Long term steriod use in cats

[Soulmate]

My cat is 12 and in a lot of pain for reasons that are stumping the vets. She definitely has arthritis in each vertebrae of her spine and hips and a "boney bridge" in her L7 vertebrae. Apparently this is incredibly rare in cats (common in dogs) and the vet does not fully believe this is what is causing her pain. She does not have cancer which is what the one vet says 95% of spinal injury cases in cats turns out to be. So my kitty and I are faced with a slew of tests including sonograms, MRI ($1500 thank you), etc just to try to *find* the source of the pain and then surgery to fix it. Right now she is on prednisone for the pain and it is working wonders.

My question is has anyone had their cat on prednisone for long term and if so how long was long term? My #1 priority for my cat is quality of life and hauling her to the vet for tests and surgeries that may not fix the pain is not my definition of quality. Ideally, I would like to just keep her on the prednisone until it stops working and then put her down as the pain comes back again. The vet says there are bad side-effects with long term use but all I came up with on the internet is possible liver damage which would be the least of her problems right now. She is an old cat and I think these other issues would "do her in" much sooner than any liver issue.

Just for added perspective she is a big ole scaredy cat afraid of almost everything so the vet is not a fun experience for her. Also when she is in pain she would scream like she is in a cat fight and run and hide. Very painful just to see her in that much pain.

[jesvet]

Long term pred use can atrophy the adrenal gland, causing Cushings disease. It is an immune suppressant so your cat will be more susceptible to infections of all sorts. If the choice is between that and euthanasia due to poor quality of life and pain, it may be a good choice.

Have you considered seeing a specialist- an internist or othopedist? They may have alternative suggestions. You also may want to see if there is a veterinary acupuncturist in your area- depending on the problem that can be a wonderful pain management tool.

[Soulmate]

Thank you so much for replying jesvet! I saw a regular vet and a surgeon (not sure eithers' specific field of practice)...oh and an emergency vet. The regular and the emergency vet both said it was this extremely rare (in cats) arthritis and the surgeon was doubtful of these dx because of its rarity. I fear that specialists too would keep me and kitty running in circles with tests and procedures. I guess if someone says to me..."oh it could be this really treatable and simple dx" then I would do the test in a heartbeat...but all the possiblities are really grim.

[Sabriel]

One of our kitties, Romeo, gets Depo Medrol injections routinely. He has very severe IBD. When he gets to the point where he cannot keep anything down even after feeding him a bland diet and giving him anti-vomit meds (metoclopramide), he gets a steroid injection. We have been able to better control it by diet recently. He only gets the injections about every 4 months now. He used to need them every 4-6 weeks. The only problem we have had so far is that he is VERY susceptable to infection. He is currently on a 6 week course of antibiotics for an E. coli infection in his bladder. This is just the most recent of his infections in the last year. But, we do the best that we can. I try everything I know before getting him a steroid injection. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Even though he is young (3 years), I am mostly concerned with his quality of life. He is currently 2 pounds under his ideal weight, but otherwise acts normally and seems happy. If the steroid injections are the only thing we can do to keep him "healthy" and from losing anymore weight, so be it.

It's good to be informed! Find out all that you can and then you will be able to make the choice that is best for you and your kitty. Good luck!

[Soulmate]

Sabriel

It sounds like poor Romeo is dealing with so much at such a young age. I hope things settle for him though I am glad he is happy.

Thank you so much for the tip on the steriod injections...I'll have to ask about that. Constant infections doesn't sound like fun either. We'll have to see. She is just getting to that age where all this stuff starts happening. She's been healthy as a horse up till now.