Prednisilone tapering?

[janied]

Hi everyone. I posted the other day about Taz and his mystery leg problem. Thank you for the responses on that. He is due at the vet tomorrow but in the meantime I want to get him off the steroids and back onto the anti inflammatory as soon as possible. He's been on 2.5mg prednislone for 8 days.
Called the vet this morning and the receptionist spoke to another vet (his usual lady not there today). The receptionist has come back to me to say it's okay to just stop giving them to him. Obviously I'll double check that when I go tomorrow but I am anxious as everything I've read talks about tapering (though everything I can find is following longer-term use).
So sorry as I know I'll be able to interrogate the vet tomorrow afternoon but does anyone know if this sounds ok? And does anyone know how long it takes to get the steroids out of his system?


Thanks in advance

 

[di and bob]

8 days is not considered long term. but you should still wean him off the dose he is on to avoid adverse effects. At 2.5mg you could cut the pill in half and give that for a couple of days until you ask the vet for how long. The reason to wean them off is that their adrenal glands have slowed down production because they don't need to send out the hormone, the steroids are saying the levels are OK. If you stop, the glands cannot start-up in a moment's notice and all kinds of bad side effects can occur. On this one, I would NOT stop giving it and wait until you talk with your vet. 2.5 mg is a low dose so it may be OK, but make sure. I would have them talk to that other vet too if you find out you can't stop immediately.

 

[janied]

Thank you - after my initial 'hey that's great' reaction, having read about the adrenal gland thing previously I started to feel pretty uncomfortable about just stopping the pred (hence my post). So I've just called the vet again and asked for that vet (the senior vet apparently) to phone me back. Want to make sure there was no misunderstanding between what she told the receptionist, what the receptionist told me and what I understood her to say. And if she is saying it's ok to stop them ask her why it's okay and will the short term use definitely not have impacted the adrenal gland production to any untenable degree. Thanks again - really appreciate your response