[nikirushka]

I'm at an utter loss with Remy's thyroid problems so I'd like to see what you all think.

Symptoms first. Just after 2yrs old, Remy started to slow down - he went from your typical, insane doberboy to an old man almost overnight. His thyroid was tested then (TSH and T4 separately), both normal (never saw the actual figures though). In 2007, I had his heart ECGd and it was fine.

Symptoms persisted; he has CDA anyhoo but I think there was extra hairloss - certainly there is now as his CDA has always followed the pattern (symmetrical over the body, not on the legs or head) but now his ears are balding slowly and his head hair is starting to subtly thin out also. Weight problems - he did gain a considerable amount following an injury but we were already struggling with gain before that, and it's taken me over 4 years since then to get the excess off him. Any gain is incredibly hard to shift. He feels the cold terribly, and the lethargy has only gotten worse - although he will sometimes have a run and a play, most of his life is spent at a slow plod (and has been since he changed just after 2yrs old). He no longer pulls on lead even though I never succeeded in training him not to - he just doesn't have the energy. On walks, he is usually plodding at least 30 feet behind me and sometimes as far as 80 or 90 feet if not more.

He was first (finally) diagnosed hypothyroid in 2009, and put on 0.6mg soloxine twice daily. First retest suggested he was fine on that dose - no change in symptoms.

He was retested in Oct 09 (sent to Dr Dodds), and his dose was put up to 0.6mg soloxine twice daily. Still no change in his symptoms. Heart scanned again in July 09 - perfect.

Retest by my vet in 2010 when I began other investigations for his lethargy; quite low so he was bumped up to 0.8mg twice daily. Still no change.

In Nov 2010, he went on referral to continue the investigations (only slight bronchitis found, treated successfully and no change in him). His T4 was tested again and came back elevated, so he was taken back to 0.7mg twice daily and no change again, if anything he got a little more lethargic.

This year has been horrendous financially so it's taken a while to restest again (his thyroid isn't covered under insurance). I've just now received his latest results, again done by Dr Dodds.

Huge change and these are the results:

T4 6.22 (1.75 - 3.75)
Free T4 3.87 (0.80 - 2.00)
T3 69 (30 - 60)
Free T3 2.5 (1.6 - 3.5)
Thyroglobulin Autoantibody < 1

His antibodies were up last time but it says on the results that meds can supress these.

I just don't understand. His symptoms have been persistent despite the initial slight deterioration and now the massive swing the other way; definitely no hint whatsoever of overdosing his T4.

Can anyone shed any light on my poor lad?

 

[mmctaq]

While I would guess that your dog suffers from an endocrine disorder, I think you have focused on thyroid issues and maybe need to look elsewhere.

There is a guy at The University of Tennessee who has developed a pretty comprehensive endocrine blood panel for dogs. I would have this run, although I don't know anything about the technicalities of submitting blood samples internationally. I would be looking for abnormal levels of other hormones besides thyroid hormones... low cortisol wouldn't surprise me a whole lot.

 

[vivienne00]

Got no answers for you and I deal with hypothyroidism too.

I got more improvement by moving to raw feeding with raw meaty bones and little fat on the food. It took weight off my red male - we took a lot off. He got more energy but he was never on thyroid meds. The rest of the dogs eat raw too. I found that Cato put weight on when he ate grains, even tiny amounts of food, but I could give him a decent raw meal and he stayed slim and active until he was 13.

How have full blood tests been - anything weird with the liver maybe?

 

[nikirushka]

His liver was checked during the investigations - he did have raised enzymes but these were retested a month later and had gone back down. No idea what that was about but he's been fine since. All other bloods were spot on.

Endocrine stuff was looked at - he's had 3 tests for Cushings/addisons, all normal (although I know somneone whose dog was the same and had an adrenal tumour, so I'm thinking about scans now). Can't think off the top of my head what else but the vet at the time said everything possible had been looked at (excellent vet btw, I know her quite well). He's also been looked at by an excellent dermatologist who reckoned thyroid + CDA.

Raw feeding we tried - that helped his digestion; as a younger dog he had recurrent bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea, never found the cause but the raw stopped it overnight and although he's been on kibble for 4 years again now he's never had a problem again. It did nothing for his symptoms though and actually made the weight gain worse!

A friend on FB has suggested a pituitary or adrenal tumour - potuitary would make sense to me, so when I speak to my vet shortly to arrange his meds I'll mention that.