Known Thyroid Issues in Kai?
So again, we (Kaiya and I) have been MIA lately. Trying to get us both acclimated to our new city and vets and day cares and jobs which is VERY time consuming. I was just curious if anyone is aware of any thyroid issues in Kai? Kaiya is getting a blood screen thursday after some disturbing health and behavior issues which could be related to her environment changes (this is my hope) or an underlying health problem.
She has been having diarrhea on a fairly regular basis (4 times in 3.5 months), the last time was accompanied by a doggy smell which is not normal for her and an oily coat. Additionally back at Christmas time, we had a snapping issue with my young nieces. K is typically fine with children and LOVES my friends baby (who is about 14 months), but she snapped at both of my nieces. At the time, I chalked it up to fear on both her end and my nieces (they are TERRIFIED of all animals), and while she got time out, I didnt do anything further about it. I realize I probably should have, but I was really just pissed at my sister at the time because she INSISTED that the girls needed to be at my parents overnight on the night we arrived and they showed up less than an hour after we got there.
All that said, I know there are several Shiba and Akita on the forum that have a history of thyroid issues and while I didnt see anything about Kai, I was curious if anyone knew of any?
Any information I can take to the vet when we get the results would be wonderful! Thank you all!
She has been having diarrhea on a fairly regular basis (4 times in 3.5 months), the last time was accompanied by a doggy smell which is not normal for her and an oily coat. Additionally back at Christmas time, we had a snapping issue with my young nieces. K is typically fine with children and LOVES my friends baby (who is about 14 months), but she snapped at both of my nieces. At the time, I chalked it up to fear on both her end and my nieces (they are TERRIFIED of all animals), and while she got time out, I didnt do anything further about it. I realize I probably should have, but I was really just pissed at my sister at the time because she INSISTED that the girls needed to be at my parents overnight on the night we arrived and they showed up less than an hour after we got there.
All that said, I know there are several Shiba and Akita on the forum that have a history of thyroid issues and while I didnt see anything about Kai, I was curious if anyone knew of any?
Any information I can take to the vet when we get the results would be wonderful! Thank you all!
Comments
I have to say it doesn't necessarily sound like a thyroid issue as much as new environment issues given the context of the post.
It's an easy to diagnose and easy to treat disorder, though, so you should get answers from the blood test.
The coat issue could be allergies too.
Let us know what you find out!
A girlfriend of mine has a girl shiba w/ thyroid issues that took forever to diagnose. She exhibited signs of fear (tremble/shake) and become destructive when left alone as-if she had separation anxiety. Some of the vets put her on tranquilizer type meds that left her drowsy/lame in the back legs. When she was finally correctly diagnosed, she got put on meds that caused weight gain and incontinence, but she was a happy dog again.
As for the diarrhea, neither of my Shibas exhibted that as a symptom of hypothyroidism. However, Bella did vomit randomly (apparently caused by dilation of the esophagus), which stopped when she was diagnosed and put on levothyroxine.
I would have the blood panel done, but it is probably (and hopefully) just stress from all of the life changes recently.
But phenobarbital is also not a steroid. I have given it to my Shiba for years for her seizures. It should not cause diarrhea and it should not cause weight gain, though my girl, who tends to be anorexic at times, has started eating better since she's been on it. She doesn't gain weight, though, because we watch her food. I will say, though, that even dogs that are taking thyrosin for hypo may still not lose the weight that they gain from the low thyroid function. Or at least that has been the case with mine.
Phenobarbital does have some problems--it can cause liver damage and so needs to be carefully monitored--but it is a pretty good drug overall for controlling seizures, and in our case, it has helped smooth out some behavioral issues our female Shiba has had as well. She is, btw, MUCH less aggressive and unpredicatable now that she's taking pb. But that said, we tried other things first, including xanax and valium, and those both upped her aggression (this is before we knew about the seizures) so it is entirely possible that what lowers aggression in my dog (pb) might not do it in another dog.
So your friend may be seeing a "symptoms" from a variety of things, rather than just one thing.
I hope her complete results come back okay!
My boy is hypothyroid, but he's a Malamute. I can try to find the paperwork with his numbers on it. I don't remember it off the top of my head (because I'm an awful mom). He's on soloxine 0.6 to even him out.
So, I would say if she seems to be exhibiting symptoms, treat and see what happens. My vet usually likes to do a 90-day trial and then recheck to make sure the levels are where they should be and have not swung into hyperthyroidism.
To tack on to the above...One thing to keep in mind that levels can fluctuate naturally from time to time on an individual so it's important to look at the average reference range over time on a particular animal. If there are lab results over several years that will be helpful in gauging seemingly healthy dogs that are newly exhibiting quirky symptoms. Also what is the norm for one animal may not be for another within the given lab reference ranges or when symptoms actually appear.
Furthermore, each lab may have a differing acceptable reference ranges. For example ref of 1.0 - 4.0 while another may have 0.8 - 3.5 as a ref. So it's really important to discuss the results their vet and compare over time if one has the ability to do so, particularly to prevent one's vet scoffing at concerns.
Diet really can play a part in differing values IMO. According to Dodds and Laverdure (2011), an import of aspect of feeding raw is realizing that normal values for some of the standard diagnostic lab tests do not apply to animals on a raw diets. Laboratories have developed their normal ranges based on dogs that are fed cereal grain foods (p. 81).
My shiba at one point was at ref. range 1.3 (considered "normal") and that year she had a mild seizure as a one and only suspect symptom. The values have since gone back up on their own, I believe due to diet change. It's hard to say for sure, but so far so good and we continue to monitor. It's been three yrs without issue, knock on wood. We are at 1.7 and 1.8 T4 (close to her original range when younger) and doing great thus far.
Snf
Ref: Dodds, J. & Laverdure, D.R. (2011) The canine Thyroid Epidemic. Dogwise Publishing.
As far as Kai that remains to be seen what the averages would be. I can not imagine it would be that much different. I surely hope that many of us will test and supply some info to help all of us out as we go along.
Snf
I will be calling the vet again this week and will ask the question about the count and type of crystals. The sample was VERY fresh when it went in. (like collected just before we got in the car for the 10 minute ride fresh).
Thanks again all! If anyone has any other advice or things I need to ask, please feel free to chime in
I remember the first time we had Bowdu's thyroids tested by the vet who never even considered that thyroids could have been issue, and was in fact pretty resistant to getting his thyroids tested in the first place... Well, the results came back and he told me Bowdu was "borderline." The results we had for him from Antech (VCA labs) were as follows: And from Hemopet (Dr. Dodds' labs):
T4 1.3 (0.8-3.5)
Free T4 (dialysis) 20 (8-40)