>I need to know how long a single dose pf pred lasts? I've been told
>6 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, and "continuously" (which makes no sense
>to me).

First of all, you don't mention WHY you are giving the pred. I don't
know if you'll ever get firm documentation on what is "best", because
each case is different. This is no different that your medical doctor
adjusting doses of meds for you, both frequency and amount.

I primarily use pred (prednisolone) for controlling insulinoma, but
have used it for other purposes as well. For insulinoma treatment, I
have had great success with dosing twice a day, with a small amount
of food. I have never dosed once a day until weaning them off of it.

However, there are always exceptions to the rule. I had a little girl a
few years ago who had to be dosed three times a day or she would crash.
It started one Friday evening when I arrived home to find her totally
out of it! Prior to then, she had showed no signs of insulinoma that I
had seen. I tried what I could at home with no response so rushed her
to my vet. She ended up staying there about three days. All weekend
long, my vet would call and say I could come get her, and then would
call back and say she had crashed again. This happened 2-3 times until
she started dosing her every 8 hours. For the rest of her life, I gave
her her pred three times a day, driving home on my lunch hour every
single day so she would get her dose. She never had another insulinomic
seizure.

Bottom line, each animal (or person) is different and sometimes you
have to experiment a bit to get the best dose/frequency for them.

Katharine
Florida

[Posted in FML 6471]