Prednisone for a degu

[yasmin]

My degu Makoto has a mass in his chest pushing up against his esophagus and his heart. The vet said that we could give him prednisone to try and shrink the tumor.
Our cats are on it – cats have little to no issues with it unlike humans. However, the vet said that there are issues with using it on degus.

So, I was wondering if anyone has given prednisone to a degu and/or if anyone has any advice/experience to share.

[deguconvert]

I don't . . . hopefully someone does.

[moletteuk]

We discussed it with the vet for Flossie, but she made a significant improvement just as we were thinking we might need to try it.

Maravilla helped me out with references for dosing for prednisone and prednisolone: Prednisolone at 1 to 2mg/kg body weight once a day, subcutaneous or by mouth or Prednisone at 0.5 to 2.0mg/kg once a day SC, by mouth or Dexamethasone 0.5 to 2.0mg/kg by IV, SC, or IM (muscular injection). These come from 'Exotic Small Mammal Care and Husbandry' by Ron E Banks et al, also referring to Johnson (2002), and 'Leitsymptome bei Meerschweinchen, Chinchilla und Degu' by Anja Ewringmann & Barbara Glockner.

Unless there is a problem with stopping it once you start it then I don't think I would have too many reservations about trying it for Makoto.