Thyroid
Disease
Is Fido
acting strange?
It could be his thyroid
By
Dana Cox
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Because
the symptoms of early stage thyroiditis
mimic those of other conditions and behavioral
issues, getting a correct diagnosis is
not always easy. If a dog seizures, for
example, your veterinarian will most likely
put her on phenabarbitol, an anti-seizure
medication. That’s why Dr. Dodds
says it’s crucial to get a full
work-up, including a complete thyroid
panel. Sometimes, in the “storm”
stage of the disease, everything will
look normal from the outside. “I
had a case the other day in which the
thyroid auto antibody levels, which should
have been under 200, were more than 2000.
Sure enough, the results showed thyroiditis.
But the animal looked normal physically.”
Once the blood test is done and sent to
the lab, other factors come into play.
“All labs have ranges for normal
canine adults. These ranges may not be
appropriate for the breed and age of your
dog. The vet looks at the print-out from
the lab, which flags low or high values,
but the lab computer doesn’t know
if this is a puppy or a senior or if there’s
something breed specific going on. You
have to look at it within the context
of everything else. And many vets don’t
yet understand this or know to ask.”
How
can it be treated?
 |
| On
thyroid medication, Tater went from
raging almost nightly to being 90%
rage-free. |
For cases that
are not clear cut, Dr. Dodds recommends
a six to eight-week trial of thyroid medication.
Since the side effects of the drugs are
minimal at best (panting, pacing) and
it takes only 12 to 24 hours to completely
exit the system after the last pill, it
seems a safe alternative to a missed diagnosis.
For Robin, the
veterinarian’s research proved a
godsend. “Within a week of sending
the bloodwork to Dr. Dodds, we had a diagnosis
– autoimmune thyroiditis. Tater
began a daily thyroid replacement and
his rages were nearly gone after six weeks.”
The story has an even happier ending.
Robin’s employer was so impressed
with Tater’s recovery that the clinic
began thyroid testing dogs that came in
with abnormal seizure activity (motor
seizures, episodes of staring into space
or standing in a corner). Almost 100%
of these dogs had abnormal thyroid function
and improved on thyroid replacement therapy.
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Published
in the April/May 2004 issue of Animal
Wellness
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