Anyone Using Atopica for Allergies?

[shadream]

Originally Posted by Jen81

Hi everyone.

I just signed up today. But I ran across this thread about Atopica. I am a Vet Tech and have been working with animals for 7 years. I have found that when it comes to our patients Atopica has worked wonderfully. It has Cyclosporine in it which is an antibiotic.

What a lot of pet owners do not know is that allergies lower the immune system and can cause a pet to have bad skin due to fungus or bacteria on the skin. Only 10% of pets out there have allergies due to food. Another reason as to why pets itch so much is due to parasites.

All responsible pet owners have their pet on Frontline, Advantage, or Revolution. But a lot of pet owners do not know about Scabies or Demadex and it is hardly ever really tested for in veterinary offices due to how infrequent it is seen in general practicing offices. If parasites have been ruled out then often times Vets would like to put the pets on food trials to see if it is a food allergy that is causing the itchiness and hair loss.

They will be put onto Prednisone or Temeral-P which are steroids. Thats when you pet starts to get fatter and muscle tone is lost. I have seen pets after they have been on a steroid and then changed to Atopica and have seen a dramatic difference in their coat, muscle tone and demeanor all together. I have heard very few complaints about side effects such as diarrhea.

It really is just up to you and if you want to see if it works better for your pet or if you want to try a different rout such as allergy testing and putting her on a treatment where she receives allergy injections to decrease your pets itchiness.

Sorry if I rambled on too much about stuff I'm sure you all are familiar with. I hope I was of help though.

Jen good post and welcome to YT.

I found what u said to be true in our case, I had charlie on steroids for short time to no avail, then to allergy vet who did test for dermodex and we did food trials etc. Finally back to my regular vet after much money and trials and errors and other meds, when I asked him about allergy shots, he suggested I try atopica first, it was like a miracle. It was the only thing I found to work at all.

You didn't ramble at all, we appreciate professional input. Thank you.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by puppy_Love08

Oh, I'm so sorry you are dealing with allergies! Please tell me that this is not a COMMON problem with Yorkies!! We just had to put our Maltese to sleep due to severe allergy problems that were making him miserable - and nothing seemed to help (Atopica made him sick).

We are thinking about getting a Yorkie, but we don't want to go through allergies ever again.

wow it is tough- how old was your maltese? I wish i would have known u sooner as there is a great nutritionist i am working with now and maybe she could have helped.

[puppy_Love08]

Originally Posted by dwerten

wow it is tough- how old was your maltese? I wish i would have known u sooner as there is a great nutritionist i am working with now and maybe she could have helped.

Our Maltese was only 5 years old. He was eating ZD Ultra, but I never found that to make a bit of difference in his allergy suffering. We tried so many different things over the years, and nothing worked. I'm sure we could have continued trying all kinds of things and prolonged his misery, but we decided to stop putting our dog through the ringer.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by puppy_Love08

Our Maltese was only 5 years old. He was eating ZD Ultra, but I never found that to make a bit of difference in his allergy suffering. We tried so many different things over the years, and nothing worked. I'm sure we could have continued trying all kinds of things and prolonged his misery, but we decided to stop putting our dog through the ringer.

ultra z/d is the worst food as it has chicken, soy and corn in it and suppose to be hydrolized diet. My dogs who do not have allergies itched like crazy on this food and the internal med dr. thought i was crazy until my own vet concurred many were returning it because their dogs itched on it including her own dog. A home cooked elimination diet is only way. Did you ever try atopica?

I understand as many times my family has said put dee dee down she is miserable but i am making progress now with probiotics, raw coconut oil, hemp oil, atopica and temaril p, wearing tshirt and sock around neck. I am going to home cooked diet as she did better on her elimination diet.

It has been a rough road so i understand as i have cried many nights because she has been miserable but she is very comfortable now. It has taken 3 years and i am still in search of what is best for her. Food is your best medicine wellness coach has given me a lot of insight along with support groups such as this to find more information.

[PrinceLouiesMom]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

I have a 7yr old Yorkie that was abused over his life time, and his skin is super sensitive, but to what I have no clue! Shampoos, and frontline for fleas, since that is what I thought the problem was, does not make a difference. I will give them small bites nutro chicken and rice and can organic skinless chichen mixed together and the only treats they get are oven roasted lunch meat and greenies. When Jackson is raw from stratching I will put this topical spray on the raw area. Here is the name: gentamicin sulfate with other ingredients that are covered up with a label of all things so I have a hard time reading exactly what it is, but it will help with the healing. I am frustrated too! I thought the summer brought this condition on, but not really. If it is what they eat, then perhaps organic is the best way to go, and I will have to do that. I hesitate to change foods, since their stomachs are soooooooo sensitive to say it mildly!

Greenies have corn in them????

[PrinceLouiesMom]

Originally Posted by dwerten

Just letting you know greenies are really bad for the little ones and they have I believe corn in them and the most allergic things for dogs is corn, soy, chicken, beef, wheat that i can think of right now. Also, lunch meat is really high in sodium. Food allergy is usually not as common as environmental allergies per my dermatologist. I have a very allergic girl yorkie since she was 6 mos old and a pancreatic and ibd boy yorkie so have read a lot and about these things. My girl yorkie is on atopica and has been for about 2 1/2 months along with temaril p, hypoallergenic food diet salmon and potato by prescription hills, and suppose to be doing frontline every 3 weeks which I have a hard time with that one as never see fleas and the dermatologist said you have to have frontline plus on an allergy dog every 3 weeks as flea allergy is the number one cause of itchiness in dogs.

The derm says if you cut a dog in half and the front half is itch it could be environmental or food, if the bite the back half mostly it is flea allergy but if they itch all over it is mostly atopic dermatitis or can be a combination of all three so doing flea protection, hypoallergenic diet, bathing 1-2 weeks to wash of allergens, hardwood floors, air purification system, all will help.

I have tried everything holistic vet with herbs and staph lysate injections weekly along with raw food diet for 3-4 months to avoid any steroids. Dr. Pasternak in santa monica, ca.

This all started at 6 months and she will be 3 July 3rd. It has been horrible. We took out our carpet and bought an air purification system in the room she is in. Wash her bedding weekly. She wears a tshirt always as that keeps the allergents from getting on her skin. We keep her hair longer as it is very thin and the hair protects the skin. She wears a sock around her neck as she has a bald neck from skin infections and itching so i had to protect it as it will swell up from itching.

I did the prednisone which i hated and her belly swelled up, she got cumidomes which are brown spots all over her body, and she started showing signs of cushings as that is side effect of pred as well as pancreatitis can come from taking pred which my other dog has and is horrible. I took her off it when my boy got pancreatitis.

Then I did a food elimination diet with pinto beans, safflower oil, and potato to rule out food allergy advised by dermatologist. It helped a little not being on processed food but she hated it and they cannot stay on that diet forever.

My last resort was atopica so i researched alot and it has only been out a little over 2 years and is a human drug for transplant patients to not reject the organs and it does affect the immune system but much safer than steroids as steroids affects all the organs and this mostly liver and kidneys as it is processed through the body. The side effects are much less severe. No bloating or signs of cushings. No weight gain like steroids cause. No excessive thirst and hungriness like steroids.

She is 6lbs and we started at 10mg for 30 days and was not really working as doing it with temaril p to give her relief until drug kicks in as it takes 60 days to kick in. She is now on 20 mg and only for about 3 weeks. She is still itchy but derm says takes 60 days on increased dose for us to tell. This drug works in 80% of dogs hoping mine will be one of 80%. She is not as bad as she was before though she has bouts and we bath her and i put pure aloe on her belly, neck elbows and under arms when she gets itchy for relief but the tshirt protects her

I will keep posting on this but read all my responses under my name too

This is not fun and in reading the book allergy solutions for dogs by shawn messonnier, dvm I have learned a lot that atopic dermatitis is not curable but you can try to manage it so they are not miserable

I hate drugs too but do you want to live 10 miserable years or 5 happy years and that is where i came to . I am still searching for answers and talking with Doniasea@aol.com who is a nutritionist and she had eczema and has educated me a lot on nutrition in animals so if your dog is young and just starting with the allergy stuff before steroids i would do what she says. I just got to her late in the game and started the vicious cycle of steroids and needed immediate relief- she is great though and can help. Another person i am going to call is marina zaccarias who is an herbalist I have heard is great. I am constantly searching for answers and help for my little one and will continue but i needed to get immediate relief and then work backwords as i searched for 2 years trying to avoid steroids and she was miserable.

Also i did 2 allergy blood tests costing $400 each from two different labs which showed slightly different results. I learned blood cannot determine food allergy but it can dertermine environmental allegies. Only elimination diet can determine food allergy. Proteins are the cause of allergies- pollen is a protein as well as proteins in foods and those are the cause of itchiness in dogs so you have to be careful to not try a bunch of different dog foods before doing an elimination diet as then it will be harded to find a novel protein like i had to use pinto beans

Get to the specialist - dermatologist as they have to go to further education than a vet by 2 years, and then do an internship, then take board exam to be certified. They will start with flea protection and elimination diet first. They do not like going to drugs. They like to do immuno therapy - allergy shots - i did not do it those as heard they do not work in all dogs but may at a future date. My vet said the problem with that is they can be allergic to 100 things and can only fit 12 things in a vile so that is why it is hard to get good results with allergy shots but worth the shot when they are young.

Wait So I read about why greenies are bad for the little ones...thank god for that thread, no more for Louie but they also have corn in them??? I didnt see "corn" in the ingredients just a bunch of gigantic words I cant pronounce...Is there an ingredient I should look out for in other foods or whatnot other than "corn" or "corn syrup" that consists of corn maybe?