Comments on Cytopoint Injection: High Tech Answer to Itchy Dogs?

I have two German Sheppard Dogs from the same litter. One is long hair and he is the one that has the itching problem. I would hear him up all night scratching, chewing himself and such. I put him on Alegra once a day and that helped him from scratching his nose off. He is now 5 and has always been on a raw diet of ground duck, oats, coconut oil and vitamins. No people food whatsoever. His sister does not seem to have the same afflictions. I was given Apoquel a year ago by the vet, but read such horrible things about it, that i would not give it a try.
He eventually got worse with black skin, smells, skin infections and such itching, his quality of life was questionable. Something had to be done.
We tried Cytopoint about a month ago and so far it has bee a huge relief. He is a normal dog again. Long term, i will try to use it as little as possible. but right now, he has his coat back and chews on bones (natural and uncooked), instead of himself.

George:

Atticus was 14 years old. The vet drew his blood on 5/30/18 (we were going to get his teeth cleaned). She called the next day and told us he had the blood of an 8 year old.

He should / could have lived another 4-5 years....as dachshunds often live into their late teens.

I took my 21/2 year old Hvanese to anew vet this week and when they found out the allergies she had and history of scratching and itching every morning the vet said she needs shot of Cytopoint and gave that is one day ago .I had now idea of the side effects that could happen to my sweet puppy. I feel terrible, how can this Cytopoint be detoxed and removed from her body Quickly before it does damage

DO NOT use Cytopoint!

Cytopoint very recently killed Atticus, our perfectly healthy dachshund. He received his first shot of Cytopoint on 5/30/18...and was dead on 6/26/18.

Within a week of the shot, he started twitching. He had NEVER twitched before. I thought he was acting as though he had eaten something poisonous.

During the second week after the Cytopoint shot, his twitching had gotten much worse. I took him back to the vet and was told "old dogs twitch!" I wasn't buying it. Again, he had NEVER twitched before.

During the 3rd week after the Cytopoint injection, he started having trouble breathing....with very shallow inhales and quick, forced exhales. He stopped eating and drinking...and was quite lethargic. He looked up at me while I was shaving one morning and he fell over. He stood up and fell over again. We went to the vet the next day and several times over the next several days - until he died. They were unable to tell us what was wrong with him.

Atticus spent the last hours of his life with ZERO white blood cells. The emergency vet said she thought he may have had pneumonia. They were giving him large doses of antibiotics to no avail. Two days before he died, x-rays showed that his lungs were perfectly clear.

Our family is heartbroken.

To all DVMs that may be reading blogs / comments around CYTOPOINT, I hope you will consider taking Cytopoint out of your quiver.

A class action lawsuit against Zoetis is surely in the works.

Be careful with this drug. My 7 Year old Sheltie had some skin allergies that kept coming back after the normal antibiotic treatment. My Vet said to try this new "wonder drug". I believe that it compromised my shelties immune system. After two shots, she started developing a weakness in her hind quarters. A month later she got a UTI. And a month later, she got kennel cough. In looking at these things they are all signs of a compromised immune system. I believe that the IL-31 molecule, has a lot more to do with the overall immune system in a dog than we know about. My dog will not be getting this shot any more. I am using an antihistamine to keep her skin allergies under control. She has been off the cytopoint for more than 2 months and her hind end weakness seems to be getting better. cytopoint does not get eliminated by the kidneys or liver, so it can take quite some time for it to be eliminated from a dogs system.
The UTI and kennel cough are getting better with antibiotic treatment. Although I have no firm proof, with the exception of the skin allergies, she was always healthy up until we started the cytopoint treatment.

I have chocolate lab and he has been enduring this itch problem for past many years, we tried everything and finally settled with pred. His vet tried apoquel and that didnèt work we put him back on pred and on friday he got his 1st shot of cytopoint as we were getting him off pred, but last night he was very meserable as the cyto effect must have weaned off and had no choice but to put him back on pred. He seems to be better after 2 tabs of pred!

To me it seems like he will be on pred for the rest of his life as nothing else seems to work no matter what!

This year my male Maltese who has seasonal allergies every year got the shot. We tried everything. He’s fed raw. No grains etc. usually we can manage with Benadryl during the spring. But this year was extremely bad. He chewed hair out and was lethargic. We tried it all. Nothing helped. Got him the cytopoint shot and itching and chewing stopped. I don’t think we will need another one this year as allergy is season is ending. But thankful it worked. He was beyond miserable. Sometimes their quality of life is just as important and 4-5 months of insane itching isn’t kinda. I would
Do it again if needed. But hopefully next year it won’t be as bad a pollen season and we can forgoe the shot

Thank you for this! My dog has compromised immunity having contracted a “rare@ epitheliotropic lymphoma that we’ve held at bay through strictly holistic methods. But after a brutal javellina attack resulting in emergency surgery for wound care the drugs (anesthesia and an abbreviated course of antibiotics likely triggered recurring skin allergies and ear infections, the latter that led to a vet visit but turned out to be allergy so vet suggested this garbage to which I blew off pronto. I’m convinced she gor cancer frim earlier vet drugs for what turned out to be arthritis. Since the cancer diagnosis I stopped all drugs of every kind except for acute care instances (sugery and topicals for 2 bad ear infections that herbs couldn’t cure) and the traditional vets all think she’s a walking miracle. Lol. Not. I just wisened up finally thankfully before too late!

My 9 year old Aussie Terrier has had very itchy skin for a couple years. He was getting some relief from Apoquel. But two weeks ago he started to turn down food - highly unusual! The Vet put him on Cytopoint about 5 days ago, and ... what a change! The scratching stopped that same day, he has regained his previous healthy appetite, and he's generally happier than he was previously. So far, Cytopoint has been a game-changer for us!

I’m sure there there may be some effects from taking cytopoint but it improves my dogs quality of life considerably. As with all medications, You have to weigh benefits versus risks.

My dog has horrible flea allergy, it only takes one and she will bite and scratch herself to pieces. She chewed a hole through the base of her tail thats 2 inches across and deep. Sadly all the vet can do is propose this drug or steroids. She is 12 years old and has CHF and renal problems from a straight diet of royal canin S/O for 5 years. Yes a prescription dog food is killing my dog because no one knew the sodium content in the food was 3000mg or 3 grams per 1000kcal!

I feel like i gave her a death sentence and its my fault. But back on topic, i am now not sure what to do about her being so uncomfortable, on the one hand i dont want to give her anymore toxic drugs, otoh i dont want her to suffer from biting herself to death. It has been suggested that out of all the things to help maybe comfortis might be the answer. When she was younger i used it and she didnt have much itching. But i dont know now, i have to use something because fleas here are everywhere from wildlife and stray cats and dogs. So it seems my options are limited for a dog with a very high sensitivity to fleas. I know frontline dont help her they still bite even if its only one.

My chocolate lab started getting progressively more itchy after she was 2. Over the months she got worse and worse and had started scratching herself raw so we spoke to the vets and ran alergy tests. She is allergic to grass, trees, dust, mold (over 28 different things). We tried the immune therapy along side Apoquel to help her with the severe itching but unfortunately the injections didn't improve things. We have actually moved over to Cytopoint now as with Apoquel you could tell it was waring off by the next morning and the Cytopoint is doing a really good job and my dog is actually noticeably happier. Unfortunately I don't know what else we could try for her atm but I've gone with what my vets have been recommending will be the best for my dog at this time.

Hi - my vet gave my 14-yr.old Dixie the Cytopoint 3 days ago. I wish I had just said no. My little one is just laying around- not eating much but I’m very concerned because he has very rapid breathing & seems to have tummy pain. I have a call onto the vet to see what to do. They also gave me Prednisone for 5 days (& he’s on Enalipril). I want him to feel better & don’t know if I will get him Injection #2.....

I have a 2 year old Olde English Bulldog. To make a very long story short, she has allergies and my holistic vet recommended CytoPoint. Her itching stopped within 24 hours, BUT, each time she receive the injection, 6 days later she breaks out into full body hives and it's a rush visit to the emergency vet. This has happened consistently with every injection of CytoPoint and it's always 6 days after the injection. I finally recognized this coincidence in timing of the hives and my vet doesn't know what to say about it. The hives cause my dog to go on a 2 week steroid plan and benadryl for several days. I just am not sure what to do now that I see the connection in the hives with the injection. My dog is on a raw diet and is otherwise healthy.

My dog hasn't been vaccinated he's 11 monthes old, well bred rough collie. He suffers severe skin issues and is miserable. We are still incthe midst of his investigation but no, I don't think it's vaccines considering he's not had any.

I put my dog on this last year, and it was great for full year. This year in dec the itching started back up and started to get worth we went in got another shot and it’s all good again. My dog is 13 and we have also struggled with allergies for years. This is the only thing that has worked for us and instinct natural single ingredient raw food ( lam) we get his blood checked every 6month and his palettes are high, but everything else is normal. The quality of life he is getting is better then the messary he was in. I love my dog and so far I have spent more then 60000.00 in vet bills but I have come to the conclusion that giving him quality of life is the post important. When he is not super itchy he is back to his normal energetic self.

Prednisone elevated liver enzymes esp with long term use. It’s a known side effect.

I have a West Highland terrier who has been on this for about a year now. It has truly been wonderful at curtailing the gnawing and scratching. We noticed the remarkable improvement within the day of getting the shot. We have not seen any side effects only a happy dog!

Our little muffin at five years of age has been on low doses of steroids most of her life. If she was not on them then she would just scratch non stop and opened up wounds everywhere and also bull doze her face along the carpet until she ripped open her face. We tried everything from all sorts of diets, to all sorts of treatments to also changing her environment to living in a sterile apartment for a period. Nothing changed. In the desire to get her off the steroids which have been slowly destroying her, we went to Cytopoint. Best thing we ever did. The scratching and bull dozing stopped immediately and it has been good bye to the steroids. We have a content happy little girl back again.
Is Cytopoint good or bad for any particular dog? I would not know. Only thing I know is it has given our little girl an enjoyable life again free from the only other option she had of steroids which were slowly destroying her. And at only $59 every few months is a cheap option for her quality of life.

Hi - CytoPoint injection was a saving grace for my dog. She is a very small mix breed only 6.5 lbs, So she only gets 1 unit. She gets a shot every 6 - 8 weeks depending on how she is doing. This itching stops within hrs. and last the whole time. before this I tried everything, her skin would be so red and raw with sores. Now shes clear and happy less stressed and so is the rest of the house hold. Its kinda pricey but oh sooo very worth it!