Soloxine Dilemma

[Guest ariaadagio]

Thanks for the links! I'm so glad I found this board

[Guest Rogersmom]

Roger was given medication for thyroid. I went throught the same dilema you are going through. I was told to wean him off the medicationa and retest. A greytalk membersuggested stopping the medication based on the results of his retesting. This was when Roger was much younger. He is now almost 5 years old and weighs 92 pounds. He is always begging me for treats and licking his empty food dish. So, I am back to my dilema. Good luck with you new pup. Greytalk was very instrumental in helping me raise Roger from a 7 1/2 week old puppy to the age he is now.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Rogersmom

[Batmom]

If a person has doubts about what's going on with a dog, it never hurts to retest (except in the pocketbook sense ). Most dogs (including greys) who are hypothyroid become hypothyroid somewhere in middle age.

 

Weight and hunger-wise, there are easy keepers, tho, too. Things like cooked rice and green beans added to the dog's main food can help him/her feel full longer, without adding as many calories as the same volume of kibble.

[Guest ariaadagio]

I went ahead and contacted the rescue vet's office just to confirm their testing procedures. The office assistant confirmed that only a T4 test was run, and not a free T4 or a TSH, and that they prescribed Soloxine because the T4 was low. She also confirmed that the blood panel given to all the rescue greyhounds only includes a T4 test.

 

Based on what you all have said, this kind of scares me that the rescue is allowing the potential misdiagnosis of so many dogs (and subsequently educating so many new greyhound families incorrectly on the subject), but I brought all of this up with my adoption rep, complete with links to various articles from OSU and elsewhere, and she politely said she wasn't interested. Suffice it to say, I tried.

 

I've pretty much made up my mind about how to handle this. I'm going to wean my dog off the Soloxine and see how she does. Barring any visible/immediate issues with that, I'll talk to my vet about getting a full blood panel and an MSU or OSU consult as you all have suggested. That way, I'll know for sure what's going on with her blood chemistry and whether she actually needs to be medicated. I have no problem giving her the Soloxine if that's what she needs, but I see little point in introducing a hormone altering substance into a healthy system.

 

Thank you all for helping me make an informed decision!

[Batmom]

Sounds like a reasonable approach . There are 1 or 2 adoption groups and a handful of vets I know of, who do the same as your group. Odd but fortunately not too hard to investigate for a motivated person.

 

Be aware that if she's been fairly recently retired and kept in a kennel since, at some point within your first 6 months together she may "blow" her coat and look rather bald for awhile -- totally normal. Some hounds also do a major shed in the fall, which can be a little alarming if you haven't had one who does that.

[Guest ariaadagio]

Good to know, thanks! She is bald on her belly and butt already. What's a little more hairloss among friends?

[Batmom]

re the hairloss. That is how I feel about it too. And here I sit with two of the hairiest darned greyhounds I've ever seen! (But, my previous ones were pretty challenged in the hair growth department.)