Replies on Apoquel Side Effects: Short Term Fix, Long Term Nightmare

Hi Christina,
Thanks for sharing Lucy's tale with us. Poor girl. It's especially frustrating when you see a back-sliding after things improved for a time. And now, like Melody, you're on a hunt for a less allergenic food. I blogged about this earlier here. It may be enlightening to review.
What I hear, as a homeopathic vet, is that the Chinese herbs that worked for a spell were at best palliating Lucy's itch. They didn't cure it, as your experience makes clear. Palliation can happen with drugs, herbs, acupuncture, and poorly managed homeopathic prescribing. By definition, it means symptoms are somewhat better while treatment goes on, but nothing lasts. When you stop the treatment, the symptoms return, because cure is absent.
The long term cost of palliation is that the disease slowly grows all the while. Returning to what "worked" in the past gets less and less response in the patient.
So, the best I can offer is spelled out in the latter part of this post: you'll do best by getting a competent, experienced veterinary homeopath to help you steer Lucy's ship to happier waters, that magical place called cure.
p.s. it will help to supplement her gut flora with probiotics on a regular basis, yes. Just won't cure the itch, in all likelihood.