Prednisone weight gain

[MoneyVSOP]

Hello all, first time poster here. Hoping you can help our little guy Frank lose some pounds. He is at about 22-23 lbs and should be closer to 15-16. My wife and I are struggling trying to get him to lose weight, and are hoping some wisdom from these forums can help.

A little background: Frank is about 3 years old, non-mix, supposed to be a "tweener" between mini and standard.

He was diagnosed last year (after $4,000 of vet visits and specialist consultation) with sterile canine panniculitis, a deadly potentially systemic auto-immune disease. More at this link on that: Sterile Nodular Panniculitis in Dogs and Cats

Because of this, he has been on prednisone for over a year. For his quality of life, the prednisone has basically saved his life. He is happy and energetic (and unfortunately very very hungry). We tried tapering over a period of a few months to nothing at the beginning of this year, and it came back, and we had to put him on it. He's at about 5mg a day and stable now. One pill in the morning. We are thinking of trying tapering again but are scared that we will start losing him again. Our specialist vet (who is awesome and extremely well-regarded in our area) has recommended that we try to taper him very, very slowly and that low-dose steroids while not good to use long-term, in very small doses, perhaps 1/4-1/2 what we're administering now, could not be too harmful if it keeps his disease at bay.

Unfortunately throughout his treatment he has gained probably 7-8 lbs, which is a LOT for a little dog like him. We totally get that. We love Frank dearly and want him to be around (forever really of course) but understand at this point it's just about maximizing his life. He eats only a half cup of limited ingredient food twice a day, and that's rounding up. We feed him very little. Little to no treats, just NylaBones to keep him occupied when he's dormant. No human scraps. We try to exercise him but he loves being indoors and can be reluctant. We bring him out for short walks every day (around our apt. complex) and longer walks on the weekend (at parks).

Does anyone else on this forum have experience with getting dogs to lose weight on prednisone? We feel like we're doing everything we can, but obviously it's not enough and I'd love any ideas or perspective on what we can do for Frank to help him lose weight.

 

[CaseyKC]

I don't know anything about how the medication acts to cause weight gain, but for a tweenie dachshund, it sounds as if you are feeding him a lot of kibble. "He eats only a half cup of limited ingredient food twice a day, and that's rounding up."

We went through a few years of what turned out to be allergies, little bumps on Libby's abdomen, eventually spread up her legs, tail, back, neck, and chest. The bumps and scratching resulted in a secondary yeast infection which caused a lot of hair loss, and huge bald patches in all the affected areas. Only her head and ears were clear. We had blood panels done, which showed some common allergies such as dust mites, leaf mold, pine pollen and on and on. She had medication and two medicated baths a week, but it didn't go away and she was miserable with the itching. We made several trips to a university that had a veterinary school and nothing was helping. She was almost naked except for her head. This went on for about two years. Finally, I switched her food to Taste of the Wild and gradually the bumps went away and also the secondary yeast infection. We cut her food intake because she was overweight, and after 9 or 10 months her skin was clear and hair began to grow back in and she was down to her ideal weight. Libby's ideal weight is between 13 and 14 lbs. She gets 1/4 cup of Taste of the Wild around 7AM and another 1/4 cup at 5PM for a total of 1/2 cup a day. Although we have had a couple of minor bumps during pollen season, a medicated bath takes care of it, as well as wiping her down with a clean, damp cloth after a trip outdoors to her potty place. Her treats are frozen green beans, an occasional thin slice of banana, or a slice of raw carrot, and once in awhile, a low ingredient duck and sweet potato tiny little biscuit.

Maybe, with your veterinarian's approval, you could switch him to a high quality kibble and cut down the amount you are giving him to eat. A whole cup of kibble a day seems like a lot of food.

 

[Penny]

For a guy that's not too active, a full cup a day seems like more than he needs.

Have you tried a treat ball? Chop a few of his kibble, from the measured portion, and put in the ball. He'll have to roll it around to get it to come out. Then add a few more kibble, then a few more. You can probably have him walking around for half an hour to get his breakfast. My girl used to blast her treat ball around the house, it wasn't a slow push push at all. Maybe your guy will get it going faster. If not, he's still getting extra steps in for the day.

Thanks for taking such good care of him. He's a very lucky boy to have such a loving family.

 

[MoneyVSOP]

Thanks for the advice! We've actually got Frank down to about 18-19 pounds now.

We reduced his food intake to about 1/3 cup twice a day and now we use Hill's prescription dog food exclusively. It seems to be working, visually speaking at least. His harness doesn't fit as tight either.

We're moving out of our apartment this year and into our first house, so we're hoping a nice big backyard where he can run around will shave off the last few pounds.

We'd spend a million bucks on him if we had it. There's nothing more frustrating than people that give up on their dog!