Thyroid Question

[Remolacha]

It certainly seems like many greyhounds are prescribed thyroid medicine unnecessarily, but my question is, are there symptoms if a dog is getting soloxine when it isn't needed? Are there health concerns?

 

(full disclosure), Fletcher is on soloxine after my grey savvy vet did the full panel a few years ago, so this is just curiosity on my part, not a personal health question

[Batmom]

There would be symptoms if the dog were getting too much, but some of those would be subtle and might not be noticed at all until irreversible damage is done. Heart problems (ventricular hypertrophy, cardiomyopathy, murmurs, etc.), kidney impairment, sleeplessness, weight loss; skin, bowel, and eye problems; bone lesions ......

 

You might potentially see some of those if supplementing a greyhound so that he tests in other-breed range. Your best bet, if the dog needs supplementation, is to fine-tune the medication so that he's getting only as much as needed to alleviate the symptoms he had (for example, severe lethargy and exercise intolerance) and no more.

 

People often say that if you start the dog on thyroid meds regardless of whether he needs them, you have to keep the dog on meds lifelong. That certainly isn't true over the short term and may not be true over the long term either -- I'd have to read around as to whether anyone's actually documented cases of that.

[greyhead]

(full disclosure), Fletcher is on soloxine after my grey savvy vet did the full panel a few years ago, so this is just curiosity on my part, not a personal health question

Just seeing this and thought I'd mention that the dosage may need to decrease with age, apart from anything else. We recently redid the full panel on Spencer (age 11) in response to excessive whining. Though the T4 was low, his free-T4 was too high. We cut his dosage in half and he's doing fine now, no more whining. But as Batmom said, there can be various symptoms -- like feeling/being too hot and then, of course, panting. Couldn't help but think of this when I saw your latest thread.

[brandimom]

My afghan, we believe, got his heart murmur after being on soloxine and should not have been on it.

[Remolacha]

(full disclosure), Fletcher is on soloxine after my grey savvy vet did the full panel a few years ago, so this is just curiosity on my part, not a personal health question

Just seeing this and thought I'd mention that the dosage may need to decrease with age, apart from anything else. We recently redid the full panel on Spencer (age 11) in response to excessive whining. Though the T4 was low, his free-T4 was too high. We cut his dosage in half and he's doing fine now, no more whining. But as Batmom said, there can be various symptoms -- like feeling/being too hot and then, of course, panting. Couldn't help but think of this when I saw your latest thread.

 

Thanks! I will talk to my vet about re-running the full panel.

[JJNg]

People often say that if you start the dog on thyroid meds regardless of whether he needs them, you have to keep the dog on meds lifelong. That certainly isn't true over the short term and may not be true over the long term either -- I'd have to read around as to whether anyone's actually documented cases of that.

Certainly not true. In fact, the Greyhound Health and Wellness newsletter that addressed the overdiagnosis of hypothyroidism mentions a protocol for weaning off thyroid supplement. Perhaps this statement originated from the fact that a properly diagnosed and truly hypothyroid individual will likely need to stay on supplement for life.

[Guest LittleGreys]

Munchie was put on soloxine when she went for her stem cell therapy. She does have a very poor haircoat, but we (and my regular vet) attributed this to her long term steroid use. Her other vet for the stem cell is VERY Greyhound savvy, but I was surprised when he thought her t4 was low. I forget the actual number, .9 sticks in my mind though. I didn't want to argue since he also told me that day that she had osteosarcoma. I kinda figured why treat an osteo dog for low thyroid, but took the meds anyway. Munchie lost 4 pounds in a month. One morning, I was getting ready to give her soloxine and the thought crossed my mind that maybe her thyroid was too high now, causing weight loss. She was on .5mg soloxine every 12 hours. I stopped giving the soloxine. So far, she has gained about 3 pounds. I don't know that is related at all to the soloxine, but my gut instinct told me she did not need to be on soloxine. She is on so many meds, why add another if we don't know that it is necessary. She has no other symptoms of low thyroid, and I don't feel the need to send out more bloodwork since she doesn't. I haven't outwardly seen any symptoms from stopping the soloxine without slowly weaning it down. Hopefully no harm was done, she was only on it for 30 days.

[tbhounds]

Munchie was put on soloxine when she went for her stem cell therapy. She does have a very poor haircoat, but we (and my regular vet) attributed this to her long term steroid use. Her other vet for the stem cell is VERY Greyhound savvy, but I was surprised when he thought her t4 was low. I forget the actual number, .9 sticks in my mind though. I didn't want to argue since he also told me that day that she had osteosarcoma. I kinda figured why treat an osteo dog for low thyroid, but took the meds anyway. Munchie lost 4 pounds in a month. One morning, I was getting ready to give her soloxine and the thought crossed my mind that maybe her thyroid was too high now, causing weight loss. She was on .5mg soloxine every 12 hours. I stopped giving the soloxine. So far, she has gained about 3 pounds. I don't know that is related at all to the soloxine, but my gut instinct told me she did not need to be on soloxine. She is on so many meds, why add another if we don't know that it is necessary. She has no other symptoms of low thyroid, and I don't feel the need to send out more bloodwork since she doesn't. I haven't outwardly seen any symptoms from stopping the soloxine without slowly weaning it down. Hopefully no harm was done, she was only on it for 30 days.

FWIW- I think you did the right thing.

[GeorgeofNE]

My mother has been taking too much Soloxine (yes, people take the same supplement) and she was shaking, confused, couldn't sleep, and lost 10 pounds.

[Guest LittleGreys]

Munchie was put on soloxine when she went for her stem cell therapy. She does have a very poor haircoat, but we (and my regular vet) attributed this to her long term steroid use. Her other vet for the stem cell is VERY Greyhound savvy, but I was surprised when he thought her t4 was low. I forget the actual number, .9 sticks in my mind though. I didn't want to argue since he also told me that day that she had osteosarcoma. I kinda figured why treat an osteo dog for low thyroid, but took the meds anyway. Munchie lost 4 pounds in a month. One morning, I was getting ready to give her soloxine and the thought crossed my mind that maybe her thyroid was too high now, causing weight loss. She was on .5mg soloxine every 12 hours. I stopped giving the soloxine. So far, she has gained about 3 pounds. I don't know that is related at all to the soloxine, but my gut instinct told me she did not need to be on soloxine. She is on so many meds, why add another if we don't know that it is necessary. She has no other symptoms of low thyroid, and I don't feel the need to send out more bloodwork since she doesn't. I haven't outwardly seen any symptoms from stopping the soloxine without slowly weaning it down. Hopefully no harm was done, she was only on it for 30 days.

FWIW- I think you did the right thing.

Tbhounds-it's worth a lot, so thank you! I have so many vets telling me so many conflicting things and I am just so worried about Munchie that it is all so stressful it's making my head spin.