My peggy dog has been off steroids for almost 5 weeks and at the moment she looks brilliant.I do not know how long this will last as this is long term treatment,i think about 5 years.
She started to get a bad stomach and vet said this was bound to happen eventually,I cut them down as much as I could,going finaly to two tabs a week and then stopped.
I know steroids saved my dogs life,when at the age of 7,she couldn't walk,i thought we would lose her, this miracle drug solved all her problems but I know long term would create new ones.
The vets(and we saw a lot) struggled to diagnose the illness but settled on rheumatoid arthritis.
We had her x rayed top to toe twice which showed nothing,when I look back I think what we really needed was an mri scan,but I cant change that,I cant help but wonder if it was spinal injury,I will never know.
She has lost so much muscle tone but is walked everyday, she goes at a good trot,but stumbles somtimes as her legs are weak ,does anyone know if we can manage to keep her off steroids will we be able to get a little muscle back?
Im going to see vet at some point as I dont know if I can give her an anti inflammatory if she is in pain instead of going back on steroids.
She must feel well at the moment as she is still eating all in sight,plays in the morning and jumps on the bed for a 'roll around' before I go to work.not bad for 12 years.
I just want this to last but have to be realistsic as I know auto immune diseases dont just go away.
Any thoughts?

hello, what dose was you dog on?

>> does anyone know if we can manage to keep her off steroids will we be able to get a little muscle back?

I don't know about the steroids (sorry), but would hydrotherapy help with re-establishing the muscle? I've used it for all of mine, but particularly my eldest girl who ruptured both cruciates within 5/6 weeks of each other.

the reason i asked about the dose is because i had a bitch on high dose last year. very high. she lost weight due to this and the weight came off muscle. once the steroid was (very gradually over months) reduced the muscle tone came back. even my own vet had not heard of weight lose on steroids, but she was as i say on a very high dose recommended by the vet hospital.  I thought at one time thee was something sinister going on, so did my vet  due to the  dramatic weight lose. she looked like a diff dog, but is now back to her old self.

only 5mg,in the beginning way back it was a massive dose,i think relative to body weight,but in recent times one every other day and then got stretched to 3 days 4 days so on and now nothing.

what was origional dose?

20mg a day,before that injectons that lasted 6 weeks,do not know what dose though.

ok, my bitch was on 60mg per day. she lost such a lot of weight, came from muscle.  vet school said that would be where the weight was lost. it took three months to get her down/reduced and off the steroids mand her weight cam back. was amazing