Kind of baffled: Prednisone helping BMs?

My beautiful girl Skye (Bandit's littermate/sister) turned 17 this past Thursday. I'd take her to the vet on Tuesday to start cartrophan injections for her arthritis. I had them run more blood work on Skye and I've had her on 1 prednisone daily. Her blood work was fine, other than her pancreatic enzymes which were 44!!! When she was so ill in the summer, she was 50 and then dropped to 36---this still freaks me out because it's not supposed to be that high. However, the vets say they don't treat blood work, they treat symptoms: Skye is happy, purring, more active, cuddly and doing fine. Aside from limping, which she's been doing due to arthritis.

The day of the cartrophan shot, she was one happy kitty. The goal was to reduce the prednisone. However, I noticed on Thursday, she hadn't had a decent poop since Tuesday. She's never had issues pooping until recently, but her kidneys and hydration are good. I remembered when she'd gotten sick, they put her on 2 prednisone a day for 7 days and she was pooping amazingly! So, last night, I gave her a second prednisone and whammo---bowel movement.

I'm confused. So are my vets. I'm not sure if the arthritis is causing her to not want to poop and that they prednisone is helping eliminate inflammation, so she's more inclined to go, or if it's some how related to inflamation of the pancreas. 

Has anyone had a similar situation? That prednisone helped their kitty poop? From what I've read, it's more apt to cause constipation--and the stool is not loose--it's firm, but it's as if it acts like  laxative for her....strange. We're back to the vet Monday for her next cartrophan injection and I'll be doing that for her as I'm not bothered by giving injections. Again,the hope is once that's in her system, she won't need prednisone.

Is it possible to reduce the pred at a slower rate, since it seems to be having a direct impact on her bowel movements? Or perhaps add a little bit of Miralax (maybe start at 1/8 teaspoon 1-2x day just to see if that helps) to her food? I've not heard of it having an impact, but other folks here have better experience with that drug being used in kitties than I do.

Thanks Donutte---I've spoke to the vet about miralax(restoralax). Her brother was on it for years and I did give her a bit, but since we don't know what is causing the issue, we're going to do more of a fiber route first. She's definitely happier with more prednisone---I am wondering if that's because we are going into winter here---very damp and cold in my area and I know that makes arthritis worse. I'm not going to drop too much until I see the vet Monday and get her the second cartrophan injection. My concern was also that her pancreatic enzymes were elevated quite a bit but she's not symptomatic. Leading me to wonder if her BMs are related to inflammation of the pancreas.

She's happy and purring and more active today--for a 17 yr old kitty.