Can anyone give me information on thyroid issues?
Causes?
Treatments?
Symptoms?

We came across a 5 year old gray and white male that is looking for a good home and he sounds perfect, but he is overweight. He is supposed to be Sully's size, around 75 lbs, but he's 112 lbs and that's after he lost 30 lbs! He was sent to a fost home where he was kept in a small kennel with a big bag of food to free feed and no exercise. A friends of mine rescued him, and is now getting exercise and low calories kibble to manage his weight.

His current foster mom takes him to Dr. Miller (Sully's mom) she (foster mom) says, 'Storm's thyroid is on the low side of normal. Couldn't be any lower and be considered normal. Given that he's so heavy, we're going to start him on a low dose of meds....'

I called the office and was given an explanation, but just wanted to get feed back on experience and additional info on thyroid issues, how to maintain and care for a dog with thyroid issues, etc.

Thanks!

Aww poor guy! Sorry I'm not any help on this, never dealt with it before but will be tagging along with interest to know more.

[quote="cmanding"]

We came across a 5 year old gray and white male that is looking for a good home and he sounds perfect, but he is overweight. He was sent to a foster home where

he was kept in a small kennel with a big bag of food to free feed and no exercise. [quote]


I'm more inclined to think that all the food and lack of exercise is more the problem then thyroid. Keep him busy and active and I would be willing t o say he'll regain his normal (or close ) weight

If it is the thyroid no big deal they have meds for that problem.

Claudia,
I'm kinding of thinking the same as Len and with diet and excersise he might go back to normal. To bad we don't know what his blood was at before he lost the 30lbs to compair. He is so super cuet! Are u gonna have G meet him? I don't think he will last long in foster since he has papers and all...

Yes, we have a meet and greet set-up for Sunday afternoon! JD is already excited about him and he hasn't even met Storm! If you wanna come by to meet Storm too, Tara will be over at 3pm on Sunday.

If he does end up with us, he'll get plenty of exercise for sure!

Thanks Len!

I just might need to stop by on Sunday....

I'm no help on thyroid issues either. One of our horses at the barn has meds for it that I don't believe are too expensive. He takes them 2x a day and it's no big deal at all. He's dropped a lot of weight from it (about 100 lbs at least) and he's otherwise perfectly healthy and happy.

But yeah... I'd also be interested in seeing how he does with a good diet and regular exercise

jbealer wrote:

I just might need to stop by on Sunday....

Come on over, Jenn! I'll send you my address just in case...

I talked to Dr. Miller's office and they did say meds would be inexpensive...I believe it goes by weight, and it would cost about $25 for 6 weeks or so. Once his weight goes down, the meds will last longer.

It's already been said, but hypothyroidism is easily and effectively treated. Do you know what specifically was low? If TSH, T3 and T4 were all low then he's most likley normal (there is a rarer form of hypothyroidism where all are low due to a problem with the pituitary, but it's well...rare), if the TSH was high however, then there is a problem.

My friend has an American Bulldog that has hypothyroidism, she gets meds once a day. She has been on the meds for a few years now and is still about 10lbs overweight (compared to almost 50lbs overweight), but she also has arthritis so her exercise is a bit limited.

Rhet wrote:

It's already been said, but hypothyroidism is easily and effectively treated. Do you know what specifically was low? If TSH, T3 and T4 were all low then he's most likley normal (there is a rarer form of hypothyroidism where all are low due to a problem with the pituitary, but it's well...rare), if the TSH was high however, then there is a problem.

My friend has an American Bulldog that has hypothyroidism, she gets meds once a day. She has been on the meds for a few years now and is still about 10lbs overweight (compared to almost 50lbs overweight), but she also has arthritis so her exercise is a bit limited.

Thanks for the info! I'll check to see what specifically is low.

I also don't want his excess weight to put too much stress on his joints while exercising, so I'll have to figure out how much walking/hiking he'll be able to do without stressing joints and over-exerting him.

I would imagine glucosamine is OK with thyroid meds?

Awwww I hope that Ginger gets along well with Storm!!! Lots of pics pls =) How exciting!

Dr. Miller says she's not certain Storm actually needs to be on thyroid meds for life as his numbers were borderline rather than actually low. They also gave me a feeding guide as to how much calories he should be getting to help him lose weight.

I'm not sure what lo calorie food he is currently one, but if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Claudia the low cal food i give sierra is the wellness core grain free reduced cal food, it has really helped her. Melissa i think is giving it to Mya now as well?...

thanks Jenn!

Just an update on Storm's thyroid issue...

About a week ago Storm was showing some signs of his tyroid meds being too much. He was pacing, panting when he hasn't done anything to exert himself, and drinking more water than usual. I took Storm to get bloodwork done and we had to cut his dose in half....so that's a good sign that he may not be needing thyroid meds in the near future if we get his weight down even more. YAY!

Great news, Claudia!