Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > Dog health - Ask members * If your pet is vomiting-bleeding-diarrhea etc. Vet time!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #31  
Old November 17th, 2010, 10:20 PM
Goldfields's Avatar
Goldfields Goldfields is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,282
Okay, I'm hypothyroid myself and have a hypothyroid Shetland Sheepdog. I live in Australia so the drug for the dog is Thyroxine, same as I take.Now, for all you people with hypo dogs, and you can laugh at this, I accidentally took the dog's tablet one morning - silly me for being in a rush and not thinking and for having them in the same spot as mine, hey? Anyway, I decided to check with a pharmacist if it mattered , I had already had mine, but I was thinking he'll say it's okay, a dog dose can't be much. WRONG!! It is a much bigger dose that I take. Is there anyone here who has ever compared their dog's dose to a human dose, or any Dr or Vet who can explain why a dog needs more? Indeed, do they really need more?? Are they being seriously over-dosed?
Reply With Quote
  #32  
Old October 19th, 2011, 03:59 PM
PJJ PJJ is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: California
Posts: 1
Soloxine

My dog has made 6 trips from CA to to Mt. Hood, OR which included going through the central valley each time. The central valley is quite hot during the summer. The only time my dog made that trip on Soloxine he had a very bad heat reaction, almost like a heatstroke. That was the 5th trip. I immediately took him off Soloxine and for the 6th trip home he was fine. I really think that although he was in an air-suffered from the side effect of Soloxine which is an intolerance to heat. Usually that side effect isn't mentioned but I did see it mentioned a couple of places.

I took him off Soloxine for the summer and have put him back on as the weather has cooled for the fall.
Reply With Quote
  #33  
Old October 21st, 2011, 03:33 AM
MaxaLisa MaxaLisa is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: California, usa
Posts: 1,046
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldfields View Post
Okay, I'm hypothyroid myself and have a hypothyroid Shetland Sheepdog. I live in Australia so the drug for the dog is Thyroxine, same as I take.Now, for all you people with hypo dogs, and you can laugh at this, I accidentally took the dog's tablet one morning - silly me for being in a rush and not thinking and for having them in the same spot as mine, hey? Anyway, I decided to check with a pharmacist if it mattered , I had already had mine, but I was thinking he'll say it's okay, a dog dose can't be much. WRONG!! It is a much bigger dose that I take. Is there anyone here who has ever compared their dog's dose to a human dose, or any Dr or Vet who can explain why a dog needs more? Indeed, do they really need more?? Are they being seriously over-dosed?
Apparently the dog metabolizes it much quicker than a human, and that's also why it's recommended that they get it twice a day, because the half-life in a dog is much less than for a human.

In theory, the therapeutic ranges for the thyroid are determined somehow???
Reply With Quote
  #34  
Old October 21st, 2011, 03:40 AM
MaxaLisa MaxaLisa is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: California, usa
Posts: 1,046
[QUOTE=Patty22;576063]My golden retriever has been on soloxine for 5 years now. I noticed a white spot on his right eye. My Vet told me it is lipid deposit caused by the soloxine....[/QUOTE

I know this is old, but this doesn't make sense at all....the lipid deposit isn't from the soloxine most likely, but probably because the thyroid isn't working properly - would need to know if the dog was on a high enough dose. A dog often gets these when the thyroid is low.
Reply With Quote
  #35  
Old October 21st, 2011, 04:37 PM
Goldfields's Avatar
Goldfields Goldfields is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,282
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxaLisa View Post
Apparently the dog metabolizes it much quicker than a human, and that's also why it's recommended that they get it twice a day, because the half-life in a dog is much less than for a human.

In theory, the therapeutic ranges for the thyroid are determined somehow???
That's interesting, MaxaLisa, because it was never suggested that my dog be given a dose twice a day. Must ask some questions.
Reply With Quote
  #36  
Old July 10th, 2012, 11:38 AM
Crazy4HoneyDog Crazy4HoneyDog is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: El Sobrante, Ca
Posts: 2
Concern of side effect from Soloxine

My dog Honey who is a female 5 year old Pit Bull has been put on Soloxine for hypothyroidism by our vet. Now since she has been put on it she has been showing signs of aggression towards our other dog which is much smaller than her. Fontaine who is a male 2 yeard old terrier mix and Honey use to be the best of friends. I mean little Fontaine use to clean Honey's ears and teeth and play with Honey. But now he's scared to even go near here. See ever since Honey was put on Soloxine, she's been trying to use poor little Fontaine as her chew toy. Well I've read that aggression and/or personality change is a side effect from taking Soloxine, and I was wondering what I might be able to do about this? I would really like for my dogs to be be able to play together again. My dad has threatened to get rid of Honey if she doesn't stop trying to use Fontaine as a chew toy. Even though we have had her much longer than the other dog. Please is there anyone out there that can help out with this or that has any information that might be useful? I'm in great need of you answers!!!!
Reply With Quote
  #37  
Old July 10th, 2012, 02:49 PM
hazelrunpack's Avatar
hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
The Pack's Head Servant
Chopper Challenge Champion, Mini KickUps Champion, Bugz Champion, Snakeman Steve Champion, Shape Game Champion, Mumu Champion, Mouse Race Champion
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Just east of the Hazelnut Patch, Wisconsin
Posts: 53,771
Have you talked to your vet about this, C4HD? Maybe there is an alternative med suitable for Honey, or perhaps she just needs the dose adjusted?
__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference."

"It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!"

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Reply With Quote
  #38  
Old July 13th, 2012, 10:19 AM
Crazy4HoneyDog Crazy4HoneyDog is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: El Sobrante, Ca
Posts: 2
About Honey Dog

Thank you Hazelrunpack for your answer back. Yes, I have talked to the vet about it, and for the time being they suggested stopping the med. for two weeks to see if that brings her back to her normal self. However now she isn't on any meds. for her hypothyroid problem, and I'm afraid set might become really over-weight again. Which use making her really depressed and lazy acting. Got any ideas on what I might be able to suggest to the vet, besides another med.. That has already been done. Thank you very much, Crazy4HoneyDog
Reply With Quote
  #39  
Old July 13th, 2012, 06:34 PM
hazelrunpack's Avatar
hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
The Pack's Head Servant
Chopper Challenge Champion, Mini KickUps Champion, Bugz Champion, Snakeman Steve Champion, Shape Game Champion, Mumu Champion, Mouse Race Champion
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Just east of the Hazelnut Patch, Wisconsin
Posts: 53,771
At this point I think I'd wait and see if dropping the meds makes a difference in her behavior. A few weeks off her thyroid medication won't have appreciable affect--hypothyroidism in dogs is a much less severe than the same condition in humans and it may take weeks before she starts to gain weight or show other symptoms again.

How long has she been off the soloxine now? Has there been any improvement? If, after the two weeks she's still not back to normal, it may be that there is a different issue causing the aggression.
__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference."

"It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!"

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Reply With Quote
  #40  
Old March 8th, 2013, 04:30 PM
Brendaprince Brendaprince is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: California
Posts: 1
Soloxine side effects

Hello, new to the forum. My 7.5 year old Labrador, Wyndston was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism. He was put on 0.05mg. After three weeks at this dose wyndston's behavior changed. he became aggressive panic and scared.

It was very scary for us. I called our vet ASAP we were told to lower to half dose to .25mg wyndston is doing great on this dose. We are waiting the results on his post-pill.
My question or concern I have noticed his teeth are staining which he always had beautiful healthy teeth. Does soloxine cause issues with teeth or gums. Or is he lacking something that I am not aware of?

thanks...
Reply With Quote
  #41  
Old March 10th, 2013, 06:10 PM
MaxaLisa MaxaLisa is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: California, usa
Posts: 1,046
Have never heard of this.
Reply With Quote
  #42  
Old May 1st, 2014, 03:48 PM
Sammy's Mom Sammy's Mom is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Austin, Tx
Posts: 1
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Lee View Post
WOW a lot of soloxine questions! Hopefully I can help clarify some of the questions.

The thyroid gland is responsible for metabolism. In simple terms, a lot of thyroid hormone leads to fast metabolism and very little of the hormone leads to slow metabolism. People will get both extremes of thyroid disease: too much thyroid (Hyperthyroidism) and too little thyroid (Hypothyroidism). Cats will almost exclusively get Hyperthyroidism and dogs will get almost exclusively Hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism has a lot of secondary changes to the body but luckily does not come with the serious life threatening problems of hyperthyroidism. One of these changes is increased lipidemia (increased blood fats, cholesterol and triglycerides). This can lead to lipid corneal deposits. Another eye problem associated with hypothyroidism is dry eye (KCS). In general, it is accepted that thyroid supplementation (soloxine) will lead to improved ocular health. So with the last question - maybe ask your vet but there may have been a miscommunication - hypothyroidism is more apt to cause lipid deposits that soloxine.

So lets back up a bit. How do we treat hypothyroidism? This is a lot easier than hyperthyroidism. When the body does not make enough thyroid hormone, what do we do? We just supplement it. The medication is levothyroxine. The brand name is Soloxine, all others are generic brands such as Thyrozine, Thyrosyn, etc... Is brand name important? The answer is sometimes but we can talk about that later if people are interested.

The great things about thyroid supplement - 1) works well, 2) usually low side effects, 3) inexpensive and 4) often chewable. The wonderful things about dogs and thyroid supplement is the canine's ability to shed any excess thyroid supplement into the urine. It is difficult to overdose and cause problems with this medication. (Side story: I inherited a case who was on over 10 times a dose twice daily for 6 months - I was so scared for the dog, I immediately referred the dog to the specialists to look for potential damage! the specialists had never seen a case like that and were interested to see what could be wrong. Especially with cats - the main side effect is high blood pressure which will damage the retinas (not the corneas), the kidneys and heart. Ophthalmologist evaluation of the eye - no problems. Ultrasound of the kidneys and heart - no problems. Blood work - no problems. Blood pressure - no problems. Dog was as normal as could be. )

With that said, I have had many client that do notice some behavioral changes. With increased metabolism, the brain seems to race a bit faster as well. My belief is that many of the signs would have been there if the dog only had a 'normal thyroid' but the low thyroid can 'numb' a lot of behaviors. On the other side, remember we are supplementing a hormone that should already be in the system. Hormones are powerful things and the body usually is secreting small amounts on a minute by minute, in fact second by second dosing. We on the other hand supplement it once or twice a day! When we take blood samples, the thyroid supplement after being given, peaks in the blood and then slowly decreases. During this peak, it would make sense that some additional behaviors may be seen as they may have a slight 'rush' - similar to an energy drink effect. (in fact it is common to use thyroid supplements with illegal steroid use as a method to help 'boost energy').

So what is the sum of all of this? Thyroid supplement is considered very safe for the average dog. There may be some side effects related to the rise and fall of metabolism rates. As long as the blood levels are looking fine, thyroid supplement is thought to do more good than its risks. Of course, this supplement should ONLY be used in dogs that are TRUE hypothyroid canine patients. Furthermore the blood levels and clinical evaluations should be made by routinely by the veterinarian.

If you are concerned that your pet may have some side effects from thyroid supplement what can you do? Talk to your veterinarian. They may want to run blood tests to evaluate thyroid levels to make sure they are within normal limits as well as to look for other common endocrine disorders that are commonly seen with hypothyroidism. If we are worried that the level is too high - then we may consider blood pressure testing, urinalysis, etc...

I noted that one of the posts made mention of heart disease. This is one of the disorders that thyroid supplementation needs to be evaluated carefully. Even though dogs can get rid of extra thyroid easily - we never want to push it with pre-existing diseases, especially cardiac.

Before I start putting people to sleep, I will stop. I hope this lessened the fears of thyroid supplementation which I believe has improved the quality of life for millions of pets around the world.
Dr. Lee,

I am very interested to know if (and what) the differences are between the brand Soloxine compared to it's generic form levothyroxine. Sammy, my 9 y.o golden retriever has been taking Soloxine for several years for his thyroid. Recently my vet re-filled my prescription with it's generic counterpart, and that is when I started to notice him displaying some of the symptoms other people have described in their posts. For example, increased thirst, occasionally vomiting water, licking chops, eating lots of grass. I took him to the vet after a few "choking" incidents which indicated to me his airways might be blocked. Turned out he was fine, and they said he might just be a little nauseous. I fed him chicken and rice, gave him some pepcid and he seemed to be doing better. However, same symptoms have returned. I called my vet to ask if all of this could have been caused by the transition between soloxine and the generic, and they said they are essentially the same thing, and I shouldnt worry about it. However, I have been trying to find more information about this on the web, and came across this board. I would be very interested to know if there is a difference? I would like to mention when I did take him in, my regular vet was not there, and I wasnt thinking this could have been attributed to the thyroid meds at the time. She recommended updating his blood work to run a thyroid test. Before I spend $200 to test the generic, it seems like the solution would be to return to the brand soloxine, but since they have already told me it is the same thing, I would like to a least introduce a "reason" why I would like to return to the brand name.
Reply With Quote
  #43  
Old May 1st, 2014, 10:16 PM
MaxaLisa MaxaLisa is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: California, usa
Posts: 1,046
I have heard enough stories about how some dogs do terrible on the generic thyroid meds, that I won't use it for my dogs, I always use Soloxine. These stories also come from my vet. In fact, her clinic stopped carrying the generic.

I get my dog's Soloxine filled at Costco, they special order it for me in her dosage. Very reasonably priced that way. Many states require the vet to write a script if you request it.

If you changed brands, you do need to test and possibly recalculate dosage (see precautions section: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Rx_Inf...othyroxine.pdf )

Also, from here: http://endocrinevet.blogspot.com/201...th-low-t4.html

"Unreliable L-T4 preparation
Although most of the generic L-T4 preparations appear to work reasonably well most of the time, we do occasionally see treatment failures with these generics. In such cases, changing to a brand-name product easily solves the problem...

...Poor bioavailability (poor absorption)
Again, the bioavailabilty (absorption) of brand-name L-T4 products is generally better than the generics, and this is one of the reasons name-brand products are more reliable."

Last edited by MaxaLisa; May 1st, 2014 at 10:32 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #44  
Old December 3rd, 2014, 10:42 PM
HuskyMama HuskyMama is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: San Diego
Posts: 1
For those of you who’ve had issues with your dog’s skin and taking Soloxine, here is one story that may or may not provide some enlightenment:

I have a 5 year old Siberian husky that I rescued 2 1/2 years ago. I nicknamed her “Yoda” because she seemed so calm and wise. She was always very mellow, but several months ago began to get really slow, having trouble even walking up a little hill towards the end of our daily walk. I took her to the vet, and a blood test revealed a very low thyroid level. We put her on Soloxine at the full recommended dose of 0.6 mg twice a day (she weighs about 60 lbs.). Within a week, she started scratching constantly and then began ripping her fur out. She also was drinking and urinating more than normal, but not to the point that we were concerned about a medication overdose. Her skin seemed terrible with crusty spots all over and big patches with no fur. I took her back to the vet, and they said she had a staph infection on her skin, for which they prescribed anitbiotics. They had no explanation how she suddenly developed this infection, but it had to be treated. We also discussed the thyroid medication and decided to take her off of it until her skin had healed. Despite the vet’s assurances that there are no such side effects related to thyroid medication, I was absolutely convinced that my dog’s skin issues were a result of this medication.

To make a long story short, once my dog’s skin condition had settled down, I decided to reintroduce her to the thyroid medication, but at a very gradual rate rather than immediately giving her the full recommended dosage. I started giving her half a pill every morning for one week, then half a pill twice a day for a week, then a full pill every morning and half a pill at night for a week, then finally a full pill twice a day (as originally prescribed). She is a totally new dog now. She is bright eyed and full of energy she never had in the previous two years that i owned her. She also now has a beautiful, soft coat. Previously, she tended to look a bit dingy all the time, her fur was coarse rather than soft, and she had a bit of a smell to her.

I’ve had extensive discussions with both my dog’s vet and a friend of mine who’s a vet, and the best we can come up with is that putting her on the full recommended dose of medication all at once so “supercharged” her metabolism that is caused her to shed all of her old skin (which was very itchy to do). Apparently skin cell turnover is related to metabolism, which in turn is controlled by the thyroid. While most dogs are able to handle a full dose of thyroid medication from day one, in rare instances this “jumpstart” to their metabolism may be too much for them to handle. So, I would suggest that if you’ve had similar issues with skin problems which you believe are connected to thyroid medication, then maybe you’ll want to try doing what I did. Take your dog off the medication and get the skin problems resolved. Then, gradually reintroduce the thyroid medication until you reach the recommended dose. Good luck and I hope this helps someone!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:28 AM.