I was giving both all summer.
Feronia is off the Apoquel for the winter, because there aren’t allergens for her to react to. Her breathing is slightly more rough, but she’s still up for a 3 mile hand walk.
Feronia has done well over the winter, but the vet wants to start up the Apoquel before allergens really take hold. So she’ll be on it as soon as the vet gets the pills. Vet thinks it will take less time to taper since we’re starting with a less symptomatic horse.
I was just thinking about this thread. Last year we were doing 20 zyrtec a day plus monthly steroid shots. With that she was itchy for grooming but no raw spots except for the one month when we ran a bit late.
I’d love to try Apoquel. For any of the current users, were you doing injectable steroids before? Would you say the results were as powerful?
The one study I found was .5mg/kg. For a 1,300 lb horse that’s 590 kg or 295mg which would be 18 pills a day, right? I’m seeing some people treating .25mg/kg as the loading, which would be 9 pills. Are people doing a $30-60/day loading dose? This feels like a huge difference from the 5-10 pills I’m seeing above. Is there additional literature or is it more of a trial and error?
I’ve also just started back up for the spring to also start before allergies kick in, much easier to stay on top of it.
Re: dosing: the original studies done on apoquel with horses found 5 pills to be effective for 1000lbs horse. And they found more success in spacing out dosage compared to lowering dosage.
For my horse apoquel was much more effective than dex was when her skin allergies also became respiratory.
Feronia can’t have steroids, except as an inhaler, because she’s right on the line for being IR, and may now have Cushings, too. And yes, she got the $60/day loading dose of 10 pills twice a day, twice, as I tapered too quickly the first time. Ultimately we got to 5 pills once a day. But remember that she started it in early to mid summer, when she was desperately itchy and her breathing was rough. I’m hoping she will do better this year. And yes, she gets Zyrtec, too.
Feronia started up Apoquel a few weeks ago, 10 pills twice a day for a week, then 5 pills twice a day, now 5 pills once a day. In the past couple of weeks, our pollen counts have been rising, and so far she is fine.
Bumping for 2025!
Hint: do not use the chewable Apoquel for dogs!
Feronia is back on Apoquel, although we’re just starting the loading dose. Her vet found chewable tablets for dogs that were less expensive, but we quit after a few days, because she was so stressed by the flavor, and would run around flailing after it was syringed into her mouth (she would not eat it in her feed; in fact, she refused to eat her feed at all.) With each dose, she got worse; for the last one she was dragging the BO around as the BO tried to dose her. She is a good mare who generally tolerates all sorts of vet stuff. The BO said she could tell that Feronia was trying to be good, but it was just too much.
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I sure wish there was a more affordable way to use this stuff. Thx for sharing your experience with the chewable.
I am using Apoquel on a horse with IBD. We are substituting it for large doses of steroids. I can find no clinical evidence that it will work. At $700 per month I’d love to hear some positive feedback. She is also on a low dose of steroids and Equioxx. She’s doing well but hard to know what’s really working. Any one else using Apoquel this way?
Hmm, Lilykoi, it could help but seems like more of a reach.
A steroid bring inflammation down generally. Apoquel reduces/blocks histamines and prostaglandins and break up itch response. For skin allergies all 3 of these things help. For allergy induced asthma 2 of these things help. For IBD the histamines and itch response likely don’t do anything? Perhaps blocking/reducing prostaglandins would help. But I can’t imagine that would be the most effective treatment given other options?
But obviously, I am not a vet, so if your vet has suggested trying it could be worth trying. Is the treatment proposed as long term or short term?
I’m thinking it’s a reach too. I can find no research on its use in horses for IBD, only allergies. And yes, a lifetime!
