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Originally Posted by LEXINGTON

Hello Everyone, This is my first email to Yorkie Forum. I am looking for anyone who is using Atopica on their babies. My babies name is Lexi, (very common as I see on the forum) she just turned 5 Yrs in April she weights 7 1/2 lbs and has suffered with scratching and a horrible red rash on the top of her back which has gotten worse since she was about 3 yrs. She scratches all year long. I, like most of you, have tried just about everything, Prednisone only one time for about 1 month, Childrens Benadryl which really just puts her to sleep, but at least she gets a few hours of relief from the scratching. I have tried food trial several times and have finally found something that she will actually eat, she is on Wellness brand duck (simple food dry ) and then I buy rotisserie duck and put that on top of the dry or else she won't really eat it of course (extremely finicky eater) so she has been on this restricted diet of nothing but duck, no treats except duck strips etc for 5 weeks now and I really have not seen very much of a change, she has been on Temaril P for about 5 months straight now, which I swore I would never do, but she cannot live without it, at least there is only 2% prednisone in the entire pill and she takes 1/2 a pill a day so it is a low dose but its still prednisone. My vet actually made me think that it was okay for her to be on this low does indefinitely, but now he is saying no and wants to put her on Atopica which I am really nervous about because of the side effects, vomiting, diarrhea, sores in mouth etc. and 2% of dogs had seizures from it, I read this on the Atopica website. So if anyone out there is using this drug I would really love to hear from you. It is kind of the last resort I don't know what else to do, but if it is going to make my baby sick I certainly do not want to harm her. But I feel I already am by giving her any prednisone. Any info would help. Thank you for your time. Kathy, Lexi's Mom P.S. I want to take her to a dermatologist, but she has to be off of all steroids for 2 weeks before testing can be done, and she could never survive without out it, she would be bleeding from all the scratching.

I have read about gums being affected by this but have not seen it but dd only on it almost 2 months. This is better than steroids from what i have seen and i called the company and spoke with a rep there and my vet has been monitoring for a year with very few side effects.

Derm pushes for allergy shots more than long term drug as dd is so young. I would go to the derm to work with them as more experienced with drug than vets and they see the worst cases usually and more educated in this as they are specialists in the field. They most likely will not even do scratch test as mine hasn't and we have been going for a year almost. They do not like to do scratch tests in small dogs and they can get a lot of info from blood for environmental allergies and through elimination diet as well.