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When Cyclosporine first started being used in human transplant patients to prevent rejection of organ implants, as well as its expansion into being used in immune mediated illnesses and skin disorders of people, many veterinary dermatologists were very excited about this potential noncortisone-based alternative for similar treatment of autoimmune diseases and skin allergies in animals.
However, after now being used in the veterinary profession for several years under different trade and generic names, I have not been personally impressed with the overall performance of this drug. Not only is the major form of this drug still very expensive for most clients to use long term, typically making it cost prohibitive for many clients, as well as many vets reluctant to prescribe it for this reason.
When I started using this drug on some cases in my practice, I did not find the clinical results many veterinary internists and dermatologists were promising. Side effects included up to a 20% increase in vomiting or gastrointestinal signs in treated pets that only sometimes responded to antinausea medications, forcing me to stop the medication on that given pet. I also found through my reading about the pharmacology of this drug of how powerful an immune-suppressive drug it truly is, in my opinion bordering on a chemotherapy type drug, while I first thought it was supposed to be a safer alternative to long term cortisone for skin allergies and immune mediated diseases.
And while in some pets it has worked wonderfully, I find the expense, and potential short term and long term side effects not worth the risk for me to endorse this pet medication in my veterinary practice. For skin allergies I will always exhaust the antihistamine route with combining antihistamines like Chlorphenirimine, Clemastine, or Diphenhydramine, along with a good Omega 3 fatty acid such as Super Pure Omega 3. Antioxidants like Proanthozone and natural immune modulators like Vetri-DMG liquid also seem to help as part of a supplement team in helping manage many immune disorders. and when used appropriately and judiciously, and in tapering to the lowest effective dose, hopefully (eventually) to every other to every third day, economical prescription Prednisone or Prednisolone performs quite as well, and when used in a cautious manner typically does not have the awful side effects feared by many.
Proper shampooing on a regular basis to clear coats of contact allergens typically can help drastically with pet skin allergy management. For many of the other immune-mediated diseases where pets destroy their red blood cells (called autoimmune hemolytic anemia) or their platelets (called autoimmune thrombocytopenia), my clinical experience has not found Cyclosporine to have much of a positive impact, in my opinion, on the outcome of these cases than some of the older drugs like Prednisone and other even more natural alternatives.
Alternative modalities such as NAET therapy, as well as conventional allergy testing at a trained and certified veterinary dermatologist, in addition to sometimes prescription low allergy diets, are a better way to go in trying to manage chronic allergic dogs than Cyclosporine in my experience. From this post, you can see that I am not a big fan of this now increasingly prescribed drug for the extensive reasons cited above.
Have pet health questions? For any medical concerns, we always recommend you consult your veterinarian. However, for non-emergency questions, you can contact Dr. Dym directly using our Ask the Vet form.
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