Comments on Apoquel : Dog Drug With a Dark Side - Homeopath Vet

I tried the shot (cydopoint?) we have been taking the Apoquel now for 4 months and it doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
The vet did blood tests gave me a long list of food allergies so I went to a special diet and still no relief. The vet says now to do the oral drops that will help him build a resistance to his allergies.
If this works why did they have me spends almost 1,000 on the other medications?
I’m at my wits end with a 140 pound itchy German Shepherd.
Help!

our 7 years old GSD had Apoquel for 2 weeks for her itchy skin. Her fur fell out and went thin and 3 weeks after the end of treatment (I refused another course because of the cost) she had a massive stroke and I had her put down. I don't know what to think, but I wish the Vet had informed me properly about these pills so I could have made an informed decision

Go to drugs.com and type Apoquel 16 mg. Please read all the clinical trials data, read all of it, My dog developed a mass , splenic mass near his heart after being on Apoquel for only 10 days.

Started Lucy on Apoquel last night. Woke up at 3am to a seizing dog who was almost lifeless. Took her to the Purdue ER vet, blood work revealed slightly high liver enzymes. I will definitely not be giving this anymore! She is a healthy 5 yo English Setter that I adopted 2 years ago.

Appreciate the discussion here. Althought mostly anecdotal, there is enough here for me to err on the side of caution. Got an RX from the vet, but had second thoughts before dosing. Thanks to all who have shared.

Our 10 yr old Chihuahua is in the ICU right now with Diabetic Keto Acidosis. We never knew he had Diabetes. He was on Apoquel for about 2 years taking it every day. We took him off of it about 4 months ago after we saw him no longer itching and biting. Now this...
He's not out of the woods yet. All of his electrolytes are extremely low, glucose is high, and he's having continuous (expensive) care or he'll die.
I wish...oh how I wish I had never put him on Apoquel!!!

Your Canine Transfer Factor product that you are suggesting has the very ingredients that my dog is highly sensitive to. My dog cannot have soybeans or any of its by products or flax or any of it's byproducts yet you advertise these as a benefit. If products would be made without cross-contamination of the allergens, it would be easier for us pet parents to choose products to help our babies. Instead we are being judged when seeking help for our babies. Try finding products without beef, peas, flax, soy, chicken, oatmeal, etc... So preparing foods is our only option. And the control of the environment? Is it possible to control all potential contact from trees, grasses, pollens, etc.? Not unless we keep them in a bubble. And what kind of life is that for our pups? It must be respected that all dogs are not created equal, thus these very same remedies you speak of can actually be the very sources of outbreaks and misery for them. I understand that you are trying to do a service for many. But unless you have walked in our shoes/paws , please do not advise us to give up something that is working to be replaced with ingredients/allergens that I know would hurt my baby. I wish they wouldn't, but they do. We bathe daily, fed only approved foods, gave various supplements, rubbed with coconut oil, sprayed vinegars, provided holistic remedies, and nothing worked. I spent many times over on the natural homeopathic remedies that did nothing. The money is not the issue. My baby's well being and quality of life is. Hopefully, she'll grow out of it. We have weaned her off as much as we can from the Apoquel and I pray for my babies protection from all these ailments and diseases. But please do not say we do not care, are too lazy to investigate or follow through, etc. It is sad to see people being taken advantage of with snake oil when there are some potential relief from what is being referred to as Dr. Whitecoat. It reminds me of the people who go on baking soda remedies to cure cancer, etc. just because we are so leery of Big Pharm. Yes, I know the $ is their main motive but not every Dr. or person who takes a medication or treatment is in bed with the devil. I pray for all your little four legged loved ones and their health. They are our family. Stop judging each other. If something worked, then share openly about it without trying to gain a profit. Understand that certain things just won't work for some and that not all will experience the dreadful effects being so threatened here.

You must be kidding. Shame on you for trying to make veterinarians and pet owners feel guilty about treating miserable pets and making them feel better. Shame on you for acting like cancer never occurred in the pet population before Apoquel was introduced 4 years ago. Shame on you for saying that a drug company would label it for dogs, but not for cats because they are aware of safety concerns. It is disgraceful to try to discredit the rest of your profession.

My 9 yo female English Springer suffered with allergies for 6 years. When Apoquel was introduced to the world as the "cure" for itching my traditional vet quickly put her on it. She was also under the care of a dermatologist and receiving weekly allergy shots. She had constant itchy skin, ear, paw and yeast/bacterial infections which meant she was on and off antibiotics for much of the time. In 2017 I was fortunate to find an holistic vet that was working with us to wean her off all of these things before we started to wean her off Apoquel. In October 2017 she started to quickly develop dermal masses around her shoulders and upper body. Multiple ER visits for ruptured cysts/masses ended up in surgery. Three months post surgery more masses appeared and 10 additional dermal masses were removed in Jan. 2018. Post surgery she developed a MRSP infection that required 8 weeks of a strong antibiotic. I stopped her allergy shots and Apoquel in Jan. 2018 and post surgery no additional masses have appeared. The holistic vet has tweaked her diet and added herbal/Chinese herbs to give her the best year to date. I opened a case with Zoetis but they denied it since she "was on the drug for so long". They didn't care to hear that the cause of her dermal masses were from over production of the B-catenin in her immune system. The JAK signaling was tricking her system to think it wasn't producing enough protein for her hair follicles so her body was actually overproducing the protein and causing the dermal masses. If anyone has had a similar problem and had success with opening a case with Zoetis I would be glad to hear about it. Thanks!

Just found this page and decided to share what has happened to our 9 yr old German Shepherd over the past few days.
We decided on trying Apoquel after seeing a commercial for it on TV, well over a year ago. Having a dog with allergies, as anyone knows, the incessant itching drove us crazy, as I'm sure it did our dog. Our vet put him on it (16 mg daily) and we saw a drastic change within 24 hrs! A miracle for sure! We watched for side effects of some sort to rear it's head, but there never was ANY. Two days ago we took him in to get his hips, back, and knees checked because he couldn't make it up the stairs lately. The vet felt a large lump (which we never felt with tummy rubs, baths etc.) and decided he did need x-rays for that mass at least. The next day, emergency surgery, Splenectomy, to remove an almost 5 lb. tumor! .... that the vet believes was benign, due to the bloodwork and other factors. I do not know if this was due to the use of Apoquel, but Travis will be weaned from it in a few weeks. I found something called Bovine Colostrum which I'm willing to try, instead of Apoquel. I do prefer natural remedies and pharmaceuticals scare me....

I wish I had seen this sooner. My always healthy just turned 10 shih tzu, Leo, started itching like crazy several months ago and the vet couldn't figure out why. Multiple scrapings showed nothing. Prednisone did nothing. He said let's try Apoquel, so I looked it up (obviously now I know I didn't do enough research though I did a lot). Apoquel stopped it all; the itching stopped, the redness went away, his hair grew back, he wasn't miserable anymore, and he was doing fine. Then, at the end of August he was diagnosed with Lymphoma and I lost my boy 9/17/18. I now believe it was due to the Apoquel and I'm devastated that I did this to my boy.

Hello i don't speak very good english (i am from Belgium) but i had also a problem with my dog bichon 4 years old who received apoquel 8 months. She had also 2 surgery for masses (mastocytome!!!) on legs and on her back. She has many lypomes n her body since apoquel. I have directly stopped apoquel before the first surgery !!
This product must be supprimed !!!!!! My dog has suffering because this product!!!

Can you give Apoquel to a dog that’s just had puppies to help her stop itching ....?

I see all this stuff touted as being 'free' yet on the next page it says if I am not satisfied with my purchase I have 30 days to change my mind. My dog has been on Apoquel for a couple years and I would love to find a way to get him off of it. He is allergic to grasses and possibly trees which I can't eliminate from his life. I agree with the fact that it doesn't help as much as when he first started taking it but it is better than nothing. I have comprehensive blood tests done every year and so far his results are normal. It seems everyone has something to sell.

My 11 year old rescued Labrador Retriever had horrible seasonal allergies. She was hairlessunder her neck and had horribly scarred ears from the constant torment. She was on special food, it it was definitely every spring into summer that she would suffer. She would develop scabs and itch uncontrollably.. constantly whining and crying from the irritation. We decided to give her Apoquel. It was the BEST decision we ever made for her! We kept her on it 365 until she passed away at 15 years old. We saw no side effects with this medication. It actually turned her into a completely different dog. She was able to enjoy life and stop being tormented!

After reading comment after comment about some of the affects of using Apoquel, I want to just sit here and cry... for the last few months I have been listening to a LOT of documentaries. TTAC (The Truth About Cancer) TTAC and Your Pet, The Auto Immune Secrets, and the latest one The Sacred Plant, of which Dr. Falconer recommended also to watch. I have learned sooooo much about how to treat ourselves and our pets naturally. God put plants on this earth to heal us, not to destroy us. But with that being said, sorry I kind of got away with what I was going to talk about.
I have a Miniature Schnauzer who is going to be 13 yrs old on Sept 11, 2018. I had her on Apoquel about a yr ago. True, her itching was gone within a few hrs.
So after her 30 day supply I figured that was it. Apparently not!!! January of this yr, she was back to the vet. I was informed that it is a "prescription drug", and that she would have to stay on it. I thought, oh great.... $78 a month for how long??? The money wasn't the issue, the itching was the issue. After 3 months of this, and the itching had not stopped, enough was enough. Well, since February, my poor baby is now almost blind and is pretty well deaf. It could be age, but not really sure about that. Why all of a sudden one day she can't hear me call her? I am heart broken with what has happened to her in just the past few months. Her itching is still there, she's losing hair by the day, I give her baths, and she still smells. I just downloaded the Vital Animal Courses and I am going to try to find a fix for my poor baby. If anyone else, has a possible fix, I sure would appreciate a comment. I also have my dogs on the raw diet, but it might not be the best one. It's called FRESH PET. It has all the veggies and things in it that I would give them, but I may need to change that also. Anyone else out there that has your dog on APOQUEL....get them off of it immediately. Your killing your pet!!!

I would be most interested to hear how my comments have been received.

Hello I'm a Westie owner of over 10 years I have 2 females living together (contrary to wide held beliefs that 2 females can't live together) .
They are from different parents and Lucy is the one that developed Atopic Dermatitis at about 4-5 years old. I tried the food exclusion diet (potato & fish only) and after about 5 months hair started to grow, the smelly skin stopped, and, it carried on getting better and better but, the itching and the paw licking did not. By now we had carefully introduced all home cooked food chicken chicken liver, kidneys, rice, and many mixed vegetable types.
We had tried all the other drugs/treatments via our vet but could not stop Lucy's frantic itching. 9 months ago our vet suggested we try her on Apoquel under strict supervision with him. She has had her regular blood tests and thorough checks and has continued with Apoquel 5.4 split in 2 per day.
I have read many, many, reviews of bad experience so I'm please to give you a good experience.
Also I'm a volunteer Foster for Westhighland White Terrier Rehoming UK.
In the last 3 years I have fostered and helped rehome many Westies and very few of them have had the itchy problems or, skin problems which I'm sure, will scotch some of the wide held beliefs about Westies.
I can't feed mine on raw food even if I believed in it. Because my Westies are Pets as Therapy dogs and, are not allowed in hospitals here in the UK if the dogs have been fed on raw food. I hope my comments help.

Hi, my 8 year old Maltese x, had really severe allergies, but otherwise in good health. We moved to a new area, went to new doctors, who instantly put her on prednisone, that only helped short term, did everything they asked us to do, then they said there was a new drug called appoquel, so they put her on a low dose, gradually increased other a couple of months, as they could not get the lower dose so we had to buy the higher dose. It seemed to help for a while. Then around December last year, the lympe nodes in her neck swelled up, as well as all the other nodes. So he took her off appoqual, he didnt mention side effects or we would not have put her on it. He showed us as he suspected thecappoqual may have caused the lymphoma as it said that that was a side effect of taking the higher dose. She was diagnosed with lymphoma, when we got confirmation she had it, we were in shock. He suggested that the appoqual may have contributed to the lymphoma, then he backtracked said it didn't. Now I'm not so sure, seems a bit coincidental that other than her allergies she was a very healthy dog. She unfortunately had to be put down a fortnight ago, she was OK on the Friday then dead Saturday. Its a bit suspicious that all this occurred whilst she had been on appoqual high dose. How do we start a class action? As I think it caused her lymphoma.
Thankyou for this forum something needs to be done about taking this drug off the system, its killing too many loved dogs. Why is there a spait of lymphoma, is the appoqual the link.

My 15 year old lhasa apso/poodle mix died yesterday from a lung tumor. Lung cancer in dogs is rare and is found in only 1% of canine cancers. The lung tumor was identified by x-ray when the vet was trying to find out why he was in a stupor with a temperature of 105.5 F, normal WBC, but heavily panting and having labored breathing. Needle aspiration ruled out infection and inflammation as causes of the mass. He had none of the usual risk factors I've seen identified. He was never exposed to cigarette smoke, my house doesn't have asbestos nor do I use chemicals in my home or on my acreage, and I live in the rural countryside so no urban pollution. Maybe some exposure to chemicals at highway rest areas and when he was groomed. However, he did take Apoquel for 4 months in 2014. Would that length of exposure be enough to trigger a lung tumor to develop?