Hi everyone. My beautiful Sheltie Alberta Clipper is suffering from allergies. The vet put him on a low dosage of prednisone 20mg a day. I started him on them 2 days ago. Last evening and during the night he has had us up and down wanting to pee. ( which I know is one of the side effects ) what's bothering me is he's having trouble peeing and he is bleeding. Has anyone else out there found the same side effects with the bleeding with prednisone. I have been googling and reading everything during the night,but knowhere do I find bleeding while taking prednisone. And yes I am taking him off them...
We don't know what he is allergic too, the vet said it could be many things.
Any advice would be appreciated. Or what anyone else uses for allergies. My Sheltie is just 7yrs old and never suffered from allergies until last year.
He is on a vegetarian dog food bought from the vets. No wheat in it.
Hi there!
I also have a Sheltie with allergies and I suffer from them myself. Speaking from experience, I would try to avoid prednisone as much as possible as the side effects can be horrible! I was on it for 2 years and had to be hospitalized for 4 1/2 months when the dose was reduced. It took me 2 years to come off the med and for 1 year of that I was on IV steroids as my stomach was so damage by them that I was vomiting daily.
As for your little one's trouble with blood in the urine I suspect that he has/had a urinary tract infection and that it was a result of the immune system being compromised by the steroids. I often had this when I was on steroids and my endocrinologist told me that it is not uncommon. In fact, prednisone will make people and dogs susceptible to many different infections as the immune system is suppressed and thus unable to respond and rid the body of bacteria.
Regarding diet, my Riley also tried the vegetarian diet but didn't do well on it. Our vet switched him to Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP Dry and Wet food (I think it's called Hypo Hydrolyzed Protein in the US). Our vet explained that he recommends this diet because the proteins are hydrolyzed, causing them to be broken down into amino acids which are less likely to cause reactions and then every batch is independently tested to ensure the food is free of the allergenic proteins. He also told us that, for even more extreme cases, Royal Canin makes a food called Anallergenic Dry. There are probably other vet exclusive diets that could be worth trying but those mentioned above are the ones I am familiar with.
In addition to diet, it is important to be aware that many treats found in pet stores and advertised as free of grains and other allergens are often produced in the same facilities and on the same equipment as treats and/or food that contains a dog's allergens. The transfer of trace amounts of the unsafe food is referred to as "cross contamination" and it can lead to reactions just as severe as if the dog ate an entire unsafe treat. Vet exclusive hypoallergenic diets and hypoallergenic treats are handled with special care to avoid cross contamination.
Even with the change in food and treats, it can take up to 2 months for the reactions to completely subside. After 4 months of the strict regime you can introduce other treats as long as caution is used. This means only trying one thing at a time starting with small amounts and, over several days, gradually increasing to a "normal" amount (this is called "challenging" a food). If the dog reacts, then the new thing is removed from the diet and a "washout" period follows where no new things are added until the reactions have subsided for at least 1 week.
It's a long process but it has worked well for my dog and it was very similar to what my own allergist recommended when I developed allergies due to cancer.
As for medications, my Sheltie is on a prescription antihistamine called hydroxyzine (Atarax). It is used both in human and veterinary medicine and is a derivative of cetirizine (Reactine/Zyrtec). It is somewhat sedative but free of common allergens including wheat and corn. It isn't as effective as prednisone but it does work fairly well and doesn't have the same risks as a steroid. We hide the caplets in Hypoallergenic HP wet (canned) food and, after a successful challenge, have started using Pill Buddy Naturals Allergy Formula.
Hopefully that was at least partly helpful. I wish you all the best and hope that Alberta Clipper gets better soon!
P.S. My Riley's favorite treats are Hill's Prescription Diet Hypoallergenic treats. We use the dog ones as a "snack" but the cat ones are an ideal training treat as they are much smaller and only 2 kcal per treat vs 17 kcal per dog treat. The ingredients in the ones for cats are almost identical and our vet confirmed that it's okay to use them for training.
