Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
The curse of the canine itch. If you’ve ever dealt with it, you know the agony of self-mutilation, non-stop chewing and scratching, lost sleep, and often great expense with minimal results.
That seemed to shift when Apoquel came out. Magically less itchy, often within hours of a pill!
Hallelujah!
The expense was significant, but who cares, when your dog stops scratching and the whole household can finally get some serious sleep?
The other shoe on Apoquel seems to drop at varying intervals after first starting the immune tweaking drug.
After the first dose for some of you, or later on, tumors growing in various places, or other immune related diseases cropping up.
And many experienced a steady decline in efficacy. In other words, it worked less and less well each time it was dosed.
More expense, less results for your itchy dog.
This article and its many comments suggest you should tread carefully if you’re considering using Apoquel by Zoetis.
The New Drug on the Block: Get Mabbed
Likely encouraged by the huge rush of profits for its shareholders, Zoetis, the vet pharma giant, brought out another immune tweaking drug, first called CADI (Canine Atopic Dermatitis Immunotherapeutic), but finally marketed as Cytopoint.
It’s an antibody, produced in the lab by a single cloned cell line, so it’s called a monoclonal antibody.
Drugs like this have names typically ending in “-mAb” to reflect this class of antibody, and this one is called lokivetmab.
(I really don’t think they tried hard enough here. Loki? Wasn’t he the super evil dude from another star system?
And this is his “vet mob?” Scary combo, that.
Pictures of evil vets rushing at your dog with syringes drawn…)
Get Out Your Credit Card
It’s an injectable drug, so it’ll be vet-only, and yep, it’s expensive.
If you have followed along here for any amount of time, you’ll have learned that allergies (itchy skin being the #1 manifestation of them in the dog) are, like all chronic diseases, incurable by conventional medicine.
So, if you sign up for this new wonder drug, plan on using it monthly, for life:
However, this is a condition that is going to require lifelong management; and we are going to have to partner together to work through what the underlying cause is: infectious/parasitic, food, inhalant or contact allergies, etc. 1
Oh, the “underlying cause” is food? Inhaled or contacted things? We’ll come to the real underlying cause in a bit.
A Single Purpose Silver Bullet?
As you may recall, an antibody is something that counters something. That’s the “anti-” piece, right?
Often, our natural antibodies are what fight infectious diseases, large or small, from the common cold or flu viruses to the more scary ones like distemper or parvo, the viruses that can kill puppies.
Cytopoint, though, is an artificially made antibody against a natural immune messenger molecule that you and I and your dogs, cats, and horses all have in us.
That messenger molecule, inherent in mammalian immune systems, is called IL-31.
Interleukin 31 is classed as a cytokine, and when they injected it into dogs, the dogs got itchy.
So, is it a bad, bad cytokine that we can just attack with this new antibody scientists have created in their laboratories, and rest easy that we’re doing the world of itchy dogs a favor?
Or, might there be some unintended consequences of messing with Mom Nature?
Here’s what’s known about this cytokine called IL-31, now under injectable antibody attack in dogs near you:
IL-31 acts on a broad range of immune- and non-immune cells and therefore possesses potential pleiotropic physiological functions, including regulating hematopoiesis and immune response, causing inflammatory bowel disease, airway hypersensitivity and dermatitis.2
Pleiotropic?
That just means this ain’t no one trick pony.
…major sites of action are the skin, lung, intestine and the nervous system. Hence IL-31 main role is to facilitate cell-mediated immunity against pathogens. IL-31 and its receptors are also involved in regulating hematopoietic progenitor cell homeostasis.3
Wait, pathogens? Those are disease-causing organisms, aka viruses and bacteria and yeasts, right?
So, IL-31’s “main role” is helping us fight the bad guys?
Oh oh. Cytokine interferes with fighting the disease causers?
What else is this drug interfering with?
“Hematopoietic” refers to our bone marrow’s chief function of making all those blood cells we depend on daily.
- Red blood cells to carry the oxygen
- Various white blood cells to fight disease (T and B cells, natural killer cells, etc.)
- Platelets, which help us clot after injury
Wait a sec. If Cytopoint takes out the thing that helps blood cells that are important to us, that’s a bad thing, right?
So, Is Cytopoint Safe?
That’s the $40K question, isn’t it?
It’s getting lots of press as a high tech, well designed immune tweaking antibody that’s getting results fairly quickly.
Apoquel wasn’t deemed safe for dogs under 1 year of age. Cytopoint?
Dr. Stokking: Young atopic dogs under a year of age are a patient population where there really aren’t any other choices that are beneficial. APOQUEL is not labeled for dogs less than one year of age but we can use CYTOPOINT in these patients.
(WF Note: Why are young dogs affected? Experts aren’t even asking this…)4
The study that brought the drug to market was only carried out for seven months.
On 36 laboratory Beagles. A curious species that seems highly resistant to disease.
Definitely not representative of the average dog in the world, as these dogs never leave the lab.
Laboratory Beagle dogs were randomized to three groups (n = 6M/6F per group) and administered seven monthly subcutaneous (SC) doses of 0.9% saline or lokivetmab (3.3, or 10 mg/kg).…
Lokivetmab was well tolerated in laboratory dogs when administered subcutaneously at up to 10 mg/kg for seven monthly doses.
Disclosure of Interest: Authors received reimbursements, fees, funding or salary from: Zoetis Inc., Florham Park, NJ, USA 5
Are you feeling safe now?
Their in-house study, on 36 lab Beagles, ran for 7 whole months, and there were no problems.
“Let’s get this on the market, boys! No one will notice how small our study was or how short!
There’s money to be made! People hate those itchy dogs and will pay anything to stop them from scratching!”
Crystal Ball Time
I’m not impressed.
I mean, what’s going to happen when it’s out on the market (it is as I write this) in 1000’s of normal dogs for a year?
Or two or three or, umm, LIFE?
So, time to rub the dust off my crystal ball and take a look…
First, do you recall that Cytopoint attacks a part if the immune system called IL-31, and the “IL-31 main role is to facilitate cell-mediated immunity against pathogens?”
And the part about regulating blood cell production?
And the fact that the thing this drug is attacking, this IL-31 thingie, is “pleiotropic?” (Meaning, it can change and do other things we may not even know about yet).
I think it’s safe to say this one, like most designer drugs, will come back to bite us.
How about:
- More susceptibility to parvo, distemper, or dog flu?
- Failed blood cell production, resulting in anemia or thrombocytopenia (not enough clotting cells, so bleeding problems in your dog)?
- Immune deficiency diseases from impaired white blood cell production?
I don’t know if any of this will come about, but does anyone?
Based on a 7 month “safety” study on 36 lab Beagles, I’ve got no reason to assume everything will be just fine.
The Big Why
Of course, the scientists of Big Pharma company who study this would still like you to believe that allergies are caused by fleas.
Or pollen. Or grass. Or chicken.
Things that have been on the planet for a very long time.
And things that not every dog has a hard time with.
Why does anyone get “immune confused” to the point of over reacting to normal things and getting wildly itchy?
It’s the vaccines. That history goes back to at least 1884.
Tell us Your Story
Have an itchy, allergic dog?
Will you be using this new wonder drug called Cyptopoint?
Or are you already? How’s it gone so far?
We all grow wiser by sharing our experiences, and the comments below are a great place to do just that.
1Clinician’s Forum: Canine Atopic Dermatitis: Building a Lifelong Treatment Plan | Clinician’s Brief, Clinician’s Forum: Canine Atopic Dermatitis: Building a Lifelong Treatment Plan, https://www.cliniciansbrief.com/article/clinicians-forum-canine-atopic-dermatitis-building-lifelong-treatment-plan
2Structures and biological functions of IL-31 and IL-31 receptors, PMC, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2659402/
3Interleukin 31 – Wikipedia, Interleukin 31, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_31
4Clinician’s Forum: Canine Atopic Dermatitis: Building a Lifelong Treatment Plan | Clinician’s Brief, Clinician’s Forum: Canine Atopic Dermatitis: Building a Lifelong Treatment Plan, https://www.cliniciansbrief.com/article/clinicians-forum-canine-atopic-dermatitis-building-lifelong-treatment-plan
5Long-term laboratory safety study of lokivetmab…, Safety study: “Long-term??”, https://www.zoetisus.com/conditions/dogs/itchcycle/downloads/resources/publications/krautman-long-term-laboratory-safety.pdf, Authors all work for Zoetis.
We really don’t want to give our dog cytopoint. The obliviousness to complex systems in mainstream medicine, including veterinary, is tragic. As is the reliance on insufficient “studies” that are designed to not look for problems. But – we don’t know what to do. We spend more $ than we have on quality supplements, including Vital Animal transfer factor, Safe Sea, and Adored Beast products. We use various topicals, some natural, some not. The vet visits and care are beyond draining in every way, but she is our beloved dog, we will love her forever – we want to turn this around, but don’t know how. (Not ready to feed raw, honestly. Recently did a Hemopet saliva test and hope to change her food from the novel protein diet to something that can be organic like poultry).
I see after the fact the profound mistake it was to not be more careful about vaccinations, a mistake we don’t continue to make, but much damage has been done. Her skin is now really bad, just in the past few days, with bumps and grease, probably seborrhea. Articles say it can be severe and must be treated, but the treatments involve steroids / cytopoint. Every vet near or semi near us is conventional, and they are frustrated that we don’t take their advice on steroids / cytopoint / heartworm preventatives.
Makes sense how cytopoint would correct part of the problem while causing other problems. Appreciate this article for more detail that confirms suspicions of things being “proven safe”, because in a tiny short trial that didn’t intend to find problems, they didn’t find problems.
But we don’t know what to do to heal this problem, and are worried that more of her health will suffer …
Hey Ellen,
We’re talking about chronic disease here. Nothing about curing chronic disease of any kind is going to happen from avoiding allergens and stacking supplements together.
You can search for a qualified homeopathic vet to manage this, and slowly but surely, bring your dog back. Distance matters not a lick, as many of my colleagues work long distance. Visit my Recommended Resources page, scroll down to “Find a Holistic Vet” and open the AVH list, but open the link the video I made for you (see the box below the list) on how to choose your vet wisely. You’ll be working with this person for a long time. Chronic disease didn’t happen in a flash and it’ll take 1/2 the amount of time it’s been showing to get it cured. So, it pays to choose your vet wisely.
Time’s a wasting. Nothing in conventional medicine can cure The Itch. No magic supplement or ingredient or low allergen diet will either. Homeopathy, in qualified vet’s hands can cure this.
I’ve had my pit x beagle mix since she was 2 weeks old. (Foster) Even then had fur issues. Tried medicated shampoo, no difference. Probiotics, supplements had no effect or worsen. Tried many foods, yes even RAW. Immediately would make her worse. And I was switching foods gradually. As in 1/2 teaspoon raw to 2 cups regular dry food.
So stuck with the only one she did halfway decent: Purina pro plan sensitive skin and stomach. Doesn’t do well with chicken so lamb and salmon main protein.
2019 started with Cytopoint and the difference was extraordinary. By the time we left vet office stopped scratching. Doc told us results vary from 1 month to a year.
Over the last two years slowly the effects has lasted shorter and shorter.
She’s only 5 years old. I don’t know what we’re going to do when there’s no effect.
Love how this article just says it’s horrible without any more evidence than the original study of why it’s good. I’m DYING to hear better alternative. Cuz this article doesn’t do it.
My dog has terrible skin problems, has had them for his whole life. We began using cytopoint about 2 years ago, and it has been a miracle for Bandit. He just got one today, in fact. He broke out in yeast all over his body, and it is winter here, I don’t know what happened, the malevolent yeasties should all be dead. But be that as it is — he was suffering, had big red sores all over his body and was so unhappy. When this happens I also get very anxious, which is not good. I know these injections are likely to shorten his life. But you know, as a conscientious pet owner, we all have to make hard decisions for our little ones. Even if it makes his life a few years shorter, those years will be happy and healthy. I would not extend his life by 3 or 4 years if all those years were full of suffering for him. It’s expensive, sure it is. So what? It has to be treated, you can’t let stuff like this go. Once it is under control, it only costs about $60 per injection, at my vet, the doctor establishes that the little guy is healthy and then issues an order that the shots can be given about every 6 weeks on a nurse visit to help keep the cost down. Now, this is only done for the pets who are known to be regulars, who come for their yearly check ups and who have blood tests done every year. In other words, only people who are known to be serious about pet health can do this. We feel it is the right decision for our little guy, who is 12 years old now. He is a sweet, loyal friend, and we want him to feel well for how ever many years he has left. As far as his food, he eats hydrolized protein (surely the most expensive dog food in the world!) so food allergy surely isn’t the problem. He has had the recommended vaccines for his whole life, but for the rest of his days I think we will just get the rabies vaccine, because he is a law abiding little guy. And with all his skin problems, he does not get out of the house much anyway.
Does anyone have any studies or articles talking about the dangers of Cytopoint? I told my vet that I read that it can cause blindness and other issues. She has asked for me to send her more information for her to review. She has not heard of any of these issues.
Hey Suzanne, I have people ask me the same question about raw feeding, as it the amazing results 1000’s of pet owners have seen for decades is not enough proof! So, for now, read the comments, understand the drug’s focus from the article (immune system impairment, right?) and, putting those experiences together with the your understanding of how the drug works, you should have YOUR answer. Will your vet buy it? Up to her, but if not, I’d strongly consider finding a vet with a more open mind.
– Raw feeding
– Amazing results
– Thousands of pet owners
– Decades
Can you please provide a link? This sounds like something I’d like to give to my vet and to use for my own dog.
Hi Jorge,
This info is all over my site, but most recently, it’s in my Vital Animal Podcast, especially the episodes with Thomas Sandberg who’s gathering data on thousands of raw fed animals. Kasie Maxwell is another great episode full of results in multiple raw fed species over decades.
My dog had a dose of Cytopoint about a month ago. It has worn off, and he is back to itching and chewing his feet again. This is seasonal allergies due to pollens and molds in our outside environment. Allergies have bothered him for the past few years. The Apoquel he had been taking gave him tumors, and I feel terrible about that. Reading about Cytopoint here has me worried. I had been receiving a immunotherapy -mab as a cancer treatment myself. It made me develop Crohn’s disease, and it is a miserable thing to experience. So no more Cytopoint for my dog, if it will wreck his intestines. Benadryl is helping somewhat.
Similar story here. We have used Apoquel and Cytopoint in the past with some success for skin itch, but were nervous about possible adverse reactions. We’re using diphenhydramine now. It helps the itch but seems less effective than the other two we have tried. Overall, I’d say we’re more comfortable with it, and it does give some relief.
BOTH of Doodles Got Cytopoint More Than 2 Weeks AGO and ARE STILL Itching Like Crazy 👎🏼😳❗️They HAVE Been Groomed And I’ve Been TRYING To Vacuum At Least Every Other Day . We DO Have SOME wood Floors. And THOSE Get Clean also And Their Beds Also👍🏼They ALSO get WIPED Down When Then Come inside😱And WEVE Been Giving them Allegra At Night. IT SEEMS TO WORK Better ❗️😱( Alittle Bit Before Their Bedtime). Our 1 Dog Started Chewing A HOT SPOT on Her Paw And Leg 😡😢Starting To Wonder IF They EVEN Got One.. I DIDNT Hear EITHER of Them Yelp😳… I EXPECT Them TO BE HONEST And ASKED Why Neither Of Them Yelped, And They Gave Me Funky Answer That “ THEY DID IT QUICK 😱😳?Regular Vet WASNT There That Day …
I wish id of done some research and seen this article 3ish yrs ago!! I had two dogs getting this. The first shot lasted them a year and I was so happy. Shortly after the first shot my oldest got a lump on side which I was told was a fatty tumor nothing to worry about. She had a few more shots and was doing great on them. Then in Dec she started getting sick, they said she had a tumor on her spleen that ruptured HSA. She passed Dec 23, 2019. She had just turned 10 yrs old. Now today I been taking my Dakota the last several weeks to the vet because he belly kept getting bigger and bigger, she looks extremely pregnant and ready to pop thats how big ( shes spayed). Was told they were cysts around her liver, not cancerous. That was 12 days ago, told I was told they’ve grown 4cm since her last visit 12 days ago and it is a cancerous tumor!!! She has very little time to live. The ONLY thing these two had in common was their breed (pit bull) and the cytopoint shot!!! They didnt eat the same food etc. Either its a coincidence or its from this so called safe shot!
Our happy bouncy 5 year old Jack russel x foxy has been through hell the last month or so. Completely different dog. So sick 😞 I’ve spent thousands on repeat vet visits, when they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him or why he was so sick. First they said he must have eaten trash… X-ray fine… nothing. Keep an eye on him, he should improve in a few days. Nope. Vomiting, fever, went lame in his back leg, MISERABLE!! Totally off his food (VERY out of character)… lethargic. Sleeping in every day… avoiding games. Sleeping on couch all day. Not barking at passing cars. He didn’t even run outside to greet me when I returned from the shops and couldn’t jump up on his couch or my bed.. we had to lift him. So sick! Took him back, they kept him for the weekend, put him on fluids and did tests. His stool had blood in it.. vet says “stomach ulcer”… out on meds to reduce stomach acid, pain killers and antibiotics. Diet of chicken and rice only. Well, he wouldn’t eat or drink and just got worse. If he ate, he vomited. He wasn’t pooping. Another week had passed, he was not better… instead he was worse again. Back fur further investigations. They decide to operate, as we all thought he was a goner… maybe he had swollowed something after all, that couldn’t be seen on the X-ray?! They call me after the surgery. They say they didn’t even go into his stomach or digestive tract at all… because when they opened him up, they found his speed was tumorous. They removed it. They said the rest of his organs looked “clean”, so they stitched him up and froze the spleen in case I decide to send it for testing. They say, it doesn’t explain the gastrointestinal issues or the lame back leg… but hopefully, when he recovers, all his symptoms will resolve. Unfortunately, we have not been that lucky! He is defined a lot better than the deathly ill little guy who went for surgery… but he is far from his youthful, perky and happy self! It’s been 2 weeks! He is still off his food, very skinny, sad looking, seems to shy away from bright light, sleeps a lot, won’t play, wants to come for walks but tires out and can’t go far then wants to be picked up and carried home… still having trouble pooping, still burping and having odd loud grumblings of the time, his eyes (though better than before) still look a bit dull. He hold his ear funny and shakes it from time to time, he gets the trembles and shakes, he still goes weak in his back legs and you can see the quiver in his leg muscles. He’s itchy again… and I feel so badly for him… but he will never have another Cytopoint injection, ever again! If he makes it through this, I worry that he will never be himself again and that he will live his life out being sick and miserable and itchy 😞 He’s only had Cytopoint twice. The first time, it lasts 4 months… the second time, he was scratching within a week, but that resolved and then he had made it through til now, without too much of an itch… it’s been roughly 2 month and for most of that time, I had not connected the injection, to his symptoms.. but now I realise, he was off colour and not himself for a few weeks before he became very sick. Poor little guy. I feel horribly guilty for ever letting the vet give him those shots.
so sorry to hear about your jack russel.my blue heeler went in for an ear infection and was bum rushed into cytopoint.2 agonizing months of weakening legs and weight loss until finally Larangeal paralysis killed her.
My dog had one front itchy red paw he would chew on and lick constantly. He also had a red area on his belly. A specialist suggested Cytopoint injections 4-6 weeks apart. He received two and his itching was relieved. I noticed the redness coming back and he began licking those areas again so I took him for his Cytopoint again. Only this time, he left the house a happy and playful dog. Stealing shoes and playing keep away even at 11. However he came back that day with his rear legs trembling and weak, wobbly, diarrhea and nausea started, loss of appetite, heavy breathing after trying to defecate. Then he had a night where he just had uncontrollable drooling. Diarrhea seemed to start clearing up but then came back. Appetite continued to be off and on. Trembling continued to get worse and then he finally collapsed and could not get back up and walk.
How long would it take side effects from Cytopoint to clear up? And could all of this be from the Cytopoint?
It’s like a completely different dog came back from the vet that day..
Our 4 yr old Miniature Schnauzer Maggie has been on Apoquel for over 2 years. Before she started taking it she was literally tearing herself up. It really worked like a miracle drug. Almost overnight she stopped scratching. The expense is significant, but definitely worth it for the result. However, we have noticed in the last few months that she has been scratching more than normal, as if it wasn’t quite as effective. Still not back to where we started, but noticeably more itchy. A week ago our vet suggested we have Maggie stop taking Apoquel based on the risk of extended use. As soon as we took her off she started scratching again, so the vet gave her a Cytopoint injection. It wasn’t the “miracle” that Apoquel was, but it did relieve most of her itching and allowed her to be largely comfortable. 5 days later Maggie had her first cluster seizure. She has been having seizures for 3 years and we have largely been able to control it with medication (Zonisamide) and lifestyle changes (no loud noises, no flashing lights, minimize stress, etc.). Maggie had gone 13 months without a seizure; her longest seizure-free stretch to date. Additionally, just days before this seizure we had done a Zonisamide test on her blood which had come back showing she was at an optimum dosage. For someone who has (sadly) become accustomed to grand mal seizures this was an AWFUL experience. It was much more violent, lasted much longer, and to be honest I wasn’t sure she was going to make it. She was almost coming out of the first seizure when the second one hit. That was 2 days ago, and she seems fine now, but we pray it never happens again. I have not idea if the cessation of Apoquel or the introduction of Cytopoint (or both) played any part in triggering the seizure, but that has been the only significant change in her life recently. It also seems strange that the Zonisamide levels in her blood were as good as our vet could have hoped prior to the seizure. I don’t know if any outside factor caused Maggie to have her first cluster seizure, maybe her allergy medication played no role at all, but you can bet we’ll be thinking twice before another Cytopoint injection.
Hey Nathan,
I hear your concern and am so sorry you’ve had to live with first horrible skin issues and more recently, seizures. The two are most certainly related. Suppressing symptoms always makes things worse.
Let me suggest you review a more recent post on Seizures you’ll find on the blog. In the comments, I think I spell out for another reader how to get a homeopathic vet on board to get you out of this mess you’re in. Here’s the main blog link to find that post: http://vitalanimal.com/blog/
All the best to you.
I have an american cocker spaniel, she is 10 years old, she has been suffering from hypothyroidism since the age of 4, and allergic problems started a year after the diagnosis. Due to the severity of the allergy (zyrtec did not help) we started to use steroids (calcort). In 2019, after we read the positive opinion of the cytopint, we decided to start this type of treatment. Minnie was given injections every two months. After the 4th injection and just 3 days after we give her medicament she had heart collapsed. The next day, there were 7 syncope in just 12 hours. We did a full blood test, ultrasound, x-ray, Lyme disease…. diagnosis IMHA. Treatmet? Huge doses of steroids, blood transfusions, we did everything to save her – luckily it succeeded. Perhaps our case was one in a million, but everyone should remembered that cytopoint contains engineered antibodies and acts directly on the immune system, which sometimes may react incorrectly. In our case “he” attacked his own red blood cells.
Truly scary, Martha. For those who don’t know, IMHA = immune mediated hemolytic anemia. Self attack on vital cells, as Martha points out. And Minnie was lucky this time: all those expensive heroic treatments are usually effective in saving only about 50% of IMHA patients.
And, she could relapse into this state again, even without another dose of the drug that caused it.
Thanks for the heads up, Martha.
Has anyone used a zeolite for heavy metal detox ( post vaccination) and had a good result?
My red heeler/terrier cross had the shot about 4 weeks now. He has developed black skin disease all over his body and has lost a lot of hair. It is winter and very cold. I have the house quite warm and need to give him a warm towel every time he goes outside. Going to vet today for answers if there are any. I apologize daily for making him so miserable. I was told it was the best for his itchy skin and it was for about 3 weeks but it did ‘age’ him. The hair around his face turned white before it started to turn black and fall out. Should have stayed with topical treatments not shots that can not be reversed.
My experience has been wonderful with cytopoint(other than the outrageous cost). Two of our Leos have atopic dermatitis. We shower the dogs with chlorhexidine shampoo 2x weekly to no avail. One of them only gets rabies vaccine and the other gets full-range vaccination so we can rule out the anti- vaxxer hysteria. We have tried Limited diet, bison diet, rabbit diet, raw diet, homeopathy(really worthless), prednisone(works great but risk is too high long-term)and, finally, cytopoint every 2 months for 2 years. It is the *only* thing that stops the hot spots. We now have we have happy healthy Leos, one of which is 12 years old!
Please, please be cautious when putting your dogs on Cytopoint injections! My beautiful Sheltie was the most lively, active and healthy dog but always suffered from allergies. I tried everything from 0 grain foods, homemade foods, special shampoos, numerous rounds of antibiotics from the infected sores all over his body. I took my dog to at least 10 different vets and tried every medication offered. Everything I tried seem to fail. Then this summer I tried a new vet who suggested this new wonder drug. He started with occasional diarrhea on and off. By thanksgiving the diarrhea was constant with heavy breathing. He was put on antibiotics and probiotics with no relief. By Christmas, he could barely walk without calapsing from exhaustion. The diarrhea was so bad he could not hold it and he was going all over the house ( something he NEVER did before.) I spent thousands of dollars in X-rays, ultrasounds and testing to find that my dog had cancer. By New Year’s he was on 8 different meds and still had diarreah, bloody nose, could not eat, walk and could barely breath. It has been the most horrifying experience in my life to see how much he was suffering and how quickly he went from being the most happy, healthy dog to this sick and agonizing dog. I had to make the most difficult decision of my life and just put my dog to sleep. I can not be sure it was the cytopoint injections that caused his cancer but it sure was a coincidence that he was fine and healthy (except for the allergies) until I started with this drug. I know it’s difficult to see your dog suffer from allergies and scratch till they bleed but if I could do it again I would rather see my dog scratch than go through the most agonizing symptoms and pain he endured the last month of his life.
Rosa im so sorry for your loss! I have/had two of my dogs on the Cytopoint shot. My 10 yr old just passed in Dec 2019 from HSA ( tumor on spleen that ruptured)!! Today I just got the news my 9 yr old has a tumor on her liver and only has days to live. The ONLY thing these two had in common was their breed and this dang cytopoint shot!!! I’m so mad at myself for not putting this together soon and now feel like i killed both my dogs that are my world!!
Like many, I also have an itchy dog. He’s a Shih Tzu named Cooper, and he began showing signs of allergies at around 2 or 3 yrs old. Cooper is my first dog and while I wanted to feed him healthy foods, I was naive and relayed on the direction of the pet food stores reccomendations. I started out feeding him a dry limited ingredient food but once he started showing allergy signs, I quickly looked for alternate foods thinking that he had food allergies. I ended up with, and still today, I feed him an organic raw dog food that is purchased in frozen form. We feed him fruits and veggies as treats and some dehydrated raw food as treats. I was hoping that this raw diet change would help and fix any underlying allergies, but it didn’t. Next up, Apoquel. Prescribed first by our regular vet, Apoquel was said to be “very safe” by the vets and so we went with it and immediately saw results and relief for Cooper. While it worked, Cooper would still experience allergy exacerbations during high outdoor allergy seasons. We were told to increase the Apoquel for a short period to twice a day. This did help and seemed to get him through the flare ups. The issue was that over time, it seemed that we needed to do this more often. The single dose was becoming less and less effective. At this point we have been seeing a canine dermatologist for 1 1/2 years. After discussing the issue and my concern with the single dose Apoquel being less effective, next up comes CYTOPOINT. Again, being described by the vet as being a “very safe” injection. While she was talking about how great it is, she also brought up how much safer it is than Apoquel and she made a few concerning comments about Apoquel as she tried to talk up how much better Cytopoint is compared with the side effects of Apoquel. WAIT! WHAT??? Isn’t she the one who has been continually prescribing Apoquel, recommending the 2x daily dose during flare ups? Now, she has made remarks about the unsafe nature of this drug! Are you kidding me? Then she begins to say how some of the dogs she treats need both, Apoquel + Cytopint, but many can switch and use Cytopoint alone. This was my hope. So, I give it a try because Cooper is in the midst of a flare up and itching like crazy. Cytopoint begins, and I hold off on Apoquel to see if he can have relief with just Cytopoint. WELL…No! After a couple weeks Cooper began licking his hind end at the base of his tail so bad that he made it bleed and pulled put fur. It became almost nonstop licking. This was the first time that he ever had an issue with this area of his body. He gets runny eyes, yeasty areas around his eyes, paw licking, body scratching and ear infections. This hind end licking came out of nowhere but only began after he received the Cytopoint injection. I called the dermatologist and she said to start up the Apoquel along with the Cytopoint. After a couple days, Cooper was much better. During our follow up appt the dermatologist began saying that tail licking/itching is usually a sign of food allergies. Is it??? He’s been eating the same raw food for a few years with no tail issues but after receiving his first Cytopoint injection he has an unusual reaction in an area of his body where he has never had issues. UGH! He had one more Cytopoint injection then I stopped it. Amazingly the hind end licking stopped too. Since Apoquel doesn’t address food allergy symptoms, the vet said, he may need both medications. The vet wanted us to continue with both Cytopoint + Apoquel but I decided to stop Cytopoint. No Cytopoint, no tail licking. He must not have food allergies since the tail licking stopped and he is now back to just Apoquel. But, I’m getting very scared about what Apoquel could be doing to Cooper. He had blood drawn allergy testing with one weed coming back as an allergy. Okay, I can deal with that but there has to be more. He gets flare ups when this weed is not in bloom or pollinating so there has to be more that is causing his allergic reactions. I want natural relief for him but more importantly, I want the underlying cause to be addressed, but how, especially if I don’t know what the cause(s) are?
Is it safe to discontinue vaccines and heartworm medication? As a side note, Cooper was not getting the Lyme disease vaccine. He then had a tick and contracted Lymes, but fortunately we caught it early and after mega strength antibiotics, Cooper was cured of Lymes. Now, he gets the vaccine yearly. With the other vaccines and heartworm medication, I’m afraid to stop them because what if the same thing happens, no vaccine or medication then he has no protection. I feel like I’m caught on a hamster wheel. I also don’t like playing with Cooper’s health.
Robyn, you are indeed on an awful hamster wheel with this dog, and nothing is looking bright, no light at the end of the tunnel, until you at least stop vaccinating him. I hear the fear is keeping you getting them, so I’d suggest you review a couple of key pages about Efficacy and Safety of vaccines. I think you’ll find the fear slip away and you’ll know you can stop vaccinating this poor boy.
If you really want to address this deeply and go for cure, it’s time to hire a qualified homeopathic vet. I tell you how to find one, near or far matters not a lick, starting from my Resources page where you’ll find the AVH list. This video walks you through how to choose one. This will take time now that he’s got such a long history of suppressive drugs and repeated vaccines, but it’s the best approach I know of. NOTHING in conventional medicine can cure this guy, that should be pretty obvious by now. All the best to you.
I have a 10 month old GSD who is raw fed. I’ve tried a myriad of shampoos, herbal treatments, and holistic vet. He now has yeast and bacterial infections on his skin. My plan was to get him allergy tested, but was told to wait until at least 12 months. My last GSD had horrible allergies and was on immunotherapy for the last two years of his life. Prior to that he was on apoquel. He died of sudden hemangiosarcoma in his liver and abdomen. I broke down and had them give my young GSD cytopint yesterday. I have to consider quality of life and get the infections cleared up. As soon as he’s old enough I’ll get the serum allergy test done. I’m not looking at this as a long-term solution. I’m terrified of losing another dog to HSA and no longer use chemicals or pesticides in my yard. At the same time, he’s miserable, scratching constantly, and smells. I’ve done yeast protocols and given all kids of supplements to include fermented goats milk and fish stock. It’s a game of whack a mole and it is very expensive. His itching has almost stopped completely and I’ve noticed no side effects this far. Again, hoping it’s a short term solution only.
Mollie, my 7.5 y.o. lab/ pit mix; got an injection of Cytopoint 2 days ago after being up all night scratching and shaking her ears. When I brought her home from the vet on Friday morning, I noticed she was extremely lethargic. She also had diarrhea a few times during the afternoon. The next morning, Saturday, I awoke to multiple piles of bloody diarrhea in the hallway, just outside my bedroom. Poor Mollie didnt even have the opportunity to awaken me to ask to go outside. In all the years I’ve had her, she had not had one accident before this. Unfortunately, I slipped and fell on the diarrhea before I reached the light switch. We will never use this drug again. When I called the veterinary office to report Mollie’s rxn, the receptionist claimed Mollie was the “only dog” to ever have had a bad rxn to Cytopoint. Keep in mind, this is the same woman who suggested I then start Mollie on Flagyl, which she kept insisting is not an antibiotic, to treat her diarrhea. She also kept saying Mollie had a
“perverse” rxn, which I guess is accurate, although I’m fairly certain she meant “adverse.” My vet touted this injection as a miracle drug with no downsides. Think again. I paid a tidy sum of money and all I got was a sick dog, a mess inside my house, and a bad slip and fall. Mollie has been eating homemade chicken soup with rice since yesterday. She seems better today, however, I understandthis drug stays in the system for weeks, and who knows what other issues it is causing that may be subclinical still.
I’m fairly certain that by “rxn” you mean reaction. The receptionist’s response is consistent with what I have seen on this board over the past year – no reports of diarrhea linked to to Cytopoint. My own experience with the drug has been that it worked quite well on my dog. Could you dog’s diarrhea be attributable to something else that’s much more common?
My Bella, a 7-year-old Chocolate Lab, has suffered from allergies/skin issues for most of her life. We have tried, steroids, expensive food, Apoqual, shampoos, herbal supplements, and so on and so on. She had her first Cytopoint shot on Oct 13th and for the first time in years, she was itch-free and comfortable in her own skin. I was beyond excited. I thought we found the magic pill. I was wrong. We just went back for a second shot and 2 weeks ago and her itching is worse than ever. I feel like we are back at square one and it’s very disappointing. I have spent $1000 over the years and all I want is relief for my sweet baby girl. I’m looking for advise here. What’s next for us. I hate seeing her suffer.
Thank-you for all of this information. I am saving this to study further.
I did leave a comment/reply prior to this, questioning how do we deal with vaccines, if we think this is the issue, and to share my stories.
I am looking forward to seeing what I can learn from all of this to help my itchy guy.
Thank you for your thorough analysis! I appreciate how you break down the information so well.
But I have to say, your final comment “it’s the vaccines” is misleading. Lots of dogs whose owners choose not to vaccinate still deal with skin issues! No doubt the accumulated effect of immunizing is a factor, but it’s probably not the entire root of the hypersensitivity.
Still, very insightful article!
We in homeopathy recognize inherited chronic disease, and most often that’s vaccinosis from parents and grandparents. Especially noteworthy in practice when a well-chosen “vaccinosis remedy” (there are about 20) makes the animal significantly better!
I have an 8 year old miniature American Eskimo who prior to October last year used to have an itching problem with her paws only in spring when the grass greened up. But during summer it would lessen and winter there was no problem. Last September she had her first immunization in 6 years and by October she started itching horribly and chewed her paws and legs raw. She got sores inside her ear flaps and they were all gritty. I have always fed her chicken or lean ground beef/rice/veggies/EVOO/bone meal/flaxseed/a vitamin every day and a few grain free kibbles each evening. She previously has been healthy and happy for 7 years we have had her. Then in January she got an infection in her eyes somehow, and the vet gave her antibiotic eye drops. Then in May she started losing weight and the itching had made her destroy her legs and muzzle and around her mouth. She suddenly got an ear infection too. So the vet put her on Cytopoint and gave her a 2 week antibacterial shot & an antibiotic in her ear. She tested positive for bacterial infection on her legs and in her ears. She snapped out of it, started putting on weight again, but 7 weeks later started itching her legs again and lost weight dramatically. I took her back to the vet and they gave her another Cytopoint shot. This time she didn’t do as well… I had to put bactrim and cortisone cream on her legs and snipped the toes out of dog socks and she wore them like leg warmers to cover the itchy area when I was asleep at night and couldnt watch her. Anyway, she started healing up but the weight loss was horrible and she was soon just skin and fur. I just took her to another vet and he gave her another Cytopoint shot and another long term antibiotic. She is doing better again but her blood tests say she has a high BUN and low specific gravity in her urine, both a sign of kidney problems. Now he wants her on mostly grain low protein Hills KD dog food which she hates I am still mixing it with her chicken. Hills scares me because of all the recalls they have had. I have no idea what has happened to her. It has been a nightmare since that vaccination last year and has cost at least $1000 with no end in sight. She is always spunky and energetic. I am feeding her everything I can to get some weight back on her. Whether it was the vaccine or something she picks up from wildlife in the back yard or allergies I don’t know, but I steam clean the carpets and floors, use no chemicals or cleaners, cover her bedding in clean towels, bath her with allergy shampoos. I’ve soaked her legs in apple cidar vinegar and water, epsom salts or just washed them when she comes inside. Nothing helps much. This allergy thing is such a mystery and the 8 vets don’t put much into this… just give her a shot and I pay the bill.
What agony this story elicits, Lori. Both for your dog and for you, and I’m really sorry you’re having to live through this. If you doubt it was the vaccine, you’ll want to read more about them, especially their lack of safety. A month is a very common interval to see health decline after a vaccination. It’s even in published research on autoimmune disease in dogs getting “routine vaccinations.”
I’d start here, more to inform your choices going forward with future animals: http://vitalanimal.com/vaccinations-consider-carefully/
The other take away that’s painfully evident here is how things worsen the more Dr. WhiteCoat treats the resulting chronic disease he’s caused with his vaccine. At every turn, your dog lost more ground, and it was harder to pull her back. Until you hire a homeopathic vet trained in actually curing animals, that cycle will, unfortunately, continue until she’s in her grave. If you’re interested in hiring a good one, see my Resources page, scrolldown to the AVH list there, and search by two criteria:
All the best with your Eskie. I’m afraid she’s victim of unnecessary prevention followed by damaging treatments that are ultimately ineffective.
9 year old Parson’t Russell Terrier rescue that was fine until the grass started growing. Tried everything from homeopathic, sprays and wipes to benadryl without relief. One shot of Cytopoint, no negative reaction and a massively improved quality of life. Formerly a city dog, he now rules 10 country acres with a joy that is indescribable. Vet did not endorse Apoquel due to potential side effects. My goal isn’t to have the longest living dog ever, but to make the life he has the absolute best that it can be. Expensive? 40mg was $36.00 plus visit, any future ones they won’t charge for the visit. Well worth it.
My Westie has been diagnosed with Epidermal Dysplagia. She was surrendered to a rescue at 3 yrs of age because the owners had struggled with her issues since she was 6 months old. I kept her because of the maintenance required for this disease. At almost 8 yrs old Holly has had the best quality of life the last few years that she has ever had. She gets Cytopoint injections monthly in the summer and they can be stretched out to 6 weeks in the winter. She has no more raw spots and scabs on her skin. Cytopoint for her is a quality of life issue and they have been an life saver for her.
My 3-year-old Bull Terrier received his 3rd Cytopoint injection (6-week interval) about 4 days ago. I am noticing that he seems to be on constant high-alert. He barks at things that I don’t see or hear. He paces from window to window, etc. His allergies aren’t as bad as some bull terriers I’ve seen, but I thought this injection would help calm down the red paws and licking/chewing. Henry is a bit high strung (typical for BT) but this feels different. Last night he was laying all over me half asleep. I picked up his paw to massage it and he growled and sort of snapped at me. This is not at all typical which is why I’m searching to see if this unrest is typical of Cytopoint. I’m not going to get the shot for him again. Thanks for all the information, Dr. Falconer. I’m also wondering if you have any knowledge of Dermoscent, which I have been using twice monthly for about a year now. Thanks!
Hi Donna,
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with illness like this. In my experience, the edginess and over sensitivity is largely correlated with vaccines. We often call this nervous system inflammation “brain on fire.” I’m not aware of Cytopoint causing such a state, but it’s usually the drug used AFTER vaccines have made their inflammatory, immune confusing damage in the form of allergic itch. Let’s see if others have any similar experience.
My vets all but stick their fingers in their ears if you mention vaccines causing health issues. It is so frustrating. I have no idea how to talk to them because they are defensive or hostile if I mention it.
Simplest way to talk to them is just two words: YOU’RE FIRED! If you care to tell them why, I’d encourage that, as they need to get up to speed on vaccine injury as a reality in our pets just like it is in our kids.
And then, find a holistic or better, a homeopathic vet who aligns with your goals.
For those who have had adverse reactions which may be linked to Cytopoint, you can (and should) call Zoetis to report it. The phone number is 888-963-8471 M-F 8:00-5:00 EST.
My 13 year old German Shepherd died of “bloat” 24 hours after his 2nd Cytopoint injection. He developed a severe and extremely painful elbow infection 72 hours after his 1st Cytopoint injection but the vet did not think it was related, hence the 2nd injection 1 month later. Cytopoint truly did relieve his itch, allowing him to be prednisone free for the first time in 11 years. Too bad he only got one month of relief and his death may have been caused by the drug that provided the relief.
Of note, my boy did not suffer from allergies like most dogs who are candidates for Cytopoint. He had a subcutaneous parasite called Onchocerca. Like most of the commentators on this site, I would like to see Zoetis do a more thorough study.
My 14yr old beautiful lurcher Archie had an injection of Cytopoint one week ago. His itching wasn’t half as bad as some of these dogs though. I personally don’t take pills so in hindsight (huh) how did I agree to this? He was very lethargic and started falling over 2 days later. His eyes looked scared. He had laboured breathing, shaking, completely went off his food though I think he was hungry – he would take something into his mouth and drop it out again like he couldn’t chew it or it made his mouth taste bad. He stared into space and wasn’t interested in anything at all. Previously he was eating a lot, tossing his chews around like a puppy and barking to tell me things. He did have short periods of walking well and sniffing around and each time optimistically I thought he was going to be fine. The vet 6 days later told me to completely discount the internet comments and my thoughts that it was Cytopoint that caused this. He wanted to do all sorts of tests which I didn’t want to put Archie through being his age and ‘knowing’ the drug caused this. We agreed on pain relief since I wasn’t I did not want him to suffer with the other effects – vomiting, going blind etc so after last night of him waking up a lot and continuing this sad behaviour I took him again to the vet for the final injection. I can’t believe I inflicted such a terrible final week of his life on him.
I so feel for people who have had young dogs affected.
It is good that it is helping some dogs so much but I believe there needs to be more testing to find out which dogs it should not be given to and vets educated on it’s bad effects. I so miss Archie
Amanda, I am so sorry for you, and your Archie. That is a tough one. You just never know. Thanks for sharing your story. After reading all of these I don’t think I would ever give my dog another Cytopoint injection for sure. Thank God we’ve only done 2. I had already decided, after the 2nd one didn’t really help, that we won’t be doing that again.
I’m so sorry you didn’t get more time. take care.
HELP!!
I have a two year old English Bulldog who has, get ready, NO KNOWN environmental allergies, except bee stings (it causes anaphylaxis).
After taking him to the emergency vet for facial swelling and what appeared to be an allergic reaction to DOG knows what, he was released without medication except, Cerenia (to control his non stop vomiting). I pulled a stinger out of his face and he seemed to do alright with another dose of Benadryl. A Monday.
I followed up with his RDVM the following day, since he wasn’t getting better and was actually declining, and he was given a Cytopoint injection for his itchy/yeasty paws but nothing, nor was I told to continue to administer any antihistamine going forward. A Tuesday.
Fast forward four days to Saturday and no Benadryl or other medications prescribed except Cerenia (two doses already administered earlier in the week) and my Bulldog went into anaphylactic shock and has aspiration pneumonia from inhaling his own vomit during the anaphylactic episode. He was rushed to a different ER vet who stabilized him and has now, hopefully, had his allergies dealt with.
Is it possible Cytopoint made his allergic reaction worse, or masked the allergic reaction and is it possible for a dog to be allergic to this protein compound? I’m not sure if someone has asked something similar but I’d greatly appreciate a response and some assistance.
Sorry to read about your problem. Your questions should be directed to veterinary professionals. Here’s one site with useful information that might help you:
https://www.honestpaws.com/blogs/medication/cerenia
Excellent points. I’m sure most visitors who come here want to know the same thing – both the positive and the negative experiences of dog owners with the medications they choose for their canine family members. This information, presented fairly and in an unbiased manner, is essential to making informed decisions.
Like many drugs, including human one’s, there are side effects. Many human drug side effects can be very serious including death, but if the condition the drug is being used for is so bad that the risk of side effects is worth it, then we use the drug.
I find the cytopoint debate to be similar. How much do you let your dog suffer before trying it. Many dogs use cytopoint with no side effects just as many humans use certain drugs without side effects.
Its a risk we all have to decide. I try to imagine what if it was me that was itching constantly so badly I was drawing blood. Would I risk the side effect potential to get some relief especially if I had tried every natural alternative I could find?
How important is quality of life vs length? This question is one most of us will be personally faced with at some point and one that nearly all dog owners face eventually.
I see all the comments showing negative reactions. Most people who use the drug and have no negative reactions don’t post to sites like this so most of the comments are from people upset about that has happened and go searching for more information.
What I would like to see is data showing how many dogs are helped by cytopoint that don’t react negatively to it.
What is the ratio of dogs that have bad reactions to dogs that don’t?
My vet says the number of dogs with reactions is very small compared to the total number of dogs he has given it to, but that is just one small example.
Dr Falconer, you have more and better resources than I do, can you come up with information showing the ratio of dogs with no reaction to dogs with severe reactions?
Are you willing to publish those results even if it shows that most dogs that get cytopoint do not have serious or life threatening reactions to it?
I appreciate what you do.
Do not give your dog Cytopoint. My dog “Franklin” got his 5th dose yesterday. He was rambunctious as always on the way to the vets office and within 1 hour of getting his injection, he became very lethargic. I assumed it was a side effect of the medication. This morning he had blood coming from his gums. I rushed him to the emergency vet hospital. Blood work revealed his platelet count was 2,000. Normal k-9 platelet count is 175,000 – 500,000. They gave a blood infusion in an attempt to get his platelets up enough to give him a fighting chance. Unfortunately he did not make it. I feel extreme guilt for not knowing more about this drug. I believe each dose slowly began to kill him. More research has to be done. Looking back, I realized how much he slowly started to decline which I contributed to his age. He began having slower response, stiff joints and not as playful. I noticed also his symptoms became worse just before his injection was due. I feel he was slowly poisoned by Cytopoint. Please seek other options.
My 2.5-yr-old Boxer was having awful allergies and had developed sores on either side of her snout from itching so hard. Her ears were red and she’d scratch them open, too. We’d tried different proteins, plus and minus grain, different natural treats with probiotics and other beneficial ingredients, baths with tea tree and other good stuffs (trying to stay away from potential triggers like oatmeal), etc etc. Lots of trial and error, with most of it being error. She was taking Benadryl a couple times a day just to give her some respite.
Finally, after talking with her vet, we looked into Cytopoint. I wasn’t thrilled about trying Apoquel because, as a form of immunosuppresant, I was worried about what might happen to my Boxer (Boxers known to be pretty prone to cancers and such). Vet offered a short trial of Apoquel (4 days), after which — if it looked to be working! — we’d switch to Cytopoint. It was a fair plan, I thought, because we could try a few-day trial for fairly low cost, and then move to the much more expensive Cytopoint shot thereafter.
Apoquel was AMAZING. It worked almost instantly. My gal could sit by me on the couch and I could give her skritches without her practically falling over from joining in on the SCRATCHING. She was much more relaxed. Her face started to heal pretty quickly.
As planned, we moved to Cytopoint a few days later. For the first couple of weeks, it seeemed to be a wonder drug. My gal’s patches of rash in her armpits and on her tummy cleared up. The sores on her face healed. She wasn’t chomping on her poor little paws.
Then one morning, a couple weeks in, coming in from morning potty…she collapsed at the back door. And then again. We went immediately to her vet. A whole days of tests and Xrays and observation later, and very few answers or ideas — except that her red blood cell count was a little lower than it had been a couple weeks earlier at her original (yearly) appointment.
We went home, still with little information. My Boxerfriend was doing OK, but seemed a little OFF. We went back for more bloodwork a week or two later. Red blood cells still lower. No real ideas of why, but tests were ruling some stuff OUT. We made an appointment for a vet cardiologist to see if her heart was causing collapse, and then waited.
A few days later, more collapsing. Went right in to my vet, and they referred me to an emergency vet with a lot of different specialists under one roof. The ER vets ran a bunch of tests but weren’t really finding much (heart OK per ECG, films OK, tests on tests on tests not showing tons of…anything). Went back the next day and got a Holter monitor put on for 24 hours, to keep track of her heart function.
While wearing her monitor, she had 2 more collapsing episodes. I took her in again (luckily, her visit to the ER the day prior meant we didn’t have to pay another ER fee! Yay for one break!). They ran the results from the Holter, and it only showed that her heart slowed down slightly during her episodes. More tests: red blood cells still lower.
My gal was REALLY low. If you know a Boxer, especially a young Boxer, you know they are basically one big ball of energy. My dogfriend had zero energy. She wasn’t getting up enough. She was collapsing and disoriented.
Many tests, a blood transfusion, and a bone biopsy later, and it looks like she has PIMA (precursor-directed immune-mediated anemia).
She’s on Prednisone now. We go back today to check her red blood cell count. She seems to be on the right path, and has more energy, and is eating and drinking normally (well…a little EXTRA, really, because of the ‘roids).
Was it the Cytopoint that triggered the PIMA? Who knows. Immune responses are weird and many things can make them GO. But it’s AWFULLY damn coincidental that a perfectly healthy — aside from itchiness — dog goes from zero to needing an emergency blood transfusion in a very short time, and that the timing lines up very closely with when she had her one (and final) shot of Cytopoint. Whether or not it WAS Cytopoint, my vet and others are now recommending no more vaccines, no more antibiotics. Ever. She has to stay on the steroids as long as it takes to get her red blood cells back in line, but other than that…no drugs.
I’m glad we found this early. I’m glad I have family and friends who have helped me gather funds to cover many of these costs. I’m glad my BBFF is still with us.
Good luck, everybody. And to those of you saying, “if it means my dog’s life is shortened by a bit?” …I hope it doesn’t come to that for you. I hope you have no side effects.
Wow, Kera! That’s a strong NO!! from this dog’s immune system. Glad you saw the connection, even if the WhiteCoats failed to make it.
I’ve used Cytopoint on my dog and I noticed a pattern… one week after receiving the injection my dog broke out into full body hives that required an emergency vet visit numerous times. The vets have never seen hives so bad. I finally made the connection, but the vets just didn’t think the injection would cause such a delayed reaction. My dog had to receive an injection of steroids and benadryl and then stay on steroids for two weeks for the hives to calm down.
Thank you for this article. I got pressured into using Cytopoint today at the vet and now I am devastated. He also had the shot last year and ended up with all kinds of issues…but I didn’t put two and two together because I was told it was safe etc. Does anyone know if I can give him anything to counteract the effects of this drug right away.
On March 6, 2019 I took my 11 year old healthy Basset-Hound mix to the vet for a hot spot treatment. The vet suggested the Cytopoint injection for itching. Following the injection, in a couple of days he got so many lumps and bumps on his body. He is also significantly slower and less enthusiastic. It has been less than a month, we did fine needle aspiration and the results are back suggesting lymphoma. I am in horror.
In February 27, 2009 I took my 10 month old half blue heeled half border collie puppy Wrigley to the vet because of constant itching. She is very healthy except for itching her legs all the time and we wanted to see if maybe it was a food allergy. The vet gave get the Cytopoint injection and said side effects could be vomiting and/or diarrhea, and lethargy. Two hours after the injection she started to Guam at the mouth and had a head twitch. She did that 4 times that evening. On February 28, 2019 she was very sleepy, not playful, not eating or drinking. She got up and was walking to another location, collapsed and went into a full seizure that last almost 6 minutes. When she finally came around she didn’t recognize me, her hair was standing up and she was growling at me. After about 5-10 minutes she finally came around and knew who I was. I took her back to the vet. They called the company and they said they had reports of dogs having seizures in the first 24-48 hours of the injection ( why wasn’t I told this)? The vet went on the internet and also found a forum where there was reports of dogs having seizures 24-48 hours after injection. They gave her anti seizure meds, kept her for the day . We continue to have her the anti seizure meds for the full 48 hours to make sure she doesn’t have anymore. So those that say the drug is worth the risk, it’s not. Blindness, brain damage and death is not worth the giving your dog this drug. Try other methods
Miley had been in a puppy mill for 7 yrs when I adopted her. I thought her scratching was environmental and tried every home remedy I could find. When I moved and the scratching continued, I took her to a local vet and asked to try Cytopoint. 7 weeks later and I’m just now starting to see her scratch a little again. 7 weeks with fabulous results!! I am a true believer of Cytopoint and her comfort in her senior life far outward the little risks involved. I also use a medicated shampoo on her every 2-3 weeks. For those who did not achieve the same results as my little Miley (Shih Tzu, now 10 yrs old), please keep looking for something that works for your pet.
I really appreciate articles like this. I am by no means thinking this is a wonder drug, nor is Apoquel. However for us, it is a chance at a possible improvement and quality of life for our 7 year old dog – who we believe was vaccine damaged by the breeder prior to coming to us, and we’ve been in hell dealing with her itchiness and subsequent eat/paw/chin infections as a consequence of this licking/chewing/scratching since she was 4 months old.
We spent the first 6.5 years on the natural path. Diets tried: all organic, raw, meaty bones, offal, homemade treats, to slow-cooking, eggs & vegies, sweet potato & pearl barley, cottage cheese and rice, no starch, horse meat/steamed eggs & green veg
Modalities Tried: Chinese herbs, acupuncture, a systemic yeast protocol, chiropractor, NAET, Kinesiology, Food sensitivity & Thyroid Testing sent to the USA, Medical Cannabis, bush flower essences, rescue remedy, essential oils, zeolite, oral fecal transplant, energy healing/bowen therapy, homeopathics (silica, vaccine detox homeopathy, blood tonic homeopathy, liver detox) energy healing, animal communication
Supplements taken: Apple cider vinegar, Bicarb, Diatomaceous Earth, different Probiotics (inc lactobacillus Helveticus and Bifidobacterium Longum), digestive enzymes, Golden Paste (turmeric), Coconut oil, fish/omega oil, cod liver oil, chia, iodine, spirulina, DigestaVite, kefir, garlic, MSM, vital greens, magnesium, cannabis oil, bee pollen, herbal remedy mix, diatomaceous earth, iodine, rosehip powder, camu camu, magnesium, zeolite, bee pollen, colostrum.
We’ve had varying success for short periods of time. Her quality of like was so poor 6 months ago (she lived 24/7 miserable in a cone) that we went for Apoquel. It has definitely given her quality of life, and we’ve chosen this quality over the fact that it may shorten her life. A heartbreaking decision for any parent of a furbaby to make. Apoquel is by no means the cure-all, we have had periods of time where she has been on it and still itching so bad she is still in a cone 24/7. A yeast medication has helped. And now I’m considering trying Cytopoint. It’s not ideal, but for some people, it’s the only choice left.
You’ve certainly tried lots of modalities Aimee, but I don’t see classical “whole dog” homeopathic treatments in your list.
Only thing I know that truly cures chronic disease and that why I’ve outlined how to hire the right kind of homeopathic vet in the free Apoquell Alternatives Report.
Don’t give up on homeopathy until you’ve given a pro 6 months
Aimee, your poor dog has been forced to suffer for nearly seven years WHY? There have been so many favorable Cytopoint user reports on just this site alone, and your dog has been in distress for so long, what are you waiting for? Many vets recommend it. I’m not qualified to say it will work for you, but it certainly helped my dog and brought huge relief to him THE SAME DAY as I have reported here.
Aimee, do not wait another day to try Cytopoint!!! Your dog deserves the effort and you have absolutely nothing to lose (except costs). My little girl is a happy energetic puppy again, even at 10 years old! Read my testimony below, please!
One of my rescue dogs scratched herself until she was bleeding. I make her food, no heartworm or flea medications, no vaccinations, of course, and homeopathic remedies. No progress until I used Head & Shoulders shampoo. I read about it while doing some research. It works!!
I was at the vet’s office today and took the opportunity to mention that I had seen a number of online posts from pet owners suggesting that Cytopoint may be dangerous to pets. She expressed doubt that Cytopoint posed significant risk because “Cytopoint works on the cellular level and probably is even safer than Apoquel.” The online posts I was referring to were from this forum. I don’t believe I’ve seen such posts elsewhere.
Not surprising, is it? Likely she’s well stocked and looking forward to sales.
Cellular level, so it’s safer?? I don’t see the logic in that argument.
Out of desperation and the promise of it being safe from our once trusted vet, we gave our putties Roxy cytopoint. She has been great ever since with occasional UTI and ear infections. It has been 3 years and guess what…. she has lymphoma and will die soon. After reading this I now know what caused it. I am devastated and ashamed of myself for blindly trusting that vet. Our Roxy had bloody nubs for feet and was killing herself chewing away 24 hours a day. What a double edged sword. She is 8 years old and too young to lose…..
Are blood test required prior to the first treatment(injection) of Cytopoint ? Our Portuguese Water Dog has been itchy for years and has been on the pill Apoquell. Never had blood work for that, that I recall. His appointment is for Wednesday Nov 7th.
We’ve had our dog 5 year old dog for 3 years. We’ve been careful with vaccines, and we learned from her bad reaction that Trifexis is totally unacceptable for flea control. She had worrying lethargy when taking that. We use natural flea control as much as possible and she is flea free, but at 9 months of living with us she developed horrible itching, red skin, and incessant scratching until she bled, and then she would smell very bad. After trying natural remedies for 2 months we took her to the doctor and she had Apoquel, which would relieve her for about 2 weeks and then she’d start up again. She moved on to Cytopoint, and that finally relieved the itching and inflammation. She had been miserable, and after the cytopoint she had relief for 8 weeks at a time. The itching has been diminishing over time, and it seems to ramp up again every four months after the cytopoint. We continue to try and relieve her with herbal baths and quercetin but when it gets too uncomfortable for her we will most likely continue with the cytopoint. We certainly watch out for any reactions or side effects of anything she is given, but nothing negative occurred after using cytopoint.
I stumbled upon this site while trying to find similar stories of what our family has gone through after our dog getting Cytopoint and all I can say is this drug needs to be pulled.
We had an 8 year old lab/mix with no known health issues, up to date on vaccinations. The most sweet, happy and healthy girl. She loved my 4 year old and loved my parents unconditionally. About 2 weeks ago around the week of 10/15/18 she started itching certain places of her skin, and we noticed some of her hair falling out of those places she was itching. We took her to the vet on 10/20/18 and they thought it looked like allergies and told us about this wonderful allergy shot that is the “safest drug for allergies on the market”. So we of course said yes, whatever will help the itch and she was given the Cytopoint injection that day. 2 days later on 10/22/18 during the evening and night she started arching her back like a cats, and crying and shaking. She was taken back to the vet on 10/23/18 and had blood work that was “perfect” so x rays of her back were taken that showed maybe some small areas of narrowing of her spine and a slightly bulging disc. These findings were thought to be the cause of her symptoms and she was given Neurontin and Steroids. 10/24 she was a little more comfortable but not normal, 10/25 she seemed a little better but still not herself. The morning of 10/26 she ran and jumped up on the bed and seemed happy and more like herself. 3 hours later on 10/26 she all of a sudden started foaming at the mouth, panting and was falling over when walking. We rushed her back to the vet, the did blood work and we were told she had pancreatitis and they would need to keep her for pain control and fluids. About 4 hours later we were called and told she had a 30 second seizure and we needed to come transfer her to an emergency vet. We got her to the emergency vet and they told us they felt like this was more than pancreatitis. We told them about the shot, but they had never heard of any other dog having a reaction like this to that shot. The next morning she had a 5 minute seizure and we went to see her and she was miserable. She could barely lift her head and was so weak she wasn’t able to stand. She was in and out of conciousness. We were told that they thought something within her Neurological system was the cause of her symptoms.
I think this had to do with the Cytopoint. She may have had something to begin with that we didn’t know about that Cytopoint exacerbated but she was our wonderfully playful and happy dog up until that shot. She still acted like a puppy with how she played. She was our sweet girl, and we had to make the awful decision to let her go from her suffering. And now she’s gone. I’m determined to report this to the company, and to get this message out to other pet owners!
I have two dogs poodle/terrier rescue dogs and they receive the cytopoint injection once a month. I wish I didn’t have to do the cytopoint injection both dog’s health is much better with the cytopoint. I have done swab testing and hair analysis to test for sensitivities. Changed the diet. No help. Both dogs eat a raw diet but the raw diet has not changed anything as far as allergies. I too suffer from allergies as do most of my neighbors. Unfortunately I live in the woods with the mold, the mosquitoes, you name it.
Homeopathy? Give me a break. I have spent thousands of dollars on myself seeing homeopaths. Waste of money — for myself. If you have the money, go for it, to find that miracle homeopathic remedy that will help. I remember once many years ago my cat was suffering from a UTI and a homeopath told me it might take months before we found the right remedy. WTF? I have had a UTI. Wait a couple months to find a remedy to cure her UTI? No!
Cytopoint and/or Apoquel are not perfect by no means. But when a dog is suffering it needs help and Cytopoint and Apoquel do help.
Sounds like you’ve yet to hire a well qualified homeopath, Debra. Very sorry you’ve had a bad experience and more than once, sounds like. No homeopathic vet with any experience would ever suggest a UTI might take months to resolve. A day or two, perhaps. Allergies: totally different story. That’s going to take time, patience, and attention to detail beyond “the itch.”
Debra, you’re right. Trust your instincts. Stick with science-based products and practices that have been objectively proven to work by many users over years. I have used Apoquel and Cytopoint successfully on my little guy (an Aussie terrier rescue). And, I’ve found Cytopoint to last longer than 2 months. Good for you!
Our Frenchton (Frenchie/Boston mix), had a cytopoint injection three months ago and has no reaction. He had one last Monday and by Saturday, he began to act weird. He was in his cage for awhile as my son had a baseba game but as soon as I let him out of his cage to go outside, I could tell something was off. He looked at me in a scared way and was arching his back and breathing weird. He already has odd breathing but this was way worse and much more labored. I panicked and took him to an emergency vet who checked his heart, ears and legs. She wanted us to come back to learn a better more natural way of caring for our dog which, we are more than willing to do, however, it happened again. Once we got him to the ER vet he was running around and acting normal which didn’t help. He has an appointment with the regular vet who gave him the cytopoint tomorrow. Lady on the phone said it’s such a safe shot… Didn’t want to hear my references to what I found on the internet… My dog was fine before this shot. I don’t know why he reacted the second time and not the first but, so many people describe the same symptoms; dog acting odd, arching back, not wanting to move or lift head, etc…. My baby is suffering and I know in my heart, it’s my fault for letting him get a shot of something that was barely tested.
I just searched for law suits against Zoetis and found horse owners in Australia have done so for $53 million: https://www.paulickreport.com/horse-care-category/owners-bring-53-million-class-action-suit-zoetis-australia-vaccine/..
Nothing on Cytopoint yet, but it’s a start.
Now that you’ve scared the hell out of me I have to say I am at the point of not going to worry about it.
We lost our first Rattie, Tucker, to Cushings after years of seasonal steroids (only thing that worked). The allergies were miserable for him and EXPENSIVE to treat. We were able to keep him alive with the Cushings for about one more year. Trust me, we will never go there again. 🙁
Our new Rattie, Noodle, has been suffering for two years and we have been going through diet changes, allergy shots, baths, sprays, and still his skin is bright red and scabby. Now he is going BALD. In a word – miserable. Nothing is working.
Yesterday I found Noodle under the dining table chewing a hole in his shoulder. I took him in and our vet gave him his first injection of Cytopoint. He seems alert and is not scratching and chewing everywhere for the first time in two years!
We don’t know how he will react over time, but past experience tells us that we will not let our dog get Cushings from the steroids, and if anything horrid/terminal rears it’s ugly head from the Cytopoint, well, we will not let him suffer; not like we let our little dog Tucker suffer.
In the end, we feel that quality of life is more important than length of life.
Because of everything that I have read here, I will to post any results good or bad for others to gain knowledge. I hope you don’t mind, but I feel we need to keep records for the benefit of all dog owners with itchy suffering dogs.
Hello! Dr. Falconer, I need your advice. I am a young dog owner, a senior in college. I rescued my baby girl Juno (a beautiful chow, akita, elkhound mix) last summer from a dog sanctuary (a place that rescues dogs sent to kill shelters) when she was 6, now she is 7; she serves as my Emotional Support Animal for my severe anxiety problems and Juno lives with me on campus in a wonderful, suite-style dorm with lots of loving people. Juno has always been a little overweight, she’s a large dog but is still on the heavy side of 97 lbs….I had her vaccinated this summer as I was unaware that it is safer to NOT vaccinate her…I only went to vets the first year when she had a severe infection, I had never gotten bloodwork done until last month, when she started to non-stop itch her snout/mouth all over everything and everyone, and would viciously bite open her paw pads when I’d leave her alone to shower for 15 minutes. I went to a new vet two weeks ago because I was caught up in her cycle of healing/reopening the wounds….she was just not herself for about a week and I literally tried everything. As a college student, I already don’t have financial means to visit the vet more than 2 times a year, let alone buy all of these remedies and things to help her. At the vet, we thought she had a thyroid issue but it turns out her bloodwork was fine, so she determined it was allergies. The vet gave me options of Apoquel and Cytopoint and I decided on Cytopoint since it seemed like the best option, she also gave me some mycobacterial wipes to help heal her paws. The day after the dose, her behavior started to improve and I had thought the licking, chewing, and itching had gone away but it came back aggressively two days later! For the past three weeks Juno has not been left alone without the cone on, and it’s just so sad to me. I have removed all factors that could be causing this for her- rawhide, non-organic treats, wipe her down everytime we go outside, and now from advice from a local pet store I am going to try and change up her diet from Taste of the Wild to Zigniature dog food….but at this point I’m really grasping at anything to help her. I really think that the grass on my campus is what is causing her to constantly lick and bite her paws…she was not like this this summer (when I lived somewhere else); so maybe it’s the chemicals in the grass, the vaccines I gave her this summer, the Nexguard/Heartguard Plus I started giving her this summer, and the Cytopoint? I bought her boots to protect her feet, but those come off so easily….I am just mad that Cytopoint is called this “cure-all” drug and it’s super expensive and I feel like I am just wasting my hard-earned money at this point…the vet is going to call me tomorrow to talk about it but I just don’t want to go in for a third time in three weeks….I do not have that money. I just want my dog to feel relief, it’s causing me more anxiety…..was recommended today to lather her in coconut oil so that’s the best I can do for sweet Juno as of now and keep her in the cone for the few hours a day when I am in class. HELP!
I’m sorry for what you’ve been going through. My own experience with itchy dog skin (not paws) FWIW, is that Apoquel was less effective for us than Cytopoint, which we switched to. Calculated on a once-monthly treatment basis the two are equally costly. However, Cytopoint turned out to be cheaper for us than Apoquel was since we’ve needed it much less frequently than monthly. Cytopoint has been very effective; it worked immediately on the first injection, and we haven’t seen any bad reactions, but we’ve had only one injection so far. That’s Dog #1. Our Dog #2 (our son’s dog, same breed) has been getting monthly Cytopoint injections for close to a year, and there have been no bad reactions either. Good luck!
Hello, I’ve just read through most of this, and I’m not a bit surprised at the potential danger of this drug. I have a friend whose dog has allergies and received his first shot of S-CYTOPOINT recently. I sent Marilyn information from Earth Clinic about the use of apple cider vinegar for allergies in pets. I encourage anyone with an allergy ridden pet to check it out…or any other health problem for that matter. There are many stories under pet allergies about success with ACV. I greatly appreciate the work of the author, Will Falconer. I like his style, reminds me of the way I talk sometimes. 🙂 I stopped having pets vaccinated years ago, like 1997. I’ve never been sorry. I realize that rabies is a devastating disease, and distemper, and that vaccines have greatly reduced the incidents of these diseases, but question the number of vaccines administered at one time including for diseases we’ve never heard of in a vaccine cocktail…..as many as ten different vaccines all at once that the animal’s immune system has to suddenly deal with. I also question giving these vaccines more often than once every three years. There was a vet at one of the northern vet schools who did a study on vaccines, spent years doing it, and determined they all last a good seven years. That is what the article he wrote said. He added that he recommends every three years, I’m sure that is because he doesn’t want to lose his license. He also strongly recommended titer testing to see if a pet’s last shots are still providing protection. Why vaccinate if your pet doesn’t need it?
I think you are referring to Dr. Ron Schultz at the University of Wisconsin Vet School. He also runs a titer lab there — $40 for parvo/distemper titers, a bargain.
He does not recommend every 3 year vaccines. He instead says that after the puppy shots dogs are likely immune for life to parvo/distemper. It is titers they recommend every 3 years (and what I am doing with my dogs). The 7 year study you are talking about is the Rabies Challenge Study.
I’ve got a 2.5 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback that’s suffered “environmental allergies” since getting vaccinated. He was chewing/biting his paws to the point that there wasn’t any hair left on them. One thing that I did find that seems to help was the use of Povidone iodine (brandname is Betadine). I can find an 8 oz bottle in the “first aid” section at my local grocery store for about $8 so it’s relatively inexpensive.
I fill a shallow bucket about 1/3 full with water and squirt in enough Povidone so that the water looks like strong tea. I then dip my dog’s paws in it, one at a time, and let them air dry. I do this twice a day – once after our morning walk and again before we turn in for the night after he’s gone potty. The website I saw this on also recommended wetting a washcloth with the solution and wiping the dog’s entire underside, especially the “arm pits” and groin area, areas that tend to be irritation sites as well.
This seemed to solve my dog’s paw itching problem to the point that he’s no longer chewing on them and the hair has grown back. Note that Povidone is a no-sting iodine so don’t try to use regular iodine on any irritated or broken skin.
Finally, this is a suggestion to treat a specific symptom, not a cure for allergies overall. For that, you’ll need someone like Dr. F. However, it might give your dog some relief while you continue to search for an overall solution.
Hope this helps someone with the same issues.
September 4th, I took my previously happy dog into the vet for skin issues (itching licking redness). She also had a history of renal failure, which was was living with stably, no acute issues at the time of first visit. Vet suggested Cytopoint or Apoquel, using the fact that Cytopoint was easy as a injectable vs Aqpoquel which was an oral pill (my dog was a known candidate for being difficult with taking pills). I was assured by my vet that Cytopoint DID NOT directly affect the kidneys, therefore safe for her condition. No other potential side effects were mentioned to me, and as a trusting pet owner wanting to help her beloved dog..Cytopoint was given to her. By September 6th, she was lethargic to the point where she would not pick her head up, not drinking water/eating, and vomiting. I brought her back into the vet that morning. No concern by them that this was a reaction to the Cytopoint (I have raised this question myself and was shut down). She was admitted to the ICU. Fast forward to today September 9th, she had a stroke this morning and passed away. We are currently undergoing an autopsy, as the ICU vet thinks this is highly likely to be a reaction to the Cytopoint, as well as possible anaphylaxis as her face became extremely swollen while she was admitted.
As an owner, I started researching (too late unfortunately) and came across side effects listed on the Cytopoint website:
Dermatitis
Bacterial Skin Infection
Erythema
Vomiting
Anorexia
Lethargy
Pruritus
Diarrhea
Alopecia
Cases of vomiting, diarrhea and lethargy resolved without treatment
For a normal dog that did not already have renal failure happening, I can understand how vomiting diarrhea and lethargy resolved without treatment. However, in my dog’s case she became so dehydrated from these side effects that it pushed her kidneys over the edge. Her values were elevated previously but she was not living symptomatically and they values almost doubled after the injection and her decline. She spent 3 days in the ICU on fluids and different medications, she even started taking a turn for the better…walking on her own, eating small licks of food, wagging her tail again. Then I receive the call this morning (she was supposed to be coming home today or Monday) that she collapsed on her walk (which happened to be the best walk she had thus far while admitted, trotting around normally, enjoying herself), went into cardiopulmonary arrest, had a stroke and died right there. She was already gone by the time I saw her again.
This has been the most traumatizing thing I have ever been through, and the guilt I feel that I made this decision for her is immense. I truly believe Cytopoint killed my sweet dog. She was happy and living a normal life and within 5 days she has now been taken away from me and I am devastated. We are having an autopsy done and the veterinarians have been in contact with the company who manufactures Cytopoint. This is just unacceptable, this drug needs to be taken off the market before it takes the lives of more pets.
I’m speechless, Alex. I’m so very sorry that you’ve had your dog snatched away from you by a drug you had no warning to be cautious about saying yes to.
Though it will never fix the pain and loss you’ve had to endure, the manufacturer (Zoetus) should minimally pay for every cent of expenses you just incurred.
Unbelievable. I can barely imagine how stunned you are right now.
My pup has been getting cytopoint for the last year. One injection lasts for over 8 weeks for him. He is a totally different dog when he has the cytopoint. He is no longer scratching or chewing himself raw. His life was miserable without it and nothing else was working. I hope there are no long term affects later down the road but for right now Cytopoint is giving him a chance to enjoy his life!
My experience with Cytopoint was similar. My dog got his injection 9 weeks ago. The itching stopped on the same day of his injection. He was blessedly itch-free until last week when some itching started to return, but very gradually and, so far, with much less severity. Cytopoint worked very well for us.
My 11 month strong, healthy 100+ pound Rhodesian Ridgeback had the Cytopoint injection a little under 2 weeks ago for an ear infection and prior rash on webbing of paws. Starting the very next day, he has not drank water from his bowl, starting having bumps on his skin, lost about 10 pounds despite eating his food and worst of all cries all day, is lethargic and rolls on his back and twists himself. We went through over 2K in testing (blood work, tick test, kidney, pancreas, emergency ultrasound of abdomen) – all coming back normal. He was given a dewormer and an antibiotic, just in case and showed no signs of improvement. The timing has been uncanny and assuming this poor baby boy makes it through this I will NEVER use Cytopoint again. I believe it changed him from a high energy, strong dog, to totally different dog overnight and I would heed caution. It’s not worth removing the itch for this!! Beware of the new wonder drug that had limited testing from anyone other than the company that has a vested interest.
Oh, God, Mary, for an 11 month old to be reduced to illness like this for 2 weeks duration is truly heartbreaking. Especially crying all day! He’s really uncomfortable and you’re not getting support for your clear observation that it came on a day after the drug.
Here’s perhaps a Hail Mary pass now that we’re two weeks in, but worth a try to detox him: https://vitalanimal.com/detox-report/
Please do report back and let us know if this helped.
The manufacturer states that Cytopoint is not a drug – rather, it is biological therapy that mimics the action of the dog’s natural immune system.
Then, what is a drug? By one definition it’s a substance which has a physiological effect when introduced into the body. I suppose even water, in sufficient quantity, would qualify as a drug under that definition.
The point I’m making here is that arguing over word meanings is specious and unproductive. The argument here is really a political – not a medical – one. It’s all about the unacknowledged elephant in the room.
Surely there must be a more appropriate forum for this discussion.
Not a drug: fanciful idea from someone selling a drug. Yep, take it elsewhere, I’m not interested George.
I came across this blog researching Cytopoint. My Gracie has been suffering since Spring and its not let up through the summer…I am praying its just seasonal since she was perfect in the fall/winter. We have done the change in diet, we wipe our paws down everytime, we take hypoallergenic baths with conditioner, we wear booties when its wet outside, take flax seed oil, currently been on Apoquel since end of March with no great results, and we have been on Colostrum for about 2 1/2 weeks(but not at max dose yet)she is going to vet tomorrow night for a blood allergy test & they suggested the Cytopoint since OTC allergy drugs, Apoquel & steroids aren’t working….I’m at a loss as to what to do….she gnaws on her feet they are scaly, raw & bleeding….she has some itchiness in one ear but its not bad….she will bites at various place on herself but not to the point of baldness…..I’m keeping her on the Colostrum it needs more time to work from what I have read & it seems to be the same theory of treatment as Nzymes(which a friend suggested to me) I have never had a dog this way with no relief and I am at a total loss……I was ok with this shot until reading this blog now I scared…..any suggestions for me to look into??
Hey Kristy, short answer is my Apoquel Alternatives Report, which you can find on my original Apoquel post. No simple answers, but this state of allergy can be cured. Just not by anything conventional medicine has at its disposal.
Why are you referring to Cytopoint as a drug, not just once, but repeatedly throughout your entire article? As a licensed, actively practicing DVM in good standing with your state’s board, I am thoroughly disappointed in your apparent lack of comprehension of Cytopoint, and the subsequent misinformation you are spreading.
While we may have entirely opposing viewpoints re: veterinary medicine just generally speaking, I still respect your title/designation.
If you want to write freely about the “evils” of treatments for atopic canines, at least do so factually. No matter how much one convolutes the facts that are published and known about Cytopoint, one absolutely CANNOT accurately and factually state that it is a drug of any sort, nor that there are any known negative side effects from using Cytopoint. End of story.
I would appreciate your consideration in attempting to understand that which you choose to write about in the future. Many appear to listen to you, as witnessed by the many comments on your blog posts. I find this unfortunate, but am hopeful that you may attempt to add truth on occasion in your blogging in the future.
As a “concerned vet technician” (all be it, a nameless one), perhaps you could enlighten me as to what Cytopoint is, if not a drug. What exactly are the facts about this non-drug please?
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
How did the Cytopoint work for you?
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.
I’m sorry for your loss. How old was Atticus?
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 “[email protected] 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.
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 french bulldog has hives every 2 weeks after the cytopoint
shot!
We have a Westie who also gets Hives shortly after cytopoint. Is there any explanation anyone can provide here?
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.
Oh, I’d still hold vaccines responsible. Just previous generations’ who were vaccinated, Shannon. I’ve got a student in my Natural Rearing Roadmap course now who bought a supposedly NR Boxer pup, several generations of unvaccinated dams before this cutie arrived on the planet.
Horrible skin problems and more, and my student was pulling her hair out trying to figure out why. Turns out, after some deeper investigation, this breeder didn’t own any NR studs, so was using frozen semen from a *highly* vaccinated stud dog. Boom. Vaccinosis in this supposedly naturally reared pup.
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!
Kim, I have 2 Westies ages 5 and 12. The 12 year old has always had problems with itching and licking of his paws, hot spots on his sides, and one ear chronically infected. Our Vet has always taken a conservative approach which we appreciated because I’ve always been careful with our Westies’ diet and support them with nutritional supplements recommended by Dr. Karen Becker’s website. I use Cedarcide primarily for fleas and ticks and they take a fish oil daily along with probiotics. We had allergy testing on the 12 year old many years ago and he wasn’t allergic to anything according to the tests. Occasionally when he has had a really bad case of the itching we gave him temaril-P and it helped. So far, we haven’t had any problems with signs of allergies in the 5 year old. This year, the 12 year old has been having more problems with the paw licking, hot spots, and one bad ear. In the Spring, I had to take him to the Vet for his senior checkup. His normal Vet wasn’t available and we saw a new, fresh out of college Vet. She recommended the Cytopoint. She handed us the brochure, we discussed it, and thought that it must be safe. So, we allowed her to give him the first Cytopoint shot. He had immediate relief and it lasted for about 8 weeks. It was great to not have to constantly tell him to stop licking his paws. At the 8 week point he started to lick again and had a bad ear infection. So, we went in for another shot of Cytopoint. A few weeks later the 12 year old was very restless and didn’t sleep all night. I had to run him outside at least a dozen times due to severely loose bowel movements that were very soft. The next day, he was laying in his bed looking dazed. I called to him to go outside and he acted as though he didn’t hear me. I went to him and he startled when I walked up on him. He had blood coming out of the “good” ear that he never had any issue with for 12 years. I got out my ear cleaning kit and cleaned it up to see what was going on. He started shivering as if in pain. He has always been very good with allowing me to clean the other ear that has been a chronic problem. We were away from our primary home at the time. I called his Vet to see if I could get in but since we were going into a holiday weekend the office was on limited hours with limited staff. So, I made the decision to take the 12 year old to a local Vet that flushed the ear and ordered antibiotics. Over the course of a couple of days the 12 year old started acting as if he was paranoid. He wouldn’t settle in his usual comfy spots, paced the house, hid behind the dining room table, and acted like he was scared. Once the ear started getting better he seemed to get back to normal. We just had a 3rd Cytopoint shot a week ago for severe itching, hot spots, and the chronic one ear issue. The last couple of days he hasn’t slept much, has stood by the door wanting to go out but when taken out he’s not pottying more than usual. He’s been acting paranoid again with looking around like he doesn’t recognize his surroundings and all of a sudden jumping like he’s going to take flight. Last night, I kept him by my side in bed and just patted him comfortingly every time he popped his head up and got ready to run which was every couple of minutes. It’s heartbreaking to see our loving Westie acting like this! Since I was up most of the night trying to keep him calm the thought crossed my mind that it might be the Cytopoint causing these issues. So, I started searching online for answers from my iPad. I came across this site and have read the comments from several people who describe the same issues! Never again! I just hope that our 12 year old recovers and I’m mad that I let my guard down and allowed this new Vet to our Vet’s practice give him the Cytopoint to start with. I will be calling to make an appointment for him with his regular Vet who I do trust and all of these things will be mentioned. I am very angry with myself for not doing research from the start. I’ve always been careful and this time I let my guard down for a quick fix of the issue. Also, I have also noticed that the Cytopoint doesn’t work as well with each successive shot. This morning, our 12 year old Westie is licking his paws and it’s been a week. He doesn’t seem to be having the paranoia or flight behavior this morning…..yet. Just be careful. There seems to be mixed responses to this Cytopoint based on some of the things I’ve read. I don’t know why some dogs have a reaction and others do not but we will not be using it again.
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!
My dog got the shot and now is in so much pain, even on pain meds she is in pain. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER – if anyone knows how to flush this out of her body please let me know.
I’m so sad.
My Dog is a 2.5 year old lab/pit mix. He had skin allergies, vet gave us Zyrtec and prednisone which worked but shortly after the script was up he would start itching again, always in a new spot. After about 3 rounds of this Cytopoint was recommended. We went with it, the first injection he had no side effects and itching was gone!…. about 3 weeks after his second injection we notice his tongue was pale, he was very tired, and after he got up from sleeping to greet us at the door his legs collapsed from underneath him. We rushed him to the vet, and his RBC count was at 17%.. we had $1000 worth of tests ran all inconclusive we just know he has non regenerative anemia, he was put on a treatment plan to try to rebuild his immune system… 2 weeks later he dropped to 10% and we had rushed him to an animal hospital for a blood transfusion, at this hospital they ran more tests all still pretty much inconclusive, his body is generating very minimal red blood cells. We currently have a bone marrow biopsy out to see if we can get to the bottom of this. Considering this came pretty much out of no where, we immediately asked if it could be Cytopoint and pretty much keep getting the answer that it is too new for it to be confirmed. After reading this article I will not discount that CYTOPONT caused this horrible thing to happen to our dog. Especially when the suggested side effects by the article are decreased red blood cell production resulting in anemia. Again there is not 100% proof that CYTOPOINT caused this but there seems to be quite the coincidence. We are still not out of the woods and this entire situation has been a complete nightmare, and ripped our hearts from our chests With the hopes we can make him better, and if his allergies do flair up again we will be looking into some natural remidies. With the small case study, and limited side effect info from CYTOPOINT I would highly recommend not using this drug in your fur baby
Our dog has not responded to anything else. She takes Cytopoint injections every 8 to 9 wks and gets total relief
I’ve not read the whole comment thread because it’s so long–is anyone participating in a class action suit against Zoetis?
We made a big mistake by allowing the vet to inject Cytopoint without out doing some research. We learned a lesson in the most horrible way. The day after the injection our wonderful Bichon Frise had his blood platelet count plunge while his red cell count was high normal. Seems he just stopped making platelets, or for some reason they all started clotting, and he bled from his urine and his saliva and his lungs filled with clots and he suffocated to death. This happened a week ago. We are heartbroken–as I’m sure you all understand. All of this was supposed to help him. It’s so disappointing that this poison is on the market and that vets are recommending it. USDA approved? What does that mean? Why does the FDA allow this? Is there an assumption here that our pets are livestock? They should be protected from poison like this too but we didn’t get our dog in order to sell him as meat. There is a difference. Do not be a guinea pig for this company. They wanted the stock bump and soon they’ll probably withdraw the drug, tweak it, and then release it again with minimal testing to needlessly kill our beloved pets so their stock will rise.
We have a 4 year old bully mix, whom was supposed to only be a foster back in June 2014. Due to all of her health issues, we ended up adopting her, as we knew she would have been dumped in a shelter again. Right out of the shelter she had 7 months of “happy tail” and mange. Then came ear infections, yeast infections, staph infections, torn ACL (surgery), hematoma (surgery), early arthritis, UTI, and allergies galore.
Her vet put her on prednisone as a temporary thing. Well temporary turned into longer and longer. We finally said enough is enough and took her off it. Her allergies seemed manageable with benadryl, but we knew that was not the answer either. During all of this, I had been doing research, as we hate giving her drugs. We tried switching food, did a raw diet with supplements, cooked for her, different supplements, etc.
Fast forward to the end of last summer and her allergies started worsening. We did allergy blood testing. Storage and dust mites, 2 types of pine, tea tree, and queen palm, is what those tests showed. I went through the gammut of washing everything dog every single week, dust mites covers were put on all dog beds, cleaning every day, no cloth toys etc. Whatever I could to minimize the dust mites (although I know they are never truly gone).
Then right before Thanksgiving, they were the worst they’ve ever been. We were all miserable and no one was sleeping. I had already read about apoquel and was dead set against it. Our vet talked us into it, saying she at least needed relief. Within 4 hours she stopped itching. Within a month, it stopped working. I was a bit relieved because I did not want her ln it, but we were back to an insanely itchy dog again. Right before Christmas she got a steroid injection because our vet didn’t have cytopoint. We changed to a canned LID food. We went through Christmas with no relief. The steroid injection did not work. The cytopoint injection worked a little bit. I found this site and I’m thrilled.
So… Apple Pie has her first appointment with a homeopathic vet only 15 minutes from us on Thursday (thank you Dr Falconer for the great ref!) for nutrition counseling and then next Wednesday for Facts of Findings. We are so done with all of these drugs. She has to wear a cone and/or donut at all times. We’ve resorted to booties on her feet and sometimes a t-shirt as well because she’ll scratch her belly on the rug. I have spent countless nights researching all I can, crying Because Apple is such a happy go lucky dog, but is so miserable at the same time. We want our “old” Apple Pie back and know it will take time, but we are ready. We’ve gone this long so we are ready to put in the work.
I must also add, that I was mistaken… In gathering records for Dr Lindsay for Thursday, Apple was on apoquel for almost 3 months,not 1. We started end of August and by November it stopped working. She has also started losing fur on her head (started about 3 weeks ago) after the one injection of cytopoint and is itchy again. Both of which are side effects of cytopoint. We will not be getting the next injection.
My valley bulldog(boxer English bulldog mix) was having severe allergies from the time I got him. He would scratch himself to the point of bleeding, hives, rashes, and was just a miserable puppy. I tried all types of shampoos, natural remedies, Benadryl, steroid pills everything. He eventually would get infections from the sores and scratching. I switched his vet out of frustration and his new vet looked at his history and saw we tried switching foods, we moved all types of things and nothing worked. He recommended Cytopoint, and since the day he had his first shot he has been a completely different dog. It usually last about three months until I notice he is itching again. So for me it has been all positive.
With Cytopoint I have my dog back. Will continue with this palliative treatment until something better comes along.
We rescued a 18 month old Pit Bull who started itching like a maniac a couple weeks after we brought her home. She scratched herself raw and had bumps all over her body. Now, I’d much rather try natural remedies than vet prescribed medications, not only due to the potential side effects, but the cost as well. And of course the pet insurance I have will not cover any skin allergies or dermatitis of any kind (it’s considered a “pre-existing condition”. Grrr!).
I tried different foods, supplements, shampoos, probiotics, coconut oil, benedryl, oatmeal rinses, apple cider vinegar, fish oils, vitamin E, flax seed, hydrocortisone sprays and wipes, and the local homeopathic vet has a waiting list thats two months out. We bought apparel that’s similar to a (onesie) body suit, which did help prevent scratching a little bit, but as soon as it came off, she bit and scratched for 20 minutes straight. We broke down and got the Cytopoint shot, and she almost immediately stopped itching and hasn’t scratched since. I’m still going to look into natural resources, but the shot is a great relief in the meantime.
Hi everyone — I’m new here and I’m looking for some kind of advice or ideas — I’m at a blockade. I have a 7 yr old long hair chihuahua that has not any any skin issues in his entire life. Here is what happened in the last 7 months: In June I switched his kibble to a high quality chicken type (his first time on chicken). I noticed a little scratching, but nothing out of the normal – and it was here and there – no alarms raised. In August trouble started — I believe he picked up fleas at the groomer (he’s an indoor dog) that quickly got out of control — heavy flea dirt, crusts on the skin, obsessive scratching. He was put on NexGuard and it took about 2 weeks or so to get rid of the fleas on him and the house. The NexGuard dosage was given on August 28th. Once the fleas were gone, the scratching seemed to subside. His next dose of Nexguard was on Sept. 28 — 3-4 days later the obsessive scratching was back, with him scratching his skin raw. Took him to the vet — another steroid shot — scratching subsided for about a week, but came back even worse. October 28th — another Nexguard dose —-3-4 days later even more scratching — this time with round eruptions, huge clumps of hair coming out, round nickel sized discolorations on the skin and skin that was peeling off of him. I panicked and called my vet — he wanted to give him another steroid shot and I said NO — we’re treating the symptoms not the cause. I even brought him a baggie of skin crusts and scabs for him to test — His response “you’re overreacting — this is just a systemic situation – there’s no point in testing these”. I walked out and never went back. Changed vets — and by the time I brought Niko in the next day — his skin was beet red, the sores were so hot and raised. She took one look — did the tape test and put him on an antibiotic immediately — as it turned out, he had a staph and yeast infection. He is currently at the end of his antibiotics, but still taking the yeast meds. We are waiting for food allergy results that should be back any day now. I also started the Douxo Sepphorhea shampoo, which helped a bit. He’s doing a bit better now, but he is still scratching, causing hot spots — but it’s not as intensive as it was before. At first I thought it was the chicken…..then I thought the flea infestation caused the dermatitist…..but then I started reading posts about people that put their pets on Nexguard and the skin issues that resulted. Niko could be a poster child for everything I read. And it makes sense — each dose (3 of them on the 28th of each month) was followed by a strong increase in the skin scratching/erruptions/flakes/steroid shot 3-5 days later. I didn’t see the connection at the time – but the more I’m looking at it — it’s hard to ignore. His last dose was on October 28, which means he was at full dose/level until November 28th, 3 weeks ago. The Nexguard levels should be starting to come down now — I only wonder how long it will take to get this out of his system. Thanks for listening — sorry for the long post.
Our daughter’s 5 year old Boxer has had increasingly bad allergies over the years. We sent him to an allergist who found he’s allergic to 32 of the 60 things tested all environmental – human and cat dander, grass, and 5 different types of mold to list a few. He’s had numerous ear infections which of course has caused numerous hematomas 2 of which have had to be dealt with surgically. The ONLY relief he has is through a cocktail of Apoquel, Benadryl and Claritin. We know Apoquel especially is bad but what else can we do? Quality of life comes into play here and without these drugs, he is miserable! We would most definitely prefer to NOT use them – I just heard about Cytopoint and thought perhaps we’d found a safer, better alternative, but it does not sound like it :'( ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Do not try Cytopoint! It has not been tested adequately and our healthy dog died the day after the injection. I’m so disappointed the vet pushed this on us. I guess he won’t itch anymore.
Thank you so much for this information. I’m now very worried about this drug. I switched two years ago to a vet who also practices homeopathic medicine. This drug was suggested because they felt apoquel was more dangerous.
I have a 7 year Newf diagnosed with immune mediated encephalitis two years ago after routine vaccines. They thought she had a frontal lobe brain tumor. Since then I opted out of traditional treatment of high doses prednisone and vaccines. The homeopathic vet also supports no vaccines. Although her holistic regimen has helped some, she still has flare ups that are severe. She circles, falls on floors, menace response is absent during flares. It’s as if she sees thing that aren’t there. She’s afraid of doors, floors, steps, isolating and gets very hyper vigilant about other animals. She cries at dogs incessantly on walks where she couldn’t have cared before. My beautiful girl’s behavior has totally changed.
Recently she had hives the size of quarters and was told to give two days of prednisone which she doesn’t tolerate well and Benadryl. She seemed fine for about 15 days then started itching severely. Took her to the homeopathic vet and found smaller hives everywhere. There has been no change in diet or environment that can point to. The homeopathic vet suggested cytopoint saying it wasn’t an immune modulator like apoquel which doesn’t sound correct based upon this research. Since the hives, she’s having terrible symptoms again and was told any immune response will trigger flares and once she’s more comfortable hopefully the symptoms will dissipate. We’ve overhauled her diet. She is on LDN, stasis of mansion of mind, Chinese herbals, cushex and Tcyte. She’s had thyroid and cortisol levels tested and the results made them suspect she’s in the early stages of HAC per the university of Tennessee lab. Also her thyroid was in the low 50 percentile per Dr. Dodds research. I don’t think the current plan is solving her issues but she is at least off prednisone which was a nightmare.
I’m now worried cytopoint was a mistake. I wish I knew how else to help her and to get her back to her normal self. Although the symptoms aren’t always as intense as they are currently, there’s something very wrong. I hope the cytopoint doesn’t trigger additional issues in the meantime. I’m afraid as to whatever is going there will be a tipping point where she’s completely not functional and tough decisions may have to be made. I’m so glad I found this information shared. Thank you, Dr. Falconer.
My 14-year-old toy poodle has had four Cytopoint injections, about 5-6 weeks apart. His itching has been greatly reduced and he hasn’t experienced any of the problems I’ve read about here.
So how long should we have to wait to see if the other shoe drops? If it doesn’t, I am giving this thing a try because I am desperate and nothing else has worked for me 🙂
Thank you for sharing this great article. I was ready to try Cytopoint before I read this. I made an appointment after a friend and a vet recommended it and I was hopeful to finally find the solution for my three years of desperation with my toy poodle chewing on his paws, and pretty much everywhere. I only take the cone off to eat his two meals everyday, and to give him a bath once a week. Sometimes he doesn’t even eat and goes for the paws instead. I have tried prednisone , Apoquel, tamaril P, antibiotics, and now he’s on allergy shots but not even a small change. I have tried shampoos, lotions, probiotics, coconut oil, fish oil, nzymes, dynovite, honest kitchen food, cooking at home, hydrolyzed protein food, Ultamino by Royal Canine, some other holistic foods, I’ve seen dermatologists, stopped vaccinating to the point I can’t take him to groomers because they don’t accept him if he isn’t vaccinated, and also I heard it’s illegal in my county not to have vaccines current (every year). There is a $300 fee, so I am going to have to vaccinate him again soon. I was going to try this new drug because I am at a point where if they tell me there is something that can improve his quality of life, I will have to take some risks. He’s been miserable for so long, he can’t even jump on the beds because the cone is bigger than him. I was waiting for allergy drops to start working but it’s been a couple of months and no improvement. Please help me, if anyone out there finds a solution, please share it with me, I will forever appreciate it. Thank you!
Have you heard of cytopoint leading to pancreatitis in a dog who is 5 . She started having issue last summer after a vaccine. Changed to raw diet cool proteins a few months later. She was good all winter and most of summer then the itching started again. Vet shot her up with cytopoint. This dog has been on prednisone in the past as well for itching. She just had her third injection of cytopoint recently but itching still happening and now she has pancreatitis. I tried to tell the owner to treat for leaky gut but she went ahead with the injections.
What a thrill to find this site. So appreciative to all the commenters. April, you and I are birds of a feather. Long story.
I’m an RN for over 40 years who has always balked at traditional medicine. Ive always maintained an organic food household, filtered, water, no fast foods, etc. No soda. NO MEDICATIONS. On and on. Everybody thought I was a nut. Our journey through holistic care for us ( first) was when our older daughter had recurrent strept throat, which started to worry me. We changed directions and started seeing a chiropractor, who we all see to this day. Daughter is now 30 and still goes. Never looked back. Stopped vaccinating our children at age 5 ( fortunately, they did not have all the vaccines then that they have now ). My own personal battle, in the work place, was when mandatory flu shots became required for health care workers. Although I was already retired from Denver Health Medical Center, I still worked as a per diem RN a few hours a month. I also worked per diem at Craig Rehab Hospital, one of the top five rehab hospitals in the country for spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. When Denver Health refused to accept my religious waiver against the flu shot, they told me I would be terminated. I hired a top vaccine attorney and won. The hospital had to back down on their verbiage and they accepted my waiver every year. Craig Rehab didn’t give a hoot about it though. They told us to get the shot or get fired. I resigned, along with 12 other top shelf health care workers, on the deadline. The day after the deadline, the hospital saw the “error in their ways” and called all of us, saying they were amending their policy and would “work with us.” Sorry. Too late. I stood by that last few weeks and watched NUMEROUS pregnant nurses in tears, asking for exemptions from the vaccination. There was no mercy. I never stepped in that door again.
Our pets followed the same route. In the early 1980’s, I had a Wire Fox Terrier who became suddenly paralyzed. She was 11 at the time. In a blizzard, I drove her to a neurologist, who told me she had Guillaine Barre Syndrome, secondary to a rabies vaccination a few days previous. WAKE UP CALL. A few years afterwards, we had a Rottweiler who suffered a severe allergic reaction to her one, and ONLY rabies shot she ever received, at the age of 1 year. It’s very difficult, at least for me, when you own breeds such as Rottweilers ( we now own two Dobermans who are nationally certified human remains detection dogs) and people are afraid of them, although there is no reason to be. All it takes is one accusation, one dog attacking MY dogs ( mine are completely trained, off lead) and you’re “in the soup” with animal control. Since these two incidences, my days of scheduled vaccinations were over. I knew I could never control what hobby breeders do ( all four of our dogs are from very reputable breeders) but I sure could control what I did when they came to MY house.
Three years ago, we switched all the dogs to a raw diet and never looked back. I bought Lou Olson’s wonderful book on natural and raw diets for dogs and got on board. It was intimidating at first. Now, it is just part of our feeding schedule. The two cats are pretty much on it as well. No kibble in the house. I NEVER do repeat vaccinations ( parvo, distemper, etc) but instead, do occasional titers on the dogs. We have never done heartworm preventative. I do a periodic check, just in case. I do one shot, when at all possible, of Rabies in a dog’s lifetime, and that is only by law, which I do my best to always get around. I did Wire Fox Terrier Rescue for about 20 years ( also Lakeland, Smooth Fox and Irish Terriers, Rottweilers and Whippets) and heartworm tested every dog that came into our program. Never ONCE did I have a heartworm positive dogs so I viewed this as an unlikely worry in Colorado, despite the dire warnings from vets.
My journey to this website and service is secondary to our 4.5 year old n/m Pug. He is from a very reputable hobby breeder who, like nearly all breeders, does the full puppy shots. We got him at 7 months. As with all dogs, I drag my feet on rabies so he has had only one rabies vaccination in his life. At the age of about 2 he started developing allergies, the usual symptoms. It became unbearable watching him scratch all the time and he kept everybody awake. He was also miserable. I broke my cardinal rule of NO MEDICATIONS and I could kick myself for doing so.
I have a very decent vet because he LISTENS to me and he works with me and, what I am sure he sees as a bit off, my refusal to do yearly vaccinations, heartworm, raw diet etc. He is open minded though. I bought him a copy of Lou’s book and seemed very appreciative. He never pesters me about vaccinations but I think it is because he can see that I am clearly an attentive pet owner and that when they need something, I bring them in. A spay, a neuter, OFA hips, etc. So, when I brought our Pug in regarding allergies, we did all the things I wanted to do to rule out issues…..thyroid, etc. I am not a fan of allergy testing so we did not do those. I caved in and agreed to try apoquel. I never used the full dose but instead, gave it more as a PRN. It worked fantastic for that first spring summer. Fortunately, his symptoms completely go away when heavy frost hits so we could take him off it starting about this time of year. This past season though, the apoquel didn’t work so well. I was now up to the daily recommended dose. This scared me. I had started reading and researching on Ron Hine’s site the previous year but it appears the government stopped his communication, or that was my impression. So, recently, I started the search again. I knew apoquel was not going to be the answer and I saw this info on cytopoint ( which my vet also suggested) and I knew that had to be “big guns” so by researching that, I found this site. Wow, so glad I did. We stopped the apoquel about a week ago and are “getting by” and my fingers are crossed that because winter is nearly here, is symptoms would abate but I know they will return next year. Seemed like a great time to take the bull by the horns and get complete holistic treatment going. So glad I found this site. Love everybody’s stories. Thanks, Doc, for providing such a great service to those of us who believe. I have already sent a link to two like minded friends.
Two weeks ago my Amstaff had his third Cytopoint injection. It worked for one day. The first one worked great for about 6 weeks. I was excited after him suffering for 6 years with these terrible allergies. They seem to be getting worse and there is no “season” for them. I do believe he is allergic to the world (dust, molds grass hay, etc.). He was on a prednisone/antihistamine combo pill for a couple of years that seemed to work fairly well but the steroid scared me. I am currently at a loss as to what to do. The only times I have not seen him itch was when he had surgeries. Any suggestions?
My lab first received a Cytopoint shot in May 2016, when dermatologists were the only ones allowed to administer. I was at a dermatologist because my 6 month old Labrador was itching himself raw (but he also had vomiting bile in the middle of the night and diarrhea nearly daily, sometimes bloody) and our vet was at a loss. Cytopoint worked within hours, but we also when on a food trial. The stomach issues did not stop and in August, when he was 9 months old, I went to a holistic/integrative vet. She diagnosed him (preliminarily) with IBS likely caused by vaccines, dewormers (old vet was convinced he had worms) and antibiotics. We immediately switch to a raw diet (commercially prepared) and added probiotic enzymes, colon rescue (has slippery elm). Less than 24 hours of eating raw my Archie had a solid, beautiful poop (yes, solid poop is beautiful when you have a sick pup!). We have never done a biopsy to confirm his diagnosis, but he has been treated as if he has IBD. We have been working on healing his gut from the moment we left our new vet’s office. He eats raw, gets no treat that isn’t organic meat/fruit/veggie defied and homemade by me. I no longer clean my house with chemicals. He gets no vaccines, including rabies. We are coming up on our 4th month post-Cytopoint shot (received one in late July as we live in Chicago and the allergens were TERRIBLE!). I also diffuse essential oils for him that reduce inflammation and help digestion. We use Chinese herbs instead of antibiotics. I totally get being concerned about this drug, but I also totally get needing your dog to stop scratching and sitting and watching them feeling helpless and crying. I made the decision that yes, we would do the shot when necessary (REALLY itching), but that I would do everything in my power to heal his gut and stop the inflammation causing the itching in its tracks! 4 months between shots is pretty good and I believe it will get longer and longer as long I keep up the routine and continue to research, ask questions and advocate for him..
Yes, my 90lb lab/shepherd mix is on cytopoint. He never had an allergy issue until we moved, and frankly, can’t afford $175 visit to a homeopathic vet (not including any treatments). We have changed his diet, tried OTCs, everything we can think of. I never tried apoquel and my vet never recommended it. But, he is on cytopoint. Luckily, his first shot lasted 8wks and we only allow it when the itching is intense, not the second we see him scratching. I am hoping once he adjusts to the weather change (Montana to SC is a huge difference), and we have some treatments done on the yard that things will start weening off. No side effects. He is so much more lively once the itching stops. That being said, I also know people that use strictly homeopathic as well as a dermatologist, and warned me against this drug for the risk of cancer. 2 of her dogs have now died of cancer and a 3rd who is only 3 was just diagnosed…which also makes me doubt the homeopathic route….
Hey Amber,
You get what you pay for. A good homeopathic vet will cure the allergic state, period. Cytopoint will not, nor will any other drug. You’re not describing a “homeopathic route” that I recognize. A homeopathic vet and a dermatologist? Not in the same sentence, let alone the same dog, at least in my world. But maybe you’re misusing the H Word. To see a list of true homeopathic vets, see an earlier post here and download it free.
I have a Jack Russel who has had ‘the itch’ since age 2 or 3. This ‘itch’ has been so bad that she totally destroyed her own tail.
We initially had a vet whos only thought was the dreaded “food allergies”. Now while the dog does have a bit of a reaction if she gets a LOT of wheat…..this was utter nonsense which was proven by the fact she was tried on every conceivable product out there including a pet food which was made from Butterfly Wings! (Yup, that’s what the vet said it was made of).
Finally, I switched vets and for about 18 months the only thing that would keep the household from going bananas with her scratching/self-biting and associated behaviors was steroid shots. Yes, we knew and understood it was not good by any means, but as we told the vet repeatedly, it was either that or put her down.
Apoquel came out and our dog was put on it. It took a long time to even get her body to accept it. She would be started on the drug and in about 4 days would have bloody diarrhea. Stop the drug for a week and then we would start from scratch. She finally was able to tolerate it…….but we could never get down to the once a day. Twelve hours after the dose the itching would start. Even with the twice a day dosing, it was losing its effectiveness.
Two months ago, the vet asked if I would like to try this Cytopoint . Well, I don’t care if it is made out of dinosaur bones……FINALLY something works! She became our dog again and not a legarthic ‘lump’ in the living room. She plays…….she interacts……she is finally putting weight back on. (Has to be the only living creature I have known that lost weight on long term steroids). She has hair growing on her tail for the first time in 5 years!
Now, she still has a single dose of Apoquel daily, but the Cytopoint has been a god-send.
Will it reduce longevity? I don’t know. I DO know that steroids were killing her. I DO know that Apoquel was starting to lose effectiveness. I HOPE that soon I can get rid of the Apoquel altogether and that while Cytopoint may not be the be-all-end-all, it has brought our dog back. I made peace with the fact that I would rather have her ‘back’ for whatever time there is than have a miserable, suffering pooch for an eon.
My dog Winston developed immune-mediated Thrombocytopenia, had no platelets and low red blood cells. He almost died as a result. I was told it was probably related to cancer. We consulted an oncologist and had his spleen removed only to find out there was no cancer at all. He still has the condition though. He’s responding well to the immunosuppressant therapy but for how long I don’t know. All of this happened shortly after receiving two injections of Cytopoint, six weeks apart. The company denies that their medication was the cause but the Dermatologist who administered it is no longer doing so just in case. The company said there is no reported incidents of this condition following the use of their medication but did offer to pay me $500 for some of the treatment. It hardly put a dent in the expenses though.
Sheri–our dog died the next day, after the first shot and it was a plunge in his platelets that did it. They were clotting all over his body. He was a healthy dog–aside from his itchiness. I’m glad your dog made it through, but am sorry to hear about his current condition. No “reported” conditions–how many grieving caregivers are going to report conditions to the drug company? Weasel words.
Hello, how is your dog now? I’m going through a world of disaster with my dog right now very similar to your story… i blame Cytopoint for this. We have had thousands of dollars worth of tests and a blood transfusion.. Still hoping for the best but he has only had one CBC where his RBC count increases he goes back tomorrow so we will see where we are at. Are there any class action law suits that you know of? All of the Doctors our dog has seen says the drug is too new and they cannot prove that cytopoint is the cause …
Our Shiba Inu, RUby, is 15 years old. The vet says she has early signs of kidney disease and her diet was recently changed to Hill’s K/D in order to reduce the protein and help prolong her health. Other than this diagnosis, she has some reduced strength in her rear legs, her vision is getting cloudy, and she seems to do a lot of staring off into space. All this stuff is pretty much par for the course at her age. HOWEVER, when she began to start itching and scratching and essentially trying to gouge her own eyes out, we knew we had a serious allergy problem. She also began getting hot spots on her legs and gnawing the fur off. Clearly she was in distress.
We got her to the vet, and that’s where we learned about Cytopoint. The diagnosis and the first shot came out to around 150 dollars, and she is eligible for much less expensive boosters for the rest of the year as this initial shot wears of in 6 to 8 weeks.
We count ourselves lucky that she is no longer itching, her eyes are no longer under attack from her front paws, and she has resumed a lot of her playful good nature, since no longer being in constant torture from itching.
We will take the author’s caution against increased vulnerability to infection under advisement, bit for Ruby, her quality of life was a major issue here, and we could neither keep her suffering, nor was offering temporary relief with small doses of benadryl ground up into cheese every 4 to 6 hours going to be a long-term solution.
My 4 yo english bulldog was itching for the past couple of years so badly she absolutely had to be on something – so I put her on a recommended allergy shot from her Dermatologist which made her vomit, foam at the mouth and swell up in her lips at first dose. Really hated giving her that. After almost a year of no progress, I took her off the shots and got her on daily Atopica pills. She hated them and they’re super expensive.
I have already changed up her diet to about 80% raw meat and veg w some cooked veg, fruit, coconut oil, etc. Great improvement in her coat but the itching was still happening if she missed even one day of that stupid pill. She would bite herself until she bled and scratch so loud it would wake me up and in the middle of the night most nights, I’d end up massaging her legs and scratching her to help her go back to sleep.
A month ago she had surgery to help her breathing, and that vet suggested the cytopoint shot. They gave it to her after surgery and after she recovered from the drug haze from the operation meds, I noticed within days her itching was obsolete. It was the first time I could remember her not itching and chewing her feet and ankles most of the night.
I still hate the idea of shots but for now, I’ve completely taken her off those pills and she’s itch free. I’ll see how it goes – the only thing I’ve noticed was almost directly after the surgery she got another one of those interdigital cysts between her front toes – probably the biggest and baddest one she’s gotten thus far. No idea if it’s related, but I wouldn’t doubt anything.
I’ll look through this page again – seems to be some other good suggestions. I wanted to try Homeopathy, but I was afraid she’d be itchy and suffering while I waited for yet one more thing to work.
Thanks all.
Have 2 problems. We rescued a 3 month old pup running the streets.He is now 7 months. Gave him 1st shot of Cytopoint 9 weeks ago and he is just showing symptoms of needing the next shot
Constant itching, scratching biting, etc. Next is French Mastiff, age 3 years bought at 4 months from lousy back yard breeder. On Apoquel due to cost. It works but I would rather get him off it.
Had to put my 5 1/2 year female boxer down after cytopoint injection went into anaphylaxis shock and developed a brain tumor paced for hours on hours would not sit or lie down on floor only couch. Then vet put her on prenisone 30mg which didnt help much. Lawsuit next for vet Banfield and german manufacturer. Thanks for killing my bright pride and joy.
Sooo sorry for your loss, Bob..how terribly sad. I hope and pray the pursuit of justice prevails. God bless
OMG Bob sitting here crying. Bless your heart. Go get them!!!
Sorry to hear about your dog–ours died the day after injection from blood clots. He suffered a lot, and suffocated to death. This company is using us as guinea pigs.
I’m so sorry to hear this :(. Have you reached out to the company at all? I’m going through a world of disaster with my dog right now that i blame Cytopoint for. Just not sure if anyone has reached out to them or any class action law suits are in the works?
So sorry to hear this :((((. Have you reached out to the company at all? I’m going through a world of disaster with my dog right now that i blame Cytopoint for. Just not sure if anyone has reached out to them or any class action law suits are in the works?
Oh my Lord ! If I had read this and other comments I would not have done this injection. I am so very very sorry
I have a standard Dachshund with mild allergies, well they were mild until I allowed him to have cytopoint injections. He had three. The first two seemed to work wonders, no more licking of feet or doing minor scratching. His allergies were so mild I should NEVER have allowed him to have cytopoint. After the third one, within a week, he developed bumps all over his back. Medicated shampoo seemed to work and clear those up. Then he started developing black patches on his body and losing hair. He was on antibiotics for a week with medicated bath and medicated foam twice a day. It did not improve. Next step was to do a full blood panel, although it has not even been a year since the last one. I will get those results back tomorrow. If there are no abnormalities, the Vet wants to do a biopsy. He is 8 years old and never had anything like this before. I suspected the cytopoint had something to do with it. The timing was there for strong correlation. Of course when I mention this to his Vet I get no response. I am looking at over $1000 now in Vet bills. I am livid. He is developing new spots. I would post a picture if I could. I have five other dogs. No one else has any issues.
I forgot to add that Dany has been tested for food allergies and his food is carefully controlled. Nothing has changed in his food or environment other than the cytopoint injections.
Hi Anne,
I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this. I’d suggest two things:
After otc allergy meds and prednisone were all failures, I started my 3 year old boxer on Apoquel in April 2016. It sort of worked, but not as well as everyone claimed it would. By Spring 2017 he was taking 1 (16mg) pill in the morning and another 1/2 pill at night. This still wasn’t helping, so it was suggested I try Cytopoint. One of the girls at the vet’s office had tried it for her spaniel mix …. first shot lasted 4 weeks, second shot lasted 6 weeks and she was hoping the 3rd shot would make it to 8 weeks! I hemmed and hawed for about a week and then decided to give Cytopoint a try. My boy is too young to be this damned miserable (itchy ears, itchy face, itchy chin, bald spots on his torso, goop in his eyes, and puffy red skin between his toes) so his first injection was August 3rd. I was told to hold on to the Apoquel and use it for break-through itching. OK, so when is my dog supposed to feel BETTER? I found this site because, out of frustration, I started doing the research I should have done BEFORE giving him the Cytopoint! Now he’s got an open sore on one hind paw (same one that he was diagnosed with open cellulitis back in April and put on a variety of pain pills and antibiotics). He already gets a grain-free diet and I try to avoid poultry products (why is ‘chicken meal’ used in almost everything?!) My next drastic measure will be to hire professionals to come remove the pine trees in the yard and PAVE over the entire yard!
Hey Laurie,
The best way to get “drastic” is to cure your dog with the help of a professional, a homeopathic vet. Chasing allergens is a never ending game, and quickly becomes unwieldy.
I explain how to choose a good one (distance from you be damned) in my Apoquel Alternatives Report. You’ll find it on your Member Home. Every cent invested in true cure will pay big dividends and you’ll begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Nothing in conventional medicine can possibly cure this. That’s true of all chronic disease, by the way, allergies are just the commonest.
All the best to you both.
Thank you!
I have a 2 year old Staffy. She was only given 2 sets of Vaccines. She eats only Prey Model Raw grass fed and organic. Have only tried antihistamines, and they don’t work. She is far worse in winter or really wet weather. I’m in Washington State, so spring and fall are not great for her either. I tried a bunch of natural remedies currently on colostrum, but no change. I just ordered the 4life TF. What else can I do? She’s been like this for just over a year now. It kills me to see her scratching and chewing on herself.
It’s time to hire a (for real) homeopathic vet (accept no imitations!). I’ve got a vetted list on this article for you: vitalanimal.com/diagnosis-or-cure/. I hear you: tough to live with, and rarely curable completely with diet and supplements and such. Be patient with the homeopathy, but a good practitioner can move her to cure. Estimate: 6 months to get there.
My 4yr old Standard, Zeus, was born itching, chewing, with goopy ears & eyes and perpetual GI issues. With valuable info from this forum I made the scary leap of saying “no” to traditional methods of health-care, over use of pharmaceuticals and vaccinations for my loved animal. Informed decisions are a little less scary now. After reading Vital Animal I switched to raw, stopped Trifexis, refused Bordetella vaccines. GI issues were gone within the first week of feeding raw but he remained chewy, itchy, goopy (less so however). I found Dr. Dodd’s food allergy kit (about the same $ as a vet visit) and eliminated offending foods. Another improvement in all symptoms but during high pollen season he still goes crazy. Spent $1000 for environmental matter test (surprise: he’s allergic to A LOT of grasses and plants around us) and antigen blend. This all worked wonders….until high allergy season. Benadryl only made him sleepy and was a temporary fix. I succumbed to Cytopoint. One shot was a magic bullet – that was 3 months ago and we’re through the season. Hopefully that handles the problem and the poor guy is out of his misery. We will continue with homeopathy but Cytopoint did get us through a spot that would otherwise be a miserable way to spend every hour of a day.
Janet, I can see your absolute commitment to this poor youngster (love the Standard breed!), but I also want to point out that none of what you describe is homeopathy. As such, the odds of cure with what you’re doing (the goal: no longer allergic and healthy w/o further treatments) will remain nil. It may be you’re okay with that, and you’ve taken some great steps, but every return to a drug like this is one more chance to court disaster with Zeus’ immune function.
So, if you care to pursue homeopathy (vs “natural” or “holistic” things, which have clearly helped to a point), just grab my free Apoquel Alternatives Report. It’s part of my Vital Animal Pack membership, also free.
All the best with your boy and please keep us posted!
Laurie – The paws are probably lick granuloma. My traditional vet did surgery on my dog’s paws for the first sore because she said it was some sort of item lodged in the pad that didn’t show on the x-ray. That cost $1,000 and found nothing. Then the cuts kept re-appearing on that foot and others. Found a holistic vet and was told lick granuloma common in allergy dogs. He used a laser on her foot. Worked really well. She now gets a laser as soon as I see her chewing her feet to red raw sores. Much less expensive ($20 with a vet tech after the first $90 session where the vet did the initial and set it up for future visits. We’ve been 5 times this year for laser but that sure beats surgery).
We are at the 4 week mark of having our dog Leroy (black lab X golden retriever) on Cytopoint – and he’s worse then he’s ever been. He was on Apoquel for a year and half and slowly we saw it work less and less, kept him on the apoquel and switched to the royal canin hypo allergenic vet diet, didn’t see much improvement so then our vet recommended Cytopoint, and he is honestly, so so bad. he also gets bathed every 2-3 days with Nizoral shampoo as he gets a lot of yeast and bacterial infections. The nizoral had helped with the yeast at one point but he still got the bacterial infection. And the amount of hair loss he has experienced in the last 4 weeks is outstanding. He has another follow up apt tomorrow and is due for his yearlies so we will be talking to our vet again about what she thinks. ( he did have a bacterial infection right before he had his cytopoint shot so MAYBE it wasn’t fully cleared up )
Yearlies?? Oh, Sara, run, don’t walk, away from any vet who’s thinking this dog needs yearly vaccines (assuming that’s what you’re talking about). Those are what causes this itchy allergic hot mess in the first place, and it’s actually malpractice to vaccinate any dog who’s less than healthy. It’s right on the label.
Here’s what I know: these guys who don’t stop getting vaccinated will never get well. That’s the very first understanding. The other is, there’s absolutely no need for more vaccinations in an already vac’d dog. EVER. See my pages https://vitalanimal.com/vacc-efficacy/ and https://vitalanimal.com/vaccination-safety/ to learn more.
Next, to get out of this horrible downward spiral, I’d suggest you hire a homeopathic vet. I tell you how in my Apoquel Alternatives Report. It’s free for download on your Member Home.
All the best to you both. It’s high time to turn this poor guy around.
My dog had hot spots, lick granuloma on her paws, cuts all over from scratching and inflamed ears. She was given the CADI/Cytopoint shot twice Fall 2016 and again in April and May of 2017. It worked very well and cleared up everything for about 5 weeks and then a week fade back to itching each of first three shots. The fourth one lasted 10 weeks. Only thing odd I noticed was that each time she lost weight during the first week after the shot – about 3 pounds on a 40 pound dog already at correct weight and I had to add an extra meal per day to stop the weight loss for about a month after the shot. I also felt like her fur got dry and brittle after the shots. But I would say I was thrilled to go from cones, boots, t-shirt and having her tethered to me to stop her from chewing her leg off or scratching an eye out to having a normal, happy, playful dog. However, and I really don’t know if this is the Cytopoint, but she is turning gray and I’m greatly concerned about whether that represents expedited aging or some other problem. She just had her fourth birthday and over the past 9 months since the Cytopoint the fur around her eyes got gray, then most of her face, and lately her back and she looks like a senior dog. Is this a side-effect other people have experienced? Before the Cytopoint she had two years of miserable itching which included many trips to the vet resulting in three anesthesia, four months on Apoquel, two steroid shots so it could be something else causing the gray fur. The Apoquel worked wonders for a few weeks then it stopped working and she got manic crazy and wouldn’t sleep at all so I took her off. The dermatology specialist told me Cytopoint has no side-effects and the regular and holistic vets said the same. But now I’m really wondering. She recently has started to itch some again. The vet says another Cytopoint (actually the vet said they should be back-to-back monthly so I’m overdue). But as I’ve spent some time looking for info like this site today, I’m hesitant and feeling that is a bad idea. She had a Nutriscan and I’ve modified her proteins accordingly, is on sublingual allergy drops, and discovering laser treatments heal lick granuloma incredibly well for her, and finding Dr. Becker’s Seasonal Support Supplement have greatly improved my ability to reduce her itching without a shot. She is on a raw food diet but I really want to find a vet or nutritionist consultant to look at that and make sure what I’m doing is nutritionally sound (haven’t found that person yet so any idea appreciated). I’m hoping to avoid another Cytopoint. But truthfully, if I was back where she was when she had the first shot, I probably would have chosen the shot over her suffering even if that decision seems fuzzy now. One last question: When it was CADI it was a 4 week duration and now that it is Cytopoint it is an 8 week duration. Did they change the formula?
One more thing on my post…vet said dog’s blood panel has an elevated BUN. It was 22 a week before the first Cytopoint and it is 33 today (ten months and four shots later). Worried to see that change since I’ve had a dog die with kidney failure before.
After subjecting my 2-year-old Pitbull mix to the diarrhea side effect of Apoquel (he’s crated all day-Disaster!!) prescribed by my regular vet, I took him to a dermatology veterinarian today. $623 later, he got a injection of a $267 antibiotic because he has a staph infection, his first $157 injection of Cytopoint, and a bottle of Malaseb shampoo. Now that I’m home, I’m reading up on Cytopoint and your article is making me cringe. This new vet wants to do a $650 allergen-specific immunotherapy long-term plan next. I know a Chinese herbologist who does formulations for dogs. Am I naive to think herbs could manage atopic dermatitis and/or possible infections?
Hey Carol,
As a homeopathic vet (and not an herbalist), I can only say it might be possible, with a trained herbologist. I do know that, given time, my colleagues and I who practice classical homeopathy can cure this, yes. No question.
And all those expensive drugs and tests? Zero chance of cure (which by definition means the disease is gone, extinguished, and the animal is better overall and stays that way).
All the best to you and your youngster. He should have a long life ahead of him, so well worth investing in cure now.
Look up Respit (vetrespit.com) before your veterinary specialist starts that expensive allergen specific immunotherapy. Less expensive alternative. Your specialist can probably only add about 10 allergens to his mix and they may be the same of very similar to this non-custom mix.
I have a 13 year old 17 lb Yorkie. He has had atopic dermatitis for the past 10 years since we moved to Delaware. We tried medicated shampoo, topical steriods, sprays, etc etc to no avail. Last year we decided to tried Apoquel and his immune system was so compromised after just two days he developed Mersa (we were told this bacteria was on his body and it just bloomed) and was on a compounded antibiotic for 8 weeks. We just started using Cytopoint July 10th and received a second shot on July 26th. Two weeks after the 2nd shot of Cytopoint we noticed 2 big lumps on the leg in which he received the shot. He also has a swollen lymph node on the same leg. The vet never questioned whether or not it was a reaction to the Cytopoint but she began treating him for an infection and put him on an antibiotic. I started to think that maybe these lumps were a reaction to the Cytopoint and after reading all the above comments I am pretty concerned. Not sure what to do about the lumps right now.
I brought my 7.5 year old Boston terrier to the vet cause I suspected an ear infection. They swabbed and looked in her ears with a scope, no war infection. They said she probably has allergies and that this cytopint injection would help. Thinking they know what’s best, I allowed 1 injection. It’s been 5 days and I don’t see a change. I did research after, I know stupid, should have done it before. And now I’m worried. 🙁 I don’t think I’ll be giving her anymore. I will adjust her food, clean with better products and figure something out. Thank you for your article…
My 6.5 month old Basset Hound had 2 very bad reactions to lepto vaccines and then began what has turned into months of intense itching and allergies. I reluctantly put him on Apoquel to ease his suffering but have since started with a homeopathic vet and we are trying to wean him off the Apoquel as the other treatments begin to work. I have not heard of the Cytopoint but at this point, I am terrified of anything that will affect his immune system. I am on week 6 of homeopathic treatments coupled with aquapuncture and Chinese herbs – it is a slow process but I am hopeful it will be the better route in the long run. If my homeo vet agrees, I’d like to start Transfer Factor this week. Are there any other protocols you’d suggest for my boy?
No, Kristyn, in fact, I’d do just the opposite. Acupuncture/Chinese herbs shouldn’t be used with homeopathy. But your current vet may not be well trained in homeopathy enough to know that. In general, it’s either/or, not both. It’s impossible to judge a remedy response to learn if it’s the best remedy or there’s a better one if the vital force of the patient is also being affected by TCM.
I disagree. One of the top tcm doctors in the world my friend uses personally, his wife uses homeopathy. Several vets told my friend to put her pup down he had severe issues stemming from many things seizures, EPI and other included. He is now down to 1-2 seizures a year, the EPI is gone, he has gained his weight and is in great health, has been for the last 3 years of his life using both modalities.
My dog is a neutered ShihTzu. He has had atopy since he was aroun 8 mo. old. He is now 7. I’ve tried various meds, Apoquel, Atopica, steroids, to no avail. I took him to a dermatologist in May. He was diagnosed with fungal and bacterial infections. Three weeks on anti-bacterial/anti-fungal meds got him fairly cleared up. At the end of week 2 of the med regimen he received an injection of Cytopoint. By the end of week 3 of the med regimen, he was virtually itch free. He was like a new dog. Today marks the end of the 11th week since the Cytopoint. He has started to develop a minor itch, but not to the extent he had before. I have an appointment in a week to get another Cytopoint injection. Not criticizing anything here, but it has worked for my dog.
My 7 yr old Yorkie developed combination seborrhea two years ago. He smells like rotting flesh and his skin is flaking off in areas, and has thick patches of oily scales in others. Lately he has been getting the flakiness in his ears, resulting in a gooey mess in there. This poor dog has environmental and food allergies also. I don’t know what to do at this point- have been considering trying Apoquel or one of the other meds.
my question/comment has to do with apoquel; my old English bull dogge was put on apoquel when he showed signs of an allergy. shortly after, a hernia type bump showed up on his throat. the vet kept him on the med. and sold me some shampoo and eye drops. shortly after that the bump opened up and started draining. my vet was more concerned that he wasn’t ‘fixed’ than with the infection that was starting..2 months later my batman was hospitalized with pneumonia..their answer to the infection was another shampoo. (o and a steroid).
I am a nervous wreck about his coughing and vomiting as well as the “infection site” I had stopped the apoquel before his hospital stay and his throat looks the same almost a year later! please tell me something I can do for my poor boy; I clean him daily, he’s eating grain-free and has a good attitude, but I want this gone. thank you
This is chronic disease, Kelly, right? It’s gone on for a year, nearly. So, you’ll need to hire a homeopathic vet if you want to cure chronic disease. Nothing DIY about it, nor will it resolve quickly. I explain how to choose a good professional to help you get to cure on my Apoquel Alternatives Report. That’s free on your Member Home. Just login, scroll down and you’ll find it.
All the best.
There’s definitely an easy solution for those that have dogs suffering from seasonal allergies. My dog’s allergies kick in every mid June or so and last until about mid October which I believe is ragweed season here in Toronto. He would chew himself raw. Last December I started him on immunotherapy called Respit which has specific strains for each region of the country. He gets two sprays into his cheek every day. It’s now past mid July and there’s no sign of allergies for the first time in 5yrs. I did give him Apoquel for the first month he was on the RESPIT as it made him really itchy but after a month his system normalized and that was the end of his allergies and drugs. I just wished I had started him on it 5yrs ago and save us both all the grief we had to deal with.
Hello, i have a 3 yr old beagle who had ringworm at birth. Treated and disappeared. Next summer, severe itching. Apoquel steroids antifungals, antihistimines benedryl shampoos sprays. Blood tested at Ohio State. Allergic to lots of Maples and grasses. Special made allergen meds. Still severe itching. Steroids help but we cannot keep that up. Also on science diet allergy free food. I have spent at least 1000.00 trying things. She has gained weight from the steroids. Cytopoint injection two days ago. 1st day I thought oh it is going to work. Second day she is itchy. The only difference is that now she has no desire to scratch herself; she comes to us and we scratch. Help. E mail [email protected]
My 9 yr old lab is a rescue also. She had a little itching in summer months when I got her. I don’t think she had ever been vaccinated but I needed to board her so got the vaccinations. It was obvious after the 2nd rabies vaccination that her allergies had taken on a new life. Since then I’ve tried everything I can find to help, supplements, shampoos, rinses, rubs, foods, etc…. I had let the vet give her steroid injections initially because she was so extremely miserable and that was all he had to offer. Those were only mildly helpful and I stopped them quickly. Other meds were of no help. Once we had a freeze and snow fell she was fine again till the next spring. So, pollen it must be. A few years ago we tried the Apoquel. Yes, it does stop the itching but I had already researched and knew it’s not a good option. So I’m continuing to research and try other things. I keep some apoquel on hand for times when she is just too miserable to manage but also do everything I can think of to avoid it. Recently I have been giving her CBD oil and much to my surprise, it seems to have a profound effect on the discomfort! It has now been almost 3 wks since I had to give her any apoquel. I’ve given her CBD oil morning and evening each day. I also rinse her all over especially her feet after we’ve been outside, I vacuum often and thoroughly and I keep clean towels on her beds inside so I can just change those morning and evening. It requires some forethought but seems to be keeping her comfortable while still allowing her to have a life and enjoy herself. And, every day we can avoid the drug is a good day! I can’t claim any miracles from the CBD oil and I’m still watching closely but since the day I began it, she has been obviously more comfortable and far less itchy.
Please advise. Who is your source for this CBD Oil. My English Setter has the same issue, Apoquel, cools the flames, but after all the research I would prefer an alternative. He is miserable. So, I would appreciate knowing the source. There are warnings on the Internet about being taken advantage of when you seek it out. Thank you in advance.
We use King Kalm Cbd oil -formulated by a licensed pharmacist. But I’ve also heard great things about Bluebird botanicalsnout of Colorado
Bluebird Botanicals: me too. Dog and self. His anxiety is much reduced and so is my pain. Affordable.
We’re at the end pf our rope here too. We adopted our boy 3 months ago and it’s been a long 3 months. We knew he had some skin issues when we adopted him, took him to our vet only to find out he’s really a hot mess. After a short treatment of steroids we started the Nzymes healthy skin program. But he also started having some major incontinence issuss. We took him in to run blood work and the vet was very concerned about a couple spots on his skin. What we found was a MRSA infection. We are on an antibiotic and probiotics. I don’t care for antibiotics but in this case we may not have another option. His skin is clearing up but the poor boy is so itchy! I don’t know what to do to help him anymore. And I don’t know how much longer we can go on with the health problems. And our finances have been stretched thin.
You can tell all around that he feels miserable 🙁 We’ve breifly talked about cytopoint but the lack of long term studies makes me nervous. Yet i feel like we have thrown so many suppliments at him already with no results.
Well I’m at my wit’s end with my girl’s constant scratching. She’s a rescue, I’ve no idea what her earlier vaccination schedule might have been. Since I’ve had her, I’ve switched her to raw and the only vaccination is a 3 year rabies required by my local ordinances.
I tried Prednisone. I tried otc allergy pills. I tried apoquel. And last I tried cytopoint, which didn’t work for her at all.
The apoquel did work, we all got rest for the first time in weeks . But I was not comfortable giving it to her, I’ve read the research results. It was starting to lose efficacy after 2 months anyway.
I’m on a very small fixed income. Giving her any of these remedies was a major financial struggle, but it was worth my being hungry to try and find her some relief.
I was surprised at her lack of response to cytopoint.
I don’t know for sure what is causing her itchiness, and can’t afford allergy tests and such.
I’m not sure what to do next, I can look for a homeopath, but she is a fearful reactive dog and has a house call vet because she won’t go through unfamiliar doorways. Then the cost associated with a homeopath may put that out of my reach.
If you have any suggestions, I’m listening! Thank you.
if cytopoint didnt work maybe it is food allergy.
I have the same problems that everyone else has written about. My dog came down with black skin at 1.5 yrs old on all the underside of her body and legs, constant paw licking, scratching, loss of fur all underneath her body and legs. All poultry is a problem so I feed her semi raw meats only and organs. They refuse full raw to the point they’ll throw up. I give her supplements of 50 Billion Probiotics, calcium from polvertized egg shell, omegas, colostrum, enzymes and a multivitamin. Not much better after a year of thIs protocol. I give Quercetin with Stinging nettles to help the itchiness. Only helps a bit. No carbs at all. Her bloodwork came back basically normal last year, showed bacteria on skin. No mange, parasites, fleas or yeast. Now her sister, on exact same protocol for a year, same age is coming down with the same “allergy”. Both had puppy shots, spayed and a rabies at 1 that’s it. The holistic vets where I live only use that type of training 20%. Then fall back into their western training. I don’t want to use drugs but I’m at my wits end on what to try next, I just want to help my babies. Help!!
Hey Cherie,
To really cure the allergic state, hiring a serious homeopathic vet is the best route to take. I outline how to choose a good one (hint: location is not a factor at all) in my free Apoquel Alternatives Report. You’ll find it on your Member Home. Once you login, just scroll down and you’ll find it.
Wow! You are one of the fear mongering disseminators of false information. A fear of progress and help for pets suffering from various diseases should not make up a “professional” livelihood. Fortunately, the intelligent public will not rely on this type of false information but seek out knowledgeable information that has science to back it up rather than anecdotes which are extremely harmful to pets. You should be ashamed of yourself.
“Fear of progress”? What “progress” would that be, exactly? Progress of symptoms, progress to death? Let’s look realistically at what drugs do and do not do. Firstly, it’s fairly well-known that allergies are one of the top reasons pets see a vet — repeatedly. Take into consideration that the vets they see are, by and large, conventional vets with a conventional “treat with drugs” mindset. Few address the idea that allergies have root causes. Even fewer would consider suggesting a species appropriate diet over a bagged, processed one. Drugs are typically the “go to” knee-jerk reaction….and are also notorious for having “side effects”. That also is not “news”.
I would be interested to see what “science” you have that refutes this. What “false information” is being disseminated? That drugs suppress symptoms (they do) rather than cure? If animals were truly cured, wouldn’t that mean they would never return to the vet for allergic symptoms? Yet we know from stats provided within the industry/profession itself that this is not the case.
What information do you believe is “harmful to pets”? That drugs are not the end-all/be-all they are purported to be? Sorry, but the “intelligent public” already knows that. Your reply is full of vagaries and general claims without any “proof” so if YOU would like to provide any “science” to refute what I or Dr. Will has said, I’d be happy to read it. Otherwise, I will indeed ignore it.
Damn, Jeri!! You said EXACTLY what I was thinking!! As an RVT in a small animal clinic (NOT a groomer or breeder, which the public mainly listens to, for whatever reason think they have more knowledge than I) I agree with you!
Progress? More pets and people are getting sicker and pharmaceutical companies are getting meaner and RICHER$$. If you had read through the many articles on this website you would read about studies that have been done but you came here with a closed mind. While you’re looking for your scientific studies supporting the use of homeopathy take a closer look at the studies on the many drugs out there. The list of possible side effects are enough to make you run in the opposite direction. Temporarily suppressing the symptoms is not creating health and does not get to the root of the problem but rather it gives a false sense of security while the problem festers and causes more damage. I challenge you to take a closer look.
My dog’s had seasonal allergies since she was a year old. Horrible allergies that cause her to scratch herself till she’s raw and bleeding. At it’s worse, the swelling would cause her eyelids to turn inward and cause corneal ulcers, which were so horrifying she almost had to have surgery several times. I had her on prednisone and living in a cone from April to November for years. When she was seven I put her on a prey model raw diet which didn’t have an immediate result, but is a much better diet then kibble. The following year I started homeopathy, and finally her scratching eased. She’s still a little itchy this year, but SOOO much better then she was. No Pred for three years, and no cone, and no ulcers! It’s at least 75% better and has shortened from the end of May to the end of August. She’s getting better every year, I just wish that I had heard of all this sooner, then she’d have an easier time shedding the last of this. (Or heard that it was possible to build her immune system without vaccines and avoided the problem altogether.) But she is so much happier. And as a side note, she was absolutely miserable on pred, so it wasn’t just being itchy all the time.
🙂
Oh, good for you, Paula! I applaud you for searching beyond the box that conventional medicine offered you. You’ve seen the power of natural medicine, and you’re right: would that everyone could come to this understanding before the damage has been done.
If we learn from every animal who goes through this, and then from every animal we raise by natural means, none of this will need to play out in the future.
Your awareness and story needs to be told. I hope you’ll allow me to share this.
You can email me if you want. I have a great holistic alternative to boosting the immune system. I have two cats in remission from Lymphoma going on 3yrs now. They were given 4 weeks to live.
What immune booster did u use
Dr Will,
As you know, my young Dogo Argentino (whose mom was rabies vaxxed during pregnancy) went through itching bouts as she reached hormonal maturity—to the point of leaving bloody spots on her short white coat. This is a raw-fed, naturally raised, “healthy” dog given only one rabies shot at five months. With your help, she rarely itches now and is more vital than ever. Just to point out to folks that there is hope, the fewer meds you use the better, and start homeopathic treatment early. It’s amazing how well it can work if you take care of the whole picture!
Thanks, Mary. And just a fine point on it, Dr. Mary is talking about having me hired as her homeopathic vet. That’s a very different thing that buying some “homeopathic itch” combo remedy, which can never treat the “whole dog.”
Please don’t say you’ve tried homeopathy and it didn’t work if you tried a combo remedy. It takes a trained professional to cure chronic disease (allergies or any other kind). My Apoquel Alternatives Report explains how to get someone good to help you cure your animal. It’s on your Member Home, for free when you join our Pack (also no cost).
Addendum to my post yesterday on how transfer factor helped our dog Luke. We buy the regular strength transfer factor for people. (I learned later, when I was buying my second bottle, that there is a canine formula. We are sticking with what has been working for so many months for him but there is that option. I don’t know what the difference is.) We give him one pill a day. He is also on a raw bison meat and cooked sweet potato diet. Wishing everyone success with getting their dogs happy and healthy again!! Judith
Thanks for the clarification, Judith. That’s the one I take daily, to keep my immune system strong. It’s right here.
I also have a free ebook that explains dosing the human TF for pets of all sizes, as well as for various conditions. That’s called Insider Immune Protocols, and it’s available with your free Vital Animal Pack membership.
To find that and other goodies, just visit your Member Home on my site.
Will the human TF be as good for dogs as the dog version? Easier to administer?
A bit different, but I sometimes use both. Head to Member Home to download my free Insider Immune Protocols ebook. If you’re not a pack member, join us here (also free).
Our Wheaten Terrier became very itchy starting at around 1 year of age. She has been raw fed with a variety of novel proteins, currently rabbit, allergy tested and given a custom allergy serum for the last 10 months, tested for mange, had a skin biopsy, supplemented with digestive enzymes, salmon oil, coconut oil, bee pollen, bathed every week with oatmeal and coconut oil shampoo as well as a vet supplied soothing shampoo. We have used essential oils on her feet and she has been on Apoquel for a year with the only result being decreased coat and skin quality and bloody scabs from scratching on her face legs and chest. Cytopoint has given a littermate with similar problems relief. It is very difficult not to try a drug when nothing else has worked. We even replaced our lawn with artificial turf so she would not have to walk on grass outside. It is so hard to see her suffer.
Reading this- reminds me to remember that the early vaccines are setting the stage for immune system failure-
Wheaten Terriers especially-
I know- have loved!
Finally found an unvaccinated one- weaned to raw- even shown to her AKC championship- lived to 17 years- five months- allergy free- flea free- the most amazing journey!
Find a holistic vet as soon as possible- It’s the best journey you will ever take-
And tons of love back!
One thing that can undo all the good is bathing with Oatmeal shampoo!!!! Oatmeal causes allergies and switch to a natural shampoo with ACV rinses!
I have tried many things and herbsmith clear allerqi seems to help one of my dogs but the other is allergic to it so be careful
I give them a omega fish oil every day
I had one dog that was so bad he was bald from the neck down
He had to be on antibiotics to help heal the wounds
I also gave him a bath with neem shampoo every week on going he just love the bath
I got him a k9 top coat to help with the healing
Washed one and kept one on at all times so he could heal which he did nicely
The vet I went to was surprised to see him healing so good they aid he had mange but he did not he was allergic to just about everything leaves mold
Mildew chemicals in the lawns oak chicken but I was able to control it
Gave him organic neem powder to help with the yeast
Lovethat neem
Hope this helps
I am dealing with a very itchy dog and recently learned she’s dealing with rabies miasm and itching is only one of her symptoms.
For allergies in my dog, his holistic vet prescribed homeopathic drops. Has better results with the drops than allergy shots. They’re made by Professional Formulas. And he gets Household Dust & Mold mix. Grass & Weed mix, And Northeast Allersode (tree pollen). Got the drops at pureforumulas.com.
What was the dose of drops you used?
Last year, our 3 year old Tibetan Terrier, started scratching and biting day and night. No one slept and it was torture to see him in such misery. He had hot spots, flaking skin, and also about 8 raised red bumps on his body. I remember with awful clarity the first time I realized that life for him had become unbearable. He was vaccinated by the breeder and we have only done titers since then. His health was excellent up until last June. We go to a holistic vet who felt it was leaf allergy and prescribed plant sterols. These basically took he edge off his discomfort and then stopped working. Plus, there was concern about long term use and he didn’t seem to be getting much better over time. Enter Dr. Falconer and his recommendation to use transfer factor. Luke responded with a few days and has been happy ever since – I think it’s been around 4 months. The itching stopped completely right away, all of the bumps dried up and fell off (over a period of a few months), the flaking skin is just about normal now. One of our animal loving friends has also used transfer factor and said she didn’t the see quite the dramatic results we did… But they did work for our dog! Thank you again Dr. Falconer!! Judith and happy Luke
Wow, that’s great, Judith. I’m so happy you saw such relief by getting Luke’s “immune confusion disease” sorted by addressing his immune system head on. For those that want to read more about why this makes sense, start here: Immune Path.
Dear Dr. Falconer,
Thank you once again for keeping us informed of the newest release of Big Pharma’s answer to curing our itchy dogs.
I succumbed to the hype last year with Apoquel and was thankful she didn’t show any ill effects for being dosed daily with it for 2 months. Her veterinarian prescribed it when I took her in for the problem of itchy feet which she licks and gnaws them 24/7. The relief from the drug began almost immediately. It was if the clouds parted and angels began to sing. Shelby seemed to be at peace and I rejoiced at this miracle I was able to provide for my girl. You see, It had nothing to do with lost sleep that I cared about, it was my girl’s tortured days of doing nothing but being obsessed by her itching.
After purchasing her second month’s supply I began to noticed her returning to her old habits of foot licking and gnawing her poor feet. I tried all the old distracting techniques I once used. I finally had to admit to myself the brief One month honeymoon was over, kaput. The veterinarian said it happened as such with some of his patients.
At some point last year, I came across an article written by you or an associate and telling your findings thus far about Apoquel. After reading it, I promised myself to never again have my girl ingest medication without knowing all the side effects of long term therapy on a drug. In America, we all want and expect the magic bullit, the wonder drug, the cureall and we will pay any dollar amount for it. But at what price do we pay in the end?
Thank goodness we have you, Dr. Falconer, who has done the research for us and tells us about how Big Pharm is rolling out their newest cure for itchy dogs. If not for you, would I be another sheep helping to line their pockets while risking my dog’s life? Thank you again and bless you for being an advocate for all of us who depend on your knowledge, honesty, and love for our precious furbabies!
Best regards,
Helen Culwell & Shelby
???????? ????❤️
Talk about being frustrated. I have two dachshunds that are 7 years old and has this itching problem since they were 6 months old. I had the allergy tests done and one vet just gave up on them and said he didn’t know what else to do for them. I went to another vet and he started them on apoquel, cefpodoxime and ketoconazole. Within 5 days they were back to playing more and no itching.
This treatment is only temporary. Once they stop taking the later two medications, they start itching again within two weeks! They have been on apoquel for several months. We started them on an injection called cadi 31(??). They have been on this for three months. What I have read this may not be good for them either.
My dog gets itchy every Spring. He typically itches wildly from March to mid-June. NOTHING we’ve tried has worked. We’ve tried various allergy drugs as well as homeopathic remedies (Quecertin, nettle etc.) , allergy baths and so on. He itches his skin raw. He bleeds. He loses fur. He cries while scratching. As another poster pointed out, we can’t unvaccinate him and he hasn’t had any vaccinations for several years. My dog’s allergies seem solely related to the season. The only drug I never tried was Apoquel because it really scared me. This year my vet told me about Cytopointe. I researched it as much as I could. I became familiar with the science behind the monoclonial antibodies a few years ago when doing cancer research for one of my other dogs. It seemed a lot less scary than the Apoquel. In desperation, after my dog came to me with blood dripping down his face from scratching it so hard, I decided to try it. $90 for a 60 lb dog. The itching stopped in less than 24 hours. We’re 6 weeks out and still no itching. All of his fur has grown back and he’s much more content. I don’t suspect that he will need another shot until next Spring. I will for sure be following up and seeing if there are any reports of side effects from other dogs over the next year, and if there are not, by next Spring if he’s as bad as he was this year, you better believe I will get him the shot again. I mean it becomes a quality of life issue at some point. What else are we supposed to do? I’d love to hear some better suggestions other than just “don’t vaccinate” because we already do that. Are we supposed to just let the dog be miserable?
Hey JoAnne,
If you narrow it down to “miserable or a risky drug,” Big Pharma has you right where they want you. You have other options. Scroll up to see my reply to Donna.
*Nothing* in conventional medicine will cure chronic disease like this. That doesn’t mean it’s incurable.
I totally respect everything you’re saying and I always prefer a more natural approach. And I agree that I did take a risk by getting the shot this year. As I said, I was desperate. But I wonder what to do with a dog like mine whose allergies do in fact seem to be brought on by the season? You mention “chronic disease” and that makes me think more of the dogs like some of the other posters are mentioning who itch non stop all year. I would never consider giving my dog a shot like this every month. Do you think that once a year poses that much risk? Later tonight I will for sure read your report on Apoquel alternatives so that we can prepare for next allergy season. I am open to anything that will make my dog more happy, healthy, and comfortable.
Hi Joanne,
Homeopathy with critters does some amazing things! I would encourage you to find a vet thru the links on this site. They do work by phone and it ends up being cheaper and way easier on your dog than the conventional drugs a regular vet will use. We are talking cures here and not life-long visits to the vet with a side of drugs.
I can say this because that is exactly what I did for my pets-2 dogs and 6 cats!
It has been a wonderful experience and I have seen some amazing cures. For example-got a young kitty with some nasty asthma. Not entirely sure it wasn’t brought on by an allergy. The last attack darn near killed him. Been working with a vet from IN via phone and we got the right remedy and that last attack was 8 months ago! (He was getting them every 4 weeks.) We are working at curing his stomatitis now.
Just keep learning and don’t wait for a crisis to do research or find a homeopathic vet.
Hi everyone
I discovered Cytopoint today, it’s only authorized in France since july 2017. I have an atopic Bernese Mountain dog, I tried everything possible (homeopathy, phytotherapy, vet medecine etc.) but nothing works and my girl is hitching all year round (she suffers from house dust allergy, but not only). Right now the only way to relieve her is corticoid treatment which isn’t recommanded in the long term. So I was ready to try Cytopoint, might not be the universal panacea, but maybe better than corticoids ? And I know by experience that you never get over allergies and asthma, unfortunately I have to live with it myself.
Your site is very interesting I’ll keep an eye on it 🙂
Sorry for my bad english !
Marianne
I too have a berner with allergies. What has worked for you. I was going to do shot until reading this. Ygh
I had the same experience….my girl is ten..and shes had terrible itches every january..to,where they thought she had mange…this year was really non stop and clumps,of,hair falling out every day ….for me..it,became a quality of life also..i,gave her one shot in january…and shes been like a new dog…her fur grew back soft and very red…shes a gsd….im hoping she will hold out till next January..and curious to see if she will,not be as bad as years before
Thank you for putting this info out there. I’m sure they limited the study to 7 months because if it’s like Apoquel, that’s the point of no return. Apoquel stops working after 4 months and was responsible for my dog’s death after 6 months on it. I only wish I had found your wealth of information beforehand. I just finished a microbiology course and it all makes sense, everything you have said. I will never be the cause of canine pyoderma again.
Oh, Jen, I’m so sorry you had to experience a death loss over a drug that was supposed to help. Arrgh. And, I applaud your determination to not let this happen again. Keep learning all you can and keep that fire burning bright.
I am at my wit’s end with my 5 year old pit mix. He’s been on Apoquel for four years. I’ve noticed the efficacy has diminished and I am very concerned about the immuno suppressant qualities of Apoquel and apparently, Cytopoint. My dog is allergic to every animal protein I’ve tried. He’s been vegan now for three years. First V-Dog, then Natural Balance, then Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein (which I don’t like because it’s GMO soybeans. So, I started cooking vegan for him. My now retired vet claims that the potatoes in the processed commercial vegan food. I have a hard time keeping him out of the cat food that may spill on the floor, and eating from the litterbox. He and I live at the Cat Rescue Sanctuary which I founded. A friend of mine is a vet 200 miles from me. He recommended Cytopoint, as he said it’s less dangerous..but reading your information, I’m not convinced. I’ve begun shampooing him with Jax and Daisy or Ketoconazole shampoo, which helps to a point. He has developed a fatty tumor on his chest since using the Apoquel. I’m very financially challenged, since I do run a NON PROFIT cat rescue. I just don’t know what to do; it seems like a ritual of antibiotics and Apoquel, which I’m not thrilled with. I’m trying to find vegan multi vitamin/mineral supplement. Used Pet nose, but it has beef flavor. Any suggestions?
Yes, RaeAnna, as this is clearly chronic disease, the odds of curing it DIY (do it yourself) style are slim to none. It’s time to hire a professional, in this case, a veterinary homeopath. While I’m not taking new patients, I’ve put a list together for you to download on a recent blog post: vitalanimal.com/diagnosis-or-cure/
Key point, explained in the opening paragraph: the vet you hire need not be near you geographically to make this work.
And one more: chronic disease takes time to cure, so patience is a must. Roughly, that means half the amount of time the disease has been showing itself to cure it. In most, that’s over a year of work. Worth it, but best not to expect quick fixes to chronic problems. Only sets you up for disappointments.
Try “ziwipets. Bikkies. Tauranga nz. Works for my Sydney silky. Absolutely nothing else. C
Did you try the hair and saliva test that Glacier Peak Holistic has? When I rec’d my results and adjusted my pups diet the itching stopped within 2 days. Maybe it will help yours too.
The problem is if you already have a dog that’s been vaccinated several time (we adopted ours and know he was probably given the whole gamit of vaccines at least twice) what do you do about the itch. I can’t un-vaccinate him. He hasn’t gotten any new shots in several years (one rabies because we were travelling to Canada about 3 years ago) but he is still itchy and just got over having to get a strong antibiotic because he licked himself into a nasty infection. HELP!!
Hey Jewel,
I fully understand. But see my reply to Donna a bit earlier. This can be cured. It’s just going to take professional help, time, and patience.
All the best, and keep us posted on how you do.
Thanks for all the valuable info you provide for us, Dr. Falconer. Itchy dogs? We have two that scratch and bite mainly at their hindquarters near the tail. One is a large, black, medium-haired mixed breed male we rescued about 5 years ago. The other is a 10-year-old mostly black with white chest Chihuahua female. Both scratch and bite in the same place, although the Chi is mainly in the house and the large dog only comes in the laundry room overnight or due to weather conditions. We’ve always been told they have flea bite dermatitis and have gotten a steroid shot and also offered Apoquel but I’ve never accepted this treatment due to your comments and my overall fear of “drugs.” Both dogs got their puppy shots including rabies but nothing else since then. I’ve used herbal flea collars and non-toxic sprays like Wondercide on these dogs which DOES help with itching and subsequent scratching. Our other 4 dogs don’t have the problem as bad as the two of them and do fine with the herbal flea collars (PetGuard or others). I also use shampoos like 4-Legger, Dr. Harvey, and ones from Dr. Becker. But I do join the pack who are wishing for some fast-acting, non-toxic wonder treatment for itchy dogs! 🙂
Oh, Donna, I wish there was such a wonder treatment. The bottom line is, the state of allergy is chronic disease, and as such, it takes time and professional help to cure. Not easy even for seasoned homeopathic vets like myself.
If you haven’t already picked it up, my Apoquel Alternatives Report explains how to choose the best homeopathic vet to work with. You’ll find it on this site on your Member Home. Just remember: distance from vet to you is no impediment.
All the best. I know how frustrating itchy skin is!
Hi Dr. Falconer,
I referenced your Apoquel Alternative Report and Insider Immune Protocols. It seems many of the links provided and products recommended are no longer valid. Is the stress pak no longer available? Do you still vouch for the TF Plus product?
thank you,
tiffany
Hi Tiffany,
The Protocols report has been updated, and the only product no longer available there is the Stress Pack. If you are aware of others, please bring them to my attention.
Thank you writing this. I’ll admit, I may have fallen for this new “wonder drug” if I hadn’t read this. I truly trust your expertise. But I am at the end of my type with my sweet mini Aussie. The breeder gave her 1 set of vaccines at 8 weeks, without my knowledge. She has had nothing since, not even rabies. She is almost 3, raw feed, and still extremely dry skin and some hives that turn into blisters if she eats something that triggers it. I was giving her quercetin with bromelain, but now that makes her itchy. I give her probiotics and have had to resort to benadryl to keep her from chewing her back to total baldness. I have recently started rubbing avocado oil into her skin and that seems to help with the flaky skin. Gahhhh! Any errors of wisdom? I could sure use your help. But, even if you can’t help, keep up the great work-you are helping critters have long, healthy, happy lives!!!
Diane
Diane,
You might want to check into an herb called stinging nettle and also a company whose products I use on my own pets called Vitality Science. I believe they have an allergy andvitch protocol but you can always email them with questions.
Good Luck,
Richard
I have been giving quercitin with bromelain along with golden paste and going to switch to this product…
Anyone tried neem oil?. It’s a good skin conditioner, all natural and stinks so badly that your dog is unlikely to lick or chew it off.
Yes good stuff Neem oil, I give internally and use a Neem base oil in a shampoo, good for the skin and stops the itching
Be interested to know if that helped. Thanks
My fur baby just got her first injection of this yesterday! 🙁 Of course no one explained any side effects. I don’t know what to do after adding this! Bella has suffered tremendously with her allergies for 6 years.. 6 LONG years for her.. We have spent $1000s on vet bills, trying to get her some help. She literally chews herself bloody, and the still won’t stop. She has been put on prednisone , Apoquel, allergy shots ( even though they never seemed to know exactly what she is allergic to), and now this. We have had to have both her ears quilted because when her allergies flare up to an unusual point, she dug her ears and burst her veins. The pain fallout of that for her was incredible too.. LOTS of pain.. and yet they said thats the only way to fix her ears. We have bought expensive foods, a whole host of shampoos, iodine, you name it.. NOTHING works. I am desperate to ease her pain, but did I just put her on the path to dying by this shot? 🙁
My Boston Terrier got a CytoPoint injection the day before Thanksgiving. Nothing to be thankful about. She is extremely gassy and the smell is not normal. It’s horrible. 2 hours after the injection she started having watery diarrhea. Urgent diarrhea every 2 – 3 hours. I’ve been up for 2 days and nights straight taking her out to potty. Of course give her this injection the day before Thanksgiving and vet was closed and is still closed today. He is going to get an ear full first thing tomorrow morning. I urge extreme caution if you are considering CytoPoint. As for me NEVER AGAIN.
My bulldog had his 1st shot Friday after Txgvg. Since Sunday, explosive diarrhea and stinks out the house. He has never been gassy in the past.
I let the vets office know Monday but will be calling back tomorrow.
Good luck
Well my dog has very bad allergies ,and she has been on cytopoint for over a year now. It truly does work. Plus i have her on a herbal supplement that is all natural by Nutravet. My dogs healthy also. So cytopoint does work. Plus she takes one zirtek every morning.
Cytopoint has nearly killed my 12 yr old Maltese. I’m praying he makes it through this. He’s had severe gas, bloat, and very labored breathing for 10 days now 😢
Interesting about the poop… My dog Riley has been getting the shot every few now. This was the first time he’s had such bad diarrhea. It’s also curious that’s not a dude effect reported by the manufacturer.
Hi, my dog is due to go for her second shot tomorrow with no side effects.
My French bully has been having this shot for about a year or less, I want to say now. He suffered terribly and nothing was working. This definitely has worked and he’s had no side effects. My vet and I both or cynical and keeping a close eye on studies and cases on others. To me, the relief he has gotten from it is worth the potential risk. We literally tried everything and spent thousands. Being an allergy sufferer myself, the way he was going made his quality of life miserable. This has been super helpful for him.
Hi Cheryl
Your story sounds exactly the same as mine except its been 5 years and no ear itching… im at wits end and have an appointment booked to get cytopoint for the first time. Weve done 2 blood allergy tests (as he couldnt be without prednisone more than a few days without chewing to the point of bleeding) and we had a few months where we could go without pred and booked him in for the skin allergy test asap and have been doing the immunotherapy shots since with no changes- its been 2 years of injections and bills and ointments and no progress..
I feel.for you but am wondering how your dog did after the cytopoint?? Im hoping to get a bit of relief so his spots can at least heal??? For a bit? … desperate and tried everything out there… raw diets etc.. right now hes on kangeroo oatmeal.
Lmk if u have had any success with anything as id like to give it a try.
My dog got the injection a week ago and she is NOT the same dog. Maybe this has a positive result for some dogs, but mine isn’t one of them. She isn’t the same dog at all. Her appetite decreased, she’s restless, paranoid, disoriented, scared for no reason which makes her shake, she cries, (not whines or whimpers) randomly…even while sleeping, and is miserable. No outward physical side effects noticed that I can say with certainty are a result of this injection, although she is now having issues with irritation behind her front legs which has never happened before. Have read stories about kidney failure & death as well. Will NOT be going back for another round. Hopefully, she makes it through the 4-8 week period without any other serious side effect.
For heavens sake have anybody thought about homeopathy? This will get to the root of your problems and not needed up with your Dogs Immune System
My beagl e is 9, she itches since birth, but not to extreme until she was 3, when we moved home from camp, first she was treated for mange, then said she could have allergies to chicken, and her itching stop, (it was winter) when to Florida and she when crazy itching, to make a long story short, had her tested and she is allergic to everything out doors, allergy shot from 2013 to 2017, helped a little nothing help but predisone, so I decided to stop the shots and try Cytopoint, it works, she much happier and play with her sister. So I have a choice prednisone or cytopoint, we spent $$$$, so far she seem to have no side effects and she’s no in her miserable.
My dog has had 2 shots 8 weeks apart and has done wonderful without shots he gets red around his face and loses his hair looks like he has hives got to have this shot nothing else works
Hi stay off the oatmeal and any grain these are allergie causing foods
I’m using cyptopoint and my dog is back to her old self playing with other dogs again and loving life . No side affects
Cheryl,
Please consider the quality of life vs length.
If your dog is miserable all the time, do they really *have* a life? I cannot imagine the torture of being so itchy that I continuously stratch and bite myself bloody.
For MY dog, I wil accept possible shorter life in exchange for some peace and quality in the meantime.
I tried Apoquel short term just to verify that her constant gnawing is not behavioral, which I knew already. Now I want her off the Apoquel ASAP, so am considering which treatment will be best for her quality and my conscience. This is high on my list.
I used straight homeopathy with a classical Vet who knows Wil very well
It didn’t help my dogs crazy insane itching. Finally my homeopath said to just try Cytopoint and amazing results
The new issue after 2 injections 6 months apart
Is i’m Noticing some weird thing happen to her here and there at 10.5 years old and a fence you. She has some neuro thing happening. She looks around and it looks like she can’t figure out where she is. It started after cytopoint. Is it cytopoint? Who knows
I am nuts for this dog but the quality of her life was ruined before Cytopoint. Other than that she gets only the best supplements has eaten a raw diet since she’s a puppy.
I agree with you!! I urge all to take a chance with cytopoint to help your poor suffering dog by trying this!?! As with humans, its not for every dog w allergies and the risks are there but give some quality to your fur baby, my pitbull suffered since her second humid summer season in Florida for 3 yrs and she smelled like stinky feet on top of the non stop licking & itching no matter what my vet and I tried…foods, pills, steroids stopped working after 2 seasons so she had her first cytopoint shot last month and her itching stopped in less than 2 days and her smell has gone away with it! She is playful & happy again and just had her second shot this week. I will take the risks to have a happy dog again ???? some side effects could disappear in a small amount of time too, keep that in mind. No matter what time tells with this ‘medicime’, it will be worth the tranquility and quality of life she has now no matter how short or long it may be. Dont be so pessimistic people. If you are the owner of a dog it didnt work for, dont discourage others please!!
I just have the same experience. So upsetting and don’t know what to do
Our Goldenwas given the injection cyto point on March 2, 2018. We weren’t even asked if we wanted it, the vet just gave it to him! The next morning, our a beautiful Golden could no longer walk!! My husband called the vet and he wouldn’t even speak to my husband. Said the injection has nothing to do with it. It is Now April 11, 2018 and he still can’t walk and also has some neurological problems. We are devastated and getting him acupuncture to see if it helps. Note: our Golden had his spleen removed in July 2016. Maybe the vet should have looked at our dogs health records before giving him this injection. Cyto point BEWARE!
I have given this to my chow twice with no ill effects, but finally she got some relief. I don’t plan to give this to her monthly as they recommend but it is good to know that it works if she ever gets to that place of constant scratching again. Hopefully she won’t as I really don’t like giving her any pharmaceuticals. She also gets efa’s in her food and a topical treatment called dermascent.
I hear ya! My little guy has an auto immune disorder called Pemphigus Foliaceous (similar to psoriasis). This makes more prone to allergies apparently. An itchy dog with itchy allergies. Like you, I have tried it all- beginning with diet. We were prescribed Cytopoint by a very well-respected specialist (allergist), who we finally saved up enough money for. She recommended and administered Cytopoint. It worked wonders. He had dose 6 (we were administering every 1 1/2 months) about 2 months ago and that will be his last dose ever. He had bloodwork done recently, and his liver enzymes are off the charts, white blood cell count high and red low. He is showing no signs are feeling ill, so it was completely alarming to me. Yes, he’s been on a low dose of Pred for years now to suppress :/ his immune disorder. After reading this article, I truly believe that Cytopoint is the culprit. I wouldn’t wish this upon any animal or their owner. If I find out otherwise, I will let you know. Very appreciative of this information from Dr. Falconer.
Prednisone is a very dangerous drug for dogs. It will destroy the kidneys while lowering or totally suspending the imune system. In other words, it will kill your dog in time. Though it seems that it’s helping, it is NOT. it is all smoke and mirrors. A big lie. No imune system, no response to whatever the problem.
A very good observation, Olga. When something “works” (or “helps”) we have to define that very carefully. I wrote an article on just that, and how to be smarter than the average consumer of meds who might easily think steroids are miracle drugs.
Very interesting, my dog has bloodwork every 6 months to monitor organs due to suffering from refactory epilepsy. He also has severe allergies (hoping to run a panel soon, recovering from 20k debt from seizure episodes) we have been on cytopoint now for 4 months and it seems to help until it wears off but our last bloodwork in between shots showed lowered levels of white blood cells. I wish we could determine if it is correlated to the CADI shot or not. He is a medical basket case a 4 yr pb GSD with everything from epilepsy, gastro issues, and skin probs.
I to have a dog that suffers immensely with allergies. I to have tried everything & have done everything that I have read about, both natural and going as far as pred. He has been on Apoquel (too many side affects later on).
I have to say that with the Cytopoint his relief was pretty darn quick. By the next day he was back to himself and it seemed to level his problem out. He only needed 1 shot for 4 months. He’s just now starting to get itchy again, so I will give him another injection. It’s costly for right out of pocket but when you think about how long it lasted, it’s pretty darn reasonable.
Keep us posted, Pennie, but peering into my crystal ball (that’s been highly polished from decades in homeopathic practice), my bet is that each successive Cytopoint shot will last less long. And be less effective at making the itch disappear. And, at some point, deliver something far more serious than itch, as horrible as that seems.
My poodle cross has had his fourth checkpoint injection and had no side effects. I had switched vets after the second due to cost issues vet a. £107 / vet b. £68
For two years vet a. Treated ted for ear problems using ear cleaners, including seating him for deep ear clean, ears continued to flare up. Vet b. Took a slide test and informed me that bacteria was in the ear and prescribed Canaural. This has cleared up the inflammation. Hope this works for you.
Consumer beware: vets like to blame ear problems on bacteria, but they’ve got it backwards. Bacteria move in when allergies cause the ears to be inflamed and discharging.
This product “worked” because it has prednisone in it, along with a slew of antibiotics. It’ll be more and more short-lived the longer you use it and the chronic underlying disease will continue to grow.
My dog has recurring ear problems, put down to bacterial infection. Tried all sorts including knocking her out to do thorough ear clense. Any advice that you can give would be greatly appreciated.
I have been told to use Thornit but don’t like the idea of putting powder in her ears.
Best outcome is hiring a bona fide homeopathic vet. I tell you how (and a few other very useful helpers) in http://vitalanimal.com/apoquel-dog-1/ Once you’re there, scroll down to download my Apoquel Alternatives Report.
Bottom line: this is chronic disease. Not an easy cure. And nothing in conventional medicine can cure it, though they’ll drain your pocketbook trying.
Best of success going forward!
Did you change the dogs diet to a raw diet? NO chemicals in the house or lawn? Wash paws after going outside? HEPA air filter indoors and especially at night when sleeping, Filtered fluoride and chlorine free water, no meds of any kind such as heartworm preventatives. When was last vaccination? within 6 months? what vaccines are you giving and how often? Did you do an allergy testing through Dr Jean Dodds and hair test from Dr Peter Dobias? I could go on..but thats where I would start. If you have done all of these…then time to look in other directions. Food is usually the biggest culprit but vaccines are right there with it. any supplements added such as probiotics, digestive enzymes? Fish oils or Calamari oil? Quercetin? If you haven’t changed the diet then you will probably spend 1,000s more…
I can’t understand why you would not let this poor dog go comfortably to sleep in her bed………forever.
At least we humans have the ability to be kind to our pets even if we can’t do it for our human loved ones.
This may be a trade off. My dog suffers BADLY every fall for weeks with yeast allergies and other things. His feet are red and inflamed, itchy and painful. I have done everything I can do, so getting this shot for my dog was a fairly easy decision. His life is miserable with these allergies. If his life is cut short a bit, that is sad. But I’d rather have him healthy and feeling well for fewer years than suffering for 3 months out of the year every year.
Think about some natural alternatives, please. Investigate CBD oil, (beware, learn first… so many inferior products), olive leaf extract, cucurmin, and others. You really should investigate your feeding protocols, likely your dog is sensitive to sugars/starches, try a freeze-dried food if you can’t go raw. And a high quality probiotic to balance his gut bacteria (lots of poor quality products, you’d need to learn). There are things you can do, suffering as you describe for so long is wrong and this is clearly well beyond what your vet can offer you. You are fighting your dog’s immune system when what you need to do is allow it to function without interference.
How is it going now? My French Bulldog has suffered so and I just caved and gave her this injection. Please let me know. Ty
How did it go????? Did the Cytopoint help?????
Well I have a westie and his life was a miserable painful life, he was a rescue, didn’t know his age and thought he was old but his teeth told me he was only young,his allergy’s were not only making him itch but making him ill, tried all sorts but to know avail, was put on apoquel and suddenly the young dog appeared it changed his life for the better, as before he had no life at all. Going to get the injection for him, if it shortens his life so be it, at least he will have a life because he was so close to being put down, all meds can have side effects you have to way up the pros and cons and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
My old shar pei had several Cytopoint injections. She had relief and stopped chewing. She died at 11, was she an old dog or did cytopoint play a part? I’ll never know. But she was comfortable her last few years.
It was worth it.
Cheryl,
I know this drug is new, but really how about quality of life for your poor dog and you? I tried all sorts of things as well and after a month of intense itching, scratching and chewing, I decided to try this drug. My go to used to be Prednisone, but I am giving this a try. I think all the bad press is premature, I’d love to know whats making my girl itch, but having to deal with sores and hot spots and medications for that, I was willing to give this a try. I hope you find the relief your looking for, don’t be so hard on yourself, your only trying to do whats best for your fur baby. I really don’t know how I landed on this site, but Dr. Dodd’s is world reknown and she believes in Cytopoint. Good Luck, I wish you well.
Agree about Dr. Dodds…my 10 yr old English Springer Spaniel just had his 9th Cytopoint injection yesterday…appetite fine, no gastro side effects ever, energy good…must supplement shots with Chlorihexidine baths weekly/bi-weekly-Cytopoint has greatly improved his quality of life, as well as ours-watch carefully for any unusual issues-have had blood work done around shot #5-very good blood panels. I did not make decision lightly-went through years of trying to treat with other means-stayed away from pred, but he has had many courses of antibiotics-too many. like all of you, have spent $1000’s on him-wonderful, smart, happy guy-perhaps researchers need to look at which breeds/mixed breed fair better, type of food they eat, etc…need longitudinal studies to done on Cytopoint now!
I’m very curious to know how your baby is doing as it’s been several years since you posted this my dog is going through the same thing
I believe you have a quality of life issue here. I understand your fear but if the shot worked for your baby, perhaps the risks are worth it.
Cheryl, my 10 yo has had the same issues as your furbaby. We just gave her first cytopoint shot last week. Im not sure it helped, and in fact am wondering if it made her worse. I think these EXTREME cases like my girl and your furbaby are in a situation unlike most dogs with skin issues. Can you advise treatment, successes, or things learned about treating your dog after your post was written? I am curious what worked, what didnt, etc, any advice you can provide is appreciated.
Cytopoint worked wonders for my red Doberman and my border collie. Border collie chewed her legs raw and Doberman scratched all night. Dobie took one injection and it worked in about 12 -15 hours. I’ve not have to repeat. That was two years ago. The border collie took 3 injections over 3 months and have mot had to repeat. That too, was 2 years ago. My border collie is 15 years old and my Doberman is 8 years. I’d do it again if I had to. But, so far, so good.
Try taking her off grains. I got a rife test of my yorkie and it said she is allergic to grains. No rice! I start noticing the itching after she eats rice.
Have you found anything to help the itching? My dog is 7 and has been on Cytopoint for 2years. After reading this, I am now afraid to continue using it. What have you done?
Debra, this is chronic disease by definition. The best I’ve found to cure ANY chronic disease, including but not limited to this commonest one I call The Itch, is professionally prescribed homeopathy. It takes training to manage chronic disease, it’s rarely or never a “one remedy wonder.”
I tell you how to hire a homeopathic vet on this page: http://vitalanimal.com/recommended-resources/ Scroll down to the AVH list and the video I’ve made to work your way through the list.
Cheryl, how did CytoPoint work for your pup?
Hi Will,
So so grateful for your information. I’ve spent the last two years of my sick life researching everything I could to get myself healthy. Of course I also learned how bad vaccines are. So then I finally realize I should be looking into the proper vaccines for a dog. So sad to read that there are so many that I’ve given her and her five years of life, And it’s extremely upsetting. My dog started biting her paws at a time when I was very sick with numerous auto immune diseases myself. I believed she was just having stress because of my illness. I told the vet and of course they said well you can do allergy testing for $600. They said you don’t want your dog to suffer.So I got the allergy test, and according to Elisa labs, my dog is allergic to every form of beef chicken turkey lamb grains etc. so I cut out all those foods from her diet and I put her on an organic raw diet. And then all of a sudden my dog developed profuse itching in her ears and she had hives all inside of her ears within a matter of one day. I took her to the vet Who told me her ears are not an infection it’s an allergy. However they treated it with three horrible drugs at all and with some of the same drugs that I was put on that I am suffering from. So then they told me to take Ap Who told me her ears are not an infection it’s an allergy. However they treated it with three horrible drugs but all ends with some of the same drugs that I was put on that I am suffering from. So then they told me to give her apoquel!! That seem to change her. She was having more loose stool and just was constantly sleeping and still itching. So I was pretty leery about that drug and I stopped it. When I went to the vet again, they said there’s a new drug out and solely goes right to the allergies , Not throughout your whole body like some of the biologic drugs I have to take. This Vet knows that I have Crohn’s disease, but I’m not wealthy by any means and that I did not like giving my dog any meds. Sadly she was scratching so bad and seemed like she was suffering So I stood there in disbelief as to what to do. The insisted it was totally safe and works so well. So I let her give my dog and injection. Not realizing that I would have to come once a month and get them for the rest of her life which I cannot afford and of course which the dog insurance won’t cover because I have a stupid allergy testing done The insisted it was totally safe and works so well. So I let her give my dog and injection. Not realizing that I would have to come once a month and get them for the rest of her life which I cannot afford and of course which the dog insurance won’t cover because I have a stupid allergy testing done. Just prior to my getting dog insurance. Really not fair because I never treated her with any medications. All I did was adjust her diet. And it seemed to help for a year before I did that at the apoquel and Cytopoint. While there they wanted to give her all these vaccines. I had read that you can just get titers done to make sure they were still good and don’t need another vaccine. She told me it would cost $100 whereas the vaccine was $60. When I went to check out the titer test was $275, that is when I started crying . So then they were trying to push the vaccine on me by saying well it’s going to be cheaper if you do the vaccine so just do the vaccine. PS she didn’t need the vaccine she doesn’t need those vaccines at all now that I’ve read up on it. So frustrated with myself because here I am thinking I’m spending so much money on dog food to keep her healthy and alive longer. Yet they’ve been poisoning Her since day one! Then I looked back at all of my receipts and I see another time where they randomly gave her all these antibiotics in her ear but she never had any ear infections?? I met another woman at the same vet her since day one! Then I looked back at all of my receipts and I see another time where they randomly gave her all these antibiotics and her ear but she never had any ear infections?? I met another woman at the same vet Who told me some horror stories about the vet and the people I got my dog from. I don’t know what to do right now. The cytopoint worked very well. She was almost itch free Up until a few days ago, and of course our next appointment for a shot is this Friday. Oh, when the vet gave her the cytopoint injection, She then said oh but you’re going to need the app a quail all month because it takes a while for it to work. Cha Ching another $120!!!! So now my poor little dog is going to be in the same pharmaceutical circle of hell for the rest of her life, because of greedy monsters!!!! My appointment is in two days and I don’t know what to do? Please please please somebody give me some advice. I don’t even know if those red irritated spots in her ears were truly an allergy problem? I truly can’t afford to give her this medicine. But I can’t stand to see her suffer either. Are they truly suffering? She originally was only biting her paws no red marks no red belly.. But now she’s going nuts scratching on her ears again. I won’t give her that drug because obviously it can cause Crohn’s disease, and I’m 54 and my life has been ruined because of it. Probably more likely ruined by the medicine I was given. I keep getting new diagnoses for myself from the medication I was given and I can barely deal with getting through the day. My dog is my only happy thing In my life. I do not know what to do to help her. Please somebody give me some advice. I cannot figure out how these monaters can live with themselves.
I apologize for all the misspellings. I was talking the text and didn’t get to correct my errors before submitting
HI Barbara,
We are in the same circle of hell. Apoquel allowed the hair to grow back on Sully’s ears, but when it ended we were worse than ever. Vaccines started this whole mess. Each time they were given, he got worse. Six times a night with the runs. We now stare at the cliff of Cytopoint. He has been on a natural diet.
I’m glad you couldn’t afford to give your dog that medicine. It killed my otherwise healthy 3 year old German Shepherd. He was the best thing in my life.
Also killed my sweet Micah — 11 year old toy poodle. He died on Aug. 24, 2017 — exactly one month after he received his 2nd Cytopoint shot. I did tons of research on Cytopoint, sadly, after the fact — a mistake I will always regret. This is a dangerous drug — was released to the public after only 7 months of testing… It is an autoimmune suppressant. So…if you have a dog with any health issues…any, the drug will suppress the body’s natural ability to fight off these health issues and very quickly cause death. I read a study in the Merck Manual conducted by a vet from Yale — an injection of Cytopoint will cause a gallbladder mucocele to rapidly develop leading to death. This drug should not be given to any dog that is not 100% healthy, and even then I would advise against it. My dog suffered for 6 weeks, in tremendous pain, while no one could figure out what was wrong. He started having trouble walking within one week of receiving the first Cytopoint injection on June 16. Everyone thought he was having hip/joint problems for which he received numerous acupuncture treatments. But he continued to get worse. It turned out he couldn’t walk because he was in so much pain from his stomach. Near the end, it was determined that he had acute pancreatitis, secondary to the gallbladder mucocele which exploded into rapid development following his injections. People who are dying CHOSE test trials because it is their last hope, but they make this choice knowing it’s a gamble. The makers of Cytopoint should have presented this drug in the same fashion — as a test trial. All of us who have lost our beloved dogs would have not chosen this route… Watching my dog suffer for so long and losing him in this way has changed my life. I will not have another dog and risk being a part of something that causes another living creature so much pain.
What happen to your Shepherd? I just gave my 6 year old Shepherd the Cytopoint injection today!
I know everyone says raw is better but have you tried I think it is call natures balance LTd duck that worked on my lab and Alaskan Malamute. My lab broke out in sores from scratching all the time and I was told to try this. worth a try.
oh and my Malamute had a sensitive stomach. it worked fine for them for years.
the web site below is so you can check it out if you like.
When you change a dog’s diet, they will most likely suffer from detox reactions..which will cause worse symptoms sometimes. more itching, ear issues etc…you must work through these and usually it fades out within two weeks. but can be longer depending on how bad your dog is..but 2 weeks is a good time frame.
Colloidal silver in the ears
There has been absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever that indicates colloidal silver has any medicinal benefits.
Barbara, you can have titer testing done through Kansas state university. Dirt cheap for combos…Contact Dr John Robb at Protect The Pets. he’s on Facebook as well. sorry , I hope these comments show up. I am only answering as I read your book…ha
Helo. It seems we are experiencing a very similar situation. I too am frantic, and worn out from the Dr., office visits, cash out of pocket, tests, med.s., and fear of bad reactions, from both common drugs, used for allergys. I am now feeding my Mattie a diet of grain free food enhanced with probiotics.. The sweet potato and venison, deboned duck..(Evolve) Did some research on my own and holistic is my route now.. I also found an inexpensive, safe product call colostrum-38 it should be used, we started that today.. If Mattie wants a treat. I give her, a few kibbles from her Evolve.. Her ears have cleared, and I’m happy, when she is happy.. I hope this helps..
Has the Colostrum helped??
Why don’t you get a second opinion from a board certified detmatologist? Do it before you spend any more money on anything else.
We rescued a puppy who had allergies since she was 2 months old. We tried switching foods, Benadryl, steroids… nothing worked. She had scabs everywhere, kept us up all night… our vet suggested that we wipe her down with a wet paper towel a couple times per day! We found a new vet who suggested Cytopoint so we tried it. Within a couple of hours she stopped scratching!! The first dose lasted a couple of weeks, we’re on our fourth injection lasting about 8 weeks. We didn’t know what else to do! I’m afraid of long term consequences but she had absolutely no quality of life.
You did the right thing. Quality of life is most important.
Look into Nzymes. I’ve been using it for a week on my itchy Shih Tzu, and things are looking good. He’s been off APOQUEL for three weeks after taking it for over two years. I just know it’s leaky gut syndrome and I’m hoping the Nzymes will help heal his gut.
I put my rottie on Nzymes almost a year ago. Amazing improvement in a short time although it did not completely stop the itching. Vet asked me to try another treatment. Big mistake, he is worse than ever. Have a new order of Nzymes on the way.
Where do you get that? My shih-tzu has allergies
Where do I find Nzymes?
Diane,
Please find Veterinarian who has experiance and practice Chinese Herbal Remedies. It did wonders for my dog.
Would love to know what herbals you used. 7 y/o Chihuahua. With yeasty seeming skin and extreme flea allergy. Now on raw diet and constant flea attention. Try to not use chemicals. Still itchy always.
I am in the same boat and yesterday just receive her first Cytopoint Injection. She seems to be doing better, but I am scared of all the side effects.
I am going to update as her treatment continues, but I doubt I will be giving her a second dosage.
Chinese Herbal Remedies worked well for our 4 year old Havanese too. Four Paws by Jing Tang worked wonders along with a couple of others you can get from a holistic vet. We have also heard great things about ozone therapy and may do this for the upcoming allergy season. Best wishes to everyone…I know how awful it is to see our dogs uncomfortable. Zymox is also great for red, itchy ears and paws. Instant relief! Chewy has a decent price for this…1% hydrocortosone.
My miniature pincher gets horrible atopic dermatitis every spring and summer. In years past I’ve had to resort to mild doses of prednisone to get it under control which was horrible and dangerous . So I always try to wait as long as possible which is what I did this year. My vet told me about Seidel point in the spring when her allergies first started with the pollen. My vet even suggested some home remedies such as a vinegar and water solution. I tried sprays and baths with ketoconazole, I tried Benadryl, and the dermatitis just got worse and worse . She was constantly itching constantly chewing. she had a little red sores all over her tummy and on her hind legs and her bottom. She was miserable. So I took her recently to get her a shot of Cytopoint.. Within 48 hours the rash had subsided considerably, her chewing and itching had stopped and the hair loss has stopped. She has shown no ill side effects whatsoever. I will continue to monitor her but so far so good and if there are no side effects I will use it again next year and likely from now on. For my dog it’s a godsend.
My pup just had her second Cytopoint injection. No side effects and NO itching! It’s great!
Did your dog just lay around after the shot? My dog has just layed there all day like it drained her. Scarie
Yes! I don’t like it at all! Did you continue it? Ty
yes my shih tzu did the very same thing lethargic. Lord is 10 yrs old vet thinks he is allergic to chicken. Vet gave him the cytopoint injection no conversation or opportunity to research. Lord stopped licking under his legs and licking and chewing his paws most of the time. Lordhad on going ear issues for years. Vet put him on a fish diet I’m using a holistic limited ingredient diet Venture pollock fish, pumpkin, flaxseed. Lord hates it hardly eats at all lucky if 1/4 cup a day. Lord by the 3rd day started licking all over again but not chewing his paws. I will be checking out a holistic Vetafter all these reviews.
Hi Dwight, my 13 year old Cavalier is extremely lethargic and not eating. I had full bloods done prior to her being given cytopoint. Our situation is she has had chronic allergies for most of her life, chewing her feet, constant scratching and her tummy was red, hot and moist. She would develop hotspots and ulcers. In the past year she has developed a high grade heart murmur with little congestion. She is on Vetmedin, frusemide, fortekor and has potassium as she recently showed kidney issues. She was on low dose prednisone on and off for years and we tried Apoquel which did not work. My holistic vet suggested cytopoint and we went ahead. Initially it was great, her itching stopped within 6 hours and she was much happier. However it’s now been a fortnight and she has developed the lethargy and loss of appetite. Her gums are very pale but that could be due to her heart. An X-ray showed her heart is enlarged. She is also sore in her back so she is reviving tramadol to see if the other symptoms are more due to her pain rather than illness.
Sue…my shihtzu received Cytopoint this Monday. Today, lethargic, pal gums, not eating.Rapid heartbeat..vets says mitral valve disease and CHF. So worried. I think it was the shot. Was a very playful healthy dog up until yesterday.
Yes, I had to carry her everywhere for days. She is not the happy, active and loving dog that she was before the injection of Cytopoint. Her entire personalty changed. I am so sorry that I
accepted the injection from my vet. I am so careful of what I accept for her and I will never forgive myself for saying yes. I took a happy, healthy, dog into the Vet. My life and my dogs life changed in one day. It has been six months and we are still suffering..
Mary I’m curious to know if you used it for the second season and how it has worked and if there were any side effects
Diane,
I think your dog would probably appreciate it if you saw a real vet at this point. You’ve clearly tried your way, but it’s failing, and your dog is suffering for it.
Diane, let me suggest you stop trying to cure chronic disease like this yourself. It can be cured (though nothing in conventional medicine will do it).
Grab my free Apoquel Alternatives Report (on your Member Home page) and track down a homeopathic vet from my recommendations there.
The allergies will take time, but a vet trained and regularly practicing homeopathy can bring your youngster to cure.
p.s. bravo on avoiding further vaccines. They would be like pouring gasoline on the fire of inflammation already going on.
Dr. Falconer,
I recently had a phone consult with my homeopathic vet in CO (I live in FL) to discuss taking my dog off apoquel and using a treatment. She told me that she has not found any treatment to work (she is a DVM and Dr. Pitcarne trained in homeopathy) and she is recommending cytopoint and immune therapy for all her allergy dogs. She was a conventional vet for years like you, and has used homeopathic since 1991 and the three years I worked with her she has always used homeopathy for everything and encouraged staying away from white coat drugs. I find this very interesting….
Hi Sandra,
It’s not that homeopathy doesn’t work, it’s just a reflection of how difficult it is to prescribe for a largely common symptom: the itch. We often have to try and try again, until we find more clues about what the animal has going on besides just itch. That lone symptom will never uncover the best remedy.
I’m sorry to hear this, and likely this is a classmate of mine. I’d sure not endorse either of these drugs. “Immune therapy” sounds intelligent.
Less so when you call it like it is: immune suppression.
Sorry to hear this.
My dog Leah was on Apoquel and after my old vet “found a suspect lump in her intestine”, ran a blood test and Leah’s red & white cells & platelets were low, especially her platelets.
She has been diagnosed as having asymptotic Thrombocytopaenia, and she’ll be having a blood test in the next couple of weeks to see how her blood is doing. I decided to stop giving her the Apoquel against my new vets wishes as my hunch was that this wonder pill was doing her more harm than good. It turns out that Apoquel was at fault. Leah is a very rare case which makes it even more intriguing for Zoetis, the manufacturers.
After a check up at the vets today, he mentioned Cytopoint, told me to look it up online and to seriously consider it.
I’ve scoured the internet and lo and behold, it’s made by the same company that makes Apoquel and not enough is known about it and the possible side effects.
I’ve started using Dermacton soap and cream by a company called Aromesse.
It seems to be working, it’s a natural product and it has a lot of success for treatment of itching skin.
I hope you can find it online and maybe try it out.
I’m at a loss of what to do with my rottie. She was on Apoquel an dit worked til it didn’t (8months). Then they switched her to cytopoint and it worked til it didn’t (11 months every 30 days forking out $100 a month on the shot). The only way cytopoint works is if I couple it with pred every three days or so. Now, I’m trying a completely different route against my vets wishes because the vet just isn’t helping my dog. I noticed she not only has the dry flaky skin, scratching until she is bold and bleeding, but she also has brittle nails that split. I found a biotin deficiency might be her issue. Biotin deficiency can occur in large breed dogs that grow quickly from pups like Rottweilers do and also can be made worse by the dog eating a large amount of raw eggs. Well, I have chickens that lay eggs and I can say my dog has no problem helping herself to them. A week on biotin supplements and she isn’t scratching nearly as bad as she was and she has very little dandruff. My couch used to look like there was snow on it every time she got up. Now, the only time I see dandruff is if I rub her back vigorously. I’m hoping to see full improvement in another three weeks.
My dog has had one injection with immediate relief; getting 2nd today. Of course will monitor studies but, she was getting secondary bacterial infections from chewing-so, sometimes you have to choose what you feel is best fir your dog????????
10 year old black lab scratching and chewing endlessly. Many rounds with vet with steroids and antibiotics. Had 3 rounds with cytapoint shot. First time lasted about a month. Second time, dead of winter, lasted about a month. Last shot only worked like 2 weeks. Have resorted to benadryl, constant baths with either benzoyl peroxide or Chlorhexadine,
various anti itch sprays, fish oil supplements, and super diligent flea control. Am very hesitant to return to vet, but skin issues are escalating. Almost forgot, he is on a grain free diet too. This is just not natural at all!!!!
Hello Diane, I am sorry to hear about your dog’s issues,but i have a dog with similar problems. I can tell you a few things we did to help our French bull dog who is 10 1/2 presently. We adopted him at 2 years old and he was a sick itchy dog. He developed eye and ear problems from persitant irritation and Inflammation. He was biting himself all over. We tried several Vets,no success although they tried and were kind. We eliminated all vaccines except the rabies as we needed that for grooming purposes.All dog foods failed to alleviate problems. We starting cooking Bison or Venison (as he was never exposed to those meats and did not have antibodies against them.) We mixed these organic meats with stringbeans and sweetpotaoes or brown rice all organic.We use Charcoal shampoo and “green “laundry detergents, cleaning produts etc. Nothing went near his skin or in his stomach that was not as pure as possible. Within a month or 2 80% of symptoms were gone. We use Atopica x2-3 times a week, probiotics, and coconut oil. We had a healthy happy dog for 8 years . In June he went for his check up. His Bloodwork was that of a puppy, perfect. He looked and acted well. The Vet told my husband not to give him Atopica as it is a bad drug and there is a new medication out that has “NO” side effects. She gave him Cytopoint. Two weeks later he developed massive ear infections,lost his hearing, then he stopped eating,we tried several variations of his diet. We took him back to the Vet again x3 in a month as he started to lose weight. She felt an abdominal mass,did an Xray and saw a mass.His Bloodwork 5 weeks after the June results were that of a dying dog. He has pancreatitis,hypothroidism and a massive massive system infection. He is now on 3 medications and can bearly move. On Monday we go for a sonogram to see if we should “let him go” or try different treatments.All the systems in his body Are failing. He has suffered so much this past month and we are paying top dollar for these tests and meds,over $1000 so far. Monday $500. To me Cytapoint is the absolute cause, I have no doubt. The Vet is not responding when I say it must be the injection,just let us see what the sono shows us is the answer we get. I wish you the best with your dog. I would save Cytapoint as a last last resort.
I’m curious, do you believe the mass could have formed in that short a time? Was it like a month after the Cytopoint? Our dog is also currently on Atopica 2-3 x a week but it seems to have stopped working (we even think that she gets worse the day she gets it.) I just don’t know what to do for her. 😞
Try Skin Tonic by Wondercide. It is available on Amazon and thru the Wondercide Website. It is an all natural product that contains Organic oils of neem and other botanicals. It gives some relief. Also try a cotton shirt that protects then skin from the clawing and chewing. A slightly fitted shirt is what we like best. Good Luck.
My dogs suffer from allergies as well, it was effecting their eyes, skin and inbetween their toes. I changed their food to no- grains and give them real beef ( or beef broth no-sodium) or veggies for add-ins . Stay away from chicken as I found that that also could give them allergy flare ups. . I tried to CADI shots as well and they do work however they can get very expensive, I was lucky because I only had to give them the shot once or twice and it lasted for the whole rest of the year Or longer. Recently my Chihuahua seem to develop an allergy as I saw a dry patch we are she had it so bad it was red irritated and no hair on that area plus her eyes were watery and discharging.. at the moment I wasn’t able to afford the CADI Shots for her so I found some medicine that was prescribed before I started the CADI shots (tobramycin ophthalmic 0.3% drops 2x’s a day for her eyes) and on the rash and dry skin area applied the (entederm ointment) it’s been 5 days and it seems to be working ( a bit slowly ) and The poor dog she has to wear the cone so that she doesn’t scratch your itch her eyes or bite her skin but I’m going to give it a day or two more and if it’s clearing up I’m just going to keep doing it at this point it’s all I can do and hopefully it will heal it!
Hi Diane, my vet told me Benadryl isn’t safe long term because it can do damage to the kidneys or something like that. In either case, he recommended Zyrtec, two tabs for dogs as opposed to one for humans. He said he could take it every day for the rest of his life and it’s not going to do any organ damage. My dog gets grass allergies and although he doesn’t scratch a lot, his tummy can get beat red. I get the generic brand at Walmart. Again, PLEASE check!!! I’M NO EXPERT OR VET!!!
The article was interesting and I liked the information and insights but then they went full on crazy conspiracy theorist. The dog I adopted was abused and never received medical care like vaccines and had terrible allergies so how do you explain that
Vaccinosis, or the allergy illness most common in that larger umbrella label, is an inherited illness, best we can tell. That’s why even a single vaccine can now set off disease while many years ago, before so many generations of animals were over vaccinated, an animal could withstand vaccine insults without being so likely to get sick.
Not sure about conspiracies, but when you ignore all the professional vet organizations’ recommendations to vaccinate less often and carry on with yearly shots, there’s a price to pay: chronic disease. That’s not only expensive, it’s usually stressful and ultimately heartbreaking.
I thought my precious 8 yr old yorkie mix was healthy. She was given the best of everything her entire life. She was my constant companion, my best friend, my only friend. She was happy, playing, running eating like normal on Monday 9/16/2019 and on Tuesday 9/17/2019 she died, from complications after surgery to remove a tumor on her spleen.
I trusted our local Vet when he said Emma needed multiple vaccines every year, but she would get sick the day after each time. She would get sick after heartworm meds each month. But I thought she had to have it.
Emma had an occasional problem with itching, but not a major problem. She didn’t have hot spots or lose fur. But in June 2019 our Vet recommended Cytopoint as a preventative??? I was confused because I didn’t ask for itch/scratching medication. It was like a sales pitch trying to convince me to buy something I didn’t need or ask for.
The Vet kept telling me how great this shot was and how much better it was than steroids, that it had zero side effects, it was 100% safe. He made it sound so wonderful, I finally said yes to give her the Cytopoint shot. He never told me exactly what was in this new miracle shot..
If I had known Cytopoint was a biologic and autoimmune suppressant, I would have definitely said NO!
Plus the shot did not work, Emma continued to occasionally scratch as she normally did. I planned to tell the Vet, his miracle shot was a waste of money. But I never had the chance, My sweet Emma died.
On 9/16/2019 Emma had an x-ray taken because she had been coughing. The Vet found a cyst on her spleen. She had no symptoms or problems before that day. I was told the spleen and cyst had to be removed ASAP. I was in shock, she was not sick, she seemed fine. Vet told me this surgery was very safe, 95% success rate.
So I sent my most cherished constant companion into surgery on 9/17/2019. Emma survived surgery, but 20 minutes later, she hemorrhaged and died. The most amazing dog, my perfect baby, was given back to me in a black plastic garbage bag.
I was charged $897.00 for surgery.
I am devastated beyond words.
I am now reading about veterinarians being paid off by pharmaceutical companies. There is no regulation, no disclosure! That is crazy and should not be allowed. Vets should report gifts the same as physicians. Our pets are not safe, big drug companies have taken control over the veterinarians.
Probably poor quality nutrition and bad breeding. I found out that the breeder my dog care from was feeding “puppy chow” it’s garbage, now my pup is recovering on raw diet with herbal remedies, ACV rinses after bathing 2X week and a tbsp of ACV in water bowl daily. – if anyone is experiencing worsening of symptoms due to changing to raw diet it’s detox causing it! You have to get worse before you get better. My dog had no vaccines, no flea tick medicines, was born itchy. 8 months later has very little itching.
People don’t believe in homeopathic cures because they aren’t giving it time to work, especially on older dogs. Give it a try but the raw diet must be one pure protein and at least 8 weeks on it, no treats or anything else. Also check to make sure your dog isn’t sleeping on a dog bed made in China, they are full of chemicals in foam!!!! Can cause cancer and allergies!
I used cytopoint on my dog ….holistic vet suggested it..it was a godsend..worked incredibly well..also used prednisone as a qickstart for 3 weeks as it takes a while for cytoppoint to kick in..the itching totally stopped….my dog has MCT’s also so the pred. helped to really shrink the tumors
Perfect example of two very suppressive drugs doing their thing. No sign of a cure in sight from conventional medicine, nor is there ever likely to be.
Just be ready for when the other shoe drops, Joanne. Likely the Mast Cell tumors will be running wild before too long.
Dr Falconer, if vaccines are truly the issue, are we really supposed to just altogether skip vaccines completely? I mean, how can we do that?
I had a total mix breed dog for 13 years who I had allergy tested at 1 year old because she chewed her feet. She also developed demodectic mange at around 6 months shortly after being vaccinated. I adopted her at about 4 months, as a stray who was not claimed by anyone. So we didn’t know if she’d already had vaccines. So IF she’d already had them, which we could never know for sure, she was double vaccinated, but we couldn’t risk not doing it. If i had known what i know now, I could have had titers done. The expense would be worth the knowledge. The allergy treatments we had her on never really helped. By about her 5th year, I finally figured out she was mostly allergic during Aug to Dec until deep freeze happened. So I figured it must be some kind of fungus, since it was her feet. Betadine rinses seemed to help. I used to dab her paws with campho-phenique. I do think just rinsing her feet in the tub made a big difference.
Now i have an old little pomeranian mix guy I rescued from shelter in January. He goes crazy trying to reach his hind end. I have had him in to make sure his anal glands ok. Mostly they say they are good. So I am not having those checked again. He’s too chubby to reach his butt. He’s had 2 cytopoint injections. The first one seemed to help, the 2nd one did not. Now I just give him benadryl and CBD. It’s a crapshoot. He is a stocky boy, weights 14-15 lbs. I am trying to feed him less to help him to lose weight. As for the itching it is MADDENING! It’s not constant, but I don’t know how a person puts up with it if it’s constant. I just don’t know how to help him. My vet has given me a medicated shampoo. I give him more baths than i have ever given any of my other dogs. He gets 1-3 month. I sometimes think the itching is anxiety. I have used a supplement for anxiety, called L-theanine. Need to just go back to that and stinging nettles. I had his blood tested for allergies, with a company ran by Dr Dodd, and results said he’s highly allergic to dust mites. I try to keep my home clean, but really!? I haven’t had the food tested. Is that possible. Dr Dodd’s company does it, but my vet said there is not really a good test for that. I can’t seem to be disciplined enough to eliminate all foods except one at a time for my guy.
Hi Jill,
A few thoughts in response to your comment. First, I’m not suggesting “doing nothing” vs vaccinating. There are ways to immunize and build the immune system without damaging it. You may want to explore this article on controlled natural exposure for parvo and distemper immunity. And this page to get on the first release list for a powerful immune booster we’re just about to bring to market for dogs.
And, it may seem like forever that we’ve been vaccinating dogs, but it’s relatively short-lived, maybe 50 years now (and nothing crazy like annual vaccination when we started!). It might make it seem like every pup is born “incomplete” and just needs shots to make him disease resistant. If that were actual fact, dogs wouldn’t have survived! So, fundamentally, we need a reframe on this thinking.
Finally, your too itchy Pom mix may well be beyond DIY tweaking. Allergies are chronic disease, and as such, there are limits to what can be accomplished at home, on your own. Chronic illness is rarely a “one button solution,” and, as you say, you certainly can’t avoid every allergen on the planet. I’ve got some solutions for you in my Apoquel Alternatives Report. You’ll find it free on my recently censored article that Big Pharma would rather you didn’t know about.
Hi Diane, try changing her protein source. Kangaroo has worked for our little dog. I’ve heard that rabbit can be good too. These are both well tolerated by dogs with allergies. We tried EVERY protein source before we found Kangaroo that worked. Hope this helps!
Where an earth do you get kangaroo food?
You may want to try putting some chlorophyll ointment on your baby. I get mine from standard process because they are a whole food supplement company and all of their stuff is made with health in mind. That being said you will have to keep it covered and keep it on there fairly thin because it will stain carpet or furniture
Laurie