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

Also, why does my vet want to do bloodwork on my dog every six months while on this medication? That is worrisome.

I've tried so many things with my dog. We saw another vet at our office he tols me about apoquel. My dog has issues taking prednisone, the frequent urination and other side effects are enough that we had to stop therapy last year. So this year when his allergies flared a few months back, we did a kenalog shot. Worked wonderful, he had no side effects, a small stint of vomiting. But this new doctor swore up and down about this great drug. I asked about side effects, he tells me there are none.
Now luckily I'm not niave, I work in pharmaceuticals. Everything, including tylenol has side effects. So I took home a 2 week supply today figuring I'll give it a try, see how it works and do some research on this so called miracle drug. So far, I'm thoroughly afraid of the study outcomes. The short term side effects seem managable and mild. But 5 dogs from a 229 dog study died. The study I read was over a 2 years . [Removed Broken Link From Comment]
One thing this new vet specified was the safety of using this drug long term and continously. But these are not the results I am seeing. Also, 1/3 of dogs saw no relief. I'm going to try it for 2 weeks, but I will not be keeping my dog on it any longer than neccesary.

My Golden Retriever was a very, very healthy 12 years old. At his last check up our vet told of us me that their office was now recommending Apoquel to help with his itching problem (he was miserable - constant). My story mirrors many others - it did wonders for him to start - quite honestly the most at peace I had seen him in years and able to sleep all night with no scratching and itching sessions. But.. his stool's became 50/50 firm/loose. At first I just thought that it was his body adjusting. Then our daily/weekend hikes became shorter and shorter. Again, I just thought his age was finally starting to show. We got to about 3 months into the prescription and sadly I had to put my Golden down last week. Something about bleeding internally/spleen issue.
I don't fault my vet at all, but in hindsight I have ZERO doubt that Apoquel either caused directly his death or accelerated a problem that might have been not noticed yet.
I have been an emotional wreck since last Friday, As most pet lovers I'm sure will understand, I'm troubled that I may have contributed to my dogs suffering.

I have an English Bulldog. Best dog I have ever had! But poor ol' Willis itches nonstop and especially during the warm season. So of course we got apoquel . It was amazing how it worked. A family of happiness with a high maintenance bulldog! Free at last free at last! Not so fast Mr! The first year was good. Suddenly it took him 5 minutes to pee. Then we noticed blood in his urine. Then he started losing weight. Willis looked as if he was using Jenny Craig, not apoquel.. Next, a film started coating his eyes. He looked terrible. So Dr Money Hungry said lets neuter him, take xrays and what not. Ok. So now Im poor. Anyway, none of that lottery win for him helped. I said thats it. So quit the apoquel. Dr was so sure it wasn't the medicine, however, after we quit the meds, ol Willis started to gain a little swagger back. Eyes clearing up like the skies after a tornado just went thru. About a month after being off, his weight came back, and if you've ever seen a skinny bulldog, ya know its not pretty. Willis was back! Happy ending? I dont know. Warm weather has returned. He is going nuts like a top spinning around all over. Sleep is hard to come by again. I have some apoquel left and considering using again to gain relief. I dont know what to do. He's 4. He's miserable again. If there is anyone with a not so obvious suggestion that i may not have come across, fell free to email me at bradness1@hotmail.com.

My 4-year old rescued GSD had an itching problem and Apoquel was prescribed about two months ago, along with some other meds. It looked like things were working out pretty well for about a month but the scratching never really stopped and in recent weeks his skin problem (scabs) returned in full force. Worse, he started to scratch his face two weeks ago, his appetite has dropped, and he has become somewhat lethargic. Thanks for posting this as I was not aware of this dark side.

Every time I read these stories about people blindly giving drugs to their animals it frustrates the daylights out of me. What ever happened to giving the animal proper nutrition and trusting the God given immune system that they have been endowed with? My feeling is that if you start drugging up your animal with vaccines and the like, right off the bat, you have essentially set your animal on a path of having their natural immune system destroyed all in favor of profits for the pharma industry who could care less about the health of your animal. It seems as if all of society is being brain washed into complying with drugs, drugs and more drugs as the solution which is no solution at all. It's just making matters far worse.
Animals can't talk. If they could they would be screaming at their guardians to stop this nonsense. People trust their own doctors the same way and look where it has got them. They are all sick and dying, loaded up on plenty of pills. Our bodies and theirs were not designed to live on chemicals. People need to wake up and take back their bodies and their pets bodies from these evil institutions. This just all the more reinforces to me the need for Holistic and Homeopathic medicines. God gave us the plants for our medicine, not pharmaceutical companies.

My redbone has been on Apoquel for almost two months. She has been taken off of it. Her appetite has dropped off to almost nothing. She has always been a very good eater, but shows little interest in anything but her treats now. I was wondering how long it takes the Apoquel to get out of her system. I love her very much - she's my family and it is worrying me to death seeing her not eat!

I am starting to wonder. Our beagle had red inflamed skin and had been to the vet many times for treatment. Each time, different vets, said it was different things. We had found a vet we supposedly trusted and they sent Cooper home with three drugs. They seemed to work as his skin was noticeably less raw. Then he stopped eating and would throw up bile, It all happened very rapidly, running nose, lethargic in a matter of 2 days. Each day thinking he just has a bug, until we took him to the vet. Enlarged liver and enlarged spleen. He was in bad shape, blood work came out whacky, not sure exactly how as my wife was with him, but end result was he was put down. Now I am really starting to wonder what he was on. Being it all happened just a day ago we were all in shock. So we'll delve a little deeper into what meds he was on. I am really upset in many ways, one of which that it may have been a drug like Apoquel that killed him. I am also upset that there were no side effect warnings on any of the drugs he was on.

I raised my dog as a vegetarian eating only food that I ate which is always organic. He is 11 years old and as healthy as can be. He has never been to a vet for anything because he is one healthy little dog. I don't vaccinate him either. He had all those shots when I got him at 4 months old and was probably over vaccinated. Never again would he see a needle in my care. People still say to me, where does he get his protein? The whole protein thing is a big myth in my opinion to further the profits of the meat and dairy industry. Spinach probably has more protein than a steak and my dog loves anything green. My dog does not eat anything that was fed GMO's nor does he eat anything sprayed with Roundup. Look around at all the hugely fat and sick people and you can see why their animals are sick. Commercial dog food is slaughter house renderings, filled with chemicals, antibiotics, growth hormones, vaccines, you name it. You eat that every day with your meat unless it is organic. Unless people know how to eat themselves, how are they ever going to be able to feed their pets chemical free healthy foods? It takes a commitment on the part of the owner to change their life style as well. If you live in a chemically laden house full of chemical cleaning products, room deodorizers, bug killers, etc. you are literally poisoning yourself and your pet and that stuff makes its way into your food and theirs as well. Bottled drinking water alone has thousands of pharmaceuticals in it as does your tap water. Think about this, because these things are responsible for the decline in your health and your pets. Drinking water is not tested for pharmaceuticals. Whatever drugs everyone else is taking, it is ending up in you and your pet.
Growing up our dogs ate what we ate and never had cancer or any of the diseases animals have now days. We did not live on a diet of GMO's either. Now days one has to be vigilant with their foods. You cannot trust commercial food suppliers to have your best interest or that of your pet in mind. Corporate profits are the only thing that matter to them. Big pharma only cares about the bottom line, not about the health of you or your pet. You and your pets are cash cows to them. We as a society have to go the holistic, organic route for ourselves and our pets. There is no other choice.

Our beloved Bernese Mountain Dog, Frieda (7 yrs.), is probably now in the last few days of her life thanks to the ravages on her immune system courtesy of Apoquel. I'm sure the billions those greedy bastards at Zoetis are making off this drug make it easy for them laugh as they look at themselves in the mirror.
Frieda contracted canine oral papilloma which, obviously, a lot of dogs do. But those w/healthy immune systems are able to fight it off quickly and it usually never returns. However Frieda's damaged immune system can't fight it off resulting in papilloma lesions throughout her mouth and throat. She's refused to eat now for 3 weeks and is becoming weaker and weaker. We'll likely have to put her to sleep very soon.
The best part of this story is that our vet's Zoetis rep says the company is very interested in Frieda's case and is, oh by the way, very "concerned about her well-being." They may even be willing to help us pay for some our mounting vet bills (!). I'm really hoping to speak to this drug rep myself so I can tell her to take their "help with bills" and shove it as far up their asses as it will go. The day we have to put Frieda down I will start the longest and vilest social media rant about these criminals as Facebook, yelp, Instagram, and twitter will allow me.
If you're a religious person, please just say a brief few words for Frieda and for us. Thank you, friends.
Jeff Tierney
@JTnOmaha

Hi Doc. love your site. I adopted a Shih Tzu around 3 years ago that was fed complete garbage of Kibble n Bits pure sugar. His skin, ears and eyes were so gross from all the yeast! His itching was horrible as you could imagine. He had dreadlocks of yeast growing out of his ears! I put him on a raw food diet with many different supplements, Ubiqunol, Bovine colostrum, good probiotics, Apple cider vinegar, MSM, With all that I got him 95% better. I then took him to a Homepathic vet near me and did Ozone therapy and the Microbiome therapy (fecal transplant) I can now say he's 100% that worked wonders for my sick Chico. I would highly recommend it for other sick itchy dogs, but you need to feed the best diet you can of No Kibble it's all junk!

I have three dogs, a 3 yr old male, (fawn) Doberman, a 7 yr old female Yorkie, and our old dog (a rescue at 11.5 yrs old) Miniature Pincher, Duke. At about 14-15 years old he started to lose some fur, hot spots, if you will. It started in the heat of the summer. I tried changing his shampoo and it kind of went away as the cooler weather came around but the next year with the summer heat it came back and worse. He was losing alot of fur. If he didn't have arthritis he would have scratched at it more... I don't use flea and tick preventative in the winter months so the hair loss in summer could be attributed to that since his fur grew back in the each time for three years during winter months. All three dogs take year round Heartgard Plus then and now use Sentinel, just this last few months with no problem. Other dogs have no itchiness, or hair loss.
When it was more than just a hot spot or two I treated him myself, but finally I had to get him to the Vet. He had inflammation and a skin infection and for two years I let the Vet try and fail...thousand spent too! We had him on Atopica a steroid for a year,and I weaned him off it for 3 months, 4 months ago. It stopped doing anything anyways! Finally, we took him off food with grain in it and started him on Blue, (chicken) two weeks later he was on the mend, but not completely healed after 3 month. I added Dinovite to his diet, and his fur grew back completely, but in the summer it started falling out again. Now I knew his immune system was weak, so I decided to build it up through diet. I decided to take him to a simple diet and change the protein source. He eats Acana duck or lamb dry food. I rotate it every time I buy a new bag. We keep his wet food constant, its high quality $4.99 a can and is 95% meat. We had gotten many shampoos from the Vet over three years and we know when to use them. Mostly they exfoliate the dead skin cells and promote new hair growth or we use an enzymatic shampoo on him that help control yeast. Plus apple cider vinegar rinse and mineral salts to dry the moist dermatitis. That has all helped.
He has all his fur and a high gloss coat now, yay! May 2016
You'd never know it was the same dog. He's 17 years old and 1/2 now... I expect since all his organs are good he'll live alot longer than expected again. I'm just glad his immune system uptoit. He just got his Sentinel plus and now we might have to put the Frontline Plus on him if the fleas and ticks are in Lexington, Kentucky. We had moved 5 weeks ago from Woodbridge, Va, so I hope that a plus too. I have to read more about holistic treatments and that is why I'm here. I do believe the preventatives are a big problem is suppressing his immune system.

I wouldn't recommend this product. My fur baby was in it for 5 months and started to get sick. By the 7th month her sickness got worse. We removed the apoquel and starred running test. In the 10th month we finally figured our she had a tumor in her belly. I had to put my dog to sleep because of this medicine.

I have been practicing for more than 40 years and have seen many different treatments for inflammation and allergies in dogs. Some medications work better in different dogs but an accurate diagnostic work up as to why the dog is itching is important before starting any medications. I have treated many dogs with apoquel and have seen very little side effects in my patients. I monitor closely and explain potential side effects. I have to say this drug has done more to improve the lives of hundreds of my patients than anything I have seen in all the years I have been in practice. There are risk-benefits in everything we do and as long as I am honest and open with our clients I feel the evidenced based medicine is the only way to practice.

I've got a 11 1/2 y/o border collie mix (female/spayed) who's had eye and muzzle itching for the last 4 years. I tried almost everything I could think of. Good raw diet...did a Dr Dodd's saliva food sensitivity test and eliminated the foods she was sensitive to (which was almost everything)...that didn't help. Hired a nutritionist and tried a vegetarian diet....that didn't help. Tried to 'heal the gut'...with supplements...that didn't work. Took her to a homeopathic vet...he tried several remedies (he's out of Kokomo, Indiana)....nothing worked. Worked long distance with a homeopath and nothing helped. Tried working with a homeopathic acupuncturist and while she said my dog was 'very hot' (no kidding), nothing she did helped. My (regular) vet had been suggesting apoquel for the last 2 years. I resisted because of the studies I did on it, but it became quality of life vs quantity, because my dog was so miserable (just around the eyes and muzzle). So I gave in. Yes, it stopped the itch....but 2 years in on the smallest dose I can give (sometimes skipping a day), I don't think it's working and she's now developed panting when she shouldn't. We (the vet and myself) can't find any reason for pain, and her heart sounds good....blood work is good. I'm a a stand still.....I sent you a an email Dr Falconer....she may be 11 1/2 but still acts (mostly) like a puppy, and I'd love to see her have many more years of good life. Of all the dogs I've had the pleasure to be owned by, she is the closest to me. My true heart dog. Please, can you help us?

I don't mean to sound harsh, however, I'm always left confused by reports of animals with severe itching and the claims of their guardians "trying everything," and, it appears, spending hundred, if not thousands, of dollars trying to medicate the symptoms without figuring out the cause.
Commercial pet foods are notorious for causing severe allergy itching. Yet one line of defense missing, in the attempts to find the *cause,* is to stop feeding commercial foods and put the patient on a whole human-grade elimination food diet. After learning the truth about commercial pet food eighteen years ago, I began cooking for all my animals. What a difference a healthy, quality diet makes! I don't like cooking, period, but I'm more bothered by my family members suffering. Hippocrates' “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” definitely relates to non-humans as well.
Recently, I augmented my homemade food with commercial dog food--Newman's Organic can-- because I was going to run out of food before I had time to cook. One of my five dogs sustained severe itching from the commercial food. He is the same little dog who came to me with black fungal skin due to a life-time on a poor quality commercial diet. I followed Hippocrates wisdom. In both cases, diet was the cause and the cure.
I also have a thirteen years old cat who has allergies to numerous foods--dairy, fish, turkey, and eggs. Because he is on a homemade diet, it was much easier for me to pinpoint and to eliminate the culprits.

I have a dog currently taking Apoquel. Our experience: He has completed an initial 2 week run of the 3.6mg pill, twice per day. Now moving him to half a 3.6mg pill, twice per day and will be continuing to taper him off. He is sitting next to me, not itching. I haven't notice any issues thus far - he hasn't suffered any of the listed side effects and we will continue to monitor this closely. This is not a recommendation; your results may differ.

Our dog has had increasingly bad environmental allergies every spring. He will be 5 this August. Benadryl hasn't helped. Other prescriptions haven't helped. Today we are picking up a one-week prescription of Apoquel, based on vet recommendation (he WAS cautious about long-term use) as well as another friend whose dog is on this. Now I am really hesitant to give it to him....? But he is miserable. Chewing, licking, panting, etc. He felt like he had a fever last night, so cold compress on his head helped a bit. Tonight he'll get another bath. But we're at a loss as to what we can do long-term. The allergic reactions subside in the summer, but come back again—to a lesser extent—in the fall.

Old bulldog has been on Apoquel. He now has been diagnosed with SLE. I am sure the Apoquel contributed to this. Any pet parents have the same issue. I was against giving him Apoquel. But listened to the vet. Now my vet thinks the Apoquel can help his SLE. I don't think so. Any advice? I know prednisone is not a answer for long time effects but is it better than the Apoquel. Can his immunsystem be revitalized?

My Vet in Australia recommended Apoquel for chronic itching and biting today. We have tried everything from elimination diets, creams, steroids etc. Nothing helps. After researching this drug today, I will not give it to my pet as the side effects are too serious. I would rather continue with cortisone tablets for relief not cure. Have also heard of Dr Zoo products (shampoo and oil for itchy dog skin) available on web sale only. Have heard through other dog owners in our local dog park some skin issues have been resolved.