If any of these sound familiar, your Sheltie may have
"Hypothyroidism".......or "Low Thyroid". It is one of the most common
ailments in this breed, yet it goes undiagnosed MOST of the time.........
A low thyroid Sheltie may display some or all of these symptoms:
Overweight! Weight gain or the inability to lose weight.....ravenous
appetite, acts starving all the time.
A sheltie who is overweight and normal diet and exercise don't
help.....should be checked for low thyroid.
Skin problems. Dry, itchy,
flakey skin. The Sheltie will scratch and chew at his skin.
Often diagnosed as an allergy. Mild cases can just involve itchy irritated skin. The
more severe cases often
have infected, open sores. These dogs often smell bad because of the infection in the
skin, or the resulting yeast infection in the skin from Antibiotic
use. Unlike DM........thyroid hair loss is most often on the trunk of the
body.....not just the feet or tail. Thyroid tests should be run on any
Sheltie with skin problems.
Ear infections. Either bacteria or yeast based. Ongoing or
occasional. The lower the thyroid the more chronic the ear infections become.
If a Sheltie has gone too long with low thyroid, the ears can
thicken and become deformed from constant infection. (Often
called Cauliflower Ear) Any ear infection in a Sheltie
should be accompanied by a thyroid test. When we have a dog come in with an ear infection, the thyroid is the
first thing we check.
Puppies that are the same size as their littermates but weigh
considerably more are the ones that have a thyroid problem in later years. I know this is not
scientific.......but this is what we see.
Coat problems .... Low Thyroid shelties
just don't have healthy looking coats. It can vary from thin,
short, sparse, fuzzy, and often downy soft fur. Or,
there can be only a thin overcoat, with no undercoat. In all cases,
a low thyroid Sheltie just does not have a nice thick, long coat.
Runny eye or eyes. A clear watery discharge coming from the eye. It is
often misdiagnosed as a blocked tear duct. (note: a yellow or green
discharge from the eye is not low thyroid and should be looked
at by your Vet)
Cholesterol deposits (foggy spots) on one or both eyes.
High cholesterol blood test results
Inability to be bred......and/or
lack of coming into season. OR....if bred, inability to
become pregnant.
This is a "worst case" photo.
The dog in this picture, Marty, has low thyroid that has gone
untreated for years. His ears are
inflamed and infected. Hair loss is wide-spread. His skin is oozy
and infected in places. He has runny eyes. The only
reason he is not fat is because he did not have food to eat.
This case is one of the worst we have had.... this is NOT typical, but
this IS what will happen if this goes on for years.
Marty's T4 was
.8 on a scale of 1-4.
Not really that low.....but disastrous for a Sheltie.
So what does the average low thyroid dog
look like? See below.........
Of course there are always other causes of all of these symptoms, but low
thyroid needs to be ruled out.
Our group alone places 100-200 shelties per year. I would
easily say that about a third of them are low thyroid. It is so
common that we can now just look at a group of shelties and pick out the
ones with low thyroid.
The reason that so many Shelties with Low Thyroid go undiagnosed......is because Shelties
need to maintain a higher thyroid level than most other breeds.
Sadly, this is NOT what most vets are taught in vet school.
What many vets would interpret as a "normal" test result, is NOT normal
for a sheltie. A sheltie must always run very high normal to be truly normal.
We suggest making sure the T4 is in the upper 1/2 to 1/3 of normal.
For example; lets say your test's normal range is from 1-4.
If your Sheltie's tests result is 1.8, many Vets will call that
"normal". We disagree. We would like to see a Sheltie test
at 2--4 on this scale. We have seen some
extremely sick Shelties that will test at under a 2.
Note before reading any further.: Never, ever
treat your dog for low thyroid, unless you and your Vet are certain your
dog needs it, and you have proven it by blood test.
OK...so how to test. What
test does your Vet offer? .....we have played with the different tests and
symptoms in all of these Shelties. The test itself doesn't matter
as much as knowing the normal range. The T4 by itself tells us what we need to know.
I know the T4 can vary with many things......but not that much...and not enough to
make a difference in what we are looking for. In other words.........start
with the T4. It may be all you need, and it is far less expensive than the
full thyroid panel.
Another interesting scenario we have run into. Let's say
that your Sheltie has multiple low thyroid symptoms.....
but the T4 tests show he is in the upper range already.
Don't give up on thyroid !! Sometimes the old "If it walks like a
duck" thing applies here. It could just be that your
Sheltie is "going" low thyroid. Read the next paragraph,
or wait 2 months and test again.
Another problem we have run into a few times, is the T4 can fluctuate
slightly during the day. Not much, but sometimes enough to throw you.
If you are convinced of low thyroid in your sheltie and are having
trouble proving it.....try having your Vet draw blood for a T4 three
times in one day. Before breakfast, an hour after
breakfast, and then at the end of the day. Then compare and
discuss the results. Some Shelties have just been difficult
like this, and it has taken several readings to prove (or rule out) low
thyroid.
NOTE: If testing your
Shelties T4 three times in one day, still shows his thyroid
high-normal...... then you may very well have something else going on
with your dog. There are other diseases that can mimic low
thyroid. Cushings disease would probably be my next suspect.
Also, so after reading all this, please
know that we are not suggesting that you march
in and tell your Vet what to do! Rather; we are suggesting you share this vital information with
your vet, and ask him/her to work with you in solving the problem.
This is not something you can treat by yourself. However, if your
vet is unwilling to listen to you, or refuses to work with you.......
well then you have some choices to make.
OK, so now you got your test results back, and they are low.
Now what? Soloxine is
the drug of choice. We have not had good luck with the generic
brands. Your vet can advise the strength and dose. (We
prefer twice a day treatment over once a day.) The suggested
dosage is .10 per 10 pounds of body weight twice a day.. so for a
30 pound dog it would get .3 in the morning and
.3 again at night. A 20 pound dog will get .2 morning
and .2 in the evening..etc. You will need to adjust the dosage with the
dogs weight. So if your dog has weight to lose, make sure you
adjust the dose as he loses weight.
After 30-45 days on the Soloxine, you should begin to see the symptoms easing away. It
doesn't happen overnight, as it takes Soloxine a month to build up in the system.
When beginning on Soloxine, ask your vet to check the levels (T4) every 6 weeks for a few
months just to make sure the dosage is correct. Then check levels yearly after that. Just remember
......... with Shelties you want the levels in the upper third of normal.
OK....so you just started your Sheltie on Soloxine.
What do you do about the current problems your dog if suffering from ??
Keep in mind that until the thyroid levels are normal, the infections
will just keep reoccurring. All you can do at this point is treat
the symptoms..
Here are some tips that we use while we wait.......
-
For a greasy coat, (with no skin
infection) -- try bathing with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Works
great at cutting through that oil. Make certain you rinse it
well.
-
For smelly, yeasty, or Itchy ears (in
between treatment) - squirt a little Monistat in each ear and rub.
-
For ravenous, always starving dogs:
Give 1/2 cup of raw green beans once or twice a day as a snack.
Carrots also work well too.
-
For current ear, skin, or systemic
infections; pain, Itching or open sores--- discuss with your vet.
(You still need to get rid of the infection).
Then, hang in there!!
Help is coming.
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Central Illinois Sheltie Rescue
