Hi

My 5 year old dobermann has just been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. He is showing no signs of being unwell, and it was just discovered when he went for his yearly check up. I have been told this will mean he has to have medication for life.
Can anyone tell me if this is going to be very expensive, and what (if any) problems it can cause?

Thanks

I do not know the cost but providing the amount is correct it will do no harm as it is just replacing the hormones the the dog is not producing himself. The hormone system is complicated and interrelated so it is important that the total amount in the dogs body is correct and balanced or damage can occur in various organs, so I would not hesitate in following your vets instructions.

Usual symptoms include poor coat, weight gain, sluggishness. I have a Malinois bitch on medication, been over a year now, it costs about £20 a month for her. She's 100 % back to her normal self. Befroe the tablets she'd gained a lot of weight, could not shift it, despite eating just one third of what she gets now. (Hence she was always hungry.) Her coat also did not grow back where she had been shaved when she was spayed. She was 9 when diagnosed and was back to normal within 4 weeks of being put on medication.

Thanks for your replies. It's good to know that medication is effective & hopefully not too expensive. We would obviously find the money somehow, but things are seriously tight just now & I just wanted to check that it wasn't going to bankrupt us!
Do they have to do regular blood tests to check that the medication is working ok?

Yes it's usually  blood tests every 6 months.

I have an 8 year old Dobermann now who is hypothyroid (has been for about 5 years) and a previous one that was the same (not related). It is a very common condition in Dobes. I have both my current Dobes tested annually (one is hypo the other is normal), sending the bloods off to Dr Jean Dodds at Hemopet in the US (http://www.hemopet.org/services.html). It can be difficult to get an accurate diagnosis and I think it is well worth the extra cost of having the blood samples analysed by Dr Dodds (a world expert in the field) who does much more comprehensive testing than we do here in the UK.

If I remember rightly my last lot of tablets were around £30 for a pot of 250, with a dose of 1 tablet morning and evening so certainly not the most expensive medication in the world.