Nico getting thyroid panel done/allergy question

[Nicos mom]

Thanks once more! We have no way of knowing if the meds are doing anything for him. At the very beginning, I would say yes they did. We decided to wean him down, with vet's OK, and for a couple weeks he seemed great. Then the itching started all over again. My husband thinks he seems depressed, too, but I think it's just that he doesn't feel good. He's got a raw strip on his chin, and his chest has a bit of rawness as well. This is the first time since we've had him home that it's gone this far. I wish I had a handle on how much of this itching we should accept, and when it's gone too far. Like a benchmark! Maybe he is better than a lot of dogs with allergies and we just have no way to compare. There isn't much we wouldn't do for a pet, but the financial side of this is wearing us a little thin as well as the emotional side of not knowing what the true cause is and how to fix it or help. I hate just throwing steroids down his throat and saying this is as good as it gets, you know?

And honestly we are still confounded by the lipase number and not sure what to do about that. Geez. Thanks for listening!

 

[Cami]

I feel your pain! I have so totally been down the same path. It will eventually get easier once you get a handle on things (concrete answers).

 

[Nicos mom]

We are extremely interested to see how he does this winter, when there should be fewer allergens out there to deal with.

 

[boxermom5]

Tenaia is on Soloxine for her thyroid and doing well, though I did switch vets when ours seemed to change as he got considerably older (the vet, not the dog). He had increased her meds by nearly 2.5 times what she was taking, based on one low reading, and the result was a dramatic loss of weight (nearly 15 pounds). Changed vet, who immediately lowered her dose to a more appropriate amount, and after a few weeks the weight started to come back, as did her strength and attitude - she is 12.5 years old and doing well.

She also is allergic to many things, including fish, and since the thyroid question was pretty well covered by others, I thought I would address the food question you had. I have found that nearly every food product on the market has some form of fish/salmon in it, whether it be oils, meals, or whatnot. I spent hours going from store to store physically reading the labels of each and every bag of dog food I could find, as it seems you dont get the full list of ingredients otherwise. Unfortunately for you, your baby is allergic to venison, as the Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Venison formula is grain free and fish/salmon free. I mix this with Canidae Chicken and Rice formula, which is also fish/salmon free. Sunflower and flax oils replace the fish for the omega 3's, and both these are also free of the other not-so-great stuff like beet pulp and other fillers.

Those two products seem to be the only products in those lines that do not have fish/salmon in them however, so be sure you thoroughly read labels before you pick anything different. Of course, home cooking always results in knowing exactly what you are putting in their food dish, but some of us simply dont have the extra time to do that.

 

[Nicos mom]

Thank you so much for the input on the food question. This forum really is the greatest. I hope someday I can be of help, rather than just asking questions!

 

[Nicos mom]

Soloxine dosage?

On the thyroid meds, I want to email the vet and see if she will try the soloxine, but if she feels that he doesn't need it but is willing to try, she may not be certain how to dose it. (Since she doesn't think it's warranted) What would be a reasonable dosage to suggest?

I wanted to add on the food, that sadly Nico is allergic to white potatoes and a lot of the grain free foods have white potatoes and white potato starch in them, so that rules those out as well. He did not test allergic to salmon, so the raw lamb patties he gets have salmon oil in them. The kibble we mix it with is Avoderm Lamb and Brown Rice formula. It's not a top tier food, but it seems to keep his poops normal and has no allergens in it that we know of. We tried a grain free limited ingredient lamb formula from Nature's Variety (a new and VERY pricey formula) mixed with the raw lamb from the same company. His poops became hard and golfball sized, and my husband feared he was getting constipated so we went back to the Avoderm. Thoughts on that? Ah wellll...... Thanks again, all.

 

[boxermom5]

I just checked the label of the Canidae Chicken & Rice formula, and there are no potatoes of any kind in any form in this particular one. However, there are peas, which are the 5th ingredient on the list, so that puts you back to the question of just how sensitive is he to peas. As someone mentioned earlier, perhaps the sensitivity level is extremely low, and a small amount may not trigger an allergic response.

Since you dont have issues with salmon you may have more options. Perhaps a trip to the pet store (Pet Food Express carries a wide variety of better quality foods, and they have a really good selection of each brand to choose from, so it is a great starting point to save on running around if you have one in your area) for some label examination would give you some additional options. Keep in mind that just because one product in a brand contains certain ingredients does not mean all of the products from the same brand do. As I said, the only Canidae dry food with no fish or salmon is the chicken & rice formula, and the only Natural balance products without those are the sweet potato & venison and their vegetarian fomula. We mix the three foods in a ratio that keeps everyones stools normal, as a couple of the pack find just the Canidae alone too rich and end up with really loose stools, but we didn't want to give up a better food choice because of it. It's all about finding the best you can that works for your dog(s), and sometimes that means you land a little lower on the quality scale than you might like.

A note on the Soloxine: as with any medication to control a condition, dosing depends on the severity of the problem as well as the individual receiving it, and there is a period of adjustment to find the right dosage to level out the condition. In Tenaia's case, when she was initially diagnosed she was put on 0.8mg once a day and was retested at 30 days to see where her levels were. I was told this was a normal starting point, & though I don't know how true that is, it was the dosage that worked for her situation. She is 12.5 years old now, and her levels changed as she aged, so she is now taking 1.2mg per day, which I split into one pill in the morning and 1/2 a pill at night so she has more of a constant level throughout the day rather than a spike and a dip, as she seemed to get shakey in the evening when she was dosed only in the morning. We also give the meds with a "snack" (about 1/3 of her normal meal) in the morning so that she has some food in her tummy (she is on Rimadyl as well for her arthritis) and so I don't have to cram pills down her throat - I hate doing that & she is really good at eating meds in her food.

I hope that is helpful. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Nicos mom]

Very helpful. Thank you. I have sent an email requesting this for Nico. Hope she agrees to give it a go. Will keep you posted! (When you retest, though.... do you have to pay the whole amount yet again? Yikes the costs are adding up....)

 

[jsluvmypets]

Re: food allergies

I have a friend from the dog park whose dog has all those allergies (beef, white potatoes, etc). We were just talking about it last week because I asked what he eats and he said Natural Balance has a LID legume & duck meal dry food that seems to be working for him. My dog eats this brand, and we both were saying how great their food is for allergic dogs. I’d totally recommend trying this line as it works for a lot of dogs. If you wanted to stick with chicken I think they have one with sweet potato if he can eat that. In any case, I hope Nico feels better!

 

[Cami]

Thyroid meds are dosed at 0.1mg per 10 pounds of body weight, twice per day.
Say you have a 50 pound dog. You could give 0.5mgs twice a day however.....you can often achieve results with a lower dose (consider this option).
Cami was 60-62 pounds and dosing was started out at 0.2mgs twice a day or the amount for a 20 pound dog. We saw results in 24 hours for her panicky behavior. Testing 6 weeks later showed her numbers had increased but not enough so her dose was increased to 0.3mgs where she stayed for the remainder of her life.
In essence she was dosed at 1/2 the amount she could have been given but it worked for her.
I followed the dosing instructions to a T to achieve the best results with the lowest amount of meds. This makes a HUGE difference.
It should be given twice per day. Some vets will only offer it once per day and it can work but that would be more so for a maintenance dose after desired results are achieved.
It should NOT be given with FOOD (a meal) but can given with some peanut butter or a small biscuit but not a lot of food and never with a meal and if I remember right it shouldn't be given with calcium (someone correct me if I am wrong). Calcium (or whatever "thing" can take away some of the effectiveness of the thyroid medication).
It should be given 12 hours apart and 1 hour before or 3 hours after a meal.
It is a hard schedule to maintain considering most of us feed out Boxers twice a day when it is convenient for our schedules. I was giving the medication at 11am and 11pm but my schedule allowed this (some people's won't). 11am was 3 hours after her breakfast and 11pm was 12 hours later and plenty long enough after dinner.
To ensure the most from the meds it is best to follow these guidelines but it isn't always possible for everyone to do. Sometimes you have to give it with a meal or you can't make the timing fit into your schedule.
These guidelines allow for the lowest dose and it is always easier to increase the dose to achieve the results are you looking for than it would be to lower the dose to off-set symptoms created by a higher dose.
This medication speeds up their metabolism. Speeding that up can have bad results. It can make heart issues worse, cancers grow faster, etc....
The lowest dose possible is always the best thing to shoot for.
You also MUST request the brand name Soloxine. There are other "generic" versions available but they don't offer as good of a result as the name brand. In human medicine this is one of the things that docs will always (or most will) request on the script as DAW or (dispense as written) and not a generic version.
Thyroid meds are fairly inexpensive as well so going brand name won't affect your wallet too much!

Since it is based on weight you have to make sure you know what your dog weighs at any given time. So many incidences of a dog being overweight and then starting the meds at a certain dose only to lose weight and then be getting too much of the medication. It is important to monitor their weight while on thyroid meds.

A post pill test to check the numbers after starting the meds is usually less expensive. Most vets will only run the in-house t4 (unless you request otherwise). Also when you do this make sure to ask them WHEN you need to have the medication IN before the blood is drawn. The timing of the meds that day will be important. They usually want to test their blood within 3-4 hours after giving the meds.