Had to "cave" and put Nicki back on Prednisolone

I caved and called the vet clinic yesterday afternoon, then stopped by on the way home to pick up more Prednisolone for Nicki. I've tried every combination of the AmazaPet and Respo-K (from PetAlive.com) I can think of (given together, separately, "x" number of times a day....) without any good results at all, so I have to let it go. Unfortunate, since I just ordered (and received) 3 bottles of the AmazaPet. And also ordered one more product to try, already shipped and on the way. ::Sigh:: I'll keep it to have on hand when it gets here, but there goes another $60 USD. Yikes.

Anyway, I have to treat Nicki; he's been having an asthma attack every one to two days for at least a month. Twice a day on rare occasion. Not as prolonged as in the past, so perhaps the remedies were having some effect, though obviously not enough.

But Pred? Ugh. I looked at the dosage instructions--same as the dose he was given last time, 0.5 ml twice a day, which is 5 mg twice a day for a total of 10 mg. That's a HUMAN ADULT dose. Yet the vets insisted that Nicki's dose was too low in the winter to lower his immune system, thus leading to the bad viral infection? Yeah, right. Maybe it's not a high enough dose to lower the immune system of a HUMAN, but no one ever will convince me that 10 mg a day for a 13-pound CAT is okay.

I gave him a dose of 0.25 ml (2.5 mg) yesterday evening, 0.2 ml (2.0 mg) this morning, and will try that for a couple of days. If he's doing well with no coughing, I'll go down to 0.1 ml (1 mg) twice a day, then decrease to 0.1 ml (1 mg) once a day, then every other day. I have my fingers crossed, as I'm really concerned that his virus will flare up again and we'll start an endless cycle of antibiotics.

Meanwhile, I've been busy reading up on feline asthma, the AeroKat inhaler, etc. And I have a suggestion from The Conscious Cat re: litter, which luckily, our local PetValu actually carries. (Whether it works for the boys is another matter!)

Admittedly, my head hurts from information overload.

I feel like I'm harming him either way: Untreated asthma could kill him, but long-term Prednisolone use will open up a huge can of worms (health issues). Mind you, I know all about the short and long-terms side effects of Pred use at a "normal" dose, but don't know if there are better results with a super-low dose.

Depending on how often Nicki needs a dose to keep him stable, the AeroKat, while far more expensive up front, might be the better option--if I could get him accustomed to it. (I've read some good info on how to do that, watched a video as well.)

Nicki goes for his regular anal gland expression in mid-May; I'll discuss all this with his vet then.

In the meantime, I need some Acetaminophen for my pounding headache. :-P