# If you have used prednisone please read



## Itchyhedgehog (Mar 6, 2016)

I posted yesterday about my hedgies breathing and walking problems after she had breathed in some bleach air. I took her to the very today and she found a mass in her stomach and on her eat that may be cancer. She said the bleach incident may have irritated it but the masses were not there when I took her in for mite treatment in january. She suggests xrays, predisone, and baytril (enrofloxacin) if you have any knowledge on this steroid and anti biotic I would be very greatful if you shared your experience with them. My hedgie is almost four and has lost a lot of weight and teeth since being at the vet in January and I'm worried all of this will be for her to suffer longer. Please help:/


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Please post topics only once - multiple threads clutters up the forum and spams the New Threads/Active Topics pages.

Will the x-rays confirm whether it's cancer or something else? They can be expensive & may not tell you what you need to know, so check on that before you have them done. 

If she has cancer, you're looking at limited time with her either way, it just depends on treatment and how quickly the cancer progresses and how she does with things for how much time you have. Stomach doesn't sound like a good location, to be honest.  I don't know how fast it may progress, but it sounds very likely to cause complications & side-effects that will impact her quality of life - she may have trouble eating & digesting food (which could be the cause of weight loss, besides the tooth loss). I know steroids have been used before to try & slow cancer, but I don't know how effective they are, and I'm sure it varies depending on the cancer. So that may give you more time or may not. Either way, both medications are safe to use, if that's what you're wondering. The Baytril is a strong antibiotic and tastes gross. If it's not already flavored, you may need to mix it with baby food or canned cat food to get her to take it. You'll want to measure the medicine in syringe first, then suck up some food & lightly tap/shake the syringe to mix them. If she has trouble eating, you may need to syringe-feed her regularly. It's also a good idea to give probiotics, at a separate time from the antibiotics, to help keep the meds from upsetting her digestive system quite as much. A few hours after the antibiotics would work. For probiotics you can use acidophilus (human pharmacy) or Bene-Bac (pet store, vet, Amazon).


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## Dumble (Feb 22, 2016)

One thing I'd like to add to is that Prednisone also suppresses the immune system. This can make managing any type of infection difficult. Take extra time to look for any signs of infection while using steroids as it compromises the ability to fight them. The antibiotics should help to manage that as well.


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## TimeToHog (Feb 26, 2016)

A few months ago my hedgehog Whimsy grew a lump on her face/cheek, and when I took her to the vet they decided to try enrofloxacin in the hopes it was an abscess or an infection, unfortunately in our case it didn't do anything or really help. Once we had determined that antibiotics weren't going to help we chose to treat it as a tumor - the vet said an x-ray couldn't really tell us much, and taking a sample from inside the lump to make 100% certain it was a tumor was costly and painful and in her opinion not worth it - so we put her on prendisone in the hopes it would slow the growth, and some probiotics to help any tummy trouble it could cause (I've been on prendisone so I suggested that). The prendisone helped Whim gain some weight back but I can't really be sure if it actually slowed down the tumor growth or just made me feel better. 

For Whim I just dissolved the prendisone in warm water, and mushed it up into some wet cat food the vet gave me and syringe fed her every morning and night. Oddly I think she really enjoyed the syringe feeding, or at least she really enjoyed the cat food:roll: On the meds she was her usual self for about a month, but again I can't really speak to if that would have been different with out them.


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