Prednisolone & Diabetes

My cat was prescriped prednisolone tablets a few months ago for flea allergy dermatitis. I was told to give her just the one dose, but i can use the tablets sparingly if she flares up again.

She does flare up often and I was giving her the tablets randomly. I.e one week she had a tablet 3 or 4 days in a row, then a couple every second day.
I've done that around 3 times in the past 2 months with several weeks gap in between of no usage.

Now another vet today tells me about the risk between steroid drugs like prednisolone and diabetes. I was not aware of it and have been researching it. She said 2 or 3 full doses in the space of 2 years is considered alot. So all this time I've been virtually plying my cat with this drug, unaware of the dire consequences.

She was adamant that i should virtually stop giving the tablets.

I am very angry the other vet did not spell out just how risky it was.

I am afraid i have done damage. I dont want my cat to get diabetes because of these tablets.

what are the chances of the damage being done already?

This is a 3-4 year old female.

I have a cat that has been on prednisone constantly for 2 years now with no signs of diabetes. Anti-inflamatory drugs for cats all have their drawbacks and the issues seem to arise if your cat is predisposed to some of the side effects. Steroid type drugs like pred and dex treat the symptoms very well, but have the side effects like diabetes. Non-steroidal drugs like metacam can cause renal failure.

If you continue giving pred, use caution. Most times the dosing is a heavy dose for a few days then gradually weaned off of it. If you continue to give it, talk to your vet on the proper way to dose it. It doesn't sound like your vet taught you the proper way to dose it.

It can cause Diabetis the vet should have told you.
Coco has had pred for her Asthma and Allergies before and you are using pred the wrong way.
You never give pred random.
Sometimes its ever other day for about 20 days or you taper down.
It can cause bladder problems also Coco got bladder problems from pred and the Depo shot.
How much was the dose.
Coco has been switched to a inhaler now.
I would file a complaint about the other vet.

After dry food, steroids are the number 2 cause of diabetes in cats. That said, if you haven't seen symptoms then I think you are in the clear. While steroids are needed and
wonderful for certain problems, dermatitis is not one I would recommend them for. There may be something else that can be used for this problem like an antihistimine. I would stop using them. Best of luck

I agree that it is wrong that the vet did not mention this to you. There are other risks with the use of pred also. My Jordan has been on 5 mg a day for over a year now with no ill affects. My vet told me that cats tend to have fewer side affects from the steroids than dogs or people. I am in the process of trying to get his dose down, but I agree that another vet may be in order. I don't know what kind of products you have to treat fleas where you are, but here it is common practice to use preventative medication for fleas. If that is possible, I think it would be a better option than constantly treating an allergic reaciton. Just make sure to work with your vet, the over the counter stuff can sometimes be dangerous and people don't even know it.

Im not using them at all anymore, its not worth the risk.

I use Frontline Plus or other similar flea treatments and Im treating her every 3 weeks rather than 4 but she still gets sores especially around base of tail. Yet I have never seen a flea but i know it only takes one.
Who knows if she is allergic to something else though? Vets just assume its flea allergy.

What Im really wondering is are there any LONG TERM effects from her taking that medication? Or is it something that would cause diabetes virtually right away?
Ie if i stop using them now can i stop worrying

With people and dogs, prednisone can cause a temporary form of diabetes. It goes away when the drug is stopped.
A friend was on prednisone for IBD, a period of several months. They managed the diabetes with oral meds and he was abe to go off of them when he stopped the prednsone.

My dog has horrible allergies, showing mostly on his skin. We occassionally have to resort to prednisone in a burst to stop the cycle. He's 11 and we've had to do this since he was 1. No diabetes yet.

Originally Posted by longroad

Vets just assume its flea allergy.

Click to expand...

That is a pat diagnose that unfortunately a lot of vets use. Skin problems can be the sign of a lot of things. A lot come from allergies from a variety of sources. I've had skin problems with my gang over the years from food allergies, auto-immune diseases, chemical responses (e.g. laundry detergent), wool allergies (wool rug), fleas, and other microscopic parasites. Finding the source of the problem can be very difficult and sometimes can never be diagnosed. Because of this, vets either opt to treat the symptoms, or use trial and error to find out the causing agent. I've found out the cause of most of mine thru trial and error: change one thing in the environment at a time to find what is causing it. Others I've found thru skin scaping/diagnostics. My auto-immune cat went undiagnosed for 8 years until our dog died and his skin cleared up (he was allergic to the dog).

My son takes dexamethasone (steroid) as treatment for his cancer. When he first started it he was on a high dose for 30 days straight, he developed chemically induced diabetes, but it went away almost as fast as it came on after we weaned him off. For the next three years he still took the drug, but not for as long of periods of time. One week on, three weeks off. Another side effect of the the drug is bone loss. And Josh might always be affected by this, but in his case the benefits outweighed the risk. And of course, who can say if human and pet side effects are the same. Not to mention Josh's use were long term.

Anyway, I totally understand how you feel about your vet not warning you of side effects. When our dog, Chewbacca, was diagnosed with arthritis our vet prescribed him Rimadryl. It wasnt until I was almost done giving him the pills that I read about the damage it can cause in animals in their liver and kidneys!

From then on I started researching alternative treatments. But I do remember being upset that the vet didnt warn me at all about the effects of this medicine.

I hope your girl suffers no adverse reactions from the pred that she took. And for what it's worth, we were also told that Chewbacca had a flea allergy when he was younger. I thought it was odd since he didnt seem to have fleas (though I know that didnt mean he wasnt getting bit) but it turned out he had a food allergy. Once we changed his food over to lamb and rice, he was fine from then on.

Just a thought.

I am not a vet so I don't know if pred will have affects after the cat is taken off of them, but it does seem like you would be seeing signs of adverse affects already. If you are really worried you could have a blood test done.

My Coco has never had pred for her allergies.
one time her fur fell out in clumps and she got some kind of lotion for it.
I have had the steroid shots and pred before an it made me get fat and bruise easy.
I wonder if thats why I have Anemia now.
I hope your cat feels better and do not know why the vet didnt tel you anything.

I have/had two cats that uses/used Preds for two different issues

1. My RB cat Sphinx had IBD and needed the preds (transdermally) for the disease. We did try to ween him off of it but he stopped eating so it was a matter of keeping him comfortable. He was 18 when he passed from cancer and he never developed diabetes from it.

2. Fang. One of my current cats. Has a form of stomactitis and takes preds transdermally as well as an injection when it flares up to such and extent the transdermal isn't working as well. We do take him off of it when it settles down (he's off right now). He does have pred induced Diabetes which we treat when he is on it for any length of time. Once he goes off of the Preds - his Glucose returns to normal.

Don't let it scare you from treating  your kitty if she really needs treatment. Just watch for anything unusual. You could always have a periodic blood test or urine test to check for surplus Glucose. If you are worried take her in for some blood tests to your vet and have them check her Glucose.

Hopefully there isn't any long term issues with your kitty.

Take care.

It seems to be hit or miss as far as diabetes goes.  I have a kitty that has been on a steroid for 4 years and still no diabetes.  There was a shortage of prednisolone for quite awhile and he was on dex for over a year.  He gets blood work done every six months and he had one where his blood sugar was high.  He went back on the pred and it returned to normal.  Diabetes usually appears after long term use.  I find it a little hard to believe that your kitty has diabetes related to steroid use after such a short exposure.  It could be that diabetes was already becoming an issue and the steroid brought it to light.  Diabetes related to steroid use usually resolves after the steroid is stopped.  Four weeks after the shot, if that is a valid reading,  I really doubt that the diabetes is related to the steroid.

the vet said that she believes it is because of the shot. I don't know if I should start my cat on insulin so quickly, esp since its so darn expensive.. I just found out one vial is $270 which is crazy. A friend of mine had a cat who was diagnosed with diabetes and she started him on a supplement called Pet REmedy which corrects glucose levels..has anyone heard of this? She thinks maybe I should talk to the vet, try him on a pill version of Insulin instead of twice a day injections, along w/the Pet Remedy and try to get his levels down to normal. I'm so confused over all of this. Of course I want my kitty to be fine, he's 14 and seems healthy. THe drinking/peeing is slowing down so maybe the Depo Medrol is slowly coming out of his system? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks, Sheila

scary stuff to read.  our 15 year old siamese is on 2.5mg/day after having spleen and tumor taken out due to mast cell, and then after exploratory they treat him like ibd.  thank goodness our cat has reacted well.  he was barfing with diahrea and losing weight and crashing in the month+ leading up to surgery thanks to another clueless vet.

its been less than 3 months and our cat went from 6.5 lbs pre surgery to almost 10 pounds this week post surgery!  he always had an appetite.  he also has only barfed partially once, and a couple hairballs post op.  only had runny poop 3 days.

can they tell with our follow up bloodwork alone if diabetes becomes a problem?  i can't see us stopping our regime since hes doing so well.