# Steroids in dogs



## FEWill (Sep 2, 2009)

Steroids in dogs; do the benefits out weigh the potential side affects? Steroid usage in dogs is one of the most controversial subjects that face not only the medical community, but every owner. There is one side of owners with this argument that favors the use of steroids, and as a result commonly asks their veterinarians to use them. However, there is another side the will get angry at the simple mention of using them in any type of a situation on their dog.

There are several documented cases that some dogs are alive today as the result of the usage of steroids, as well as cases where dogs are living longer and more comfortable as the result of this grouping of drugs. But as well documented as these cases are, there is a huge list of potential side affects that can range from mild to life threatening as a result of their usage.

Most every veterinarian clinic in the world will have steroids, and there are numerous forms to select from. They will include inject able forms, tablets, as well as several different topical forms. These forms include creams, ointments, or skin preparations. In some cases they will be used alone or mixed with other medications for your dog. They are most commonly used to fight inflammation as well as treating a dog that has gone into shock.

They are also commonly used to fight auto immune disorders where you own pets system is attacking itself. However, with all the good that they can do, every dog owner would be well advised to get a second opinion before you actually agree to use them. If the dosage is too high for your dog, given for too ling, or used when they should not be used, the results may be catastrophic. Understanding some of the side affects of steroids should be something every dog owner is fully aware of before saying yes.

Side Affects:

Steroids in dogs can be your pets best friend in time of need, or they may be their worst enemy if they are not given correcting or are abused. The following side affects are not all conclusive, and the actual number of side affects may shock the average owner. Your loyal friend and companion will look to you for help when they are in need, and the side affects need to be discussed. What makes some of the side affects so troubling is they may occur immediately after usage, or may not occur until they have long been discontinued.

The two most common side affects of steroids in dogs are an increased consumption of water as well as urination. This is not a serious problem, unless you are away during the day and can not let your dog out. If your dog is well trained, it will automatically place a tremendous of stress as they will try to hold it the urine, but they will reach a point where they can no longer control themselves. Steroids increase the activity of glomeruli, which are the filtration units within your dogs kidneys.

This naturally causes your dog to excrete much more urine than normal and than as a result, they will develop and almost obsessive thirst. These signs appear within hours of the usage of steroids. However, if the dosage is too high for your dog, this condition may continue for several weeks to several months.

The next affect is with their appetite and there is no way to predict which direction your dog will go with this, but they will be affected. In some cases, they will lose their appetite altogether, while another dog may suddenly develop a voracious appetite. However, one of the most troubling of the side affects with steroids in dogs is what may occur during pregnancy.

If steroids are given during a pregnancy, there have been several reported cases of it causing a dog to abort the litter. In other cases, it may cause infertility. The infertility is usually only temporary, and returns to normal once the steroids are discontinued. But any owner should now start to question why this happens.

The next potential side affects are immune suppression in your dog. For all the good that steroids may do for your dog, this one side affect alone may be the reason not to use them. Once they are initially used, if some dogs are given higher dosages because the original is not effective, it can actually suppress their immune system. This weakens your dogs system and makes them much more vulnerable to fungal, viral, as well as bacterial infections. Antibiotics are often used to help prevent this, but again, you should question why.

But the concerns do not end there; if fact, this is only the beginning. The next potential side affect of steroids in dogs is a change in protein metabolism which can very easily lead to muscular weakness or atrophy, which is the wasting away or a decrease in size of a body organ or tissues. With any long term usage, this will become alarming apparent and may cause your dog to lose strength in their abdomen, or worst of all, their legs. If your dog is a large breed and already faces muscular challenges, you really need to get a second opinion before saying yes to steroids.

Stomach and intestinal ulcers is yet another potential side affect, especially with the steroid form dexamethasone. Steroids may also affect your dogs liver and change the natural functions as it can increase the livers enzymes. If this occurs, it opens the door for several different types of liver diseases. These controversial drugs may also cause changes in your dogs glucose metabolism, and as a result, intensify a diabetes problem or open the dog for the development of one.

If your dog is diabetic, this could have catastrophic results. As the glucose is produced in excess, your dogs blood sugar will begin to elevate. In some dogs it may be gradual, while in others it could literally explode. But what is even more frightening is that there is a growing concern that these drugs may actually cause diabetes to develop after any type of extended usage. Calcium utilization with steroids in dogs, is the next concern, as they not only cause less calcium to be absorbed through your pets intestinal wall, they also causes excretion to occur through the kidneys.

Both of these by themselves are dangerous, but when combined, it will force your dogs body to do the only thing it knows to do; take the needed calcium out of their bones. But perhaps the most serious of all the side affects is what steroids do to your dogs adrenal glands. Your dogs brain and pituitary glands are constantly monitoring the natural form of mineralocorticoids and glucocorticoids that are produced. If they become too low or too high, the correct levels will automatically be adjusted.

However, steroids can fool your dogs system, and it will be unable to tell the difference between the synthetic forms from the natural forms. As a result, it may accidentally shut down the production. Once this occurs, even if the steroids are stopped immediately, they may not be able to start producing again. This now has become a life threatening situation.

Summary:

Steroids in dogs and the side affects still do not end here. They can also cause a decreased removal of senescent red blood cells, a decreased proliferation of iron by your dog, as well as an increased absorption of fat. The side affects must be examined and weighed very heavily in any decision to use steroids, as this is still not the complete list.

If your veterinarian does suggest steroids, do not hesitate to get a second opinion. It is very easy to see why many so many owners actually get angry if you even mention the use of steroids.

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## Clare7435 (Dec 17, 2009)

I think there are pro's and cons, as you say, for all the documented evidence there are also many side affects.
Fiz iz a 7 year old staff x lab...my baby. She came to me from a less than even slightly good home and with her came a whole lot of health problems, The surface ones where quickly sorted out with a decent diet, regular excercise and a lot of love, but she had some kind of skin condition which still has the vet scratcing his head now, first they thought, mites/fleas/mange...for which she got treatment for, but still it persisted, she nibbled away until all of her lover half underneith was completely bald and round her tail...she had no fur at all on those areas...almost like it had never grown, and she had what looked like a layer of spots all angry and red, obviously itching on all that area...and when she bit it so much her mouth was covered in spots too, although the vet said that was from persistent biting. Fizz has had tests for everything...all negative. after lots of different treatments including dog acupuncture the vet put her on prendisalone...which she ended up on for 4 years much to my frustration because in this time again, due to lack of care in early months(according to the vet) her ligaments snapped in her back legs, and because of the risk of infection because of the sterods the vet was unwilling to operate to fix her legs...not sure of the ins and outs of this but it was the opinion of 4 different vets. It was like a really awful circle....the steroids made her gain loads of weight despite being on a strict diet, I think this weight gain had something to do with her ligaments....so because she was heavy the operation to sort her legs out was needed, but because of the risks of post op infections with being on steroids they coldnt do it, take her off the steroids for the op and she gets the nasty rash back which would get infected again so infection either way we looked at it and no vet would operate whilst she had an infection,.
In the end I asked a different vet what was more likely to be the cause of her legs going like they did, answer was simple, te weight gain beause of the steroids, so whichever way we looked at it with or without steroids she was going to be at risk.So I decided to take her off the steroids, lesser of the two evils....now she has high doses of piriton, such a simple thing which keeps the rash and itching under controll,when it gets too bad she gets antibiotics and guess what? her weight went down and her legs improved
There are benefits to short term steroids when needed, but in Fizz case the risks far outweighd the benefits.
Not a good thing to have to decide on at all
Clare xx


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## wooliewoo (May 27, 2008)

Our 9 year old Boxer has spinal arthritis, shes been on a steroid based tablet for 3 months and im happy to continue. Before the pills she would struggle to move about and now shes back to a happy playful boxer. At her stage in life im not concerned about her lifespan being at risk but giving her quality of life. 

I would look long and hard at effects of long term use on a younger dog though:huh:


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2010)

My dog was on a lot of steroids throughout the summer. It was seemingly the only thing that controlled his skin condition. I heard about the potential damage it could do in the long run, but without them we would have both gone crazy, he could not have gone on like that. In my case I found them life savers, miracle workers and I would give them him again in a heartbeat if needed.


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## Love3languages (Sep 15, 2014)

My 12 year old male Weimaraner suffered 3 episodes of juvenile meningitis as a pup and Metridizanole daily saved his life.....however I had no idea that it would stop his liver functioning properly,so a few years ago we nearly lost him as his liver shut down and caused huge problems as he also suffers with a regularly irregular heart beat!!
From then on gave him steroids every other day....fast forward to last August and he suffered his first full blown attack of Laberynthitis,which I thought was a stroke at the time...on his back,eyes rolling,salivating,unable to stand....very scary for him as well and weighing in at circa 36 kilos,not easy to stabilise until vet arrived!!
He was given a shot of....steroids,antibiotics and minimum sedation,due to heart murmur....got over it,back down to a steroid every other day,then this August suffered two more attacks of it,albeit much milder..
Before the second attack he was constantly scratching his ears and shaking his head...no fleas,ticks and ears clean as can be inside.....so think that this has to be related to the imbalance caused by Laberynthitis .....now after 3rd episode is back on daily steroids ( for now..) and also a course of Synulox antibiotics....if this does not settle down,could be brain tumour and of an age where far too old to operate....so fingers,toes,legs crossed that will settle down....


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## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

Love3languages said:


> My 12 year old male Weimaraner suffered 3 episodes of juvenile meningitis as a pup and Metridizanole daily saved his life.....however I had no idea that it would stop his liver functioning properly,so a few years ago we nearly lost him as his liver shut down and caused huge problems as he also suffers with a regularly irregular heart beat!!
> From then on gave him steroids every other day....fast forward to last August and he suffered his first full blown attack of Laberynthitis,which I thought was a stroke at the time...on his back,eyes rolling,salivating,unable to stand....very scary for him as well and weighing in at circa 36 kilos,not easy to stabilise until vet arrived!!
> He was given a shot of....steroids,antibiotics and minimum sedation,due to heart murmur....got over it,back down to a steroid every other day,then this August suffered two more attacks of it,albeit much milder..
> Before the second attack he was constantly scratching his ears and shaking his head...no fleas,ticks and ears clean as can be inside.....so think that this has to be related to the imbalance caused by Laberynthitis .....now after 3rd episode is back on daily steroids ( for now..) and also a course of Synulox antibiotics....if this does not settle down,could be brain tumour and of an age where far too old to operate....so fingers,toes,legs crossed that will settle down....


I've never heard it called that, it's always been Vestibular Syndrome to me.

Hoping your boy gets over this episode as he did last year


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## Kat_mogs (8 d ago)

I realise this is an old thread but looking to get some advice, my boy loki has been off steroids for 2 weeks (only a short course) but he reacted badly to them after day 2 with incontinence. Fast forward two weeks to now and he is still experiencing excessive drinking and urination. His kidney bloods were slightly elevated but think that's due to the volume of pee and drinking. He's only 2 so cushings is not likely but will test. Is this normal?


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## Blitz (Feb 12, 2009)

Kat_mogs said:


> I realise this is an old thread but looking to get some advice, my boy loki has been off steroids for 2 weeks (only a short course) but he reacted badly to them after day 2 with incontinence. Fast forward two weeks to now and he is still experiencing excessive drinking and urination. His kidney bloods were slightly elevated but think that's due to the volume of pee and drinking. He's only 2 so cushings is not likely but will test. Is this normal?


Why are you posting an old thread when you have your own thread asking exactly the same thing.


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## Kat_mogs (8 d ago)

Blitz said:


> Why are you posting an old thread when you have your own thread asking exactly the same thing.


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