Apoquel: Vet Says Beware The Side Effects
Does your dog have allergies? Has your conventional veterinarian offered you a popular allergy drug called Apoquel®?
It’s touted as being “a fast-acting and safe treatment for the control of acute and chronic canine pruritus.”
Pruritus means itching. When your dog is itchy, you get desperate to make him feel more comfortable. Nobody wants to be itchy and constantly scratching.
Apoquel can ease your dog’s itching in as little as 4 to 24 hours. And dog owners do say it relieves their dogs’ itching.
Sounds like something you might want to try, right?
Well, not so fast …
Before you expose your dog to the risks of this drug … you need to read on.
If your dog is currently on Apoquel … you will probably rethink your options by the end of this post.
Why? Well, let me share why I would never give my dog this allergy drug.
Apoquel demolishes essential parts of your dog’s internal disease-fighting systems.
Let me tell you more … so you can keep your dog itch-free and safe.
Allergies And The Immune System
An allergy is an exaggerated and inappropriate immune system response. Conventional medicine loves to suppress symptoms.
Suppressing symptoms means getting rid of them without addressing the illness or disease. Allergies are an improper immune system response.
So let’s look at the drugs veterinarians often use to suppress allergy symptoms.
The History Of Allergy Drugs For Dogs
Prednisone was the first conventional medication vets used for allergies. Prednisone and other steroids work by suppressing the immune system.
Then, when allergic dogs stopped responding to steroids, veterinarians started using Atopica (cyclosporine).
Cyclosporine was initially developed to prevent organ transplant rejections in humans. It suppresses the immune system to prevent the body from rejecting the transplant.
Atopica has a devastating and destructive effect on the immune system. You can read more about the Atopica and my concerns here.
Unfortunately, Atopica is still used today for some dogs. This is alarming … the FDA has 17 pages of adverse events for Atopica in dogs!
Here are just some of these adverse reactions from the first page:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Depression/lethargy
- Anorexia
- Pruritis
- Elevated liver enzymes ALT & ALKP
- Drug interactions
- Rapid Panting
- Trembling
- Seizures
The number of cases reported is pretty shocking. What’s ironic is the fifth side effect on the list is pruritus (itching) – the very thing the drug is supposed to stop!
So what’s next?
Enter the latest scary allergy drug, Apoquel. It also suppresses your dog’s immune system … but in a different way.
So … is it safer?
