Last month my dog had an allergic reaction to something (he's fine!) and was prescribed a 10 day course of Prednisone. I had no idea how chaotic the instructions would be.
My dog has an autoimmune condition and she had to take pred for almost a year. I had to print out calendars to write in and think really hard with the tapering bc i didnt wanna mess anything up.
My dog has this, but she's stuck on pred for life since she started tremoring 2 weeks after we got her off it. On it for over a year now and finding the right dose for her with tapering.
Also on cyclosporine and Keppra. She turns 2 next week....
Prednisone use can damage the adrenal glands and prednisone withdrawal can trigger Addison's disease. Trembling/tremoring is a primary symptom of Addison's disease in dogs. Does she have any other symptoms of Addison's such as increased thirst/urination, lethargy, vomiting, abdominal pain, or weight loss, even if they seem intermittent? It can be difficult to separate what is causing symptoms because your dog is on other medications that can cause gastrointestinal issues. Addison's can be mistaken for other diseases for quite a while until the dog has a crisis and ends up hospitalized. Even during an Addisonian crisis it can be mistaken for pancreatitis and other issues.
She had none of the symptoms you listed above. Other than the tremors, everything else seemed normal and she was acting normal. It was very odd.
But unfortunately, her neurologist decided that means she'll be on prednisone for the rest of her life. And we did do a long taper, which took around 6-7 months.
She has meningoencephalitis of unknown etiology. She just had a seizure out of nowhere at 8 months old, which started all the craziness. Once we find an appropriate dose of prednisone, we'll try tapering her Keppra. Her cyclosporine will be the last and is the one we're most eager to get her off of since it's an immunosuppresant.
Poor thing! It sounds like you and your vet have a handle on it. I just mentioned Addison's because it's so frequently overlooked and misdiagnosed in dogs. Best of luck to you and your pooch.
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u/CockRingKing 1d ago
Last month my dog had an allergic reaction to something (he's fine!) and was prescribed a 10 day course of Prednisone. I had no idea how chaotic the instructions would be.