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Hi, i'm new here, here's my story, about a year ago my Shar Pei had a complete senior blood test done and everything was normal except her T4 level was borderline low, and her free T4 was normal but also a bit low. He said we could start her on thyroxine but said since she was still in normal range and he would recommend waiting and doing another T4 test down the road.
Through 2005 I noticed she had hypothyroid like symptoms that got worse towards the end of the year. Symptoms included dry/dull coat, joint inflammation, pigmentation, lethargy, hair on her rear back fell out easily, odd smelling skin, and slight balance problems. I wasn't sure if this was old age or her thyroid.
She had an episode on the morning of December 24th 2005, she had head tilt on her left side, loss of balance and rolled on the floor. She went to the Vet that morning, we did a complete senior blood test, this time the T4 level came back below normal. What was odd is even though our vet mentioned putting her on thyroxine supplements a year earlier he didn't mention it this time, even though her T4 level had dropped and the clinical symptoms increased. Instead he recommended getting her looked at by a specialist and possibly doing a total ear ablation or a zep procedure(lateral ear resection). He suspected middle or inner ear infection although her canal was fine except for a small polyp. He gave her Prednisolone(six day supply) and the head tilt and balance problem went away....... temporarily. As soon as she was off the Pred she went downhill again. We placed her on Prednisolone two more times, same thing, while she was on it the head tilt and balance problems went away, when she came off the problems came back.
From reading up on hypothyroidism I know that it can cause vestibular disease, and not wanting to take my dogs ear canal out as the first step, a risky surgery that does not guarantee anything, we brought her to another vet.
I showed him the blood work from the first vets office and he didn't seem overally concerned about the low T4 level even though she was displaying about seven symptoms of a low thyroid which got worse over the last year along with her T4 level dropping. He wanted to test for allegies which he said weren't overally accurate in some cases. Instead he took an ear culture which came back fine, no infection. He agreed to start her on a trial of thyroxine 0.5mg, two a day twelve hours apart for the low T4.
She started the thyroxine last Friday 1/20 and by Sunday her coat was already looking better, and her joint swelling had went down a bit. Now she still has the head tilt and balance problems but they seem to be getting slightly better each day, although at times during the day she has a rough time.
Finally I would like to see if anybody here has had a dog with vestibular disease that was caused by a low thyroid and how long recovery took after being treated for low thyroid. I'm supecting she kept having relapses when she was on the Pred(before the thyroid medication was started) because her thyroid was the culprit and the Preds were only treating the symptoms and not the problem. From what I have read, which is alot, is that some cases of vestibular disease can last up to two months, especially if due to a low thyroid, some last 2-3 weeks. Also she doesn't have the rapid eye movement that is sometimes associated with vestibular disease but I was told by a specialist in Califonia, Dr. Jeann Dodds, that rapid eye movement doesn't always happen with Vestibular disease. She does have the head swaying, head tilt and balance problems as mentioned earlier in my post.
Any information or ideas on this would be great. I apologize for the verbose post but I wanted to include as much as I could.
Thank you.
Through 2005 I noticed she had hypothyroid like symptoms that got worse towards the end of the year. Symptoms included dry/dull coat, joint inflammation, pigmentation, lethargy, hair on her rear back fell out easily, odd smelling skin, and slight balance problems. I wasn't sure if this was old age or her thyroid.
She had an episode on the morning of December 24th 2005, she had head tilt on her left side, loss of balance and rolled on the floor. She went to the Vet that morning, we did a complete senior blood test, this time the T4 level came back below normal. What was odd is even though our vet mentioned putting her on thyroxine supplements a year earlier he didn't mention it this time, even though her T4 level had dropped and the clinical symptoms increased. Instead he recommended getting her looked at by a specialist and possibly doing a total ear ablation or a zep procedure(lateral ear resection). He suspected middle or inner ear infection although her canal was fine except for a small polyp. He gave her Prednisolone(six day supply) and the head tilt and balance problem went away....... temporarily. As soon as she was off the Pred she went downhill again. We placed her on Prednisolone two more times, same thing, while she was on it the head tilt and balance problems went away, when she came off the problems came back.
From reading up on hypothyroidism I know that it can cause vestibular disease, and not wanting to take my dogs ear canal out as the first step, a risky surgery that does not guarantee anything, we brought her to another vet.
I showed him the blood work from the first vets office and he didn't seem overally concerned about the low T4 level even though she was displaying about seven symptoms of a low thyroid which got worse over the last year along with her T4 level dropping. He wanted to test for allegies which he said weren't overally accurate in some cases. Instead he took an ear culture which came back fine, no infection. He agreed to start her on a trial of thyroxine 0.5mg, two a day twelve hours apart for the low T4.
She started the thyroxine last Friday 1/20 and by Sunday her coat was already looking better, and her joint swelling had went down a bit. Now she still has the head tilt and balance problems but they seem to be getting slightly better each day, although at times during the day she has a rough time.
Finally I would like to see if anybody here has had a dog with vestibular disease that was caused by a low thyroid and how long recovery took after being treated for low thyroid. I'm supecting she kept having relapses when she was on the Pred(before the thyroid medication was started) because her thyroid was the culprit and the Preds were only treating the symptoms and not the problem. From what I have read, which is alot, is that some cases of vestibular disease can last up to two months, especially if due to a low thyroid, some last 2-3 weeks. Also she doesn't have the rapid eye movement that is sometimes associated with vestibular disease but I was told by a specialist in Califonia, Dr. Jeann Dodds, that rapid eye movement doesn't always happen with Vestibular disease. She does have the head swaying, head tilt and balance problems as mentioned earlier in my post.
Any information or ideas on this would be great. I apologize for the verbose post but I wanted to include as much as I could.
Thank you.