cushings/thyroid
 

hi does anyone have a dog with cushings or a thyroid problem please? ive been looking up things that annie might have and these two came up. im gonna def ask the vet about a pituitary macroadenoma as annie has all the symptoms.

I have seen both conditions in grooming client Yorkies over the years.
An underactive thyroid gave symptoms of dry skin, loss of coat as in practically bald especially on the body, very very sparse, eyes can be a little bulgy unexplained weight gain. Thyroid medication pretty much took care of all the symptoms.
I have seen a cushings dog and that is harder to manage than addisons.
In cushings, I remember a very pot belly sypmtom. Can't remember much else about the symptoms. You can likely google Cushings for websites about the condition. Try Canine Cushings Disease.

I don't want to scare you but if you suspect it - get to the vet asap ......in many cases it's treatable if caught early & if it's a not a severe case - GOOD LUCK !!

My Parents mini schnauzer has cushings..she is on meds and doing ok.

Lacy had cushing's - the symptoms I noticed were excessive eating, drinking, urinating. Hair thinning and lightening, skin darkening. She did have weight gain, but she was putting down enormous quantities of food. Pot belly appearance because the muscles in the stomach and hind quarters are weakened. Test to diagnose consists of taking blood, giving injection and then retesting blood, (takes about 4 hours and was about $150.00), medicine available to help (kind of expensive and requires blood tests monthly to monitor), no cure for disease.

I have hypothyroid or low thyroid. Most are overweight, but a good percentage are not (I weighed less than 100 pounds when diagnosed). Dry skin, dry hair, tired, don't eat very much, but gain weight (in some), intolerance to cold, you are shivering when everyone else is fine in shorts! Very ease to diagnose and treat. Medicine is cheap so once you get the right dosage the treatment although lifelong will not break your bank.

My late Yorkie was hypothyroid and a Japanese Chin, owned years ago also had it. It depends on what serum levels are low to medication prescribed. Synthroid has no T3 in it and T4 won't convert to T3. If the T3 is low then Amour Thyroid is the medication. Alot of vets don't know this and only prescribe Synthroid.
I'm hypothyroid and everything Lacy's mom says is right on the mark.
Jessica

My pom is being tested fpr Cushings and thyroid right now. I should get the results tomorrow.

Here is a very good source of information for you
http://www.caninecushings.net/forums/

thankyou everyone, annie is being tested on thursday.

Maya's thyroid test came back and they suspect hypothyroidism. I had ro take her back in today for a more comprhensive thyroid test that takes 10 14 days for results.

Sorry, the tests showed any problems, but a thyroid disorder is a blessing compared to Cushing's diagnosis. Once you get the correct dosage it will be as simple as giving her a pill daily and she will start feeling so much better. If it had to be something, then hypothyroidism is good news.

Thanks Lacy's Mom! it's good to know meds will make her feel better.

Hi I had a dog with addisons She had the worse form you could have. We could not get her addisons under control with the meds we even tried the holistic(sp) way I felt so bad for her and she went over the:rainbow: rainbow bridge this past march:cry: . I hope all goes well with your dog.

Jessica -- good to hear someone else that understands T4/T4 thyroid hormone -- I take Armour Thyroid too -- I have no thyroid gland now and just could not get enough conversion with T4 alone. Some of the best information I found online about thyroid was written by vets. There was a time there when I was tempted to ask the vet to treat me! But I finally found a fairly good people doc.

Enough and the right thyroid hormones can make a world of difference to people AND their pets!

When I was first given natural animal thyroid (I was seeing a holistic doctor at that time) I had a severe reaction to it. It looked like a very large burn across my face (didn't scar or anything, but very raw and red at the time). That was over 20 years ago, I went to a new doctor and have never thought about trying it again. Now, I am wondering if maybe I should. My thyroid (I am hypo or low) is very irregular, I have to test every 3 months and sometimes my tests come out way too low and my doctor thinks I don't take my medicine properly (untrue). I still have symptoms of low thyroid even when my tests come back within range, but my doctor is happy just my being in the range and doesn't make adjustments and for those of you who have a thyroid disorder know how broad the range is. I also get extremely cold and lethargic if my pill is delayed even a couple of hours and everything I have read says you shouldn't notice. I am also in the minority in that I have always been very thin, right around 100 pounds. For those of you taking animal thyroid, do you think I should reconsider it? Also do you supplement with natural remedies like tyrosine and kelp?

Sorry, doggies, but this is something I struggle with daily and everyone else I know takes their pill, tests once a year and feels great.