My dog's neck pain got worse after prednisone. Should I stop it?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Rugby. You cannot use Rimadyl if she is taking prednisone. Giving these two medications together has a very high risk of causing gastrointestinal ulcers. Personally I do not start Rimadyl until a dog has been off of prednisone for two weeks. It can be done sooner if the dog is given additional medications to protect the GI tract, but it is still risky. Is she taken a muscle relaxer? In dogs with severe neck pain, I will use prednisone, gabapentin, a muscle relaxer and an additional pain medication such as tramadol. If her pain cannot be controlled though, she may need to see a neurologist for surgery. I hope this information helps!

Poor puppy!! It sounds like your dog is on all the correct medications. I would try to find a canine acupuncturist as it can help greatly in cases of wind up pain such as you are describing. Intractable pain is also a reason for surgical decompression of the spinal cord as well. Otherwise keep doing what you are doing. If your dog will allow you to hot pack his neck that can be helpful as well.

It can take a long time (2-4 weeks, in most cases) for symptoms to resolve completely with rest and medication. So as long as things are gradually improving, I would be patient and continue to follow your veterinarian's instructions :)

Great question! No, you absolutely CANNOT give a steroid (prednisone) at the same time as a NSAID (Metacam). This is a very big no-no! This can cause huge, life-threatening side effects. He can take a muscle relaxant and/or an opiate along with the steroid. You should also you vet about these medications as they are prescription medications. All these medications work synergistically together. You should also consider acupuncture. It works wonders for these injuries. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Hello. Your veterinarian was just trying to make things as simple as possible. The goal of the prednisone is to only reduce inflammation, & once this resolves, Slick should feel much better. What may happen is for the soft intervetebral disc to calcify, thus removing potential movement & subsequent pinching of the nerves. A calcified disc reduces mobility & thus pain, for the most part. An unexpected move or jerk could cause substantial pain. It is important to only walk Slick with a harness, & if need be, keep her on a good anti-inflammatory medication as needed. Thanks for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Stagnation means it may not be time to decrease the medication yet. I recommend to call your veterinarian before changing the medication. Let her know what is going on and she may ask to examine Balto again. Call the veterinarian today. Some pets do require longer on the medication or even additional treatments. It’s not necessarily a bad sign but it is one to pay attention to. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

That sounds like neck pain and it could be from disc disease or other causes. Rimadyl can help but a lot of dogs with neck pain need multimodal pain management. And, it can take time to resolve, especially if disc related. The length of time of pain management can be variable but often is required for weeks if not longer dependent on the case, cause, response to treatment, side effects, etc. At your dogs age you will need to be very careful with Rimadyl as it can be hard on the kidneys. Older dogs especially benefit from multimodal pain management to try to decrease drugs like Rimadyl dose and dosing frequency. Rest is key, ideally crate rest. For disc disease this is typically 4 to 8 weeks, but this is case dependent and is best guided by the vet who examines the patient. Anyway to have a vet come to the house to see if this helps with the vet anxiety? I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!