Are my dog's seizures linked to low thyroid, not just phenobarbital?

Question

My dog has been having seizures every 3-4 weeks for about a year now and is currently on 3 anti epileptic drugs with really no improvement. Recently his primary noted him to have low thyroid levels (lower than expected for what they usually see with a dog on phenobarbital) but the neurologist seems to think its the pheno. Would you recommend further testing to see if maybe the thyroid is the issue? Is it possible that hypothyroidism is the cause of the seizures and not idiopathic epilepsy? Pet's info: Dog | Rhodesian Ridgeback | Male | neutered | 4 years and 4 months old | 115 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Poor Yogi! I'm sorry to hear that he's having this problem. Seizures can be difficult to control in some dogs, unfortunately. Hypothyroidism would be relatively unusual in a four-year-old dog, but it's always a possibility if you're seeing low total T4 levels on his screening test. You're correct that this can be caused by phenobarbital, but could also be due to true hyperthyroidism. The best way to sort this out is by having a full thyroid panel checked - there's a value called the "free T4," in particular, that's very helpful in distinguising true hypothyroidism from a low total T4 caused by medication. Seizures would not be a common symptoms of hypothyroidism, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have this checked out, and get him started on thyroid meds if the testing indicates he needs them.

Are my dog's seizures linked to low thyroid, not just phenobarbital?

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