Am I poisoning my cat????????? HELP!

The vet gave me some meds for Rocket and now upon reading about them, they don't seem to be the correct meds for what she told me he has wrong with him. She told me he has conjunctivitis and(possibly) an upper respitory infection so she prescribed Prednisone and cefadroxil. Ok now niether seems to be helping his eye and when he's on the Prednisone, he's not himself. He's lethargic, he doesn't play, he hardly eats, he is anti social, in other words, he is NOT an Abyssinian. When is is not taking it ( he is supposed to take it every other day) he seems like himself, a normal cat with a gunky eye. The cefadroxil doesn't make him that way, only the Prednisone. What should I do? I am supposed to give him one ( he takes 1/2 a tablet each time) tonight and I don't think I want to. He was supposed to take it for thee days then every other day until it was gone, well this is the every other day start, What should I do? Like I said his eye isn't really any better and I don't want to be medicating him with stuff that isn't right. My mother told me(she is a registered nurse) that the Prednisone won't help his eye at all. They never checked his eye for any other things, they are basically just guessing. I am upset and need advice ASAP!

I am thinking* ie educated guess* ... the vet gave a steriod since there is a inflamatory component to his eye issue.. The other is a antibiotic( which if it is the class I think it is ( tastes horrid ) .. Call your vet perhaps he is sensitive to the steriod..

Prednisone should not be stopped suddenly. I imagine that's why the vet has you now giving every other day.
Before you decide to do anything, call your vet and voice your concerns. See if she has any other suggestions. Or... Rocket to a different vet and voice your concerns with his treatment for a second opinion.

Please call your vet back and ask him. I know it's not as dangerous to take him off a steroid as it is an antibiotic, but you should never stop any medication in any species without some kind of medical advice.
If the conjunctivitis was caused by a virus, then a steroid would be a proper treatment. But maybe Rocket isn't taking well to it. It does make you tired. And fat, if you're a person on it too long. The fact that the steroid isn't helping the eye problem is actually just as medically important, if not moreso, than if it had miraculously cleared it up.

Perhaps an appt with the vet (or a different one, if you want) is in order tommorow. I do hope Rocket gets better soon!

Talk to the vet first but in the meantime don't stop the meds he is currently on.

Prednisone will not do anything for the eyes. I am not actually sure what it does but some meds will fight the virus or infection or disease that is causing the goopy eyes, therefore stopping the goopy eye problem as well.

I would thinkn the vet would give you an eye ointment but there can be problrms with that too. For example if the cat has a scratch on the eye and the ointment has a steroid in it, it can make the cat go blind or lose an eye. In otherwords it is important to discuss your problems and concerns with your vet. We cannot possibly tell you what to do really on here since we are not vets.

It's odd that they would give you prednisone, since it suppresses the immune system (which is why they use it for allergies/IBD). Are you sure your vet said it was a URI? because giving pred seems like it would help the virus, not get rid of it :\\

Originally Posted by ShadowBaby

It's odd that they would give you prednisone, since it suppresses the immune system (which is why they use it for allergies/IBD). Are you sure your vet said it was a URI? because giving pred seems like it would help the virus, not get rid of it :\\

Click to expand...

She was a newer vet. I wasn't happy with her handling of my animals. Rocket who usually LOVES everyone was HOWLING and upset trying to get away from her, and she ended up having someone else come in to hold his head and help her which never happens with him. And when she gave Twig his Rabies shot booster, she gave it to him in each shoulder (something I have NEVER seen done ) Hit a nerve and when he turned to nail her, she got all flustered and ended up having someone come in AGAIN and having them hold him too. Twig was growling the whole time after we left, and I ended up locking him in the bedroom so he wouldn't attack the other cats due to redirected aggression. I was LIVID. They aren't usually bad there but when I end up getting a new vet, it's a horrible experience for both myself and my cats. I guess I wasn't thinking when I made the appt since I've told them before I absolutely do NOT want anyone except vet A and B taking care of my cats, that they'd write that on my charts, but I guess not This new vet didn't even have our cats medical charts in the room when we came in like the other vets do and that was the start of the bad experience since she knew NOTHING about my cats medical history. I guess maybe I am picky and I want the best when it comes to my animals, I am going to call them tomorrow and ask them what the deal is and ask to see one of the regular vets. I am worried about the meds and if they are the right ones, and if so why aren't they working on his eye, but making him so off etc. And why didn't she do any other tests do determine if it could've been something else, (irritants, allergys, scratched cornea.) Gosh I'm not happy right now. I know I'm not a vet but darn it all, I am hoping that the vet I saw didn't screw up I'll be an angry camper if she did!

If I saw someone trying to give Zissou a rabies shot anywhere but in her back leg I would pretty much flip out on them. So I can understand why you're mad. Zissou's also an angel at the vet's even when they take her temperature, though she doesn't look to happy. I would find it weird if a vet couldn't control her too, I know some cats hate the vet and would act like that to the best vet in the world, but you know your cats and you know something wasn't right.

Have you called them back? Try not to be mad at whoever answers the phone I always have a problem with that and have to stop myself and remember it's not their fault.

Here is something that might help clear it up (it's for humans, but still the same drug) it says it may weaken your ability to fight an infection :
Prednisone http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...r/a601102.html

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

If the conjunctivitis was caused by a virus, then a steroid would be a proper treatment.

Click to expand...

Are you sure?
My feline veterinarian advised us to not use steroids in a herpes virus conjunctivitis case, and to carefully consider any steroid use in a herpes cat as they can cause/exacerbate hidden herpesvirus.

These sites concur:
Vet Med Auburn
TICA
Another DVM article

Here is the most comprehensive article I can find:
Eye Vet

Conjunctivitis to me only means a swollen eye, not necessarily caused by herpes virus. Since steroids do reduce inflammation, then it might be the right treatment if it was caused by a virus and not a bacteria, or even an allergy. Jugen never mentioned anything about herpes virus.


Since neither of us has examined the cat and neither of us is a vet, and since suddenly taking your cat off of any medication can be worse than continuing to give it the wrong one, I said that. Maybe I should have worded it differently, like that it might be the right medicine since we don't actually know what's going on.

Ok- I didn't consider that it might not be a herpesvirus issue.
It is pretty much SOP around here that conjunctivitis+ URI= herpesvirus, and as that is what the OP mentioned my brain didn't consider an alternative cause for conjunctivitis.
Sorry.

One of my boys had severe conjunctivitis, and while it was never definitively established that it was herpes it was presumed, as it is very widespread at the shelter he came from.
The "free for one month" shelter vet gave me eye ointment that helped him. When the first tube ran out I picked up a second, which was of no help at all. Upon reading the labels I determined that the tube that helped was indeed a steroid based ointment.

At this point I bacame unhappy with the lack of progress I was seeing and began seeing my feline specialist, who explained about the herpes/steroid caution. He took us off the steroid ointment, and advised me to just let it run it's course, which it soon did.

So jugen- going back for a recheck or seeking a second opinion would be my advice.
Sorry if I have confused the issue.

Well, I gave him both meds last night and this AM he seemed himself. not lethargic, eating, playing, headbutting and running around like he never was on medications. I don't get it. When I got home tonight he was still running around, playing, looking for attention, doing all the things he normally does. So I am at a loss. I didn't call the vet because he was acting normal. I guess I'll keep him on the Meds and see what happens. I just hope that his eye clears up, it's nasty.
Oh yeah, the vet didn't say anything about herpes, just so you understand. Just the conjunctivitus and URI. Maybe I'm just being an over protective meowmy.
I do know that I'll never go to a new vet out there again. In all honesty, I wanted to snatch her up when she was hurting my kitties. I wasn't a happy camper, and I have NO patience for stupid mistakes. That's why I told her I'd take care of Twigs claws and to put him back into his carrier. I was really upset by that time and she knew it.

Originally Posted by tru

Prednisone should not be stopped suddenly. I imagine that's why the vet has you now giving every other day.
Before you decide to do anything, call your vet and voice your concerns. See if she has any other suggestions. Or... Rocket to a different vet and voice your concerns with his treatment for a second opinion.

Click to expand...

I second this! Exactly what I wanted to say.