My pet has IBD. Why is prednisone prescribed for stomach issues?

Yes, many dogs with IBS are treated long-term with daily prednisone. We normally try to wean them down to the lowest dose that is still effective at controlling their symptoms to help minimize side effects, but this is a very common treatment strategy for this disease.

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.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Blood can definitely be seen with cases of IBD. For IBD, immunosuppression is typically the treatment of choice in severe cases. Azathioprine is an immunosuppressant drug that is commonly used along with changing the diet to something such as Royal Canin Ultamino. I would discuss this with your veterinarian for starting something such as Azathioprine in place of steroids to see if this helps more. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than willing to help you further. I would also recommend adding in a probiotic such as Purina Fortiflora, which can be purchased online or at your local pet store quite easily.

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!

Prednisone is the drug of choice for irritable bowel syndrome, and it's given for at least two to four weeks. I would try it for Trixie and the vet can do blood tests as needed to check on her calcium levels. I hope this helps.

I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this with Cosita. Thank you for including a picture. She is adorable. I am attaching a link below to a handout on IBD. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=598 The end of that handout specifically addresses your concern. The problem with doing steroids is that it decreases the inflammation in the intestines and will likely make Cosita feel better, but if her disease is due to cancer (lymphoma), putting her on prednisone will make it harder to diagnose and treat her cancer later. "Lymphoma is temporarily responsive to prednisone but better responses can be obtained from stronger chemotherapy agents. Exposure to prednisone will make the lymphoma much more difficult to diagnose should biopsies be obtained later. Plus, exposure to prednisone can lead to resistance to other medications. (This is less of a problem for cats, but in dogs even a few days of prednisone can make a lasting remission impossible to achieve.)" There is nothing wrong with starting her on steroids, but you have to understand that it will limit your treatment and diagnostic options in the future if the steroids do not help. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answers your questions. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Yes all of those medications can be given together. It will be important to consider other treatment options for the IBD if he is diabetic. Steroids will make it more difficult to manage the Diabetes. There are other types of steroids and/or options for IBD if needed. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!