Sadie – Weaning…..

[Tara]

Hi Linda, Diablo went from 5 mg pred in a.m. and 2.5 mg pred in pm to just 5 mg of pred in the a.m. and did fine….he is now on 2.5 every a.m. and I was suppose to lower but after the vestibular disease hit I have been to frightened to make the reduction :(

[Linda]

Thanks all, Vally, Sheena, Patrice and Tara.  I really appreciate your input.  So, I am keeping her at 6.25mg daily, 5mg in the am and 1.25 in the evening.  I cut them one at a time, they seem to be coming out okay.  I give her one half one day and the other half the next – that way, in my feeble mind again, she’s getting the entire 2.5 in two days!!  Okay – not precise but it’s what I did since Thursday when I started.  So far so good.  But Sheena, I like your idea of mashing up the pill in water and giving half.  I may just do that – absolutely more precise.

I’m glad to know Diablo did well on the 5mg.  It’s so darn confusing – each dog is different, as we know.  I’m not good at NOT knowing.  Yes, I have been called a control freak more than a few times.  Ha.  But seriously, we just can’t know.

I’ll keep it at the 6.25 for a bit.  But honestly, I may go to 6.0mg a day soon, and just give her the 5 in the am and a 1mg in the pm, as pred comes in 1mg tablets too.  Then do that for a month and then go to the 5mg in the am?  And then I could even go from 5mg to 3.5mg, doing 2.5 in the am and 1mg in the pm.  Goodness, my head hurts!!

So far, she seems fine, but it has only been five days.  Last night my husband dropped a mushroom on the floor.  Sadie inhaled it immediately.  I totally panicked!!  I had sautéed them in garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper AND white wine.  I freaked!!!  She’s okay.  It was a half of a small mushroom – thank goodness.  I’m thinking of putting her on her leash when we eat.  ;)

Love to all, Linda and Sadie

[Linda]

PS – She was on the 5mg in the am and 2.5 in the pm – she’s been on that since the end of January.  This was to lower from there, hence, the 6.25 daily now, 5mg in the am and 1.25 in the pm.  Slow…….

So do all of you think I should lower to 5mg in the am only?

[admin]

Hi Linda

I have to confess to laughing just a bit at the “mushroom incident”! Only because it reminds me of ME being  just as paranoid about Worzel licking a plate that had had sauce with a tiny amount of ONION in it! We can’t help being the way we are & only between ourselves  can we understand each other’s worries.

Dropping the 1.25 mg evening dose after a couple more weeks with a stable PCV and keeping the 5mg morning dose the same would be an approximate 20% reduction, so that would be nice & cautious & is what I would personally go for. At the end of the day, you must go with your gut instinct though – if you want to do it more slowly, that’s fine too. Better slower than too quick if Sadie’s doing fine in herself.

Love Sheena, Worzel & Ollie

[Vally]

WHITE WINE!!!  The drunkard.

And I have a fit when dad gives Bingo, who is sitting adoringly at his feet, a bit of his meatball with ONION in it !!!  Dad says it’s only a bit – and I go on and on about how onion is POISONOUS to dogs and sure, go ahead and KILL him.  Dad rolls his eyes, Bingo rolls his eyes, I start slamming things, or when dad again, with Bingo lovingly gazing at him, gets tossed a bit of food in the 2 hours between food and his cyclosporine.  FINE, I’ll have to start the 2 hours again before he gets his drugs.

Linda, can you double check about dissolving the pred.  Here there seems to be a dissolvable prednisone, so I don’t know if all prednisone can be dissolved.  Sheena you probably know better on this though.

Do the reduction the way you feel safest.  Also to my way of thinking (nothing scientific in that) 20% of 20mg of prednisone is still a lot more than 20% of 7.5mg.  It must surely be harder for the body to cope with a pecentage drop at a higher dose, than the same percentage drop at a much lower dose – does that make sense?

 

[admin]

Hi again Linda & Vally

We have a prednisolone pill called “Solupred” here & are always given that unless we ask for another “version”- maybe you can get it in the USA but I’m not sure. The normal version does dissolve to some extent, but not as well as the Solupred.

Sheena

[admin]

Aha, now I understand the curious mushroom incident as mentioned in another thread ;)

[Linda]

Ha.   No more mushrooms for this little gal.  AND no more wine. :)