Hi

I rescued Grace my lovely sheltie about a year ago.  Unfortunately she has had a few health problems resulting in numerous visits to the vet.  Quite soon after she arrived with me she showed symptoms of severe itching (pruritis),  especially around her nether regions.  She has been treated with cytopoint injections which seem to work well but last only about a month.  They are costly about £100 a time.  She is now taking Apoquel, these are  tablets and she has half of one a day as necessary.  On the whole they seem to work but yesterday I gave her an extra half a tablet as she still seemed to be scratching and biting.  I wish I had not as this morning we came down to diarrhea all over the floor (and she had been sick) and another lot later this morning (I had to go out so she was left in the kitchen for a couple of hours, normally a very clean girl.)  She seems ok in herself however and seems hungry and reasonably perky.

I am disappointed as the Apoquel seemed to work (and they are a bit cheaper,  I am a pensioner)  and she seemed  to be itch free so I may have to go back to the cytopoint  injection.  I wonder if anyone else has an "itchy" dog and how they have dealt with it.  Any advice would be very welcomexx

Unfortunately  yes 2 of them . One I have now lost but to something else. With the help of a specialist who I  camt praise highly enough we  settled in immunotherapy and some topical .tresatmets. its not perfect and never will be. It also requires frequent checks to tweak the topical.treatments
Sadly unless u are lucky enough to discover what the allergy is too and remove that its not curable.only controllable to a point.
We did allergy tests and found somethings were food based.easy to remove especially as I raw feed. The environment allergens cant be removed hence the ongoing treatment. 
I have never regretted taking specialist advice as the knowledge of a general vet is by definition  less .

I found cytopoint injections a waste of money.  Apoquel as you found out has to be used according to weight.  My girl is is taking Vetpro skin and hair capsules which are only available from certain vets.  In my area it is WellPets.  You dont need a prescription.  Anyone can buy them.  Though it says for her weight she can have 2 I only give one.  There is a spray made by Virbac Cortavance that needs a prescription but is not cheap enough.

I hope this helps. By the way what are her other health problems?

Apoquel works by suppressing the immune system and therefore (like any drug which does that!) there are going to be dangerous side effects, especially when used long term.

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/wouldnt-give-dog-new-allergy-drug/

You just need to google Apoquel and cancer to get a whole load more up.

Instead of dealing with an immune response of the body by suppressing the immune system, why not spend time figuring out what the dog is allergic to, so you can then avoid or eliminate that thing...?

I too think Apoquel is dangerous.   Also it would be Apoquel that is making her hungry.

One of our boys, post castration (done only for medical need), started being itchy in the summer.   My then vet gave him a steriod injection (can't remember what it was) which shut down the itchies for roughly 4 months - it was something that was slow releasing.  You might explore this.   I seem to remember another being given Apoquel with no side-effects tho.

I've not had any side effects with Apoquel before though and maybe this bout of sickness etc is nothing to do with it.  I will be taking Grace to the vet first thing tomorrow as I am worried about her.  Like all shelties she would  eat for England so the fact that she is not interested is worrying.  My vets have always had emergency facilities at their premises but not now due to Covid 19 - so nearest emergency vet is 15 miles away instead of round the corner.  A worry for most dog (and cat) owners.  Personally I think this is a very poor showx

> Instead of dealing with an immune response of the body by suppressing the immune system, why not spend time figuring out what the dog is allergic to, so you can then avoid or eliminate that thing...?

It isn't always possible to, if the triggers are environmental as ff says.

If it's all food it's a lot easier to avoid them though, but even then it isn't always possible if the dog is very sensitive or has many triggers.  But it is much easier in theory.

Totally agree . In brookes case 2 of her responses are to malazzia and aspiligosis (sp) neither are possible to eliminate and increase at different times of the year . Finding those and the other environmental allergens needed specific input
We have also had problems in occasion with pseudomonus in her ears.
Without regular cytology I would have been hard pushed to know that and get it treated before it got out of control

>I too think Apoquel is dangerous.

At work we have dogs that have been on Apoquel since it first came out; they have had no adverse side-effects, and it's still giving them a much better quality of life than they had with anything else.

I am swayed by no scientific reason but just by other peoples results.  At the vets the locums said I should ask the vet to prescribe Apoquel for my dog.  She would not.  Very adamant. Eventually it was prescribed but after a few years it had never made any difference.  Before that she was given the injections.  She never had any problems but meeting numerous other dog owners they had growths, liver and kidney problems and overweight.  It was all put down to the Apoquel but with no proof.  It just gave it a bad name.  I think to say dangerous is extreme.