My Baby Girl Has Hypothyroidism.

[Guest LunaTygerCat]

My baby girl Athena went to the vet on Saturday for some problems she has been having. She was diagnosed with mild SA and had blood work done to rule out anything else. Her thyriod levels came back low, so more blood test were done. It was confirmed that she has hypothyroidism. She really didn't present with any of the normal symptoms. Weight was good, no loss of energy or appetite, a little dry skin but that is it. The vet said this is common in greyhounds. So she will start to take thyroid meds and a mild dose of meds to adderss her SA. What can expect from treatment? Any advice?

[macoduck]

What were her numbers from the test?

[Guest Swifthounds]

Did they do a full panel?

 

Things like stress, anxiety, and other illness all can result in lower T4 levels. Thyroid supplementation is not without serious potential for harm, and hypothyroidism is rare in greyhounds. I would want to be very sure before supplementing.

[Guest LunaTygerCat]

Full blood panel is due back today. I also want to be very sure before I put her on meds. I just needed advice and if anyone else has a hound with this problem.

[Hubcitypam]

About 8 years ago I had a very expensive vet here diagnose a grey as low thyroid. The dose she was put on was twice what everyone else grey seemed to be taking. I asked the vet if it was a greyhound dose and was curtly told there was no difference in greys and other dogs". Well there is....

http://www.greythealth.com/blood.html

[kudzu]

Get copies of all the lab work, if you have not already done so. Then post the results from the thyoid panel here & include which lab it was referred to. If your vet sent it through Idexx it probably went to Michigan State. Ours have been & the last time it included notation that Greyhound lab norms are different.

 

To me it seems hypothyroidism is similar to degenerative myelopathy, Lyme & Cushing's disease. All are mamy are overdiagnosed yet also overlooked by some vets or in some patients. Likely this is because the most common symptoms are quite non specific even though sometimes profound. In addition to the tests specific to the suspected disease you need to rule out other causes. Sometimes other illnesses effect thyroid hormone levels. If a vet asks for only certain tests not the full thyroid panel it can appear as hypothyroidism when it is not. That is one reason you should get & keep copies of all the lab work. My vets office actually faxes them to me automatically. Sometimes I see them before the vet does.

 

Hypothyroidism in Greyhoumds is a controversial issue. As a breed Greys, & from my reading Deerhoumd as wells, run low on thyroid hormones. Meaning that on average their normal values would be considered low for another breed. Dr Stack's site http;/:greythealth.com has a nice concise section on hypothyroidism. You can also find good info from OSU Greyhound Health & Wellness Program but I don't have that web address handy.

 

Also be aware that some people in the Greyhoind community believe that hypothyroidism is quite rare in Greys. I am not one of those. However, there is no evidence I have found to indicate it is common in Greys. So I believe your vet may be mistaken on that part. My personal feeling is without other proof we should consider it to be no more or less likely in Greys it is just more difficult to properly diagnose. If your dog really is hypo-t then supplementation is needed.

 

That fact that your vet did follow up testing is good. Some do not which is unfortunate. What dose was prescribed? Greys do not seem to need supplantation at as high a dose as other breeds & after an initial treatment period dosage can often be reduced. Normally the thyroid panel is rerun 30 days after supplementation is started. If the levels have improved sufficiently the dose may be cont'd or in some cases even reduced. If the levels are too high dose is refused. In either of those cases my vet would then recheck in 30-60 days. If levels are too low then the dose may remain the same or be increased with recheck in 30 days. Better to go slow than overdose. This process is repeated until the appropriate maintenance dose is found. After that my vet rechecks either quarterly or semi-annually depending on the case. My girl is quarterly but not the full panel. We do that semiannually.

 

Through it all we monitor symptoms. As a ruley vets do not supplement without symptoms regardless of lab work. My girl had at least six of the classic symptoms & her thyroid panel had changed from her prior times. She had had some mild problems previously & a thyroid check was done among other things. As a result we had also ruled out other likely causes of her symptoms. Once supplemented many of her symptoms diminished. A few have resolved. A couple others may not have been symptoms after all.

 

You do not want to push their levels too high. It can cause iatrogenic hyper-t which is as bad as hypo. If symptoms do not begin to resolve, get worse or new symptoms appear repot it to your vet.

 

Overall both my Greyhound & myself are much better since starting treatment. My parents dog, a 40 lb mutt is as well even though their vet did only the 4 test T4 & 3 panel. That's not proper diagnosing in my opinion but Dad's not listening to me. lol

[Guest Houndstown]

Our boy Prefontaine has low thyroid, and it really is low, not just the vet making something up. When he started on meds, it wasn't that bad but he did exhibit several symptoms: hair loss, low energy, hard to maintain weight, etc. We started on meds and he started growing a little hair back, had much more energy and even does zoomies in the back yard again. He turns 10 this month, but he still thinks he's 5. As far as long term effects, we have to have his blood work done annually and now that he's a senior, twice a year. We've had to increase his dosage recently because just like with people, the older greys get the more medicine they take. In the scheme of things low thyroid is a disease I'll take. For Pre, the meds have really just made his life better. He seems to use the bathroom more than our other greys, but that's the only real difference we've seen.

 

Hope this helps ease your mind

[Guest Greytluv]

You can send the panel to Dr. Dodds at Hemopet. She's very fast at getting back to you.

[Guest Energy11]

Hello!

 

My Goldie is hypothyroid, and is on Soloxine 0.6 mg a day (*I give 1/2 in the morning, and 1/2 in the evening). She is doing MUCH better now that she is on it. She started out with what we think was either a stroke or focal seizures, and her nights were bad ... she'd bark, wander, become aggressive, etc. The vets said she most probably had a brain tumor, and so, we were thinking about sending her to The Bridge.

 

My vet here, AND Michigan State University said Goldie did NOT need thyroid supplementation ... my former vet in Florida, and former employer, AND Dr. Jean Dodds, ( http://www.hemopet.org/ ) said the definitely did. They were RIGHT! I faxed Goldie's results to both, and they both agreeded.

 

To get an accurate thyroid reading, a T3, T4, Free T4 and TSH (*full panel) has to be done. Once that is done, I'd highly suggest sending the retults to Dr. Dodds. I feel, she and Dr. B, my former vet, helped save Goldie's life.

 

Good Luck with all of this, and if your baby IS hypothyroid, it is EASY to take care of.

 

Sending love and hugs you way! Dee and The Five

 

 

[greyhead]

Maybe what the vet meant is common in greyhounds is to not have a lot of "classic" symptoms when they're hypothyroid, not that hypothyroidism is more common in greys than other breeds.

 

Our first hypothyroid grey, Spencer, had thin fur, dry skin and low energy as classic symptoms, but those can be hard to assess as actually being symptoms, especially in a recently-retired dog. His appetite and weight were normal. But he became defensively aggressive and had what looked like mild seizures.

 

Being hypothyroid myself and having studied it for that reason, I can tell you that being hypothyroid can affect any of the body's systems and can do so with symptoms that don't show and that dogs can't tell us about. These include acid reflux and aching joints, for example. To make things even weirder, the critter can present with symptoms that look more like hyper than hypo, such as being underweight and having thick hair/fur. So that's why I tend recommend treatment if the numbers are very wonky even if lots of symptoms aren't observed.

 

 

[Guest Energy11]

You can send the panel to Dr. Dodds at Hemopet. She's very fast at getting back to you.

 

 

Oh yes, she IS quick in getting back .... even if she is out of the country! She got back to me from Austrailia!

[RobinM]

I have 2 hounds on soloxine. Chloe has been on since she was 2.5 (now 6.5) and Teddy for a month (he is 7).

 

They both exhibited clinical signs so full panels were done.

 

Both of them are on .05 2x a day.

[seeh2o]

Carl did better on Soloxine than on the generic. He had almost no "typical" symptoms and he did have SA. The thyroid medication did not solve the SA, but it didn't hurt. He has responded well to the thyroid medication, I just had his yearly thyroid panel, as well as a super chem panel, run a couple of weeks ago by Dr. Dodds @ Hemopet, his numbers couldn't have been, nor have they been, better. My hat is off to Dr. Dodd's she is amazing and will answer your emails, often within 24 hours.