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It Started As A Minor Skin Condition


Guest DeweytheGreyt

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Guest DeweytheGreyt

This is what I emailed Dr. Couto yesterday:

 

Fallon is getting .3mg of Levothyroxine per day (broken into 2 dosages). They did do a post pill level last week when we were there. They called me to tell me to up his dosage, but didn't give me what his results were. They just said he was still too low and should get 1 and 1/2 pills per day instead of just 1 per day.

 

In your opinion, based on his initial thyroid test, should I be medicating him for this? And can medicating for thyroid actually make the dog go bald as we are seeing with Fallon? (Again this baldness did NOT happen until we medicated him.)

 

This was his response:

 

Thanks, Kat; can you get me the results of the post-pill? To give you some idea, a dog Fallon's size with true hypothyroidism usually get 0.6 to 0.7 mg TWICE a day. Please let me know.

 

I think we may be on the right track here. I talked with my regular vet again yesterday. She seems to think that it might be a good idea to leave Fallon on the thyroid meds until his skin is cleared up. She said that the UW derm vet has a method to her madness. Once the skin is cleared then we can more accurately address the thyroid issue. The problem now is that if we supplement him for a long period of time and he really doesn't need it, taking him off could be a mess. Poor Fallon.

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We have Frannie she is 3 the same coloring as yours , we got her at 17 mo. old and her chest , stomach and neck are pink in color and not a single hair, her rear leg mussels are also bald , this wild child runs like she is possesed every day plays with her toys and looks like a body builder I believe some Greys are just born with the lack of hair on these parts , all of our males have had bald thighs and chests and all have been runners , now our Maggie is all hair and the lazyiest Grey you have ever seen , never runs.

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Guest DeweytheGreyt

The weird thing is that Fallon was covered in fur when we got him. He didn't lose any of the hair until we started the thyroid medication.

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I don't mean to be overly simple, but you've stated repeatedly that he didn't have the fur problem until the thyroid meds were started. You also stated that he never had any other classic symptoms of a low thyroid, and you have a normal TSH (which it should not be if he is actually hypothyroid). There is no doubt in my mind that if this were my dog I would get him off of the thyroid meds.

 

It's possible he's got the low T4 level b/c of the sick thyroid issue that others have alluded to, but thyroid meds aren't going to help that. You need to figure out what the underlying problem is and address that, then retest his thyroid/watch for symptoms.

 

Obviously I'm not a vet, but that's my two cents.

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Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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