My dog takes Apoquel. How can I safely stop or reduce his dose?

Apoquel is a very safe drug. I would not stop giving it to Rupert without speaking to his vet first. He's likely stopped licking his paws because the medication is working, and usually in these cases, the symptoms come right back when the medication is stopped.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I have several patients that have been on it for a little over a year now and seem to be doing quite well on it. The one thing we routinely monitor is a complete blood count to make sure the immune system is not being suppressed, which Apoquel has been known to do in some patients. Other than that, I really do not see any other side effects of using Apoquel. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

The shot was likely cytopoint. Depending on the dog sometimes the shot works better and sometimes the pill works better. I even have some patients that need both to help control their allergies. If you feel like the pill worked better then I would contact you vet for a prescription of apoquel for her as well. I think it is perfectly safe for her to have apoquel on a long term basis as long as she has no other medical issues. You can talk to ypur vet in more details about whether or not she is okay to stay in apoquel long term. I hope this helps!

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.

Apoquel is dosed twice daily initially, and due to it’s pharmacokinetics I would agree that twice daily would be preferable to increasing the dose once daily. There might be some other options as well - you could ask your vet about trying Cytopoint or other medications for allergies.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Lily's allergies. I would highly advice that you consider Apoquel. This medication is very effective to decrease the itch and help with the clinical signs associated with allergies that you describe. The best thing about Apoquel besides its efficacy is that you can stop it at any point so you can consider using it just for the time being while she is affected by allergies the most. That is how I use it for my own dogs and they are going great. Good luck and have a nice day!

Apoquel is actually the only effective and safe medication that can be taken long term for this type of condition, if it works well i would recommend working on the lowest effective dose once a day and sticking to it. you will not find anything that works OTC, the only true alternative is steroids and these should not be taken long term.