Yes, DOGS are having problems with diagnosis too!

[Guest guest]

Below is an email from my groomer's email list. I am very sorry to know it is as

bad as I feared in the veterinary kingdom as it is in the human doctor world.

This gal emailed me long ago about her dog's weight problem as she knows I

preach about thyroid all the time, LOL. I egged her into having the full testing

done, and I am SO glad she listened. :>)

copy below:

I know this is a subject that is discussed a bit for both dogs and

humans, and I thought I would share my experience in case it helps

someone else's dog.

Chip is a 6 year old neutered Tibetan Spaniel (my dog). I had been

trying to get about a lb off of him for quite a while. He was

neutered at 4 years, got overweight, and lost all of it except the

last lb by restricting his food and treats. (one pound doesn't sound

like much, but this is a dog that should weight 10 lbs, and is an

agility dog, so it is a lot for him) This last summer he also became

very itchy, and developed a skin odor - we thought maybe allergies

since we had moved. I decided to get his thyroid tested along with

his annual bloodwork. Chip had also become lazy (in other words he

is a fat slug right now LOL) and hungry all the time. The vet said

they would do the in-office T4 test first and then we would decide to

send out for the full Michigan panel or not. It came back within

normal limits, and since none of his other results were consistent

with hypothyroidism (good heartrate, normal cholesteral), we would

wait on the full panel. He also had low albumin levels, and we were

going to try to increase his food a bit and feed a higher protein

food since I had him on very limited food. Well, after a month of

that, he gained another pound, and his albumin level was the same.

At this time I opted to send out the thyroid bloodwork. Now, he

doesn't look at all like a typical thyroid dog - no hairloss, no skin

sores, ears good, no more itching. Get the results back - definately

hypothyroid..... so now we start pills and do a recheck in 3 weeks to

see if he is at an appropriate dosage or if he needs to switch to

different meds.

Guess this is a long way of saying that even if the dog

doesn't " look " hypothyroid, and even if the dog tests normal in the

vet's office - he still may be hypothryoid. The owner just needs to

be willing to spend the extra money to send the bloodwork off to be

checked rather than just having the vet do it.

Just to show how different the results can be - his T4 was normal

with the snap test. With the Michigan Panel:

TT4 2 normal 15-67

TT3 .2 1.0-2.5

Free T4 0 6-42

Free T3 3.7 4.5-12

Hopefully this will help someone's dog get diagnosed and get treated,

rather that just decide that the dog is getting fat and lazy in its

old age

END....

*Artistic Grooming * Hurricane, WV

Fat cat? Diabetes? Listowner for overweight or hypothyroid cats

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hypokitties/

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