MSD Animal Health has announced the launch of Thyroid Month to help pet owners recognise the signs of thyroid diseases in cats and dogs and encourage them to seek advice from their veterinary practice.
Launching in July ’18, the Thyroid Month campaign aims to raise awareness of hyperthyroidism in cats and hypothyroidism in dogs, educating pet owners to spot the signs and symptoms and thereby encouraging early diagnosis.
As part of the campaign, MSD Animal Health hopes to increase the number of pets being taken to their veterinary practice for diagnosis, as well as increasing return visits and treatment compliance in the long term.
Practices supporting Thyroid Month will be provided with useful and engaging resources to help them educate pet owners about the two conditions.
To support vets and vet nurses in the treatment of cats and dogs with thyroid issues, MSD Animal Health manufactures two products: Vidalta® and Leventa® .
Vidalta is a tablet that is easy to use once daily or every other day. It provides carbimazole, which converts to methimazole and inhibits the overproduction of thyroxine in hyperthyroid cats.
Leventa is a solution containing levothyroxine, which replaces the thyroid hormone lacking in dogs with hypothyroidism. It is the only once-daily liquid and can be given with or without food to help improve treatment compliance.
Speaking about the treatments and the launch of the Thyroid Month campaign, Caroline Darouj, product manager at MSD Animal Health, said: “Although hyperthyroidism in cats and hypothyroidism in dogs are well known conditions and diagnosis is generally straightforward, a large number of vets in Europe state that both disorders are under-diagnosed, due to the fact that pet owners don’t recognise the signs.
“We wanted to launch our Thyroid Month campaign to encourage pet owners to spot the early symptoms of thyroid issues in their pets and seek advice from their veterinary practices.
“Our aim is also to benefit and educate vets and vet nurses with regard to the use of Leventa and Vidalta in treating these manageable conditions in both dogs and cats.”
