Prednisone 5mg side effects on Pug

Question
On April 18th, I took my Pug to the vet because she woke up trembling, had her ears and tail down, and was just not acting right.  My vet said that he believed she was simply having back pain(he did a physical exam on her) and told me that Pugs were prone to this.  He prescribed her 5mg of Prednisone once a day for 5 days and then one pill every other day.  He also prescribed her Tramadol 50mg twice a day as needed for pain.  She seemed to be doing fine on both medications (with the exception of excessive thirst, which he told me to expect) up until about 3 days ago.  She is now extremely lethargic and weak, still having excessive thirst, panting, swollen stomach, and loss of appetite.  She seemed to just wake up the day before yesterday with these symptoms.  I took her back to the vet yesterday because I had researched online about her swollen stomach and found out it could be something serious.  After another physical exam, my vet said that he felt nothing abnormal in her tummy and believed that all of her symptoms were simply a side effect of the predisone.  She seemed to get a little better between last night and today, but is still far from normal.  I wanted to know if these are indeed just symptoms of the medication (this is a new vet I am taking her to) and approximately how long should I expect them to last?  I am very worried about her; this dog is like my child.  I was also wondering how important it is to completely finish the prednisone.  She has 4 pills left (she is now on the 'every other day' dosage) and I do not want to give her anymore if it is what is making her sick.  Thank you so much for your time and help.

Bridget

Answer
Prednisone can make them look pretty bloated as it makes the body retain water.
Once she is done with the meds then she should return to normal within a few days. I would finish out the course of drugs so that you will make sure the inflammation is gone in her back.

You might want to stop the Tramadol and just finish up with the pred. It could be that drug causing issues as well.