Prednisone puppy mom's please read

Don't feed her all she wants -- try substituting bulky but low cal things like green beans (and I know she has food issues).

Because the prednisone is SOOO prone to causing arthritis problems longer term (because even once they get it under control it will then be weeks (or months) before they can wean her off it).  You don't want her to be too heavy to deal with the joint/spinal issues.

They can simply be hurt really easy while on pred because it does such a number on the cartilage -- it actually weakens it - it's not unusual for an animal (or human) who has been on pred a while to get hurt just doing normal walking, getting up and down so you really don't want to pack on weight.

MUCH of the weight gain with pred is water weight -- it's not 'real' weight gain (altho some of it is if a lot of extra food is consumed).  It's taken me TWO years to get the weight off Billy that he packed on when he had the IMHA and I was not feeding him a lot more at all (but we had to keep him eating so he could take the meds).

Trust me - it comes off HARD after pred. 

Remember, when they wean her off, it's not a normal wean off -- not "oh half the dose for 3 days then a quarter and then off .."

Nope -- when you're dealing with auto-immune they have to wean them off SLOWLY (unless there are serious other issues where the pred is causing major kidney issues) because you don't want the body to even realize they *are* weaning off the pred because you don't want to trigger the body to go into auto-immune again (and *other* auto-immune issues can crop up).  You literally try to 'fool' the body into not missing the pred, so the wean off can take months.

Thanks, Callie.  She's definately eating extra already so I guess I'll leave her at this and see what her weight is in two weeks when she goes back. 

I wish I could take away the panting it's causing.  But, we are remaining positive and this medicine is helping her so she's not having side effects for nothing.

I think I divided Pirate's usual 3 meals into 5. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Same amount of food, just more portions. I used a kong or a frozen kong a bunch for snacks. We also played 'find the kibble', where I would hide little bits of food behind couch cushions or under blankets on the floor, since I didn't want him running around but he needed to burn off some nervous energy. I think it was about this time that I got him his 'cube' too - it's a felt cube with holes in the side, and 3 squeaky stuffed balls that come in and out (kind of like a Hide-a-Squirrel?) - and I'd put kibbles in his cube and let him work it out.

Will she crunch up ice cubes? That's something Pirate liked for a little while.

Agreed with Callie - I think I've told you how Pirate was literally walking on the sidewalk and he sprained his 'wrist' on his front leg. He also began to have back/spinal issues. If Willow's IBS is under control and your vet agrees, I'd work on getting her some kind of gluc/chon supplement.

Yes, her IBS is under control at the moment.  To be honest with you guys, I think the Prednisone is helping that too!  I could be nuts but I really think it is.  She's had the best poop despite eating way more than she normally does.

I'm going to be taking her back in two weeks so I'll ask the vet.  They had given me Cosequin before.  Would that be good?  I never started it because I'm just afraid. . .literally anxious about her eating anything new considering what we've been thru with IBS.  It's not that I don't want her to have it or that cost is a problem.  It's just that well, she ate half a plain bagel one day and the next day we ended up in the ER. . .see what I'm saying. 

In the meantime, she's not doing much at all anyway.  She isn't jumping and she started getting in the car by going to the floor first and then getting up on the back seat.  She used to just jump from the ground to the seat.  And, I help her down.  I've got to figure out something for the kitchen floor though because she doesn't have much traction in there.  Knowing her though, I'll put a rug down and she'll lay NEXT to it. 

She never wanted to use a Kong before before but maybe she will now.  She still won't eat ice, I tried.  She just doesn't get ice.  DH put some in her water and she wouldn't touch the water due to the ice being in there.