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Old April 22nd, 2012, 08:15 PM
tjagolf33 tjagolf33 is offline
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How long between Prednisolone and Deramaxx (NSAID)?

My dog (65 pound, 13-year-old black lab) had been on Deramaxx for about a year for his arthritis. Our vet wanted to try him on prednisolone to see if it worked any better for him, but the difference was negligible if any and I'd prefer being able to sleep at night without having worry about its side effects. As such, we're going to transition back onto Deramaxx. However, reading online about the risk of ulcers should the two interact, as well as the risks of weaning off prednisolone too quickly, is really disconcerting. While I plan on asking my vet tomorrow, I'd rather not just take his word for it. How long is normally suggested for weaning off of prednisolone, and how long should I wait before beginning him on the Deramaxx again? The vet had initially told us to stop Deramaxx for 24 hours before beginning prednisolone. As far as dosage, he was on 5mg of prednisolone twice a day for two days, followed by 5mg per day for three, followed by 5mg every other day for the past four (for a total of 10 days).

Thanks for the help!
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Old April 23rd, 2012, 02:59 PM
tjagolf33 tjagolf33 is offline
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Agh, vet not in until tomorrow.
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Old April 23rd, 2012, 03:15 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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I'm trying to remember how we stepped down from pred and onto Rimadyl (also an NSAID) but it was a long time ago and my old memory cells are misfiring. He's only been on the pred for the 10 days? The weaning schedule seems reasonable for such a short duration of treatment, but I have no idea how long the wash out time for pred is or at what levels (if any) the two drugs would interact to cause an adverse reaction in a dog. Unfortunately, you may have to wait till tomorrow to get your answer when you talk to the vet.

13 years!! That's a wonderful age for a labby! Our Luke was 15 when he died and still pretty chipper right to the end. Labs are such cheerful souls. He had arthritis, as well, but we were able to manage it with glucosamine/chondroitin supplements only.
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Old April 23rd, 2012, 06:29 PM
tjagolf33 tjagolf33 is offline
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Thanks for the reply! Wonderful to hear your lab had such a long, pleasant life! We currently have Shadow on Glyco-flex III (vet recommended), which seems to have a moderately beneficial effect on him though nothing hugely noticeable. To my knowledge, Glyco-flex doesn't contain chondroitin. Perhaps we should try something that does?

At any rate, there just seems to be so many options, from j/d to switching up his supplements to trying another NSAID, that I'd rather be able to sleep at night without worrying about the prednisone side effects. His arthritis really isn't THAT bad. He's INCREDIBLY energetic for his age and gets around just fine, he just looks a little awkward, gets restless sometimes, and slows down a lot toward the end of a walk. Again, nothing worth messing around with prednisone for! I wish I hadn't started him on it after reading all these horror stories. The panting and drinking is making me want to pull my hair out I'm so nervous he's going to develop Cushing's syndrome or something.
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Old April 23rd, 2012, 08:19 PM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Two other options that helped our old Lab girl were:

Cartrophen Vet injections. We saw immediate results after the first shot. You get four, one a week to start, then booster as needed. I'm giving them myself to our very arthritic 19 year old cat. Much cheaper to do it myself and much easier on the cat.

But, I took our dog off the Cartrophen after reading an article about human weekend warriors who could no longer work 5 days a week then go all out physically on the weekend once they hit their 40s or so. I reasoned that dogs might be the same so instead I actually INcreased our girl's mid week exercise. Stopped the cartrophen but I did keep her on the glucoasmine/chondroitin/MSM. It worked and she was no longer gimpy. Now, she was only 9 when I did this but it held her to age 12.5 when her back went out. Something to consider?

FWIW, Our ESS was on prednisone for about 7 years till age 14.5 after neck damage in attacks by two teams of huskies. She did not seem to suffer any of the known side effects, not even thirst. Internal damage, who can say, but 14.5 was a good age for the breed.
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Old April 24th, 2012, 10:11 AM
tjagolf33 tjagolf33 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Longblades View Post
Two other options that helped our old Lab girl were:

Cartrophen Vet injections. We saw immediate results after the first shot. You get four, one a week to start, then booster as needed. I'm giving them myself to our very arthritic 19 year old cat. Much cheaper to do it myself and much easier on the cat.

But, I took our dog off the Cartrophen after reading an article about human weekend warriors who could no longer work 5 days a week then go all out physically on the weekend once they hit their 40s or so. I reasoned that dogs might be the same so instead I actually INcreased our girl's mid week exercise. Stopped the cartrophen but I did keep her on the glucoasmine/chondroitin/MSM. It worked and she was no longer gimpy. Now, she was only 9 when I did this but it held her to age 12.5 when her back went out. Something to consider?

FWIW, Our ESS was on prednisone for about 7 years till age 14.5 after neck damage in attacks by two teams of huskies. She did not seem to suffer any of the known side effects, not even thirst. Internal damage, who can say, but 14.5 was a good age for the breed.
Yeah, we've had him on Adequan (not sure if that's the same as Cartrophen but sounds like the same procedure basically). The reason we tried him on pred to begin with is that he has arthritis (more mild case) but what does him in is the weakness in his back legs (vet hasn't called it degenerative myelopathy but when I read the symptoms online they're exactly what he's got). This began a couple years ago and has remained relatively stable (thank God) with exercise and Deramaxx/Glyco-flex III/Adequan. However, the vet had done x-rays on his back and saw that he had arthritis in his back which the vet theorized MAY be contributing to the weakness in the rear end. After starting pred his rearend was noticeably stronger but he was sore (vet thought because the pred wasn't helping as much as the Deramaxx with arthritis), which is why we started him on Tramadol. However in practice the overall difference was rather minor (the major things I noticed was he had an easier time getting down stairs and "crouched" less on his backside when standing still--also less pooping in the house, but I suspect that's because we began him on Purina EN Gastroenteric) in relation to the scariness of the side effects (and he was exhibiting prodigious water consumption, by the way). I'd rather put him back on an NSAID and try the other options. He just isn't bad enough to risk the side effects of pred in my opinion.

By the way, the vet today said to just bring him down to 5mg of pred e/o day for a couple days then stop him completely for 48 hours before going back on the Deramaxx (so basically one pill today, none tomorrow, one on Friday then no more and start the Deramaxx on Sunday). Anybody else have an opinion on the safety of this schedule?

Last edited by tjagolf33; April 25th, 2012 at 06:06 PM.
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  #7  
Old April 24th, 2012, 10:21 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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When Jet's back went, (significant spinal spondylosis and invertebral disk disease), we had her on Dexamethasone till she got worse and needed something stronger. But it held her for nearly 2 years. A side effect was fecal incontinence. We never knew if from the ailments or from the meds. Fairly easy to deal with and imodium and a high fibre food helped a bit. Much easier to deal with than urinary incontinence. It's sad when they get old and begin to fail but she was still so happy to go for walks. In all honesty I think her profound deafness was much harder on her than the hurt in her back.

Goodluck. Love your old boy up, give him a kiss for me.
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