I am not a vet and this is not advice. This is what happens when you love to research, and when vets lie to me. This article expects you to do a bit of research.
Go feel down the front of your dogs neck top to bottom. You will find what feels like a small Adams apple or a lump. Just below that, you will feel the dogs trachea or windpipe. On both sides of the windpipe, there are very important organs – the thyroid and parathyroid glands.
From Google. These are very important control organs.
Parathyroid glands produce parathyroid hormone, which plays a key role in the regulation of calcium levels in the blood.
Thyroid glands produce hormones that play a key role in regulating blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, metabolism and the reaction of the body to other hormones.
There are many things that can cause hypothyroidism – and one big side effect of a hypo condition is unexplained allergies. Dealt with this twice in my life. In facebook groups, how many dogs today have unexplained allergies – and the dog is on a treadmill of drugs, food trials, topicals etc – and what does all that cost? How can a hypo or hyper condition occur? And this is not a complete list.
– Physical damage from a prong, slip or e-collar or even accidental. Bark collars, search google image – what’s the placement? There is a reason why you are being told to put the ecollar on the side of the neck. Cause shock can damage it. It’s the skin and meat that is closing the circuit – and it can hurt.
– Spay and neuter – especially at a young age – where do I start?
– lots of treats – dried liver is packed in iron but I’m watching trainers and owner shovel it into a dogs mouth. Look up hemochromatosis and hypervitaminosis and the side effects of both. Liver is the powerhouse of vitamins and minerals in raw feeding.
– Dog food. Look that one up.
My ex’s Miniature Pinscher was neutered at 6 months of age. I met him at 1 year of age and he looked like he was eaten by a pack of moths. Many vet visits, many trials, many tribulations – and many $$$$. She spent thousands over the course of that dogs life. It took me a while to realize he was hypo – cause I didn’t know what I know now. I started keeping a diary of symptoms. Then I realized his facial expressions where actually called tragic expression. This dog was ripping himself to shreds, near constant ear infections, and the poor dog was missing 1/4 of his fur.
I started questioning his vet on hypothyroidism. Not possible. When he started showing aggression at the dog parks, that’s when I knew he was hypothyroid.
Took him to the vet for a thyroid test. Vet argued that hypothyroidism is overdiagnosed. No need to do it. Off to another vet, same. I got frustrated to the point that I got some actual synthroid from a friend who’s hypothyroid and I started dosing him. Back to the original vet and finally got him to pull a senior panel with T4 – and he was on synthroid already. Test came back borderline low still. Vet said it’s normal – here’s some prednisone. I didn’t bother telling him he was already on synthroid but I walked out in disgust.
Prednisone is a steroid that many vets give out like candy. Prednisone suppresses thyroid function further – so if your dog is indeed hypo and is on prednisone? Have you seen things get worse cause it’s going to suppress the thyroid further?
That was the first time I ever entered the office of a holistic vet. I gave her the diary prior to the appointment, she agreed that blood tests were necessary. The full panel came back and that dogs endocrine system was a mess. And she verified what I already knew, that had I given Jagger the doses of prednisone the vet recommended? It likely would have killed him.
Yeah, I no love or trust for vets anymore.