Hyperthyroidism in Dogs

Are you familiar with hyperthyroidism in dogs? Do you want to know if your dog is sufferings from it?

When you say hyperthyroidism in dogs, there is something wrong with your dog's health, specifically their endocrine system. The system overproduces hormone thyroxin (growth hormone) that causes their thyroids to swell and enlarge. This enlargement is often referred to as functional thyroid edematous hyperplasia.

As this is a rare case in dogs, hyperthyroidism in dogs symptoms are hard to distinguish and is tagged as a slow progressive disease and it is not a benign condition like many believed. Since very few dogs are diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, the underlying cause of the thyroid enlargement is unknown but may be due to the combined effects of several factors circulating in the blood.

Hyperthyroidism in Dogs Symptoms
The following are the basic signs and symptoms of a dog suffering from hyperthyroidism:

• Increased Heart Rate
  
• Weight Loss
• Nervousness
• Increase Appetite
• Frequent Urination
• Frequent Water Intake
• Heavy Breathing
• Unexplainable Fatigue
• Hyperactivity
  

If your dog has one of the symptoms indicated above, you need to bring your dog to your trusted vet so he can immediately start the physical examination of your dog health. To be more effective, a blood sample is required. You know, unexpected results occur all the time. Sometimes, the condition of the thyroid hormones will remain normal during the check up, sometimes it's not.The best solution to this variation is a follow up check-up as directed by your vet.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Most cases, your dogs are diagnosed using a blood test procedure known as T4 and Free T4. The former yields unreliable results due to cheap quality of the instrument but the latter is said to be better but expensive on the part of the owner. If your dog is under presciption, blood test are usually given in an interval to monitor the changes in the hormonal level of the dog.

Hyperthyroidism in dogs is is curable. Your vet may only prescribed medications to stabilize the production of thyroid hormones. However, when it's not detected early, another option you need to consider is surgery.

However before giving in to surgery, it's better to ask your vet about the complications. There are times when one of thyroid glands are removed, it will results to a condition which is commonly called as hypothyroidism. This is a condition wherein there are only little production of thyroid hormones and will be discussed on a separate post.