Reducing prednisone

[Edwina]

Cookie’s count is up to 43! The doctor said her WBC is still high but not alarmed about that. Going to stay at the same doses of prednisone (20mg 2xs day), cyclosporine (100mg 2xs day) and all other meds same. Going to reduce prednisone next Thursday evening, he said to 10mg and keep cyclosporing the same. I’m going with Patrice’s recommendation to 15mg am and 10pm. That’s about a 30% decrease. Let me know what you think.

Best,
Edwina

[Patrice]

Edwina,
Good deal! That sounds fine.

The adrenal glands “shrink ” when the body is exposed to high doses of prednisone (which is nearly identical to our own cortisol. ) As you reduce prednisone the glands struggle to wake up, especially during stressful situations. So in dogs there is a lot of stressful events during waking hours! Like the doorbell, fridge door opened, mail delivery. Thus the reason I recommend the higher split dose in the daytime.

So watch behavior during the day to make sure there aren’t signs of difficulty handling stress such as extreme fatigue, dizziness, weakness, and worst would be collapse, pale gums, extremely fast heart rate or low heart rate, and rapid breathing. This is an emergency.

I don’t think you will find this happening but you need to know.

Other things can reappear that make a dog feel unwell when prednisone is reduced. For instance prednisone relieves athritis pain, allergies, GI tract conditions like diarrhea, skin problems. The list is endless.

So try not to over think this. She may feel worse while this is being decreased. I remember when I had to reduce prednisone, I felt horrible, like I just wanted to lie on the couch I was so weak. It was a bad time. So be patient and don’t push her during this.
My best Patrice

[Edwina]

Hi everyone,

Cookie’s count is up to 49 as of yesterday!! That’s 2 weeks after the first prednisone reduction. Staying with the 100 mg cyclosporine 2xs a day and reducing prednisone again. I think she’s going to make it and as she gets better every day she gets more affectionate. It’s so sweet.

I can’t thank you enough for the encouragement and information!

Best,
Edwina

[Vally]

Edwina, this is wonderful news. It’s amazing the feeling when you can allow yourself to think that they may just make it and can let yourself start to be a bit happy about them.

You’ll be paranoid for the rest of your life, but Cookie, I’m sure will now be allowed to get away with lots and lots of naughty things and you’ll just love it.

xxx