Can my cat take prednisolone and Apoquel together? What about dosage?

Yes your pet sure can. Prednisone is a steroid and Apoquel is an immune modulator drug that specifically targets the receptors on your pets skin that cause itching. In fact, right now Apoquel has no drug interactions with any other type of medication, so it can be used along with just about anything. If your pet was not able to be maintained on Apoquel alone, then a low dose of prednisone or Cyclosporine can be used with it. Also I would recommend Fish oil supplements which are natural anti-inflammatory way to help a pet with skin allergies. Any pet formulated fish oil product from your local pet store will do.

Fighting secondary skin infections and allergies is tough. Drugs like prednisone and Apoquel are used to control inflammation. In some cases, we add a drug in an effort to taper prednisone if long term immunosuppression is needed. Ideally, long term immunosuppressives should be avoided but in some cases are needed. You should consider discussing referral to a veterinary dermatologist for intradermal skin testing.

The drug information for Apoquel states that no specific drug interactions have been reported. From Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook: "Marketing information from the drug sponsor states that oclacitinib has been safely used in conjunction with other common medications including vaccines, NSAIDs, antibiotics, parasiticides, anticonvulsants, and allergen immunotherapy (Anon 2013b), but this information could not be found on the drug label." I would be ok with using these two medications together with that information.

Poor Lily. Sometime both Apoquel and steroids might be necessary to control skin condition. Generally speaking, steroids have more side effects compared to Apoquel and is important to consider correct amount and length of treatments. Steroids need to be tapered gradually so please do not stop them without having gradually reduced the dose. Apoquel has a maximum effective dose so if Lily is already getting the maximum you won't see any beneficial effect if you increase it further. I would suggest to ask your vet exactly when to start and stop steroids as she knows Lily condition very well and can organize for her a treatment plan. Please post again in the forum if you need further advices and I hope my answer is helpful.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There is no information in the literature on the use of these medications together longterm. In my experience, this has been well-tolerated and has not caused any adverse events in my patients. Good luck and best wishes!

Steroids can be indicating is allergic dermatitis but have extreme side effects when used at high doses or long term. I would not recommend this as a long term course. Any steroid over time leads to a resistance where it just won't work anymore and can lead to liver problems and diabetes in cats. Prednisolone is better tolerated and seems to work better in generally in cats compared to dexamethasone. There is a medicine called Atopica or Apoquel that is made for allergic skin disease and does what the steroids do just without the side effects and resistance, so you may be better trying one of those instead. All are prescription medicines so you will have to call your vet to see if they can fill this since they already have a medical report on her. I would stay on the hypoallergenic diet as this can take 2-3 months for max affect and treats count as far as food allergy go, so make sure those are hypoallergenic or don't give any. I would consider a treatment for mange and fleas also. It is not common in cats but causes them to be itchy and it is hard to prove and super easy to just treat to be safe.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Steroid use, dosing and the taper needs to be decided upon by a Vet that has examined the pet. We can not prescribe drugs or tell you how to use a drug because we legally are not allowed to. I am sorry. I recommend calling your Vet and asking them since they have a legal relationship with you. Have a great day!