Ella was on prednisone and I did not notice aggression at all. I have not heard of that causing aggression.
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I've heard of this, particularly in males, but I think it is fairly uncommon. Checked Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook (the veterinary drug "Bible") and it mentions:
"behavioral changes (depression, lethargy, viciousness)" in one section and under "CNS/Autonomic Nervous System" it includes "alter mood and behavior" under the list of symptoms. I think it is fairly dose dependent, as it says that "With the exception of PU/PD/PP, adverse effects associated with antiinflammatory therapy are relatively uncommon. Adverse effects associated with immunosuppressive doses are more common and potentially more severe." On another page it says "Adverse effects are generally associated with long-term administration of these drugs, especially if given at high dosages or not on an alternate day regimen."
Is Luka taking steroids? If so, at what dosage and what does he weigh?
Pat
I would not punish him (and generally disagree with corrections anyway, which mostly dogs do not understand or understand in the context in which owners try to use them-- as is pretty clear when you watch TV trainers! Management and positive approaches are more productive ). I'd especially not punish an SM dog as so much behaviour can be attributed to pain/discomfort/meds. In short you are punishing him for having his condition if you punish him for snapping because of it. Punishing really does nothing at all to address this and may only worsen the issue with the affected dog or make him more withdrawn.
If he is coming off preds then perhaps he is feeling more pain. Perhaps your other dog seems threatening for approaching -- a painful dog is going to be more defensive. Perhaps your other dog has bumped into him, even in play, and is now therefore seen as a threat of potential pain.
Many people find they need to separate and manage their dogs differently when one has SM or any chronic pain condition/illness.Some people do face some serious decisions when they have multiple dogs around one with a condition like SM. I know of cases where other dogs have needed to be rehomed. It can just be increasingly hard for an affected dog to deal with other dogs in the home behaving like normal dogs and not knowing the affected dog is in pain. Hence the need for thoughtful management to try to avoid rehomings if at all possible, if problems begn to be seen. :flwr:.
There def. can be some psychological issues on preds but they are not common and especially not with such short term, comparitively low level treatment as Luka has had. I'd think it more likely that the lower dose may not be enough to address his level of pain, or that there may be more pain while his body adjusts to trying to reboot producing cortisol (what preds replaces) or to a lower level of preds.
I have found that each time I lower my own preds dose I have a week or so of increased pain (as a matter of fact, am dealing with that right now... it does tend to improve as the body adjusts to the lower level but I'd think not perhaps with a pain condition like SM as opposed to an inflammatory condition).
I think maybe you need to talk to your neurologist and/or your vet on the link between pain and behaviour and I will guarantee you they will advise against 'correcting' (as the totally misleading verb of choice seems to be) for behaviour caused by pain -- animals have a protective instinct triggered by pain and cannot just decide like a human to manage their response to try to be nice. I am really sorry you hold these views but in this case I think this is dangerously wrong and could lead to sad and serous problems for both your dogs. I would hope you would rethink. Good trainers always require owners of behaviour-issue/aggressive dogs to have them medically checked FIRST before even considering this as a training issue (and it would not be an issue for corrections, ever, if caused by pain or medications). Then the advice is always to treat the pain -- not to embark on a course of punishment based dog training.
You are a medical professional -- would you scold or slap a sick child in severe pain for inappropriate or impolite behaviour? You have a dog with one of the most painful conditions known in medicine, showing severe symptoms, with a syrinx running down much of his spine, whose pain has so far NOT been fully addressed by his meds. I would surely be gentler on him than to punish him for reacting to another dog.
Riley has been on 5 mg of prednisone a day for three years and has never shown any signs of aggression whatsoever. She is the most layed back dog I have ever seen. Don't know if that's from the prednisone or not. She's quite a bit smaller than Luka also - she weighs 12 pounds!
Sorry to chime in and I don't mean to hijack the thread.. but I just talked to our Neuro about possibly adding prednisone on for our dogs...especially Blitz.. and he told me that it is a VERY last ditch effort... that he will only prescribe it if "nothing else works". I mentioned to him that I know of many dogs taking it and he said that the side effects are too sever. That long term use will cause excessive damage. That once we get to prednisone we are "near the end of the road" so to speak... I was really frusterated because even though everyone is moderatly managed here with there current meds... they all still scratch and they all still have "flare ups". These Flare ups can last a day or even days. But our neuro is reluctant to add on anything else.... I have mainly been bugging him for something I can do to help with the flare ups but he said there is nothing.
Riley's problems are mainly due to the damge to her vestiblular system by her SM. Without prednisone, she can barely walk and is very weak is in rear legs. Prednisone has been a miracle drug for her. She runs, she jumps (kind of), she is happy. The main side effects that I have seen are a loss of her fur. At one point about a year ago, she had almost no fur on her belly. I had been giving her 1000 mg Omega-3 fish oil from Puritan Pride, but switched to Wild, deep Salmon Oil caps (1000 mg). Within 2 months her fur had grown back on her belly, but not on her tail. Her tail looks like a rat's tail. But so far that is the only side effect I have seen from the prednisone. She has not gained weight - she is still a little dog at about 12 to 12.5 pounds. She doesn't pee more.
I was nervous initially about the prednisone, but it helped her so much, I was willing to take whatever side effects came with it if it made the rest of her life happy. And for three years, she has been a dream dog. If someone told me to stop the pred, I would probably look at that person as if they were an alien! And we had tried so many different medications after her decompression surgery that made no difference in her symptoms until we hit upon the prednisone just by itself.
Riley I guess is one of the lucky dogs that prednisone does what it is supposed to do and no more. Which is good because she will be on it for life. She's close to 9 years old now, and I never thought I would see her live this long, and be so happy and not be terribly infirm. She loves to run around the yard, she can walk for over a mile several times a day, but mostly, she is happy always wagging her tail. I hope this helps.
She had decompression with the titanium mesh implant, so it probably cost around $4000, maybe just under. Let me tell you, I didn't have insurance, but it was the best money I have ever spent. Recovery is long - I think it actually feels longer for the owner than it does for the dog - especially in a multi-dog household, especially since one of my dogs was just 11 months old and was just a power-house. She was crated or on my lap for four weeks and was allowed four five minute leash walks outside for peeing and pooping. No running or jumping allowed. After that, I aded an x-pen to her crate to give her more room. Gradually she was allowed short walks, but the whole recovery was about eight weeks. It seems like a long time, but you live through it and it becomes a distant memory. I would do it again in a second.
She sees her neurosurgeon every four months for blood work. She takes a liver supplement to protect her liver from the prednisone so she has her liver enzymes checked. She also takes pepcid every day for stomach upset. I guess maybe prednisone can be tough on the tummy. Riley has had no problems with either. You can PM with questions. I'm always happy to talk about her success.