different and I would not lower the dose without discussing with your veterinarian. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

Hi there! I'm sorry to hear that Bindy is having side effects from her medication. I would not recommend stopping her meds or making any dosing changes without talking to the veterinarian who is treating her, because this can cause serious problem or even death for patients with Addison's disease. I would definitely recommend discussing your concerns with Bindy's regular veterinarian, since it's likely that her steroid doses can be reduced if they are causing side effects - most dogs this size do not need this much prednisone to control their Addison's symptoms, although each individual patient is different. A medication called DOCP (desoxycorticosterone pivalate) can also be used in place of the fludricortisone if needed, which she may tolerate better. Your veterinarian can discuss these options with you and help you make changes to her medication safely.

I am sorry the K-Cl was diagnosed with Addison's disease. Good news is that once treatment is start they usually do really well! If they are vomiting you may need to have him examined to ensure he doesn't need any fluids as he could be in an addisonian crisis. Finally addison's is usually the cause of having too low of two different type of stress hormones. So you may also want to talk to you vet to see if he needs to be on an additional medication besides just prednisone like florinef or percorten injections - these may help speed up his recovery. Also know that addisons is a life long condition so these medications will likely need to be continued long term. I hope your sweet baby starts feeling better really soon. Please feel free to contact us again on the forum or to set up a consultation if you have additional questions or would like more information. Below I have attached a link with more information on addison's disease http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=608

Oh no, that isn't good. Prednisone can cause bleeding in the GI tract. This is very concerning, and you need to contact Milo's veterinarian immediately so they can advise you further, as they may want you start tapering down the medication. You can't just stop prednisone suddenly, it has to be tapered off, but pooping blood is serious. I would not give him anti-diarrhea medication, please either call his vet now or take him into his vet right away. I hope this helps.

It would be unusual to see diarrhea as a side effect of prednisone, so I would suspect fat something else may be causing it. If your dog is acting normal otherwise, you can try withholding food for the next 12-24 hours and then feeding plain boiled chicken and white rice for the next few days. If this doesn't help, or if she develops any other symptoms such as vomiting, acting lethargic, or not wanting to eat, then I would recommend having her examined by a vet as she may have a more serious problem.

Hello, thank you for your question about Chester. Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic condition in dogs secondary to an underlying allergy leading to inflammation in the GI tract. It is different in every patient. Meaning that some patients require Prednisone long term while other patients can be weaned off the Prednisone completely. Since Chester has been maintained on Prednisone every 4 days for quite some time without any flare-up I think it would be reasonable to consider discontinuing it at this time. However, if you are concerned that he is prone to having flare-ups it is not problem to keep him on this low dose of Prednisone. Hope this helps, good luck!