11 year old dog has back problems with some discs and has arthritis, vet prescribed prednisone. (See below)?

She is to take a full pill for 5 days, then Decrease to 1/2 pill for 5 days and then decrease to 1/4 pill and take until gone. Is this the right treatment? Thanks in advance!

Prednisone is a steroid to reduce the swelling in his discs. Yes. It is a very necessary step in treatment. The vet should have also given your dog a pain medication safe for your dogs age called Tramadol. My dog is 15 and had spinal injury when he was young. He had herniated discs in his back. He is now 15 and has arthritis in his back. Your vet is correct in the med but, I would also ask for a pain medication. Rymadyl has been proven to be hard on an older dogs liver but, Tramadol is safe. She may have to take the Tramadol daily for pain from now on. My dog does. If she has flare ups, she may also need more steroids in the future to stop the swelling and inflammation in her back as she get older. But your vets treatment is sound.

If that is what your Vet said then yes. My yorkie was prescribes presnisone for skin allergies and I was told the same directions as u only mine was to decrease every 4 days. Prednisone is an anti-inflammatory steroid and it works very well and quickly.

Yes it is the right treatment. Prednisone is the drug your pet should be on and they always put them on a dose that is slowly decreased to wean them off of it. You can not just stop the medication and it is not a safe drug to be put on long term. There are some pain meds that can be given with Prednisone but Rimadyl is not one. Your doctor may not have felt that a pain med was needed for whatever reason but I would trust their judgement and listen to whatever they say. Good Luck!

Yes it is, you can not stop steroids cold turkey, you have to wean them off, just as the vet prescribed