Steroids advice please!

[Allfurcoatandnoknickers]

My 12yo dog is terminally ill with secondary lung cancer and has been prescribed prednisone 5mg x a day. When he’s had them, within about half an hour he starts panting, pacing and drinking loads. He’s peeing on the floor which is really upsetting for him and our other dog- not to mention stinky! I’m speaking to the vets tomorrow to see if we can reduce his dose. He weighs around 9kg so I’m hoping his dose can be reduced and still be effective.
Anyone got any advice?

That should say 5mg twice a day. Typically he’s not too bad in the morning but seems worse after the later dose which I give around 3.30pm and the morning one around 8am.

Steroids can cause excessive drinking and urinating. Your vet should be able to reduce the dose

Thanks will see if I can speak to them tomorrow. The weeing seems to be getting worse

At one point my dog was on 5x5mg once a day and yes they affected him in a similar manner.

It can affect them like that, and dose change might help but see what the veg says. But another thing to consider is if Ddog has been on them a little while your vet might want to check for diabetes - I had a dog on them for skin disease and he developed diabetes secondary to steroid use.

He’s been on them for two weeks today. I’ll see what the vets think. He did say for his weight it’s definitely not the highest dose he could be on

The vets have suggested we drop the dose to one 5mg a day. He’s still pacing etc - not sure how long it will take for things to improve