Apoquel is a new drug recently introduced to veterinary medicine, and it has great promise in the treatment of allergic dermatitis. Currently, the medications used most frequently to treat allergic dermatitis are antihistamines, corticosteroids, and the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine; each can be effective but they also have side effects.
Antihistamines control itch to an acceptable degree in about 75% of patients. Like my fellow vets in Mckinney TX, I often like to start therapy with antihistamines combined with omega fatty acids, because they usually help to control scratching and cause few side effects.
Corticosteroids are generally more effective in controlling itch than antihistamines, but they come with far more potential problems. Steroids affect tissues throughout the body, which is why there is such a broad range of side effects. The most widely recognized side effects include increased thirst and urination, elevated appetite, and lethargy; but we also see mood changes, immune system suppression, muscular weakness, thinning of the skin, hair loss, pancreatitis, and other problems. Vets in McKinney TX use cortisones on occasion, but I prefer not to if possible.
Of the above mentioned medications, the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine controls the hypersensitivity of skin allergy most effectively. It causes nausea in some dogs, but most importantly it can cause decreased ability to fight infections. We recently treated a dog that had severe pneumonia while taking cyclosporine for her skin allergy. We stopped the cyclosporine and used a combination of antibiotics to control the lung infection.
Some animals still need supplementation with medications to suppress occasional flare-ups, and Apoquel may very well become the drug of choice for vets in McKinney TX to give these patients, because it works quickly and has few side effects.
Apoquel is not a steroid, antihistamine, or an immunosuppressive drug in the sense that cyclosporine is. It is designed to specifically block the pathways causing itch and inflammation with much less impact on general immune system function. It more explicitly targets components of the pathway of events that occur between contact with an inciting allergen and body responses that cause the animal to feel the sensation of itch. Apoquel also has far fewer effects on other components of generalized infection immunity.
Because Apoquel works in such a narrow range of suppression, other components of the immune system are less affected and retain the ability to fight disease and infection in the body. Apoquel can relieve the scratching and biting seen with allergies within 24 hours, without the side effects of corticosteroids and the immune system suppression of cyclosporine.
Allergy testing and immune serum injections (€allergy shots€) are still an important option in combating chronic, year-round allergies. Approximately 80% of patients respond very well to this therapy and the injections can be tapered to a schedule of once every 1-4 weeks.
Since its initial release, Apoquel is now on back order and won't be available again until April. We've got our order in for more of the drug, and it should be delivered to vets in McKinney TX before the worst allergy season, which doesn't usually hit until later in the spring.
Vets in McKinney Texas
Stonebridge Animal Hospital
5913 Virginia Parkway
McKinney, Texas 75071
469-507-2433