Thyroid question

[pnance]

According to the vets message last night Bear's blood work came back with a liver enzyme elevated and his thyroid very borderline low. According to her I have 2 options with regards to the thyroid, additional testing or a trial med. I'm playing telephone tag with the vet, but thought I'd see if anyone has any experience with this.

[Glacier]

Personally, I'd go with the trial med. You'll know very quickly if it's working. Earle is on thyroid meds. His results were odd too. Both his thyroid hormone and his thyroid stimulating hormone were low. The TSH should be sky high in a dog with hypothyroidism. I don't know what your vet charges, but it would have been close to 500 bucks for the addtional testing for Earle. We did a two week trial on Thyroxin instead. In three days he was acting much more like himself. It was remarkable.

If the meds aren't what he needs, they won't hurt him. He might be a bit more hyper but that's it. I've dropped a thyroid pill or two and had it stolen by one of the other dogs. No ill effects.

Good luck. I hope the liver level doesn't indicate anything serious!

[pnance]

Thanks Glacier. I finally talked to the vet and decided to go with trying the pills. Turns out they'll want to test his blood again in a month either way so I figured why not just try the pills. The liver enzyme they want to retest in 3 months unless something changes. His urine also came back with a high pH and crystals even though he wasn't showing symptoms. The good news I suppose is that the aniobiotics he's on for kennel cough should work on that as well. I'm curious though did you ever have weight problems with Earle? I have the worst time keeping Bears weight down and the guess is that it's related to the thyroid.

[Glacier]

I'm curious though did you ever have weight problems with Earle? I have the worst time keeping Bears weight down and the guess is that it's related to the thyroid.

Huge problems with his weight. He needs to loose about 15 pounds. He's too heavy to work as a sled dog right now, too much stress on his ACL due to the excess weight. He's on a serious diet right now! Weight gain was my first clue that his thyroid was low. Then he started to get nasty with the other dogs. Earle has never been like that before. There is a link between aggression and hypothyroidism. Since he's been on the meds, he's back to his usual happy, friendly self.

Preacher is also on thyroid meds. I have trouble with his weight too, but he doesn't move much. I can't feed him any less and due to his other health issues, he doesn't get a whole lot of exercise. Preacher also had trouble with his coat and the cold before he went on meds. He would try to wrap himself around the woodstove and refuse to go outside when it was chillly. It's chilly here alot so that was a problem! He handles the weather much better now!

[pnance]

Huge problems with his weight. He needs to loose about 15 pounds. He's too heavy to work as a sled dog right now, too much stress on his ACL due to the excess weight. He's on a serious diet right now! Weight gain was my first clue that his thyroid was low. Then he started to get nasty with the other dogs. Earle has never been like that before. There is a link between aggression and hypothyroidism. Since he's been on the meds, he's back to his usual happy, friendly self.

Preacher is also on thyroid meds. I have trouble with his weight too, but he doesn't move much. I can't feed him any less and due to his other health issues, he doesn't get a whole lot of exercise. Preacher also had trouble with his coat and the cold before he went on meds. He would try to wrap himself around the woodstove and refuse to go outside when it was chillly. It's chilly here alot so that was a problem! He handles the weather much better now!

Thanks!! Preacher sounds a lot like Bear, he's limited excersize wise and I can't feed him anything less. It sounds like there's a chance the thyroid meds might finally help me keep it down.