# Apoquel...Anyones dogs take them?



## loubyfrog (Feb 29, 2012)

If so have you seen an improvement in your dogs itching,scratching and nibbling.

Been back to the vets today with Bear as the steroid injection wore off a few days ago and our vet has suggested we give Apoquel a try as they have less side effects than other medication

They are very new to the market and quite expensive (cost £60 for 30 tablets) but after having a bit of a read up about them they seem very good meds.

Hopefully they will work for Bear,hes having them for the next 2 weeks to see if they ease his allergies a little bit.


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## astra (Sep 27, 2010)

My mums dog has been on them for the past 2 weeks, and at the moment we can't decide what we think of them. Some days we think there's a great improvement, and others we can't see a difference.

We keep a cone on him at all times, and only take it off a couple of times a day to test him out. But like today, when he was without his cone he hardly bothered with his feet, so we're like yayyy.

I'm taking him back to the vet tomorrow, so am hoping for another prescription, as I'd like him to stay on them awhile longer, and maybe keep the cone off for longer periods of time.

I ordered the Apoquel from this site Vetimed

I really hope they work, as I have read some amazing reviews.


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## Montague (Dec 12, 2015)

loubyfrog said:


> If so have you seen an improvement in your dogs itching,scratching and nibbling.
> 
> Been back to the vets today with Bear as the steroid injection wore off a few days ago and our vet has suggested we give Apoquel a try as they have less side effects than other medication
> 
> ...


Our Newfoundland, Monty, has got quite itchy skin and kept licking his paw pads until they became so sore that he was having trouble walking. Eventually, the vet put him on Apoquel which is rather expensive as you know. It worked very well for a while until the licking and scratching started all over again and his feet were so sore that he had to be put on antibiotics. When I said to the vet that this was not really the result I would have wanted to see after having spent such a massive amount of money on a fairly new drug, it turned out that the dogs eventually become resistant to Apoquel (in Monty's case it only took about 4 months). Now Monty is back on Prednisone and the vet finally took a skin swap which revealed that Monty had a yeast infection. Maybe, the vet should have done that before we started Apoquel which only seemed to have cured the symptoms. But I guess (and you may call me cynical) that the kickbacks for prescribing Apoquel are probably quite good and certainly better than for a standard antifungal treatment and the old steroid.


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## fluffybunny2001 (Feb 8, 2008)

my dog isnt,hes on the alternative atopica,which has worked wonders for him,
we do use it in the kennels though,although none of the dogs we have had in,have stayed long enough to see if it works for them,
it can take at least a month to see any effects on it,
oh aand buy them online,much cheaper.


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## labradrk (Dec 10, 2012)

Montague said:


> Our Newfoundland, Monty, has got quite itchy skin and kept licking his paw pads until they became so sore that he was having trouble walking. Eventually, the vet put him on Apoquel which is rather expensive as you know. It worked very well for a while until the licking and scratching started all over again and his feet were so sore that he had to be put on antibiotics. When I said to the vet that this was not really the result I would have wanted to see after having spent such a massive amount of money on a fairly new drug, it turned out that the dogs eventually become resistant to Apoquel (in Monty's case it only took about 4 months). Now Monty is back on Prednisone and the vet finally took a skin swap which revealed that Monty had a yeast infection. Maybe, the vet should have done that before we started Apoquel which only seemed to have cured the symptoms. But I guess (and you may call me cynical) that the kickbacks for prescribing Apoquel are probably quite good and certainly better than for a standard antifungal treatment and the old steroid.


It is seriously poor clinical practice to put a dog on a drug like Apoquel without allergy testing first. I have never heard of this.

Personally I would be putting a complaint in and pursuing them for the cost of the drug which I must imagine would be fairly eye watering for a Newfie sized dog for 4 months. You have a solid case for reimbursement because I would be fuming if it were me.....


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## Ceiling Kitty (Mar 7, 2010)

labradrk said:


> It is seriously poor clinical practice to put a dog on a drug like Apoquel without allergy testing first. I have never heard of this.
> 
> Personally I would be putting a complaint in and pursuing them for the cost of the drug which I must imagine would be fairly eye watering for a Newfie sized dog for 4 months. You have a solid case for reimbursement because I would be fuming if it were me.....


Whoa!  Medications like Apoquel and Atopica are frequently used without allergy testing. I'm afraid I don't agree with your opinion of the clinical practice in this case. In fact, I wouldn't advise allergy testing unless we're going to pursue immunotherapy. It's not a diagnostic test to see if allergies are present, it's a way of identifying allergens once you've made a clinical diagnosis of allergic skin disease by ruling out other causes such as parasites etc. Using allergy tests to 'diagnose' allergic skin disease would be closer to poor clinical practice IMO, as you need a high index of suspicion first. You could test a bunch of normal dogs using those tests and get positive results. How do you interpret that unless you have already made an educated guess that the dog has allergies?

@Montague, I'm sorry to hear of your dog's troubles and I can see why you're annoyed with the whole situation. Ongoing skin disease is one of the most frustrating things to manage, and with a Newfie you're always going to be paying much more than average for meds unfortunately - thank goodness it wasn't Atopica, you'd be paying 2-3 times more I would imagine.

I think testing for basics like mites and fungal infections early on in the course of disease makes sense. It's easy and cheap to do, and you can't diagnose an allergy without ruling out those things first.

However, while parasites and ringworm can cause itchy, sore skin in any dog, you will generally only see bacterial or yeast infection in dogs with another underlying skin problem. All skin has bacteria and yeast on it: something else must be going on for an infection to occur, as these infections don't happen on their own. That underlying cause is often - not always - allergic skin disease.

Therefore, while dogs with yeast infections in their feet usually respond well to treatments like Malaseb, they will often need ongoing treatment with Malaseb etc and/or treatment of the underlying condition, which may involve steroids, Apoquel, Atopica etc. It's so variable in severity, duration etc between dogs that it doesn't pay to be prescriptive. I think skin disease more than anything really needs to take account of the dog as an individual, because no one treatment regime will work for every case, not would it be necessary in every case, IYSWIM.

Steroids are cheap and can be invaluable for short term relief. In the long term, they have side effects that can be potentially life-shortening. Apoquel, as far as we know (it's obviously quite a new drug), doesn't have such frequent or severe side effects. I don't have a dog, but if I did and they needed long-term treatment for a skin problem, I'd be using Apoquel over steroids, no question.

I've not heard about tolerance of Apoquel developing though, nor could I find any references on a quick search. I will delve deeper.

If you are unhappy with the treatment your dog has received, please speak to the practice manager/owner - ideally in writing.


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## JenKyzer (Jun 25, 2013)

loubyfrog said:


> If so have you seen an improvement in your dogs itching,scratching and nibbling.
> 
> Been back to the vets today with Bear as the steroid injection wore off a few days ago and our vet has suggested we give Apoquel a try as they have less side effects than other medication
> 
> ...


Yep they are expensive .. For willow We did 2 a day, then 1 a day then half a day, then half every other day & we managed to keep it under control with a small dose  vet advised to 'hit her hard' (with the medication dose) first  
Here's some pics from FB.

At her worst, less than 2weeks after starting Apoquel, pic took 3rd may. Legs.










Mid June. 









5th Aug  all fur grown back.









Hope that helps.



labradrk said:


> It is seriously poor clinical practice to put a dog on a drug like Apoquel without allergy testing first. I have never heard of this.


No allergy testing done here, vet said it wasnt really worth it as I was already working through/eliminating foods & even if the results come back it could be that she's allergic to grass which can't be helped really. So I follow little rules as if she is allergic to grass, cleaning feet after every walk etc. We stick to fish based food too as that what she does best on. She was raw fed at her worst point so had to give it up & saw a great improvement then too, oddly. (She was only on a basic raw diet of chicken & fish based stuff & liver for offal)

Our Apoquel journey stopped when our vet couldn't get hold of any. Since then we've actually been ok


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## JenKyzer (Jun 25, 2013)

Ps. The decreasing dosage was over a period of time with vet check ups to ensure he was happy with us decreasing too, wasn't a straight away thing


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## Ceiling Kitty (Mar 7, 2010)

JenSteWillow said:


> Our Apoquel journey stopped when our vet couldn't get hold of any.


It's just come back onto regular order after ages on special order; it seems they've finally caught up with demand!


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