Hey all. It's been a while since I've been here, so I'll quickly bring you up to speed.
I have a neutered male Doberman named Atlas. He will be turning 5 years old in December and we've been struggling with hypothyroidism for about 2 years now. Originally, we thought it was anxiety, but his T3/T4/TSH levels said otherwise. He was on Synthyroid since then, up until I began having some communication breakdown with my vet. No fault of the vet himself, more to the fact I was unable to reach him to renew my poor dog's prescription and I guess my voice mails were being deleted without answer. So now I'm back to step one with my dog, because his aggression has reached a dangerous level with anyone he deems a stranger (which is basically anyone aside from me, my boyfriend and my other dog).
Currently, he is muzzled 100% of the time in public. He has a kennel at my house and my boyfriend's house and goes into it whenever someone comes over since he is 100% not safe with anyone aside from myself or my boyfriend. He is anxious and will randomly bark for no reason, working himself up to a complete frenzy. I turned my doorbell off because he is so noise sensitive and I live in constant fear of someone knocking on my door because that aggravates my poor, sick dog.
I've been told to put him down, but he is a good dog. He is sweet with me and my boyfriend, but he's also sick and I can't fault him for that. It's a big of a struggle to find a vet here in Edmonton who will actually listen to me when I say I want a full thyroid panel test, but I managed to find one and got their last available appointment for this week (tomorrow at 6:40pm). My poor dude will have an exam and a blood test, which will be sent to IDEXX. He'll go back onto Thyroid medicine and we'll see if his mood evens out again. His symptoms include:
- Excessive thirst
- Pacing
- Whining
- Random barking outbursts (from a dead sleep, to barking, to back to sleep)
- Spinning
- Lunging at the door when someone comes to it
- Hair loss on his chest and underside of neck
- Extreme noise sensitivity
- Panic attacks where he will literally spin in circle and scream if he feels anxious
- He's not excessively overweight or underweight... he has the distinct "tuck" in his abdomen, but he is bigger boned. He's pushing 100lbs right now, give or take a pound.
- His coat is soft and glossy, aside from the light hair loss across his chest and neck
- He seems to have issues swallowing sometimes, but that could be because he has a tendency to eat too fast and has learned to inhale his food no matter the method I use - rocks in his bowl, upside down muffin tins, scattered across the floor, etc.
We've done behavioral training as well and since the majority of his issues happen only at my house, it's hard for the trainers to fully pinpoint if part of his issue is a lack of training. He is extremely well trained most of the time, but when someone comes to the door, it's like the thinking part of his brain just shuts off.
So that's where we are. He has his vet appointment tomorrow, but I wanted to ask all you lovely people -- has anyone had their dog's thyroid removed completely? Is that even a thing? I know humans get it done, but is that something worth doing in dogs? Google doesn't return much for information, but I'm curious if that's an option for my dog. I don't want to put him down without exhausting my options, and I definitely don't want to foist his issues on someone else. I've had trainers offer to take him for in-home training, but that doesn't seem like a good option to me because then I can't learn how to deal with his issues.
I really feel like I'm failing him and it's heartbreaking.
I have a neutered male Doberman named Atlas. He will be turning 5 years old in December and we've been struggling with hypothyroidism for about 2 years now. Originally, we thought it was anxiety, but his T3/T4/TSH levels said otherwise. He was on Synthyroid since then, up until I began having some communication breakdown with my vet. No fault of the vet himself, more to the fact I was unable to reach him to renew my poor dog's prescription and I guess my voice mails were being deleted without answer. So now I'm back to step one with my dog, because his aggression has reached a dangerous level with anyone he deems a stranger (which is basically anyone aside from me, my boyfriend and my other dog).
Currently, he is muzzled 100% of the time in public. He has a kennel at my house and my boyfriend's house and goes into it whenever someone comes over since he is 100% not safe with anyone aside from myself or my boyfriend. He is anxious and will randomly bark for no reason, working himself up to a complete frenzy. I turned my doorbell off because he is so noise sensitive and I live in constant fear of someone knocking on my door because that aggravates my poor, sick dog.
I've been told to put him down, but he is a good dog. He is sweet with me and my boyfriend, but he's also sick and I can't fault him for that. It's a big of a struggle to find a vet here in Edmonton who will actually listen to me when I say I want a full thyroid panel test, but I managed to find one and got their last available appointment for this week (tomorrow at 6:40pm). My poor dude will have an exam and a blood test, which will be sent to IDEXX. He'll go back onto Thyroid medicine and we'll see if his mood evens out again. His symptoms include:
- Excessive thirst
- Pacing
- Whining
- Random barking outbursts (from a dead sleep, to barking, to back to sleep)
- Spinning
- Lunging at the door when someone comes to it
- Hair loss on his chest and underside of neck
- Extreme noise sensitivity
- Panic attacks where he will literally spin in circle and scream if he feels anxious
- He's not excessively overweight or underweight... he has the distinct "tuck" in his abdomen, but he is bigger boned. He's pushing 100lbs right now, give or take a pound.
- His coat is soft and glossy, aside from the light hair loss across his chest and neck
- He seems to have issues swallowing sometimes, but that could be because he has a tendency to eat too fast and has learned to inhale his food no matter the method I use - rocks in his bowl, upside down muffin tins, scattered across the floor, etc.
We've done behavioral training as well and since the majority of his issues happen only at my house, it's hard for the trainers to fully pinpoint if part of his issue is a lack of training. He is extremely well trained most of the time, but when someone comes to the door, it's like the thinking part of his brain just shuts off.
So that's where we are. He has his vet appointment tomorrow, but I wanted to ask all you lovely people -- has anyone had their dog's thyroid removed completely? Is that even a thing? I know humans get it done, but is that something worth doing in dogs? Google doesn't return much for information, but I'm curious if that's an option for my dog. I don't want to put him down without exhausting my options, and I definitely don't want to foist his issues on someone else. I've had trainers offer to take him for in-home training, but that doesn't seem like a good option to me because then I can't learn how to deal with his issues.
I really feel like I'm failing him and it's heartbreaking.