The canine thyroid is very similar to the human thyroid. It can present itself as many other diseases and health issues. So sometimes pinpointing a dog thyroid problem can be quite difficult unless you know the symptoms and what to look for. Now the thyroid gland has 10 different functions and those are:

• Muscle
• Reproductive
• Skeletal
• Endocrine
• Respiratory
• Digestive
• Nervous
• Circulatory
• Integumentary
• Excretory

If one of these functions is messed up it can cause canine hypothyroid, which just throws the whole system out of whack and makes for an underactive thyroid.

Symptoms:

The different thyroid symptoms in dogs can also be disguises of other serious illnesses that are why thyroid problems are hard to diagnose. As the owner you know your dog the best and how they are on a day to day basis. So if something is off you will be able to tell almost immediately, even little things. Some common symptoms to look out for are:

• Weight gain
• Fearful
• Lethargic
• Aggressive
• Non-coherent
• No exercise
• Skin discoloration
• Weak

Diagnosis:

Hyperthyroidism dogs can be usually hard to spot this is where the responsibility of the care taker comes into to play. Knowing the dog and their personality will be the key in an alarm sounding and getting the dog to the Vet. This disease is hard to diagnose, but there is a canine thyroid test that can be done by your Veterinarian. The labs will test this for 2 forms of the thyroid hormone. After the results are in the lab should be able to tell if there are any problems existing with the thyroid.

Treatment:

The main treatment for this problem is levothyroxine this will give to the animal twice a day. A few months after the medicine is taken every day, the Veterinarian will most likely run the tests again to see how the canine thyroid is doing. Some animals will need to be on this medication for life, while others are able to get off of it when they are better.

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Filed under: Canine Thyroid • canine cushings disease

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