So my husky went from 50lbs to 70lbs in past year. I think namely in last 6 months, perhaps less. She had her checkup and vaccines today, they did blood work. Vet said she has hypothyroidism and has to go on medication.

I've noticed too she became more sluggish in recent months. Less than 6 months. Maybe just 3-ish months or so.

So immediately doing research on this myself, I found some literature about how too tight of collars, or pulling, can damage a dogs thyroid, as it's located in the neck. Thing is, I got a slip lead just 3 months ago for behavioral problems. She doesn't pull on it terribly hard, and I don't pull it terribly hard. But it definitely did put more pressure on her neck, and I feel like her sluggishness started after I got this. Which really bothers me that this could be caused by the slip lead and I caused it. I wish material about dog training on the internet mentioned this.

The vet of course says she has to be on meds forever, but I've dealt with traditional medicine enough times in scenarios where there were actually ways to minimize or reverse if changed early enough, and it's worth trying before going to lifelong medication.

I am wondering if anyone has ever encountered this before or dealt with anything about it?

I'm definitely stopping all use of collars. Only ever using a harness now. Maybe I will get her on a raw diet to see how much that can help. Does anyone know anything else?

I'm laughing @Stray but this really isn't funny.  I've had an apparent minor hyperthyroid condition and my new doctor just realized it and wants me to go on medication for it NOW!  And then promptly proceeded to prescribe medicine for hypothyroid .... thanks doc, but it hasn't been a problem for 50+ years, I think I'll leave well enough along.

However, in your case ... I think the thyroid is protected enough that you'd have to be seriously choking your dog to cause a problem.  You note the time frame for your observations is 'the past year' and if I remember right, you've only had her since May / June of last year.

If I were in your shoes I'd ask for a repeat on that blood work at about a 2-3 month mark and look at the results myself, comparing this set with the older set.  In my personal case, there's only a point or two difference in my results compared to the standard range ... at this point I'm not concerned but will make sure that the Hyperthyroid markers are a part of my annual workup.  If there were a major deviation I'd consider medication ... ditto in your case.

I dunno, I think the weight gain and the lab results sort of speak for themselves. You could get a repeat right now if you truly don't the results. But if put her on the meds.

This articles links to the three sources they saw data correlating health problems to collar use on heavy pullers: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/collars-harnesses-leashes-muzzles/can-a-collar-damage-a-dogs-thyroid/

It's only a handful of data correlations and a few researchers, but I've encountered multiple health problems in the past where the answer was in a handful of studies that hadn't become commonly repeated all throughout the medical industry. It takes a lot of time, and money, to get 'potential truth in handful of studies' to 'pervasive medical common sense'. So, it just doesn't happen sometimes for years. The logic is there in this one too.

The timing of it is really uncanny. I was just looking through my videos and have a video of her being much more energetic on May 19th. Looking at my order history the slip lead was delivered on the 6th. It's just been two months. Beginning slip lead use perfectly coincided with her loss of energy.

I remember last month she did have diarrhea or then soft poops for couple days that seemed a bit different. I thought she ate something bad as typical, but it was a little different, and now I am wondering if perhaps that was related to damage to her thyroid beginning. There were a few times when she did run and pull rather hard on it. I purposely got the shortest one because of that, but she can go from zero to hard pull in a short distance over a squirrel.

I just feel bad that I could have caused this. There should be some warning on all training literature that talks about slip leads. It makes me rather upset. Literally just two months ago I had a husky that could run with me full speed for multiple blocks. Now she can barely keep up for more than like 30 seconds. I damaged her.

Supposedly hypothyroid comes with fur loss and fur thinning. Which she has none of. This issue does appear to have just started in past month or so. I'm hoping the thyroid damage is only minor and can be healed some if I stop all collar use. Maybe get her better diet and some supplements or something.

Sorry. I believe your "want" is clouding your judgement. I would go for the thyroid meds - hypothyroidism is somewhat common in Siberians.

amymeme wrote:

Sorry. I believe your "want" is clouding your judgement. I would go for the thyroid meds - hypothyroidism is somewhat common in Siberians.

No. That's the type of thinking that keeps people from taking notes on this and highlighting potential concerns. "Common" could be due to tendency of heavy leash pulling. There is a valid theory and suspicion here. There is a clear overlap between when I started using a slip lead and when fatigue symptoms started. These are the types of things where people need to anecdotally report suspicion to potentially incentivize larger formal analysis.

I'll get her tested again a month or so to see if lifestyle changes have any affect and then consider medication, but this is not the first time traditional medical literature has said something was an autoimmune disorder, when it really turned out to be something else. I currently have three autoimmune issues that have been resolved for years after lifestyle changes. There is an issue with medical research where solutions which don't have significant business models behind them tend to not produce the cash flow to bankroll the necessary research to push such perspective front and center. Such research then only happens if there are hundreds of anecdotal reports out in the wild and some source with public funding, like a university or other, will then allocate money to it.

Like this website is citing this theory to sell leashes https://www.k9bridle.com/dogs-that-pull-on-the-lead but a small boutique maker of leashes isn't going to be able to spend the millions to push such large-scale comprehensive research to get this front and center in all the vet literature.  

I always look at the studies and research which are not front and center if it is not immediately life threatening because of this.

I'm not claiming certainty here, but I think people should watch out for this, be aware suspicion exists. Highlight if they ever think it caused issue with their dog.

Also related, this vet in particular didn't formally recognize zinc supplementation as an issue to her skin rashes either. They suggested I use some prescription cream.

You do you. You seem to have the answers.

I haven't dealt with it in the dog world. My cousin has it but it wasn't caught fast enough to assist through any kind of diet change. It's better managed, with medication and diet. If you can put her on a properly balanced raw diet (there's a lot to raw feeding so definitely do your research or you can cause a huge amount of damage to your dog), try it for a while then go back in for a checkup and see if it's helping. If it's not helping after about 6 months then I wouldn't put off getting on medication. You don't want to experiment with something so long that you allow domino-effect damage to her.