Our 10 year old, 18 pound Splotch was coughing and at first we thought it was hair balls. It wasn't. Today he went to the vet and was diagnosed with bronchitis. They gave us Orbax and also Prednisone. Now, Orbax I understand. It's an antibiotic. But the other stuff is, among other things, an immune suppression drug. It also had some pretty awful side effects listed. I'm wondering if I should just stick with the Orbax and leave the other stuff alone. Anybody had experience with this?
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Splotch has bronchitis and we're worried about the prescription
- Thread starter chazaroo
- Start Date
I have asthma, and have to take steroids. Mine are in an inhaled form, but when my mom has a really bad episode, she takes pred in oral form.
The dose of pred will be an anti-inflammatory dose, not an immune-suppressive dose. This is to help ease the constriction of his bronchial tubes. I assume the prescription is just for 10 days or so?
As with any medication, the list of side-effects is long and scary. I assume you looked up the side-effects of the antibiotic?
But in cats, steroids are usually very well-tolerated. In fact, with long term use, the side effects are typically far less than those seen in people. The main concern with long term use is the development of diabetes. But unlike in people, it doesn't rob them of their calcium, making their bones brittle...
If the vet felt he was in enough distress to need the pred in addition to the antibiotics, I'd probably use it.
My Flowerbelle has had bronchitis three times in the past 2 years. One of those she was on a course of pred. Each time she was given doxycycline as the antibiotic. The time it was bad, she was put on a 20-day course, not a 10-day course.
The dose of pred will be an anti-inflammatory dose, not an immune-suppressive dose. This is to help ease the constriction of his bronchial tubes. I assume the prescription is just for 10 days or so?
As with any medication, the list of side-effects is long and scary. I assume you looked up the side-effects of the antibiotic?
But in cats, steroids are usually very well-tolerated. In fact, with long term use, the side effects are typically far less than those seen in people. The main concern with long term use is the development of diabetes. But unlike in people, it doesn't rob them of their calcium, making their bones brittle...
If the vet felt he was in enough distress to need the pred in addition to the antibiotics, I'd probably use it.
My Flowerbelle has had bronchitis three times in the past 2 years. One of those she was on a course of pred. Each time she was given doxycycline as the antibiotic. The time it was bad, she was put on a 20-day course, not a 10-day course.
My cat has been on a low dose of a steroid for a little over 2 1/2 years. Of course I would rather that he wasn't but this is preferable to his being sick a good part of the time. A short period of time on a low dose of a steroid carries very little risk and can certainly help.
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- #4
Thanks for the info. The pred dose is for twice a day for 7 days and then once a day for another 14. Splotch tends to have a pretty sensitive stomach and that was one of our concerns regarding the pred. Also, (fingers crossed. He has only coughed once since yesterday morning. Perhaps the Orbax is doing the trick. If not we'll give him the pred. Thanks for calming our concerns about side effects
t c
t c
If the twice a day dose is 2.5mg 2x a day, that's an anti-inflammatory dose, not an immune-suppressive dose.
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- #6
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- #7
That's great he's not coughing at all! Yes, Flowerbelle usually stopped coughing just a day or two into treatment. :nod:
