Still Loosing Undercoat!?!

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SKNerissa

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So Riley's winter jacket somehow ended up lower than it should have been and got peed on this afternoon (don't ask me how - it's the first time in 3 years). I didn't feel up to giving him a bath so I just stood him over a basin and cleaned the wet part. Afterwards I went through his coat with a rake just because it happened to be handy and a fair amount of undercoat came out! It came to about 3 fist size tumbleweeds of fluff. I used the rake about a month ago without getting much and we have been having really cold weather. Could this be a sign of a hypothyroidism? He has other subtle signs (prone to being cold, gains weight easily and allergies) and the vet suggested we could do a thyroid pannel but that it wasn't urgent as there were no major red flags. He said if Riley started loosing a lot of his coat then we would want to do it sooner. Riley's not bald by any means and I wouldn't think much of it except... it's the middle of winter! :confused:
 
Some of my dogs are shedding too. They don't seem to blow coats on what I think of as seasonal schedules; it's winter here too! But since you've seen some other signs of a potential thyroid issue I would have the panel done. Be aware that the readings for Shelties are atypical from what most vets consider normal. This site has the best information on Sheltie thyroid that I've seen. I printed it out and took it to my vet, just in case, and they found it helpful.
http://www.illinoissheltierescue.com/thyroid.html
 
Also need to remember that although it's cold, he's probably spending most of his time indoors with the heater on, so it can confuse the brain whether it should be growing or shedding winter coat.
 
Ann said:
Some of my dogs are shedding too. They don't seem to blow coats on what I think of as seasonal schedules; it's winter here too! But since you've seen some other signs of a potential thyroid issue I would have the panel done. Be aware that the readings for Shelties are atypical from what most vets consider normal. This site has the best information on Sheltie thyroid that I've seen. I printed it out and took it to my vet, just in case, and they found it helpful.
http://www.illinoissheltierescue.com/thyroid.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info. It's very interesting as one doctor I saw had a theory that some groups of people also run high and that low normal T4 with symptoms including an unexplained increase in allergies are reason enough to prescribe a low dose of synthroid. Many of my doctors disagreed until my thyroid was removed because of a cancerous nodule - the pathologist reported back that there were obviouse signs of thyroiditis in addition to the cancer - meaning the doctor was right that my thyroid wasn't producing adequate amounts hormones despite the normal blood tests. So I find it very interesting that certain breeds of dogs can have different requirements than others. I will be sure to bring this info to our vet and if he questions it perhaps I will refer him to my allergist who can explain how adding a low dose of sythroid improves allergies in some people. I am willing to bet the same principles apply to dogs as allergies and skin issues are an even more common symptom for dogs.
 
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Ann said:
But since you've seen some other signs of a potential thyroid issue I would have the panel done. Be aware that the readings for Shelties are atypical from what most vets consider normal. This site has the best information on Sheltie thyroid that I've seen. I printed it out and took it to my vet, just in case, and they found it helpful.
http://www.illinoissheltierescue.com/thyroid.html
Click to expand...
We got Riley's results today. I think everything looks okay except the Thyroglobulin Autoantibodies came back at 21% which apparently is unclear so retesting is recommended in 6 months. Here is a link to a copy of the results: https://goo.gl/photos/DEiLDbNMfikvfw4o9
 
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