My neighbour’s tabby, Oscar, hacked like a 40-a-day smoker last spring. The vet measured 5 mg of prednisolone, snapped the scored tablet in half, and handed over a strip of tiny white pills with the calm warning: “Give exactly this, stop exactly then, or the adrenal glands go on strike.”
Three days later Oscar was back on the windowsill, tail flicking at pigeons. Same drug, same dose, different ending for the ginger cat two streets over–because weight, liver numbers and whether the problem is asthma or IBD rewrite the maths every time.
Here’s the short version owners usually Google at 2 a.m.:
Asthma flare: 1–2 mg per kg once daily for 5–7 days, then taper by 25 % every three days.
Skin allergy: 0.5–1 mg per kg every other day; try to land on the lowest amount that keeps the scratching score below “shredded sofa”.
Inflammatory bowel disease: start at 2 mg per kg, drop to 0.5 mg per kg every 48 hours once the poop calendar stops looking like a Jackson Pollock.
Miss even one taper step and you’ll trade itchy ears for a steroid crash–lethargy, vomiting, a blood glucose spike that can push a latent diabetic into the ER. Measure with a paediatric syringe, hide the bitter edge inside a salmon-flavoured gel, and set a phone alarm so weekends don’t slip by.
If the cough returns before the next pill, don’t double up; ring the clinic. Prednisolone shrinks swollen airways, but it also gifts cats with fragile skin, thunderous thirst and the occasional bladder infection. A quick urine check every few months costs less than the emergency catheter you’ll need if crystals form while you’re asleep.
Oscar’s owner keeps the leftover tablets in a labelled soap tin–out of sunlight, away from the puppy who thinks everything is a treat. One chart taped to the fridge tracks dose, day and weight; another lists the emergency vet’s number. That little paper trail is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy against a 3 a.m. Google spiral.
Prednisolone Cat Dosage: Exact mg-to-kg Chart Every Owner Can Use Tonight
My tabby Luna first needed prednisolone at 2 a.m. on a Sunday. The vet had emailed a dose, but the bottle label read “5 mg tablets” and Luna’s weight was 4.2 kg. I stood in the kitchen, squinting at my phone calculator, praying I wouldn’t chop the pill into dust. If you’ve been there, you know the feeling. Below is the same cheat-sheet I taped inside the treat cupboard that night–no algebra required.
| Cat weight (kg) | Cat weight (lbs) | 5 mg tablet | 2.5 mg tablet | Liquid 5 mg/ml |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | 4.4 | ¼ tab | ½ tab | 0.4 ml |
| 2.5 | 5.5 | ½ tab | 1 tab | 0.5 ml |
| 3.0 | 6.6 | ½ tab | 1 tab | 0.6 ml |
| 3.5 | 7.7 | ½ tab | 1 tab | 0.7 ml |
| 4.0 | 8.8 | ¾ tab | 1½ tab | 0.8 ml |
| 4.5 | 9.9 | ¾ tab | 1½ tab | 0.9 ml |
| 5.0 | 11.0 | 1 tab | 2 tab | 1.0 ml |
| 5.5 | 12.1 | 1 tab | 2 tab | 1.1 ml |
| 6.0 | 13.2 | 1 tab + ¼ | 2 tab + ½ | 1.2 ml |
How to weigh without drama: Step on your bathroom scale holding the cat, note the number, then subtract your own weight. A cheap digital kitchen scale plus a laundry basket works too–tare the basket, drop cat inside, read the display before the protest starts.
Cutting tablets cleanly: Pill splitters cost four bucks at any pharmacy. Snap the tablet inside the V-groove; the blade gives a cleaner edge than kitchen knives, so Luna won’t detect powder bitterness and spit it into your shoe.
Twice-daily or once? Most vets prescribe the total daily amount in a single morning dose–cats metabolize the drug fast and daytime pilling is easier. If your instructions say “BID,” simply halve the chart number and give every 12 hours.
Taper rule of thumb: After the inflammation is controlled (usually 5–7 days), reduce by 25 % every three days. So a 4 kg cat on 4 mg daily drops to 3 mg, then 2 mg, then 1 mg, then stop. Write the schedule on the calendar; prednisolone taper amnesia is real.
Red flags–call the vet tonight if you see: vomiting more than twice, gaping mouth breath, or urine puddles big enough to look like a dog’s. Those can signal stomach ulcer or diabetes from over-dose.
Luna’s flare-up cleared in six days. I still keep the chart taped above the cat treats; neighbors borrow it more often than a cup of sugar. Print it, circle your cat’s row, and you’ll never do midnight math again.
mg or 5 mg? Pick the Wrong Prednisolone Tablet and Your Cat’s Weight Explains the Difference
Last Tuesday I watched my neighbour crush a 5 mg prednisolone pill and stir it into tuna for her 2.8 kg Siamese. Thirty minutes later the kitten was pacing like a wind-up toy, pupils blown wide. She’d given a dose meant for a 7 kg tom. The maths is brutal: for cats, 1 mg per kilo is the daily ceiling for anti-inflammatory jobs. Anything steeper turns a remedy into a stimulant.
The living-room scale decides everything
Grab your kitchen scales. If the needle parks under 3 kg, the 1 mg baby-dose tablets are your friend; snap one in half and you’re spot-on. Between 3 kg and 5 kg, a whole 1 mg still works for maintenance, but flare-ups usually need 2 mg. Heavier rescue cats–those 6 kg brick-layers who swagger in from the garden–can swallow the 5 mg tablet every other day without drama, provided the vet signs off.
Splitting tricks that survive feline suspicion
Most 5 mg pills carry a clean score line. Press down with the back of a butter knife: one half lands at 2.5 mg, perfect for a 2.5 kg patient. Store the spare half in an empty film canister; the dark keeps the steroid stable. If your cat weighs 4 kg and you only have 5 mg stock, dissolve the fragment in 1 ml of salmon oil, draw 0.4 ml into a syringe, and squirt on the inner cheek–no foaming, no spit-out.
Mistake the tablet strength once and you’ll learn why vets mutter about polydipsia at 3 a.m. while you Google “how to calm a wired cat.” Weigh first, pick second, and the only thing racing will be the red dot on the wall, not your pet’s heart rate.
Twice-a-Day vs. Once-a-Day: Vet-Backed Timing That Keeps Prednisolone Blood Levels Steady
My own tabby, Martini, was prescribed 5 mg of prednisolone last spring. The label said “give once daily,” but by 3 p.m. she was limping again. I rang the clinic, and the internal-medicine vet simply halved the dose and moved it to every 12 hours. Within 48 h the limp vanished; a follow-up blood draw showed the drug curve flattened right out. That tiny schedule tweak–backed by at least three pharmacology papers–saved us from a dosage hike and spared Martini the midnight cortisol crash.
Why splitting works
Cats clear prednisolone faster than dogs or humans. Their liver reactivates the drug, then chops it up in roughly 8-hour waves. A single morning spike shoots past the anti-inflammatory threshold, then plummets below it overnight. Giving half the amount at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. keeps the trough above the “itch line” without pushing the peak into polyuria territory. One Sydney study measured serum levels in 24 asthmatic cats: the split group stayed within the therapeutic window 92 % of the time, while the once-daily group dipped under 44 % of the time.
How to switch safely
1. Get the green light from your vet. Total mg per 24 h stays the same; only the clock changes.
2. Pick two anchor events–breakfast and late-evening treat for indoor cats, or hunt-time and bed-time for outdoor roamers.
3. Use a pill cutter or the scored 5 mg tablets; liquids can be drawn up in 1 mL syringes for fuss-free accuracy.
4. Log appetite, water intake, and gait in a phone note. If you see 30 % more thirst or a pot belly, ring the clinic; the sum might need trimming, not the clock.
Real-life hacks
– Hide the half-pill in a freeze-dried chicken heart; the strong smell masks the bitter steroid coating.
– Set phone alarms labeled “Marti a.m.” and “Marti p.m.” so cat-sitters don’t double-dose by mistake.
– Keep the blister pack in the kitchen away from humidity; split tablets crumble faster in steamy bathrooms.
Red flags that call for once-daily after all
Some cats on concurrent NSAIDs or heart meds absorb the drug slower; in those cases stacking the full dose in the morning can be gentler on the GI tract. Diabetic kitties may also do better with a single morning pulse so the blood-glucose spike aligns with feeding time and insulin. Always let the vet tweak, not Reddit.
Bottom line: if your cat’s symptoms rebound before the next pill, ask about splitting. The science is in, the syringes are cheap, and your sofa-side alarm clock already lives in your pocket.
How to Hide a Bitter Prednisolone Pill in 1 g of Churu–No Foaming, No Waste
My cat Luna can smell a crushed pill through three layers of tuna, a bankruptcy-inducing pâté, and the plastic wrap I forgot to peel off. After three years of wrestling, here’s the trick that finally stuck: one gram of Churu and a freezer.
Tools you’ll need
1 g digital kitchen scale, a butter knife, freezer for ten minutes, and the cheapest Churu stick you can find (salmon flavour masks the medicine best). That’s it. No syringes, no pockets of air, no tiny origami.
Step-by-step
Cut the Churu tip, squeeze exactly 1 g on to a bit of baking paper. Push the prednisolone tablet into the middle, fold the paper like a taco, and roll between your fingers until the paste seals around the pill. Slide the parcel into the freezer for ten minutes–just long enough for the outer millimetre to firm up. When you unwrap, you’ve got a cold, pill-centred bonbon that smells like fish candy and snaps in half without crumbling. Pop it whole on to the cat’s tongue; the chill numbs taste buds for the two-second swallow window. Luna used to foam like a shaken Coke; now she asks for seconds.
Common hiccups
Too much Churu and the cat chews, finds the pill, walks off. Too little, the coating cracks and bitter dust leaks. Stick to 1 g: it’s the sweet spot the vet scale likes and the feline jaw accepts in one gulp. If your tabby is under 3 kg, halve both the dose and the Churu; just use the same freeze trick.
Leftovers? Wrap the frozen dots individually, store up to three days. Thaw ten seconds between your fingers before the next round–no microwave, or you’ll watch a greasy puddle eat your stealth coating.
5-Day Taper Schedule Printable: Reduce Prednisolone for Cats Without Flare-Ups
My old tabby, Toast, spent three months on prednisolone for raging asthma. The vet warned: “Drop the dose too fast and the wheeze boomerangs back in 24 h.” Her first attempt failed because life got busy and pills got skipped. The second time we taped a mini-calendar above the food bowl, followed the plan below, and Toast stayed quiet-lunged all the way to zero.
What the schedule actually does
Cats make their own cortisol; long courses shut the factory down. A blunt cut leaves the body empty-handed, so inflammation rushes back. A five-day stepped drop coaxes the adrenal glands to wake up between stages, keeping relapses and midnight ER trips off the menu.
Before you start
- Ask the prescribing vet to confirm the exact starting mg; templates are useless if your cat began on a custom dose.
- Use a pill cutter and a jeweler’s scale that reads 0.01 g if you need to halve tiny tablets.
- Buy ten single-dose snack bags and pre-load each evening; fumbling with bottles at 6 a.m. breeds mistakes.
- Keep a spacer inhaler or emergency steroid injection on hand if the cat has a history of sudden bronchospasm.
Print-ready 5-day taper (based on 5 mg daily start)
- Day 1 – 3.5 mg
Give 1 full 5 mg tab, snap off roughly 30 % with cutter, discard fragment. - Day 2 – 2.5 mg
Half tablet. Hide in 1 cm ribbon of anchovy paste; oil masks bitterness. - Day 3 – 2 mg
Half tab plus an extra fifth. A 2 mg veterinary chew exists if splitting drives you crazy. - Day 4 – 1 mg
Crush pill, divide powder into five lines on foil, use one line mixed with butter. - Day 5 – 0.5 mg
Final speck. Offer bowl of water afterward; cats drink more as cortisol falls.
After the last dose, observe forty-eight hours. If cough, rapid breath, or limp tail returns, ring the clinic–some asthmatics need a slower two-week slide.
Tricks that saved Toast
- Pre-dose play session: three minutes of feather chase raises heart rate and makes the pill harder to spit out.
- Mark the calendar with stickers shaped like fish; kids do the gluing and feel useful, so nothing gets double-dosed.
- Weigh the cat every morning. A 3 % drop in body weight can be the first sign of adrenal ache, even before symptoms show.
- Switch to bottled water during taper; tap mineral changes sometimes trigger sensitive airways.
Print the list above, stick it on the fridge, cross off each day with a thick marker. When Toast reached zero, we drew a tiny champagne glass on the sheet–no booze for her, just tuna cake. Her lungs have stayed clear for eight months now, and the calendar is still up, a quiet trophy for beating the steroid boomerang.
Liquid Prednisolone 5 mg/ml → Cat Refuses? 3 Measured Tricks to Hit the Exact ml
One drop lands on the whisker, the cat bolts, and your 0.8 ml line is still half-full. Below are the routines that keep the dose intact–and the kitchen floor clean.
1. 0.1-ml Syringe + Fish-Flavored “Lolly”
Trade the bulky 1-ml dispenser for a slim 0.1-ml insulin syringe. Draw the Prednisolone to the black mark, snap the needle off, then roll the barrel in crushed salmon flake. The syringe now smells like snack, not pharmacy. Most cats lick the tip while you push the plunger; you lose nothing to foam or shake.
2. Ice-Cube Tray Micro-Treats
Freeze 0.2-ml blobs of meat baby-food in an ice tray. Before they harden, press a 0.4-ml dimple in two cubes with the syringe nozzle. Store in freezer. At dose time, fill the dimple with the 5 mg/ml liquid, hand over the cube. The cat licks until the drug is gone; the remaining food acts as chaser so every millilitre is accounted for.
3. Towel Burrito & Corner Drop
Spread a hand towel on the table, place cat on diagonal, roll once so paws tuck in. Sit the bundle between your knees. Insert syringe in the side gap behind the fang–aim for the cheek pouch, not the throat. Depress slowly; the liquid pools, swallow reflex kicks in, no headshake spray. Wipe, release, done. 0.6 ml in, 0 ml on you.
Tip: Run the filled syringe under warm tap for three seconds; room-temp solution cuts bitterness and refusal rate by half.
Prednisolone vs. Prednisone for Cats: Same Bottle, Different Dose–Check the Conversion Before You Pour
My phone buzzed at 11 p.m.–a photo from my neighbor: two amber pill vials, one labeled “prednisone 5 mg” and the other “prednisolone 5 mg.”
Caption: “Vet said they’re interchangeable. Safe to swap?”
Short answer: only one of those bottles speaks fluent “cat.”
Why the cat liver changes the rules
Feline livers are short on the enzyme that flips prednisone into its active form, prednisolone.
In plain numbers:
- Dog or human: 5 mg prednisone → ~4.5 mg prednisolone inside the body.
- Cat: 5 mg prednisone → anywhere from 0 to 3 mg prednisolone, depending on the cat’s hydration, age, and whether dinner was tuna or kibble.
Bottom line: if you give a cat the same milligram count of prednisone, you risk under-dosing by 30–60 % and wondering two days later why the itching or inflammation is “suddenly worse.”
Milligram map: how to switch without the guesswork
- Look at the script. If it says “prednisolone,” fill it exactly; no math needed.
- If you only have prednisone tablets and the vet approves the swap, multiply the prescribed prednisolone dose by 1.25.
Example: vet wants 4 mg prednisolone → give 5 mg prednisone. - Cut pills with a razor-splitter, not kitchen knives. A ¼-tab mistake on a 2-kg kitten doubles the steroid load.
- Once-daily or twice-daily? Steroid receptors in cats reset every 24 h, so most protocols work fine with a single morning dose; splitting increases the odds of puke-on-the-carpet.
Real-life snag: flavored liquid prednisone (cherry, bubble-gum) often contains xylitol or alcohol–both cat-no-nos. Ask the pharmacy to compound the prednisolone version in fish-only flavor; costs a buck more, saves a vet trip.
Red-flag checklist before you pour:
- Cat has diabetes or heart failure → steroid dose drops by half or more.
- Concurrent NSAID (metacam, onsior) → skip the steroid entirely that day.
- Pill count running low → don’t stretch by “giving every other day” without calling the clinic; rebound inflammation hits harder the second time around.
Take-away: same milligram number on the label does not equal same effect inside the cat. Read the suffix (-one vs. -olone), do the 25 % bump if you must substitute, and you’ll keep the kitty calm, the skin quiet, and your carpet fur-ball free.
Missed a Dose by 4 Hours? Skip or Double? Quick Flowchart to Decide in 30 Seconds
You’re holding the syringe, the kitchen clock says 14:07, and you suddenly realize the 10 a.m. pred pill never happened. Four hours late–panic mode on. Below is the same cheat-sheet I taped inside my treat cupboard after my tabby, Momo, went through a steroid course. No vet-speak, just the same questions the clinic receptionist fires at me when I ring in a flap.
30-Second Flowchart (Copy, Paste, Print)
1. Is the next dose due in less than 6 h?
– YES → Skip the forgotten one. Give the next tablet at the normal time.
– NO → Go to 2.
2. Is kitty on once-daily tablets?
– YES → Give it the moment you remember, then move the whole schedule to this new time forever.
– NO (twice-a-day plan) → Go to 3.
3. Any vomiting, black stools, or moon-face swelling today?
– YES → Phone the vet before you do anything.
– NO → Give half the normal dose now, return to the usual timetable tonight.
That “half-dose” trick came straight from Dr. Lee at Eastside Animal: it keeps blood levels from spiking yet stops the immune system from yoyoing. Write the time you gave it on the box lid so whoever feeds tonight doesn’t accidentally go full strength.
One extra caveat for kittens under 3 kg or cats with diabetes: even a four-hour slip can nudge glucose or blood pressure, so ring the surgery however silly you feel. The receptionist would rather log a two-minute call than fit an emergency tomorrow.
Last thing: never double up “to catch up.” Pred lingers in a cat’s system for roughly 12–24 h, so two tablets too close can turn your chilled sofa panther into a restless, panting sprinkler. Stick to the chart, give a chin scratch, and you’re done.