I have a dog who has been on steriods for almost a year now, the past four months he has been having chemo treatment in conjunction with steriods. Sadly the chemo has not worked, he seemed great and the vet gave us the ok to take him off the steriods we had got down to half a tablet every 3rd day which is the best we had got so far (however he was have chemo aswell). He lasted 13 days without steriods and the SRM has come back, it seems the only way he can survive is been on steriods. Unfortunatley his reaction to the steriods is not great physically and mentally I hate him been on them and are very concern about the long term effects. At he moment I'm looking at a very ill dog wondering what is best for him, if he didn't suffer so many side effects of the steriods I wouldn't mind so much but I'm very concerned about the long term effects. Can he be on steriods for the rest of his life? I'm not comfortable to do this and really thought the chemo would work as it has worked for others. I feel so upset and confused don't know what to do. :(

I lost my favourite cat directly due to steroids -it caused diabetes. Don't know if it can have the same effect in dogs. He'd been on it for about 2 years. Sometimes though you just have to do what's best to give quality of life NOW rather than prolong life. :(

My little dog has been on steroids for nearly 2yrs for arway disease + GME with chemo for 16mths for the latter. Better a good shorter life than a poor long one. Its the one drug that seems to keep my girl on a good level. A few tips= always give the steroid in the mornings & with food. Give frequant small meals. Give a liver protectant ie Samylin. Get regular blood tests to check liver enzymes.
I don't know what SRM is but if the steroids are making your dog look ill or not controling the disease ! Has he had bloods done recently?
Good luck

SRM is Steroid Reponsive Meningitis also known as Beagle Pain Syndrome. So a dog would normally respond well to the steroids and grow out of the condition. The steroids don't cure it but do control it, so my lad does respond to the steroids they make him well but as soon as you wean him off them the SRM comes back, by 18 months old it should have long gone so he for some reason has a bad case of it. A shorter good life is better than and poor long one but what kind of end with he have and if was on steroids for the rest of his life?

He had bloods done about mid October and they were all ok, I have him at the vet this afternoon so will see what the vet advises I expect she will do more bloods. I didn't know about the liver protectant so will get some Samylin, we always givehis steroids with his morning meal and he gets two meals a day, do you think I should break it down to 3 meals a day?

Hi bertbeagle. I think SRM is slightly similar to my girls GME, ie Granulomatous Meningioencephalytis for which she was on chemo & prednisolone for 16mths. It too is not cured but controlled. She just happens to have this asthma type aiway problem as well which is why shes still on low dose pred every day. Was your dog diagnosed by a specialist ? and after what tests ? I know how hard it is living with these brain diseases. Always on the outlook for symptoms returning.!
The way i see it with your dog, do you have any choice with the pred. What dose pred does he have?
Hope all went well at vets.
Hugs to your dog.

hi peanut, thanks for your reply. It does sound like GME is similar to SRM and my lad is almost finished his chemo treatment he has 3 more sessions which he has had alongside prednisolone. He was diagnosed by my regular Vet who has been advised by a specialist and did a spinal tap to confirm the inflamentary cells, he's had 2 spinal taps now. We got him down to a 12.5mg tablet of pred every 3rd day while having the chemo. At the beginning of all this he was having 25mg tablet twice a day and we weaned him down very slowly over many many months. After the visit to the vet yesterday bascially we are starting again, so he is now back on 12.5mg tablet of pred every day for 2 weeks then down to 12.5mg tablet every other day for 6 - 8 weeks (at that point the vet will do another spinal tap to see if the inflamentary cells are still there). If there are none we can go ahead and go to 12.5mg every 3rd day and fingers crossed it will be gone for good. I have my doubts now but live in hope he might just "grow out of it" thats what I have been told.
Sounds like you have had nightmare with your little dog aswell, it's so stressful and feel like it's taken over my whole life at the moment.

Hi again. Has your vet not recommended referal to a neurologist. These CNS inflammitory diseases are so specialist & i was a bit surprised a local vet carried out a spinal tap which carries such risks. Was no MRI done then ? I would just say a lot of neurologists don't do 2nd & 3rd taps coz of risks.
I know just what you mean about it taking over your life. When my girl was first diagnosed at a specialist centre in Bedfordshire, it was never really expained to me what a guarded prognosis there was. Thro lots of research i found a brilliant vet in Boston USA who gave his opinion on the treatment my girl was getting. At the end of her treatment my specialist also wanted to repeat both MRI & tap. I wasn't happy at the tap being done again, I know there is a risk of herniation on subsequent taps, so i e-mail Boston. He said if it was his dog he wouldn't do it, so i didn't. As he said it can't predict if it will return, & from lack of symptoms you'll know if its in remission. My girls only symptom was sudden blindness & as Dr Sisson said, thats permenant damage coz my local vet didn't get her refered as an emergency which meant she didn't start treatment for 5 days.
All I can say bertbeagle, keep your chin up. Keep up the treatment. None of us know what will happen. Your dog may well recover. Value the time you have together.
Christmas wishes to you both.