Prednisone in dogs

Quick question for the vets (ok not super quick)…I am currently fostering the sweetest, most chill lab mix dog (and in the process of adopting her bc she is so well behaved). She was found on the streets down south after giving birth to a litter of puppies. That was months ago, and she is a healthy 3 year old (ish) pup. She did have heartworms though being a street dog. Shes had two treatments so far, the last one being a week and a half ago. The vet prescribed prednisone for her 2x a day for a week, and then it gradually decreases but she’s on it for weeks. She seems to be reacting fine to the treatment, but the prednisone does not seem good for her. She’s peeing everywhere (which is normal I know but also quite tough to manage when I have to go to work). But bigger concern is it makes her very restless when she’s supposed to be recovering, and she is more agitated and naughty lol. she usually never sheds but her fur is falling out on the prednisone.
I called the vet and spoke to him through a secretary and he basically said keep her on it for another few weeks at a lower dose. But is it really necessary? She’s young and healthy and it seems to be more detrimental than helpful. But the stuff you read online is so scary it has me googling stuff every 5 min thinking something’s wrong. Any advice?

So, I just wanted to go through my arduous journey of the last few years and get y'all's thoughts/just vent and tell the story of my proverbial diagnosis roulette.
This is going to be a literal wall of text and I am leaving so so so much out, so please bear with me.
Outside of my childhood of being considered "sickly" by my family and friends, I never really felt too far outside of the realm of normalcy. Sure, I had gotten diagnosed with GERD (eosinophilic esophagitis) in high school which seemed to explain all of the stomach issues I always had, it didn't feel too debilitating or difficult. The only odd thing was sometimes sleeping 12+ hours and still being tired but I figured that was normal. However, I distinctly remember being evaluated for Marfan's syndrome as a kid but being told that my brother and I didn't quite meet the criteria and genetic testing was too expensive at the time.
Fast forward past high school, and I graduated undergrad and got my first job. But then I just kept getting sick once a week, over and over, until I finally quit that job. I attributed it to stress or lack of sleep. Figured what I needed was a change of scenery, so I got certified and went overseas to teach English. Frustratingly, that only lasted 3 months. I couldn't seem to do it despite my working 60+ hour weeks trying to make it work.
Came back home to a new job after looking for months. 6 months later, I went on medical short-term disability. I was quite literally dozing off driving to work every morning and said enough was enough. I didn't want to hurt anyone and my mental health was in the tank. Half a year later, it was called obstructive sleep apnea. A year, a CPAP, BiPap, and finally ASV machine later, I am getting treated for what turned out to be central sleep apnea. This was 3 years after and I had returned to school to try and get a masters in public health. I was finally feeling like I was getting back to a healthy normal. My mental health and ability to focus dramatically improved. I even got diagnosed with ADHD, and that was like a lightbulb moment too.
I was finally feeling great. Never felt better, was excelling in my epidemiolgy program and happy that I found my niche. However, life had different plans. It began with a bang, where I severely sprained my right wrist playing with my dog. Despite the intense pain, I was still able to move it decently well so the ortho didn't believe it was too bad. I had to go back twice and they scheduled an MRI. Full thickness tear of 2/3 portions of the scapholunate ligament, and a minor perforation of the TFCC. Lasted two weeks in the small wrist cast they put on, but couldn't deal with the pain. I did occupational therapy and got my first OT saying I could be hypermobile. At some point during that journey, I sprained my left wrist just as bad. That's when they sent me to a rheumatologist.
I started getting incredibly fatigued (back to the levels of pre-treatment of my sleep apnea) and began to experience intense pain in my joints, along with muscle spasms. I sprained my ankles bad enough to need PT for a few weeks. None of my blood work ever showed anything and everything else never panned out so they said it was anxiety and fibromyalgia. I gave up but knew it was wrong. I said screw it, I refuse to let someone tell me this is just anxiety. I know anxiety, I know what it does, and it doesn't cause joint pain and strains all of the time. The celebrex they gave me only worked to an extent. So, I went back to the rheumatologist and said I don't want pain killers, I just need a diagnosis that makes sense. Due to the low back, ankle, hip, shoulder, elbow, and neck pain they said it was non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA). Then I went on cimzia until I graduated. It seemed to help but never for long. I could barely do school, and was worried I would be disabled and unable to work.
Came home and the rheumatologist here and they took me off of everything because there was no objective proof. My xrays were normal, MRI's didn't show joint degradation, and my blood work didn't show inflammation/any markers for any of the possible autoimmune conditions. I literally had to get lucky before this doctor believed me (after 3 months) and came in with my elbow swollen. He immediately said it was seronegative asymmetric rheumatoid arthritis. It is already somewhat uncommon to be seronegative, but asymmetric on top of that? But I finally had a diagnosis again, so I just accepted it.
I got lucky and found a work-from-home job during this time. My fatigue got a little better. However, nothing ever worked for long, not the methotrexate, prednisone, or Humira they put me on. The Rinvoq I am on now doesn't seem to stop flares either. I kept spraining my wrists, ankles, shoulders, elbows, knees, whatever. I kept asking for help with the pain, asking why my muscles hurt so bad and kept spasming, asking just for anything to help. Neurologist cleared me. Pysch said it wasn't a mental health issue. Doctor after doctor after doctor and nothing seemed to tie everything together. I asked them to check for hypermobility, they said I didn't have it after a half-hearted attempt. I looked into everything, thinking I was going crazy, and constantly being told I was by doctors, friends, and family. It hurt so dang much feeling like I was the only person advocating for me.
Throughout this all, I was in and out of PT. Once for my wrists again and once for my shoulder and neck. The wrist PT said I needed to get looked at for hypermobility but I was just so tired of doctors and had asked both rheumatologists so far. Then months later, the PTs for my neck and shoulders said so as well. I said screw it, and scheduled a dermatologist thinking that was enough. 6 months and right before my appointment I got COVID so I had to cancel. Another few months and I am done with neck and shoulder PT but never felt "healed". They told me to request a special PT from my rheumatologist, one who dealt specifically with hypermobility because they all believed I had hypermobile EDS. I was finally done with questioning whether or not the rheumatologist got it right, with the constant negative test results, no inflammation ever, and continual constant pain. I convinced the rheumatologist to send me to this new PT.
I went in, and this lady immediately starts going on and on about things I can't do. I was confused, and asked "don't we need to do any tests?" She basically said I can already tell you're hypermobile. You held out your arm earlier and your elbows went hypermobile. She double-checked my knees and had me stand, where they both bent too far backwards. My thumbs could touch my forearm. Someone finally knew what to look for and believed me. She said it was definitely hypermobility, likely hypermobile EDS, said she would send her report to my rheumatologist and asked me to get a referral to a doctor with experience in this disease.
So now we are here. I am still struggling with everything, and funnily enough am looking for "high-top" shoes after a recommendation from that PT. I am waiting for my second appointment with them and got referred to the docs I need. I want to cry because it seems like I finally found the missing link. I also want to scream because despite all the years of being called a hypochondriac, my symptoms were anxiety, and all of the random sprains and rolled ankles since childhood, I feel like I am stuck with being in pain. I just feel lost.
Is it crazy to believe that the rheumatologists had it wrong? I remember back to feeling a pop in the same elbow that got me diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis but didn't attribute it to anything because that was normal. I even told the rheumatologist and he said it likely wasn't a sprain because I could move it. I am sure it was now a sprain. Everything makes sense the more I read about this disease. The links to GERD, sleep-apnea, flat feet, constant rolled ankles, bad eyesight, double-jointed in my fingers, and so much more. Is it possible that the blood work was telling the truth? Can there be hope that despite my pain, I won't have to further damage my body and immune system with all of these rheumatologic drugs? I don't know if I can muster the strength anymore to advocate for myself and bring this up with the rheumatologist again. I am afraid of the young 'healthy' male stereotype and am so done with doctors who don't believe me.
Honestly, any advice, stories, resources, or whatever yall have I would love to hear. I just needed to rant and write my thoughts down. If you read this far, thank you. Also, if you have any suggestions for high tops I am open to receiving them!

I got stung today on the lower leg when a yellow jacket somehow flew in my boot. Here is a timeline of my symptoms...
1017AM I got stung by a yellow jacket. Hurt like a mofo. Cleaned it up, put a bandaid on and got to cleaning the chicken coop. Was a little shaky when it happened.
1055ish AM Once I realized I was having symptoms, they seemed to happen fast. Started feeling pretty lightheaded and shortness of breath. My airways didn't seem like they were closing up at all but I couldn't catch my breath. Before this, just walking 75 feet to get something from the garage made me tired. This is when the sting really started throbbing more too and I was starting to feel warm. It wasn't a hot day at all today. I had to walk into the house while trying not to pass out. Walked to the basement where it is cooler while still fainty. I laid on the carpet and noticed my bpm was 145, which is high for what I was previously doing. For the next 10-12 minutes I tried to relax but just couldn't. My heart rate was fluctuating between 145 and 165 while I laid there. I was also very shaky at this point.
1107AM I finally texted my husband after I was able to focus on looking at my phone for a minute. 'I had to stop the chicken coop for the time being. I got stung about an hour ago and felt very fainty, couldn't catch my breath, and my sting really started throbbing. laying in the basement with my heart rate at 148 currently.' I continued to lay on the floor while my dog tried to comfort me.
1116AM I didn't hear back from him yet so after I could focus on calling, I called him. I tried walking up our stairs and was completely winded and out of breath when I got to the top of our bi-level type of stairs. I had to lay right back down.
1120AM While still on my phone and with a heart rate in the high 140s, I looked at my arms and noticed how flushed they were. Then I looked at my legs and noticed they were also flushed with some hives. My stomach started getting slightly cramps but not too much. Couldn't tell if I was getting nauseous or if it was just nerves at this point. Then I felt I could try to get off the floor and barely did. I was still lightheaded but not as bad as initially. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked completely sunburnt - face, neck, chest, arms. My stomach and back below my bra strap seemed pretty normal from what I could see. All the way up my legs were the hives and flushed skin. Sometime during this, I took a Benadryl.
1142 I talked to a RN I know and she suggested going to urgent care or taking another Benadryl and some Prednisone. Luckily, I had Prednisone from a few years ago. It took an hour or so but my bpm finally went down to my resting heart rate and a little below normal regular heart rate.
I have been stung before, no major issues like this. Last year I got stung 4x - 3x by a yellow jacket and 1x by a hornet. Fast forward to now -- I have been tired much of the day (probably Benadryl) and had 3 light but mostly normal bowel movements. I also have felt like I am in a funk. That was really scary and I can't shake it off... I've never been afraid of yellow jackets, just thought they were annoying. Now I am so afraid that I'm going to get stung.
After I felt 'better', I was able to look up my symptoms and it sounds like I may have had a severe systematic reaction but not quite anaphylaxis...?
Has this ever happened to any of you? Did I have a mild form of anaphylaxis, if that is a thing?

6/yo spayed 60lb mixed breed female dog. We are currently living in the UK
Hello,
My dog has been licking her genitals very intensely daily for several months. She will get very worked up and spin in circles and whine for upwards of five minutes, sometimes longer. It is very often after she uses the bathroom but not always, as she will sometimes start up from nowhere. We have been working with our local vet and so far have tried:
Antibiotics (UTI test was negative), no change in behavior
Anal gland expression, also no change
This most recent attempt she had an ultrasound on her kidneys and bladder to check for crystals or stones (negative), and they took a sample directly from her bladder for testing which also showed nothing. She is currently on prednisone to rule out inflammation but no change either after about a week.
The vet told us the other options she could think of were skin issues, yeast infection, or behavioral. I doubt it’s behavioral because she will whine/clearly be in distress for several minutes until it passes.
She has had skin reactions in the past to certain shampoos, but has no hair loss and does not itch anywhere else on her body on a regular basis except for the feet on occasion (if I notice she is focusing on one foot for too long I will put a sock on it and she immediately loses interest). When she gets groomed I don’t have the groomer do a sanitary clip as this seems to exacerbate the issue. She isn’t a big drinker but we add water to her food to get hydration and she pees regularly throughout the day. I don’t know what could be causing localized itchiness to the vulva, it’s not her bum that’s giving her problems and she isn’t scooting at all. It’s not swollen or red either, and no discharge.

My senior Peke, Twinkie, is around 10 years old now. She's been on phenobarbital for a little over 2 months to control idiopathic epilepsy. Well, I swear, I have a totally different dog now!
For the most part, she seems happier, more active and playful. But it almost seems like the pheno "reactivated" an old spinal injury (7+ years ago) that left her partially paralyzed temporarily - she could walk and potty just fine, but she had no feeling or reaction to stimuli to her rear paws (the vet said her being mobile was involuntary or subconscious, or out of instinct or habit?). She was on crate rest for 6 weeks and on prednisone, rimadyl and dasuquin advanced, and after all that, she was back to normal. And now, she's very wobbly in the rear end, clumsy, and when playing with a toy will throw it around and sort of pivot on her butt to turn to get it, so she's using her whole front of her body, but barely any of her butt or back legs. She walks, runs, jumps and potties just fine, though, so it doesn't seem to be a problem. Her labs and liver levels 3 weeks after starting the pheno were normal. Anyways...
Here's the weird stuff:

1. She has never been a dog to get into trouble or find mischief. She plays with her toys nicely and never breaks or rips them. All of sudden, Twinkie is a naughty pants! Yesterday, she found one of my adult kid's dirty socks, and I caught her chewing on it! She let me take it and put it up without a problem. But today, she found another sock, and did NOT want to give it up. Out of fear of getting bitten, my kid used my grabber tool to try to take it, and Twinkie went after it! What the heck? It's like she was invoking my first Peke, Lily, whose favorite "toys" were my late husband's dirty socks!!! I've never seen another dog do that in the last 15 years! Lily never guarded them in a nasty way, but in a teasing way. She wouldn't even play with toys, JUST the socks! Also, since starting this medication, Twinkie has been copying my kid's Pomsky (who we got October 2022) and shredding Kleenex! I know dogs learn things from other dogs, but for Twinkie, it's JUST the naughty things.. and vice versa, Maple (the Pomsky) has learned to guard things from Twinkie.
2. Twinkie has gotten SUPER whiny, annoyingly so, since beginning phenobarbital. She whines when she's nesting, whines whilst asleep, whines for no apparent reason, but the worst is the whining in the morning! It's like her internal clock is way out of whack. She normally eats breakfast between 10 and 11am (it used to be 9 - 9:30 until these issues started), and dinner at 8:30. Well, now she thinks if the sun is up, and someone got up to use the bathroom, it's time for breakfast, and if it's around 7pm, she demands dinner. The mornings are the worst - the sun starts coming up around 5am, and she'll start whining and yipping LOUDLY anytime between 6am and whenever I feed her. The earliest I'll feed her is 10:30am, the latest 11am. Dinner is the same, except she starts around 7pm, and I feed her earliest at 8:30pm, the latest is 9pm. I'm being strict about the schedule, because she's been so disruptive to me & my adult kids - one who is disabled with ASD + mental health diagnoses, the other who works 2 jobs and also has mental health diagnoses - that we're all exhausted and struggling to perform our daily duties. I've begun putting her on a leash at the first whine of the morning and night, and keeping her close to me, which seems to help, but I still have to get up early to do it... which leaves me needing a nap midday! I'd keep her in my bed overnight, but for a 10 lb dog, she takes up a LOT of space on my bed! She insists on laying the wide way and will push me to the very edge of my bed, which interrupts my sleep. So, for now, the leash is helping the other 2 humans get their necessary sleep at least.
3. She's been "corncobbing" the Pomsky when they're playing. I don't know if corncobbing is the same kind of thing as "pibble nibbles", but Twinkie is doing that when she's NEVER done it before. You know where they just use the front of their teeth and take tiny little bites in a row? My second oldest daughter has a Boxer Pit mix that corncobs, but I've never seen another dog do it aside from her. Twinkie just started the corncobbing and also play biting the Pomsky about 2 weeks ago. She does it on her butt, legs, and neck.
4. She's been just sitting outside in the rain during her potty breaks, and she has always hated rain! Up until a week ago, if it was raining, she'd walk the edge of the house under the eaves to go potty, and come right back in afterwards. Some rainy days she just skips pooping altogether, she hates it that much! Oddly, she likes snow! But that's just weird for her, to just sit on the sidewalk, getting rained on and not wanting to come in, even with treat bribes.
5. She's not more cranky than usual - she's always been a crotchety old hag of a dog - but she's been more bitey than normal, and picks fights with the Pomsky and is always warning the Boxer mix. If she's in a bad mood (which has always been a LOT of the time), if another dog gets within 8 feet of her or her things - her things include everything in the room, including me - she's growling, baring teeth and lunging at them.

I've been calling her my "drunken munchkin", because she's been so weird and not making sense in my mind. Sometimes she's a playful puppy like she's never been since I've had her (around 2 years), and other times she's a vicious rabid beastie! She's always been a quirky little thing, scared of hiccups and gum chewing and dolls, hates being baby talked or having her space invaded (including stranger's hands coming at her for pets) and hates kids, but only if they're moving (walking, running, jumping). She loves kids when they're infants in car seats or rockers, or sleeping toddlers and kids... she'll kiss them and snuggle up with them. She seems to hate certain people or dogs, but then when they rough house together, she wants to defend them? Wacky! She loves people the most of they completely ignore her and pretend she doesn't exist. If a person ignores her like that, she'll climb into their lap and make herself at home, but as soon as they're talking or touching or even making eye contact sometimes, she's growling and/or showing teeth.
Anyways, I've added a video of her and the sock plus pics for funsies. She's such a sweet, innocent looking demon dog! SHE seems to think she's a Rottweiler, and is fearless (for the most part). She's just a little weirdo, and I wish I could understand her. That's my one issue with rescues, is you never truly know what their previous life was like. Clearly she has trauma. She had a broken rib at some point, and it healed sticking out. But I love her so much, and she is the first dog I've had that has been loyal to me... I'm her person. All our previous dogs and rescues bonded to my husband... he was an animal and kid magnet! So that part is nice. I love that she's independent and doesn't NEED to be on or near me all the time, and doesn't whine when I leave (most of the time). She's very sweet with me, and so she's mine and I'm hers.
https://reddit.com/link/1cugw3v/video/bgsgvufo121d1/player
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Species: dog
Age:12
Sex/Neuter status: female intact
Breed: pitbull/lab
Body weight: 53 lbs
History: my dog has allergies and was prescribed prednisone. She's been taking it every other day for about a year. In the last month she lost 15 lbs. She had been drinking a ton of water and peeing on the floor which was unusual for her.
Clinical signs: weight loss, excessive drinking
Duration: 1 month
Your general location: canada
Links to test results, X-rays, vet reports etc:
My dogs blood sugar was 31 at the vet yesterday after getting bloodwork and X-rays. She was diagnosed with diabetes and the vet had blamed the prednisone they prescribed. The vet has instructed to wait two weeks, come back and get insulin injections and a check up. My question is, with her sugar being high, would it be better to request the insulin now and delay the blood curve by another two weeks ? This was an option but the vet said typically wasn't recommended as the prednisone would still be in her system. I am just concerned that within the two weeks symptoms will get worse and I'd rather not have my dog die while waiting.

My dog was diagnosed with Non-epitheliotropic cutaneous T cell lymphoma. We started chemotherapy yesterday and he had his first dose of CCNU. He also had a shot of L-asparaginase and Prednisone 20mg 1.5 tablets. The oncology team has done a great job of preparing/informing us about how poor his prognosis is - they told us median survival with chemo is 4-6 months. However, today we've seen a significant reduction in his skin lesions and he seems more perky than he has been the last few weeks. I realize this is likely from the Prednisone but is it possible he's already having a response to the chemo? Is it to soon to hope he'll have an excellent response to chemo? They warned us that his prognosis is based on the lymphomas response to the chemo. He has skin lesions distributed over his entire body but his lymph nodes aren't enlarged and the needle aspirations showed no lymphoma. His blood work was all normal as well. We hope he'll have a good response to chemo and won't be the average for survival but are preparing for the worst and making whatever time he has left the best. They also warned us how lymphoma is unlikely to cause his death but he will eventually be covered in open wounds that will severely impact his quality of life. So at that point we will need to make end-of-life decisions.

I need help, I'm feeling overwhelmed by too much info, and I'm exhausted
Here's the basics: Species: dog Age: 14 Sex/Neuter status: spayed F Breed: large chihuahua mix (probably some jack russel, but not sure) Body weight: 19 lbs History: 2 summers ago contracted Kennel Cough (was vaxxed), and after treatment developed lasting and chronic, loud cough. Clinical signs: consistent, prolonged coughing/hacking, wheezing, heart murmur Duration: 1 year, 9 months Your general location: Arizona, USA
Diagnosed with likely collapsing trachea in late 2022 after ruling out other possibilities. X-ray at time could not determine CT for sure, and showed no heart disease.
Prescribed hydrocodone/homatropine. Getting one pill 5mg/1.5mg three times a day.
Over time cough gets worse, uncontrolled by rx. Prescribed rounds of prednisone, which improves cough during treatment.
New x-ray March 21st, 2024 finally confirms collapsing trachea, all the way down at the base right before it splits off into the lungs. Also showing likely bronchitis. No obvious heart disease. Possibly slightly enlarged heart?
However, new heart murmur (mild) detected by stethoscope
In the meantime, I joined a FB support group for owners of dogs with collapsing trachea. I ask my vet about a few medications recommended by the group, but my vet dismissed them for various reasons. I wish I could tell you the reasons, but I'm always sleep-deprived at these visits because they're after several nights of lost sleep due my dog's hacking.
Anyway, in past two weeks the coughing/hacking got significantly worse, uncontrolled by medication. Sunday night, she could not get comfortable, was pacing from room to room, hacking, wheezing, only sleeping in very short bouts, with help of gabapentin. It was a terrible night for us both and I felt like she was pleading with me to help her go.
I visited vet the next day (Mon, May 13th). I was ready to discuss euthanasia due to her distressed state, obviously discomfort, uncontrollable hacking. I also had some new suggestions from the support group to ask about, including Vetmedin and Lasix.
On Monday's visit the vet said her heart murmur sounded more pronounced. However, she would not prescribe any heart meds without at least another x-ray.
Tbh, I don't have another $600 for an x-ray when I already paid that for one less than 2 months ago.
The vet prescribed another round of prednisone, and said I could increase the dose of hydrocodone to 1.5 pills every 6 hours if needed.
This combo does reduce her coughing, but that much hydrocodone basically just knocks her out.
So, I began seriously considering euthanasia again, because having her drugged all the time, and desperately hacking in the time between doses, is no quality of life to me.
Additionally, her coughing snd prolonged health deterioration is having significant impact on my own well-being due to lack of sleep and missed work, and just general constant stress. Last night was another sleepless night for us both.
However, the CT support group has me convinced I should push to try vetmedin. Some say it's been like a wonder drug.
I'm on such a roller coaster, having already mentally and emotionally starting to prepare to say goodbye. I even made an appt for in-home euthanasia on Saturday. Now I'm wondering if I'll feel guilty if I don't push for this medication.
Again, I cannot afford another x-ray, let alone a cardiologist. I've spent so much for so long for so little improvement, I'm also emotionally spent after almost 2 years of this.
But, I'm really needing to hear from some vets.
I'm ready to let her go. Do I owe it to her to try to convince the vet to let me try Vetmedin?
I'm attaching a link with two videos of her terrible night on Sunday, her medical history, and 3 x-rays from March.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1saHMHDiIOW6Hov1EnOpWY44qVgokfjGW

My cute dog (American Cocker Spaniel) will pass soon. He already had a bad start when he was still with his mom (inexperienced breeder). He spend the first few weeks in the hospital. Some of his brothers and sisters didn’t make it, but he did. When we had our first check up the vet told us that his lungs are not in a very good shape. The rest of his body was fine with the exception of his teeth which were close together and had some plague already.
During the years we encountered some problems. After weeks of searching what is happening we found he has an severe longterm allergy for beef. We eliminated everything which contains beef, they are everywhere even in Salmon Biscuits… after the elimination it went ok and we even got a second dog.
Everything was going well. He had some problems with teeth (bad shape, due to bad start and medicine there) and his temper like food protection or barking at cars / bikes, but it was fine and he got a good checkup every year including titer tests which were always ok. His health started to decline in the summer of 2023. He started limping on his front feed and was eating worse. We also noticed 2-3 weird spots on his skin which seems like hotspots. The vet told he was a bit heavy, he had a stiff neck and his intestines were a bit puzzled. A few sessions of acupuncture, good washing and balanced diet could help him, and it did help him for a few weeks.
In the winter his health suddenly declined and the weird spots on his skin increased and expanded over his entire body with crusts. He was losing a lot of hair. After a few vet visits, some medicine and some tests we discovered that he was highly allergy for almost everything you could imagine. This was a big message for me and my wife as it would mean we should change in the house a lot while we also have a other dog who lived the same life in perfect health. We switched to special hypoallergenic dog food of Hills so he does not react on that food and keep the other dog on his current food. We had to lock both pets apart and clean up where the other pet and also where we ate so he can’t get any other food in his stomach.
This worked for a few weeks. He remained happy when someone is home, we went to the forest or beach regularly and if I leave the house I always wants to be back as soon as possible to see my family again. I mainly work from home, so the two pets are always around and I have a deep emotional connection with them.
Unfortunately, the spots came back rapidly and he was shaking a lot. His teeth’s were also declining rapidly and his movement worsened that he could jump on the couch anymore and the stairs are done step for each step. We shifted from dexamethasone to Prednisone to see any difference, but recently we came to the conclusion that this and other treatments are not giving the results we and the vet wants. I was still looking for possible solutions, but my wife (had dogs in the past) and vet intervened that he is sick and everything we are doing could at the best only suppress symptoms, we were not making him better. The vet said we were doing everything right on food, health etc. But basically his immune system is failing and not doing what it is supposed to do.
This week we decided to put him down. He will get his final rest next Saturday, on his fifth birthday. I’m devastated and keep crying that it is going to happen. Never had a pet during my youth and I’m just worried about the gap of the unconditional love he will leave. I’m also worried about my second dog who never has been alone and plays a lot with him and what this change will do with him.
While I’m writing this, my dog is sitting next to me and shaking, but he has a lot of moments where it all looks good (with exception of the skin/fur) and he seems enjoying life now. I find it very difficult he is passing at such a young age and weird thoughts are going through my mind if i could have prevented this, do things differently or anything to expand his time here with us. I feel defeated that I couldn’t help him anymore. During the good times I keep on thinking to call off the euthanasia, but then what… wait until he has a very bad or very painful day?
No matter what, I love him and keep carrying the awesome memories and the times he dragged me and my wife through really hard times in my heart. But the grief that he will be gone soon…This is the worst I’ve ever felt in my life…

Spayed female French bulldog, 6 years old.
Diagnosis of IVDD July 2023 with ventral slot surgery for a herniation at C3/4 in August 2023.
PLDA preventative procedure for thoracic/lumbar spine December 2023.
Dixie is currently having a flare up of pain in her neck again. She had an MRI Monday 5/13 that showed basically the same findings as her last MRI at C2/3 with a lateral herniation, albeit not as severe as the one she had surgery on in August. However, her MRI also shows a malformed/odd blood vessel at the same area. Per the neurologist, the vessel could be putting pressure on the nerve root and causing her symptoms as well. So right now the MRI is sent to the outside radiologist who read her last one to see if anything has changed or gotten worse.
Neuro says this surgery would be more risky than the last one, due to the potential for bleeding with the wonky vessel right now. But surgery IS an option. We are currently doing conservative treatment with Gabapentin and Prednisone along with strict rest (she’s been on these for about 7 days now I think). But just a little bit ago she seemed to have a really bad neck spasm that we ended up giving her some codeine for. We haven’t had to give her Codeine in awhile.
So it boils down to this: does anyone out there have experience with surgery for a lateral disc herniation? Is it worth the risk? I hate seeing my dog like this. Are there other options like laser therapy and/or acupuncture that could also help?

I had a super weird night/morning. I felt like I was "suspended" between reality and dreaming. Stuck in the middle somehow. Super bizarre and hard to explain. I could hear my husband talking to a customer about work then it shifted to him talking to me and telling me to go away. We were not in our real house and he said we were in a town about 15 miles from where we actually live. I was hiding in a bathroom (no idea why). I can explain it all in detail but I don’t think that part matters. I couldn't physically wake up and/or open my eyes but I was trying. I got up with my teens at 5:50am like normal. Walked the dogs and did my normal thing, but I felt like a zombie and not really awake while I was up for those 40 minutes. Went back to sleep at 6:30. Didn't actually get up for "real" until 10:30am which is also not normal for me. I’m normally dressed, showered and at my office by 8:30 or 9 at the latest.
I don’t ever remember feeling suspended between 2 worlds before. BG: 55 yo female. Other than lifelong depression I’m healthy. 2 weeks ago I broke out with eczema for the first time. I was in so much pain. Rash head to toe. Super itchy. Got so bad I went to doc. Doc put me on prednisone for 10 days. I have taken 7 of 10 days of prednisone once a day in mornings. First 3 days on prednisone I literally didn’t sleep. I’ve been sleeping good until last night.
I imagine some part of it was due to the prednisone, but I still feel off and not right. No clue whatsoever as to what really happened. Any thoughts??

• Species: Dog
• Age: 13
• Sex/Neuter status: Male
• Breed: 1/2 shih tzu, 1/4 cocker spaniel, 1/4 poodle
• Body weight: 17.5 lbs
• History: N/A?
• Clinical signs: red blood in poop, diarrhea
• Duration: 3 days
• Your general location: Texas

My dog has had drops of blood in his poop the past 3 or so days. The poop has been runny, and the blood isn't always present, but it is present about half of the time and is bright red. He has woken me up in the middle of the night 3 times tonight, and twice last night, to take him to do mostly small mucousy poops. He hasn't vomited at all, which from googling seems to be a symptom of other things that can cause bloody stool in dogs.
He's currently in the middle of a cycle of prednisone for an injured shoulder. Also he has been taking novox/rimadyl off and on for the shoulder and for spinal disc pain that he's had for a couple of years now.
What could this be? Is this a huge cause for concern? I would really appreciate any help because I'm worried for him and not happy about this serious lack of sleep... Thank you very much for reading

She presented with this symptom on Friday, along with vomiting.. took her to the vet and the doctor said he suspected possible Addison’s? She has a very long and weird health history. Tick bite, multiple strings of illnesses since 2020..
Since I couldn’t afford the Addison’s disease test to be done the same day, we scheduled it a week from then, and in the mean time decided to put her on prednisone to see if it helped. (She’s had it in the past and always done really well on it.)
Friday and Saturday (the first two days on the prednisone) she went RIGHT back to her normal self. And then today? Lethargy and now quivering. I’m so confused. I’m so lost.
I’ve spent so much money on our sweet girl over the last 4 years and she’s only 5 years old. Money is really tight now, and I can’t afford to spend thousands on her like I did a few years back trying to get answers. I don’t know what to do anymore and I’m worried she’s facing the possibility of needing to be put down. Any input is GRAVELY appreciated.
Edited to add: She’s still eating. She’s still drinking water. And will play when encouraged. But today she also seemed to have a lower respiratory rate and heart rate, 64 bpm on her heart and 20 on respiratory (both at resting).

• Dog, Golden doodle/poodle mix
• 5 years old
• Neutered
• 50 lbs

History of several illnesses, mildly elevated white blood cell, suggested at one point she might have lymes but never tested for it because symptoms went away. Responds well to prednisone and doxycycline.
Current: lethargy, hind leg trembling/shaking.

Our 14.5 shih tzu likely has IVDD. He was diagnosed with it at the emergency vet via their neurologist but did not have an MRI done for official confirmation.
Context: Our dog had trouble one night walking and was flopping around. Panicked, we knew something was wrong and took him to the vet in the morning. He then went to an emergency vet and was admitted to their hospital.
After spending 4 days there receiving meds (gabapentin and prednisone) and also on strict crate rest, he was not showing any signs of imrpovement. Couldn’t walk, wasn’t able to go to the bathroom, and not able to stand. About 3 days in, he stood for maybe 30 seconds when eating, but it was brief. He wouldn’t eat anything while he was there unless we visited, so we visited him often hoping he’d improve. We also even tried taking him home for a few hours to see if he’d go to the bathroom while home with us around and no luck.
While hospitalized, he received shockwave therapies, Piezio treatment, and was supposed to have a few treatments in a hyperbaric chamber. Turns out the chamber was broken and the vet lied to us about him getting treatment in it, so we pulled him from this vet and went to another 24 hour vet nearby. This particular vet recommended we go to another emergency vet that has a neurologist on staff (first place he was hospitalized at didn’t have any specialists). They also mentioned thinking about his quality of life and since he wasn’t showing signs of improvement, it may be time to consider euthanasia. He had to have his bladder catheterized every 8 hours or so. Our hearts were breaking, and as much as we loved our boy we thought this might be the end of the road for him.
We brought him home that night and decided the following day would be it. When we woke up (barely slept because of how sad everything was) we decided to take him to the regular vet for the bladder catheterization and then the vet said we could spend the day with him and bring him back later on to be put down.
He went for the morning catheterization, and when he came back, we noticed he started standing! And wanting to walk! It was a miracle! We knew it wasn’t his time yet. We brought him to the emergency vet with neurologist on staff to have him evaluated. After doing that, they said it was likely IVDD, and to do strict crate rest and gabapentin and prednisone for the next 6 weeks. He was weaned off of both and getting stronger each day.
Flash forward to last week, about 6 weeks or so after this first occurred, he was doing well. But then the next day, he had the issue again with not being able to walk. Back to square one. He almost seems worse than he was originally. We brought him back to the emergency vet and they gave him some more gabapentin and prednisone to take again, but after about a week now he’s still not getting better. We feel terrible.
Is there any chance this is a “flare up” and he’ll improve? I’m curious if others have had this happen. It’s so sad when they’re like this. Also, I forgot to include that he really isn’t a candidate for surgery due to high age and having a heart murmur. Most of the vets we’ve interacted didn’t recommend it for him.

Age: 5, Sex/Neuter status: Male/neutered Breed: Boston TerrieFrench Bulldog mix, Body weight: 28lbs Clinical signs: Very healthy dog until 3/17/24 when he had a grand mal seizure for nearly 3 minutes. Took him to urgent care and all of his blood tests were normal. The vet thought it perhaps was just a random seizure- no medication was given. 2 days after first seizure, he had a complete personality change, forgot learned tricks and where he lived, started poor coordination (difficulty walking and falling down), heavy breathing with a lot of reverse sneezing, panting, trembling, pacing, and extreme lethargy.
2 days after his first grand mal seizure, I took him to the ER again since he sounded like he had difficulty breathing- along with all his other troubling symptoms listed above. He was prescribed 15mg Codeine every 8 hours for 7 days along with 100mg Gabapentin every 8 hours. 3/21 to 4/6 he continued trembling, shaking, randomly yelping, began circling to the left for 10 minutes at a time, staring at walls, and I would find him in very strange places in the house. After days of continued reverse sneezing, on 4/7 he vomited two large masses of thick mucus. I took him back to the ER. His chest x-ray and all his blood tests were normal. I was told he could be suffering from breed-related Interverbral Disc Disease and he was continued on 100 mg Gabapentin every 8 hours and 15 mg Codeine. None of his symptoms improved- he was very withdrawn, lethargic, and I basically had to put food in his mouth so he would eat. 4/18 in the early morning he had a small seizure, followed by 2 others shortly after. I rushed him to the ER again. The vet said he needs an MRI, but I do not have the money to pay for that and asked if there were any other options. The vet put him on 20mg prednisone every 12 hours and 500mg Levetiracetam every 12 hours. The vet said if my dog didn't respond to the medicine within 3 to 4 days, I would probably need to put him down. After around 4 days, my dog did a complete 180 and began eating and returning to his old self- even remembering some of his old tricks. It was a miracle. However, now, after around 2 weeks on this very heavy dose of prednisone, my vet wanted to start to taper the dose, but when I tried to reduce the prednisone to 30mg a day, he had another seizure after just 1 day doing that. So, I have returned to the 40mg of prednisone a day as advised by the vet to keep all of his symptoms under control. Is this sustainable to do such a high dose of steriods? Obviously my dog has something very wrong with him and I wish I could pay the money to find out what it is through an MRI, but I am already way out of my budget as a teacher and struggling to pay out of pocket for all of the ER visits and meds he has required. Have any of you ever experienced similar symptoms with your Bostons? I am desperate. He is the only thing I love in this world, and it kills me I cannot do more for him.

Species: Dog Age: 5 Sex/Neuter status: Male/neutered Breed: Boston TerrieFrench Bulldog mix Body weight: 28lbs Clinical signs: Very healthy dog until 3/17/24 when he had a grand mal seizure for nearly 3 minutes. Took him to urgent care and all of his blood tests were normal. The vet thought it perhaps was just a random seizure- no medication was given. 2 days after first seizure, he had a complete personality change, forgot learned tricks and where he lived, started poor coordination (difficulty walking and falling down), heavy breathing with a lot of reverse sneezing, panting, trembling, pacing, and extreme lethargy. Your general location: New England
2 days after his first grand mal seizure, I took him to the ER again since he sounded like he had difficulty breathing- along with all his other troubling symptoms listed above. He was prescribed 15mg Codeine every 8 hours for 7 days along with 100mg Gabapentin every 8 hours. 3/21 to 4/6 he continued trembling, shaking, randomly yelping, began circling to the left for 10 minutes at a time, staring at walls, and I would find him in very strange places in the house. After days of continued reverse sneezing, on 4/7 he vomited two large masses of thick mucus. I took him back to the ER. His chest x-ray and all his blood tests were normal. I was told he could be suffering from breed-related Interverbral Disc Disease and he was continued on 100 mg Gabapentin every 8 hours and 15 mg Codeine. None of his symptoms improved- he was very withdrawn, lethargic, and I basically had to put food in his mouth so he would eat. 4/18 in the early morning he had a small seizure, followed by 2 others shortly after. I rushed him to the ER again. The vet said he needs an MRI, but I do not have the money to pay for that and asked if there were any other options. The vet put him on 20mg prednisone every 12 hours and 500mg Levetiracetam every 12 hours. The vet said if my dog didn't respond to the medicine within 3 to 4 days, I would probably need to put him down. After around 4 days, my dog did a complete 180 and began eating and returning to his old self- even remembering some of his old tricks. It was a miracle. However, now, after around 2 weeks on this very heavy dose of prednisone, my vet wanted to start to taper the dose, but when I tried to reduce the prednisone to 30mg a day, he had another seizure after just 1 day doing that. So, I have returned to the 40mg of prednisone a day as advised by the vet to keep all of his symptoms under control. Is this sustainable to do such a high dose of steriods? Obviously my dog has something very wrong with him and I wish I could pay the money to find out what it is through an MRI, but I am already way out of my budget as a teacher and struggling to pay out of pocket for all of the ER visits and meds he has required. Please adivise what I should do? He is the only thinig I love in this world and I wish I could help him more.

My dog is a jack Russell terrier named Luna. She's 12 years old. In the past few months she's lost a lot of weight extremely quickly and had no appetite. Anything she could eat she threw up soon after. The vet diagnosed her with anemia and said that it could easily be treated by giving her a low dose of prednisone for the rest of her life. I thought that I was going to have her for a few more years.
When I got home from work yesterday my family informed me that she had a stroke while I was gone. She had difficulty walking with her right side and her eyes kept drifting. They told me it had been pretty extreme when it happened. I stayed up with her as long as I could last night to make sure she was okay. This morning we went into the vet again and were told medication would most likely not be effective due to her age and that it's likely another stroke could happen. We came to the extremely hard and terrible decision of putting her to sleep tomorrow afternoon.
Has anyone gone through this before? I have such a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I'm going to do this to my dog that I love so much. My chest is so heavy and it feels hard to breathe. Is there a way for me to feel better about having to do this?