Magaret Loomis
I have a 5 yr old Shih Tzu I have had since he was 3 mo old. About 7 months after I got him he started scratching, digging and biting, yeasty ears, open sores from scratching constantly. I tried everything I could get my hands on that didn't have chemicals in it. I mean everything! My Aunt is a Homeopath and a Naturalist so she really tried to help me. And I am a herbalist and we still couldn't help my baby. Fritzie only had his puppy shots before I got him and he wasn't doing all this when I got him so it wasn't the shots and I didn't get him his rabies until he was 4 so we can't blame it on vaccines. We changed his food, I bathed him in distilled water with herbal essences in it. He was so miserable. I didn't want to put him on steroids or medications, I just didn't! I had him tested for allergies and found ALL kinds of food allergies so I have to special make his food everyday. He has environmental allergies so he has to wear a t-shirt and booties outside to protect him and I have to wipe down any exposed fur and skin and he STILL itched and scratched, and dug! Last January I got together with my vet to talk about his quality of life because didn't have one and I didn't want him to suffer anymore. (Yes I was thinking of letting my baby go) My vet told me that we didn't want to do steroids and I agreed because I had one dog years earlier that had to have steroids and it wasn't nice for her. He asked me if I had heard of Apoquel and I said yes and that everything I had heard was horrific. He said not to believe everything I had heard! He said we would run blood work monthly to make sure he was doing good and keep him on the lowest dose he could. So I agreed. Fritzie has been on Apoquel since then, doing his blood work every 30 days, I still do all the things I was doing before the medicine to be sure, but the digging, scratching,licking, yeasty ears all of it were gone in a little over a week because he was so bad.
I am not saying Apoquel doesn't have side effects, but as with human medicines some of the benefits far out weight everything else.