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my 7 year old sheltie started to lose hair on the top of her nose. her coat and tail thinned. her skin was flakey. she put on a few pounds with the same food and quantity. she was slightly less happy and energetic, a few nervous tics appeared. I noticed the changes but attributed all of them to age. all these changes were very, very subtle.
Yesterday, I happened to see a photo of my dog 6 months ago. her physical appearance had noticeably changed.
we made an appointment with the vet immediately after I saw that photo. a blood test revealed she was severely hypothyroid....her thyroid was barely functioning. our vet had seen her a few months ago for her annual check up. He ran standard blood tests, thyroid function tests aren't standard, because she is a senior and all came back normal. the diagnosis was missed at that time. she was put on a diet because of her weight gain.
anyway, she is now taking an inexpensive, daily pill to correct her low thyroid function and her life should drastically improve in just a few weeks.
just a heads up to dog owners. hypothyroidism is not uncommon. this disease can cause very, very subtle changes over time which are easy to miss. vets don't check for it regularly in annual exams. If your dog seems 'off', consider asking your vet to check for it. especially for middle aged dogs. I wish I had been educated and observant enough to recognize these subtle symptoms earlier, but at least I found out yesterday!
Thank you for your informative post. Hopefully, it will help others to recognize these symptoms enough to take their dog to a vet.
thanks, gouligann. I hope my learning curve and post triggers recognition in one owner who will get help for their suffering companion. my vet said 1 in 100 to 150 dogs develop hypothyroidism. and that is the ones who are lucky enough to get diagnosed and treated. hypothyroidism is common in dogs! I've owned 9 dogs in my life and this is my first dog with this disease.
Bless you dog owners who DO take your furbaby to the vet. Too many owners fail to do this. I talked to one lady just yesterday whose dog has UTI symptoms--she's giving the dog asprin for it. (thank goodness she wasn't giving the dog Tylenol!! as ibuprofen is highly toxic to dogs). I urged her to take her dog to the vet and bring a urine sample if possible.
There is a great Hypothyroid Dogs Facebook group. I joined when one of my fosters returned and I suspected hypothyroidism but he was tested and is okay. I’m still watching but his energy improved when I switched him to raw.
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