Prednisolone Side Effects

Hi.  My 18 month old cat has had loose stools for the past 3 - 4 months.  At first we tried just the diet ED food, then the vet put him on metroniclozale and last week he started him on prednisolone.  Over the past week I would say he has become more lethargic.  Tonight I just found him camped out in his cat bed in the bedroom, while his brother and sister were hanging out with me in the living room as all three normally do.

He's alert now, but his respiration looks higher and more labored to me.  He ate his dinner fine and his appetite has been fine.  He normally asks to play every chance he gets , but he hasn't been doing that the past two days.

I'm very discouraged right now because I thought he was getting better and the pred. would seal the deal, but the last bowel movement I saw was fairly watery. 

Could the prednisolone be causing this, any thoughts on how long I should wait to see if it works.  I have about $50 worth of stella and chewy's raw food that I bought, but I've been waiting as I didn't really want to go the raw food route.  

I've seen some people say to try rabbit and/or duck wet food (they only get wet food), so I was hopping to try that as an intermediate step.

I know the condition is chronic, but I'd thought I'd see some remission before it got worse again.

Also, the vet mentioned pancreatitis as a possibility, but I think he's waiting to see if he responds to treatment to test for that. 

Any thoughts, similar experiences will be much appreciated. 

Now for the past five miniutes he's been following what seems to be a bug in the air, but there's nothing there, not that I can see anyway, very bizarre.

My guy has been getting prednisone for over 5 years with no side effects, but he's getting it for allergies, so I would guess that would maybe make a difference.

I hope you and your vet find out the problem and he gets back to his old self.

Update:   Wouldn't you know, 20 minutes after I posted this he pooped a real, nice normal one, the first time in months.  Yeah!

Reba said:

He's alert now, but his respiration looks higher and more labored to me.  He ate his dinner fine and his appetite has been fine.  He normally asks to play every chance he gets , but he hasn't been doing that the past two days.

I'm very discouraged right now because I thought he was getting better and the pred. would seal the deal, but the last bowel movement I saw was fairly watery. 

Could the prednisolone be causing this, any thoughts on how long I should wait to see if it works.  I have about $50 worth of stella and chewy's raw food that I bought, but I've been waiting as I didn't really want to go the raw food route.  

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reba

I don't want to unduly alarm you, but you should take a look at the links in this post. A connection between corticosteroids and congestive heart failure in some cats has been established, so your vet should be contacted about the high respiration rate asap.

Metroniclozale caused diarrhea, vomiting, and inappetance in when we gave it to Cynthia.

Thanks so much for the information.    I'm really never sure about how to tell if his respiration is higher than normal or not.  Sometimes I think I'm just overreacting.

Reba said:

 
Thanks so much for the information.    I'm really never sure about how to tell if his respiration is higher than normal or not.  Sometimes I think I'm just overreacting.

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Compare him to your other cats.  The vet I saw first on Saturday (Jcat linked to my thread) said you shouldn't see your cat's sides moving when they breath.  That normally you have to look to notice the movement.