Dog Thyroid Medication Side Effects

by Todd
(Forest hills, NY)

My dog has been given thyro-tabs (0.4) dosage, a pink pill. He weighed 48.5 pds., in 8 weeks he has dropped to 39 pds. He is a BEAGLE, 9 years old.

My problem is that my dog drinks about 40 OZ of water a day & urinates all the time since I started these pills.

My doctor at AMC medical center in New York says she never heard of that side effect from those tablets.

Could u please advise

Vet Comment

Hello,

This would be a very unusual response to an appropriate dose of a thyroid hormone supplement. I am concerned that your dog’s symptoms actually have nothing to do with this medication, but that something else entirely is going on, perhaps kidney disease or diabetes mellitus. Sometimes dogs develop a low thyroid hormone level secondarily to another disease, so maybe you are seeing the effects of the primary problem now.

If your dog were my patient, I would want to see him again for a repeat physical exam, blood work, and a urinalysis. I do not know how his hypothyroidism was initially diagnosed, but if it was based only on a low total thyroid level, additional types of thyroid testing could help determine if this was a primary or secondary problem.

Good luck,

Jennifer Coates, DVM