The vet and my nutritionist were very skeptical that serum could do anything for the food related allergies but the vet was hopeful it could help with the insect bite and environmental allergies so I ordered the serum (which did include some foodstuffs but not all) as part of the “mix.” Things like corn, soy, oats, flax, I was told were not effectively treated with serum. I don’t think the company even offered a serum for those allergens.
As I mentioned, i have two horses who have been tested, and had serum prepared for them. I was not aware of the fact that it could be particularly useful for horses with food allergies, as my former Vet had told me it was a no go for horses with sweet itch, as well as food allergies.
My current Vet, who served as the State Veterinarian for some years, explained that was no longer the case, and that she had success with some of her clients horses. I will say that she didn’t expect 100% success, but for horses with these issues, some improvement means more relief.
The gelding with the food allergies had two vials that were prepared for each step, as his list is really, really long. I also had to stop feeding him commercial feed, as I couldn’t find anything that excluded all the ingredients that he can’t tolerate. He is currently eating rolled barley, alfalfa pellets, and rice bran, along with vitamins, etc.
Both horses are doing better than they were prior to using the serum. YMMV.
1 Like
I am going to contact the company you use. I would be willing to give feed allergy serum a try for the one horse who still reacts pretty poorly. But it wasn’t THAT long ago that I had him tested and my vet works with New Bolton and consulted with them. But maybe things have changed in the past couple years? Worth me asking!
Did you eliminate the feed from the diet and do the serum at the same time or the serum first and then the elimination?
I eliminated anything that might set him off from his feed, hay and environment as best I could, first. He lives turned out with two buddies who also eat what he eats now. I can’t keep him in the barn for some other reasons I’m not even gonna get into. He does best outside.
What strength are the pills?
What is the strength that is used for horses? There is 3.6, 5.8 and 16 mg
it’s 5 of the 16mg pills.
Has the manufacturer listed any side effects in horses using Apaquel?
they have not. There might be some veterinary publications on it, however.
Hi All: I have a horse with over 30 allergies and she’s been on allergy shots for over 3 years. Her hives were under control in California but when we moved near Tryon NC she became very itchy once again. She’s on 40 Zyrtec a day which didn’t alleviate her allergies so she’s also on Apoquel, which really helps.
I was buying the Apoquel at Walmart for about $2.60 a pill but it’s only about $1.50 a pill at Costco! Costco’s price is dependent upon whether you are a member and the quantity you buy. I also buy her generic Zyrtec at Costco.
Just wanted to get the word out on Costco!
4 Likes
Hi. I’ve been reading your thread on Apoquel with great interest! I am in the UK and have an allergy horse which my vet keeps putting on Prednisolone (not ideal!). I had a dog on Apoquel and it worked a treat so I asked him about putting my horse on Apoquel (he had never heard of the drug). My vet has since been researching it with interest although, in the UK, he was having trouble finding out about dosage. I was explaining to him that your horse was on 5 16mg tablets every day for a week, then every other day, then was trying to eek it out to every second day. Could you please tell me how big your horse is as presumably the dosage would depend on the size of the horse?? Approx kg would be great or, if not, height/type. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated as the UK is always farrrr behind the US with regard to veterinary/medical treatment. Thanks in advance!
Hi @Zaralady, happy to help how I can!
My horse is 15hh, but is stocky and about 455 kg. My vet said that she gives 5 of the 16mg pills to most horses except those that are very big (17h+) or small (14h-). That dosage is still much small per kg than a dog would be getting. In the studies that were conducted they tried both reducing the number of pills and spacing the pills out, and spacing out 5 pills was more successful than reducing the daily amount. The trials were done specifically for horses with skin allergies. But since then it seems my vet (and others) have also had success with respiratory cases like my mare.
Last year I didn’t end up going more than every other day, but mostly because I was afraid of rocking what was already working. It was our first year with the allergies impacting respiratory health and not just skin and when they first flared up and we couldn’t get it under control even with steroids she lost a ton of weight, so once we were in a good place, I didn’t have a lot of nerves for experimentation.
This year since I know what to expect and also what will work and I can get ahead of it at first sign of allergies, I am planning to experiment a bit more. I would like to try both 2 pills daily as well as 5 pills every third day. The 2 pills daily will be much easier for my barn to accomadate. But they have been lovely about all of this and last year made a special pill calendar for her to keep track of the every other day schedule.
Over fall/winter I have kept her on the omega 3s and spirulina and given her either air power liquid or respifree on days I ride her, but no apoquel. Often our grass ends up coming in strong by mid-late Feb. So, I suspect pretty soon I’ll be starting her back in on it.
Do you know what your horse is allergic to? Does she have skin allergies or respiratory or both?
I can’t access these studies, articles, but your vet might have the subscriptions necessary to do so: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35098559/
And this vet talks about apoquel on their website, so might be willing to talk to your vet directly as well: https://hayesequinevet.com/blood-suckers/
I don’t know this vet at all, but could still be valuable resource.
Hi blob99. Thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful. Tbh my vet has been pretty useless! My horse is apparently allergic to Timothy and rye grass plus possibly a mite. He’s had allergy testing and is receiving immunotherapy which seemed to work great to start with but it seems to have tailed off. My vet wanted me to clear out the whole stable and jet wash but in our British winter, it’s impractical to do it at the moment … I’ll wait for Spring! I have got a homeopathic vet coming early March so that will be interesting. I’ll let you know how I get on! Thanks so much again 
mine is also allergic to grass–bermuda in her case, also some kinds of weeds as well.
Do keep me posted on what you end up doing and what ends up helping!
My horse participated in the study a couple of years ago. Obviously I don’t know for sure if he received “the product” or the placebo. What I do know, however, is that he stopped itching almost immediately and his skin returned to normal. In fact, he improved so much he was dropped from the study. Prior to entering the study he was tearing his skin itching and looked like he got in a fight with a box cutter. It is not cheap for sure but his comfort is worth the money. I may be eating Raman Noodles but what the heck… Highly recommend!
.
2 Likes
I posted to another thread saying my vet has agreed to start my heavey/allergic mare on Apoquel. It’s expensive, but actually not much more than the inhalers + zyrtec she’s been on in the past. I couldn’t do it through an online pharmacy because it’s off label for horses, so waiting for it to come in at the vet’s.
I’m curious @Perk2754 if you were able to reduce the dose with your horse or if he is still on the 5 per day.
@quietann I will be really eager to hear how your mare does with the Apoquel. It has been great for my mare. I think I might have already shared this in the other thread, but this year I have her down to 2 pills a day and she’s doing great.
Last year (when I first started it) I did the 5pills a day for about 3 weeks to get things under control (it was really bad) and then was able to wean to 5pills every other day (the original study showed spreading out pills was more effective than lowering dose). But this year, I wanted to experiment a bit since every-other day schedule was much harder to keep track of. I started her up in the spring with 5pills a day for 10 days, then went to 4 a day for 10 days, then 3…so on and so forth until I got to 2. The nice thing about being down to 2 is that if she does have a bad day here or there, I can just give her an additional 3 pills as a first line of defense.
1 Like
I may end up doing something similar as it’s easier to just put the right number of pills in her supplement containers.
I suggested apoquel to a friend whose senior horse might be developing Cushings. Her vet nixxed apolquel because it is an immune suppressor and therefore not good to a Cushings horse.
I am not up on Cushings, but has anyone else tried it with Cushings? The horse is miserable.
It’s an immune modifier for a very specific enzyme. It’s not an immune suppressor. I have used it in Cushing’s horses w no issues. (am an equine vet)
6 Likes
