This is interesting. Is it horrendously expensive? I had my dog on it and the price was pretty steep. I’m currently struggling with my horse’s allergies. Right now he is on an Aservo Inhaler but I don’t see any improvement and he is getting real tired of the application process.
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@stb it’s definitely not cheap. But I’m not sure how much the long term cost will be yet. She’s on 5 pills once a day for 7 days, after that we will drop to every other day, and then see how far we can space it out.
My understanding from my vet and from what I’ve read is that in horses there’s been a lot of success in spacing out the dosing, but not as much success in lowering the dose amount. I know there are some cases where the horse only needs 5 pills 1x a week–others where it’s every 4 days.My vet did say she has one client who’s horse has gone down to 2 pills every 3 days. So I think cost becomes dependent on that.
I paid $250 for 100 pills (that’s 20 5-pill doses). For this first stretch, that’s not going to get me too far since I need the loading dose up front. But it will take me through a month if I stay at every other after the loading. After that it would be about $250 every 6 weeks or so if I can’t further reduce time between pills. I’m hopeful, however, that I will be able to stretch out more so that I’m looking at $250 across 8-10 weeks instead.
Not really cheap any way you shake it, but considering that she was on zyretc, dex, smarthbreathe ultra, respi-free previously. I’m hoping those are things I can stop giving, so that will help some with overall cost.
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My dog has been on apoquel for about 2 years. She gets it all year long since she has a full list of allergies including dust, feathers, and cat dander along with grasses. She would be a scratching mess without it. I haven’t noticed any abnormal side effects.
Adding an update here in case it’s helpful for others.
We’ve been doing really well with every other day dosing. I have noticed that in general she is more comfortable on cooler days. So I want to make sure she has the support she needs to acclimate to hot humid summer weather. If she stays the way she is now, I will play with spacing it out further–first with every 2 days.
We’ve also been able to start rehabbing back into work.
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Thanks for the update Blob
holy crapola batman- just had to put my dog back on it (He’s usually on it April through Nov but with the weird weather we got away with waiting until July thankfully) and saw the price increase- yikes! Definitely less than a horse lol but 1.5 16mg tabs a day is $$
Have you considered trying allergy testing? I’ve used it on a couple of mine, and I also have some friends who have done it. It definitely makes them more comfortable. I am not saying it is a cure all, but that and some generic Zyrtec make my mare a whole lot more comfortable. She still has her mane this year- which is good!
She has been allergy tested! and unfortunately grass and dust are the main culprits. We have limited her exposure to the type of grass that she is most allergic to (bermuda), but it is hard to actually remove her exposure to her allergens entirely. Unfortunately since her allergies have jumped from skin to also being respiratory, zyrtec even 15 pills 2x a day does not do anything and even dex only worked at high doses. Apoquel has been a game changer, however. It’s expensive, but it’s working. Her asthma had gotten so bad I thought I wouldn’t be able to ride her again, but now we are back to w-t-c.
She is down to every other day. And I am debating spreading even further to every 2 days to see how she does, but I am a bit nervous to do so, especially when it’s so hot.
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This is totally random but figured I’d mention it since I had no idea till I saw someone mention it…Zoetis has a rewards program and Apoquel is one of the drugs on it. (https://www.zoetispetcare.com) I get $9 back for every 30 pills I order, it goes onto a Mastercard debit card that can only be used at a vets office but I spend plenty of money there. Several of their drugs are eligible.
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not random, very relevant and helpful! I did not know about this, but considering I’m going through apoquel at a reasonable rate this sounds like it would be worth signing up for. Thank you!
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I had a cat on it years ago and it was $$$$ but it was the only thing that worked for her.
I spend $150 a month on my horse on apoquel. That’s def not nothing but it’s not insane. One of the things the trials found on using apoquel with horses is that they need a relatively small dose. Meaning, if a 100lbs dog gets 16mg (1 pill), a horse does not need 160mg (10 pills). Horse dosing is 5 pills. And some can got a lower dose or a further spread out dose. Trials showed that spreading out dosing was more successful than lowering.
My mare started on 5 pills every day and then we were able to move her down to 5 pills every other day. I have not tried to go less than that. It’s an annoying pill schedule to keep track of, but my boarding barn has been great about it. I draw up a little calendar for them each month to help keep track.
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I’m glad that you’ve found a solution- but, after the allergy testing you can start them on a regimen designed exactly for what they are allergic to, which will help to desensitize them to those allergens. It’s kind of cumbersome, but I have two on it, and they are doing better.
Yes, we looked into this approach, but unfortunately it was not a viable option for my horse for a variety of reasons including other health factors and severity of allergies. Ultimately, my vet did not recommend we go down that route.
Having allergy tested 3 horses— you can get a serum for some allergens but not all. Food allergies in particular you can’t always do the serum for.
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Well, one of mine is allergic to soy, corn, oats, flax and more and they were able to create just the right stuff for him.
Really? Because one of mine had similar food allergies and I was told the serum would not address that. What company did you use?
Spectrum Veterinary LLC
I’m using Nextmune.
One of my horses was tested at New Bolton (he has since passed away) and I was told that a serum wasn’t possible or effective for most of his food-bourne allergies. That was 5-6 years ago now.
But I had my mare tested last year, she also came up allergic to some foods (flax being one) for which I was told serum was not an option. Luckily most of her allergies appear to be insect-based and she responds very well to the serum for that. Unless my vet (and an unaffiliated nutritionist) I consulted are wrong-- I was told that allergy serum is only possible/effective for some allergies and a lot of food-based ones are not on the list.
I actually have 2 horses now on serum and one I eliminated the food specific allergens from his diet. The mare luckily didn’t have a lot of food allergies and eliminating flax wasn’t a big deal.
@vxf111 we were told the same thing for food allergies–that they did not make serums fot them because they were not very effecttive and the the expectation was that the allergen be removed from the diet.
I’m not dealing with food allergies but both the company and the vet did not recommend allergy shots for my mare.
