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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - prednisone withdrawal?

I know prednisone itself has a lot of bad side effects, but I'm wondering if there is any withdrawal syndrome as a dog slowly weans off.
Leslie Philadelphia


leslie,
Yes, the adrenal glands have been artificially suppressed by the flood of cortisol from the prednisone. They are essentially "asleep" and need to be woken up very carefully by very gradual decreases over long periods of time. This encourages the glands to wake up. If you withdraw the pred too suddenly, the glands may not secrete enough cortisol in response to body needs. This *could* result in some serious side effects, including sudden collapse. See Iatrogenic Addison's Disease.
patrice
Patrice NYS


This thread was discussed on 26/02/2009

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