Sadie – Weaning…..

Hi Linda & my dear girl Sadie

Sorry – Worzel was not on Atopica, he was (& still is once a week) on azathioprine, so I’m not an expert on this from a personal experience point of view. Also we got him completely off the pred before starting the aza reduction, & I know you don’t want to do that with Sadie because of the relapse last time (even though we know it was because the drop was much too fast). We then reduced the aza to every other day for 2 months, every 3 days for 2 months & so on until we reached once a week. That took a year. As you know I am paranoid about a relapse & that is the only reason Phil & I decided not to risk stopping the aza altogether. My PERSONAL opinion is to lower the prednisone first (because of the long term side effects) if you can, or get it as low as possible to maintain Sadie at a good PCV & then start to drop the atopica, but I would really prefer Vally & Patrice to give you advice as they have had the experience of using cyclosporin (atopica) & the weaning too – they are the experts on this subject. When I wrote the cyclosporine glossary term, I read many articles that said that most dogs can eventually come off it altogether, so that would be wonderful for Sadie. I know it has long terms side effects so I understand why you want to reduce/stop it.   I know Bingo had a few relapses, so Vally will understand exactly how you are feeling & will be able to advise you better than I can. It is SO difficult to know what to do at this stage – I can remember worrying myself stupid at every single drop in medication. My specialist also said he wished he had a crystal ball & he was very cautious with the aza reduction, so even the vet experts don’t have an exact solution.

I am thrilled to see Sadie’s PCV is great – clever girl, she is.

Loads of love to you & Sadie from Sheena & Sadie’s fellas!

Linda,

Bingo still takes 25mg Neoral (cyclosporine) every second day (he weighs in at a lean 7.6kg – 16.7 lbs).  His vet preferred to drop the prednisone over dropping the cyclosporine as he said the pred has more long term effects than the cyclosporine.  Last time there he mentioned we may look to drop the cyclosporine down next.  As Bingo has never really had too many side effects of the cyclosporine, we’ve worked more on the pred reductions.

I’m with Sheena too Linda, I think the dose Sadie is on now of the Atopica is quite low.  I like averages – a mere 3.3mg a day.  I too think it would be good to bring Sadie’s pred down a little in preference to the Atopica – 20% drop better, 25% drop fine though.  I understand you are worried about the Atopica though.

Love Vally & Bingo.