Can a vet please give me an opinion about treating head trauma in cats with steroids?

My 8-year old cat recently was whacked in the head with a heavy door. At first, she seemed fine, but within 24 hours she was showing signs of neurological problems (loss of balance, head tilt to the right, loss of appetite, etc.) The vet also found what seems to be an abscess at the root of her canine (?) tooth. She prescribed a steroid (prednisolone) to deal with the head injury and an antibiotic (clavamox) to deal with the infection. The cat is doing a little better, now. Still unbalanced, and still has the head tilt, but she's eating and interacting with us again. Also, her eyes have regained pupillary response and aren't "ticking" as much.





My question relates to the use of steroids to treat the head trauma. I just read an article that says it's not a good idea, and that people (and, presumably, pets) are more likely to die within two weeks of being injured than those not treated with steroids. Is this now widely believed? Are we making a potentially lethal mistake?

Can a vet please give me an opinion about treating head trauma in cats with steroids?
Steroids are very effective at reducing swelling quickly. With head trauma, the goal is to get swelling down fast before brain damage can occur. The fact that she is responding is a good sign.





I would ask this question of your vet and see what he thinks before stopping any treatment, especially since your cat is improving. There may be some risk, but it may be a situation with both people and animals with brain injuries that the risks of prednisone are outweighed by the need to reduce the swelling quickly. It may be that steroid use should only be limited to certain specific situations where they are likely to do the most good.
Reply:The steroid is for the infected tooth too. The tooth may actually be causing more of the disorientation than the hit on the head.
Reply:1 call the vet and ask that fool if they knew about the dangers of them meds 2 cortazone does the same thing for head trauma clavamox is good stuff 10 times better then penacilin you didn't state how long on the meds but they will help no matter what we or animals take we have that chance of death but you'll be OK the tilt is from the balance of her or his inner ear being knock out of wack the animals will regain it's balance in time eating drinking and play is very good if this is a first time to that vet ask them about what you read and if the double talk you tell them that they will be fully resposable for any deaths do to the meds you gave out knowing that it will kill the animals yank his or her lic Boo Hoo to them maybe one day we will see them money hungry fools under a bridge sorry no change but here is some meds give it time if not happy go to a second vet



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