Weight Gain on Steroids?

[TootsMummy]

Hello

My cat started developing bald patches in the summer. The vet diagnosed an allergy (we think it might be to house dust), and gave her a short term steroid injection in January to help clear it up. It flared up again recently, with the bald patches getting bigger and starting to look sore, so the vet gave her another short term injection, and prescribed Prednicare, which we started giving her on Tuesday evening as per instructions. She's eating and drinking well, and seems happy in herself, but our once slim cat now has a huge belly.

Has anyone else had experience of this? I know that weight gain is a frequent side effect of steroid treatment, but I'm wondering if it's normal for it to be so drastic in such a short period of time?

Thanks for your help.

Melissa

[Janey]

Hi and welcome. I would have probably thought that the steroids would increase weight because they do tend to apparently, also if your cat is more content. You could just ring the vet and ask though, or take her in.

[TootsMummy]

Hi Janey

Thanks for the advice. As it happens, I phoned the vet on Friday and they asked me to bring Toots in. She had gained 200g in 5 days! They did an ultrasound to make sure there wasn't a fluid build-up, and fortunately everything was fine. They've advised us to wean her off the steroids over the course of 10 days. She's then going back to the vet and they're going to try her on a different - more expensive - drug to control the allergy. So grateful that we've got lifetime insurance for her!

Melissa