Dermatology Diary Part 4: Meet Simba and Asia

Week 17 Progress Report

The Dogs: over the course of the first week of the prescription antihistamine (Hydroxyzine hydrochloride), I began to realize the cyclosporine had be doing some good after all. I was still giving prednisone (the same dose as the previous week -- a fairly low every-other-day dose) but over the course of the first week on antihistamines, both dogs got progressively itchier, and their skin got redder. Though Asia got a bit worse, Simba deteriorated at a faster rate. Toward the end of the week I tapered the prednisone a bit more (even with the delayed referral appointment, they must be off steroids in the next couple of weeks). By the end of the week Simba was probably about as bad as he had ever been. Asia was a bit worse than she had been on the cyclosporine, but it was not nearly as dramatic a change as it was for Simba. I would say the antihistamine had done very little for Simba, but helped Asia a bit.

No vet visit this week.

To be continued...

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