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Nellie's Thyroid


lrayburn
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So after listening to some of the conversations here and doing some research, I asked the vet to test Nellie's thyroid again at her annual checkup. I had noticed a change in her activity level, heat tolerance and coat shedding and had her thyroid tested the year before. The first test showed a "borderline low" T4 (1.0 instead of 1.4 to 3.0) and the vet opted not to treat but to just watch and see. The more recent test showed a slightly lower "borderline low" T4 (0.9). The vet wanted to wait and check again next year but I wasn't really happy with that. Nellie is 7 and has some aggression issues and I asked if we could go ahead and treat her now and see if there was a positive change. The vet was agreeable and so we started thyroid supplements about a week and a half ago.

 

The good news is that Nellie seems to be feeling much better. Even my roommate has noticed. She is more playful, more energetic, her eyes are brighter, she's less anxious and she is spending more time out with the group instead of spending most of the day sleeping in the closet.

 

The bad news is that it hasn't seemed to help at all with the agression and, now that she's spending more time with the group, she has more energy to be a bitch to the other dogs! Oops. I hadn't thought of that. Her aggression is manageable but now I'm having to spend more time managing it. I didn't expect the thyroid meds to make her non-aggressive, I just hadn't thought that it make the problem more difficult to manage!

 

We will retest her T4 levels in a month to make sure the dosage is correct. It's a little more difficult to deal with her aggression as we are making this transition but it is great to see her feeling so much better. The best way to put it is that she seemed depressed before. I didn't realize how much her activity level had decreased until after we started the treatment and realized that now she is acting like she did when she was 2 or 3. (Of course, I never would have taken on 3 other dogs when she was 3 :rolleyes: ...)

 

Has anyone else dealt with a similar a problem when starting thyroid treatment on an aggressive dog? I'd be interested to hear about other peoples experiences. I'm hoping that as she gets used to feeling better, she'll settle a little bit more.

 

Lisa

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I have known a couple dogs that went on thyroid meds that were aggressive. At least 2 are less aggressive but it took a couple months and the other showed little to no change.

 

It has only been a few days. You should really wait to compare if the aggressiveness is decreasing over the next couple months.

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No experience with thyroxine and aggression - but I just wanted to say that I found with my previous BCXKelpie bitch who was hypothyroid, that she needed to operate at the high end of normal to be completely well. I had an officious vet see her at one time, demanding annual tests, and changing her dose to bring it into the low-middle of normal - at which point Jess began to itch again. I upped the dose back to what we'd been on, and she was fine - and I persuaded that vet to allow me to work on clinical signs, since the dog was being upset by the frequent bloods drawn from the jugular vein.

 

The following year, when I asked about having her blood tested for thyroid levels while tests were being done for kidney function, the vet I saw that time said - why - are you concerned - I said no, but that last year's vet had said it should be done. His reply - if she's on long term meds and you're happy with her, that's fine!

 

Oh, and yes, there's at least a 2 week period before the full effect of the meds begins to be seen.

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Thanks for the info guys. Nellie was aggressive before the treatment and I don't really expect that to change much and certainly not overnight. However, I was surprised at how quickly I saw a change in her anxiety and energy levels - hence the post.

 

She was not tested for Cushings. The vet didn't really want to treat her and basically prescribed the thyroxine to humor me. We agreed to do it and see how she responded. So far, I am very happy but realize that we have a long ways to go and that getting the dosage right may be an issue.

 

Nellie is very difficult to draw blood on so I hope that does not have to be an ongoing procedure. Tassie - I'm glad you were able to find a vet that was willing to go by clinical signs rather than blood tests. I've struggled with that with my vet - she wants to draw blood every year to test for heartworm, etc but at Nellie's age, I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the stress of trying to carry out the procedure.

 

Thanks again,

Lisa

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