Side Effects of Hypothyroidism
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Dear Dr. Florez,
I live in northern Minnesota and have a 7-year-old altered female lab mix with multiple issues. Spaying occurred at 6-months.
As a young dog, she vomited on a regular basis. We went through multiple brands of dry dog food, including prescription, before finding one (non-prescription) that seemed to agree with her. Also, she drinks only distilled water.
At the same time she has dry skin with excessive shedding as well as continuous licking and scratching. It was thought that this was an allergic reaction to the foods; but even after finding an agreeable brand, the dry skin, etc. issues remain. Furthermore, the skin issues remained despite the winter season killing off all outdoor allergens.
To combat these “allergy” issues, she was placed on daily Prednisone (.5 mg currently). During this time, her T4 was tested and it was found that she had hypothyroidism. She was subsequently placed on Soloxine and after a time, leveled out at .3 mg daily. While on the Prednisone and Soloxine, she would develop “hot spots” occasionally which would subsequently weep and ooze. They looked as if they were untreated poison ivy that had been scratched excessively. One of these resulted in a short “surgery” and antibiotics to clean it up. We have caught the others before they reached this point and have managed to clear them up with out a visit to the vet by washing them a couple of times a day and blotting/spraying them with the product Allercaine.
At the age of 6 1/2 years (in October), she ruptured the ACL in her left rear leg. The emergency vet we took her to said surgery was the best thing for her, but she needed to be off of all meds for one to two weeks prior to surgery. Following his advice, we reduced both the Soloxine and Prednisone over the next four to six weeks. We were able to eliminate the Soloxine entirely, but when trying to do so with the Prednisone, it proved impossible. The best we could do was reducing her to .5 mg daily. Without the Prednisone, she is in misery with the skin issues. To date, she has not had the ACL surgery.
Just this month, her regular vet has checked the T4 again and placed her back on Soloxine. However, we had NO “hot spot” issues while she was off of it. Off of the Soloxine, she also gained weight. Her vet recommends she lose 30 pounds before doing any surgery (she currently weighs in at 90 lbs). I know losing any weight at all will be the best thing for her and we will move her back to a weight-management dog food again. Also, the regular vet says the Soloxine will help with weight loss as weight gain is a symptom of hypothyroidism. Anyway, here are my questions:
– could the Soloxine be causing the “hot spots” to develop? If so, what is an alternative for the thyroid issue?
– she seems to be fine with the ACL issue. No limping, walks normally, will run if she feels like it. (She is not and never has been an ambitious dog. Chasing the rabbits in the yard for about four feet is enough exercise in her mind and always has been enough.) She does not weight bear 100% on the left rear leg. I would say she uses it about 85% to 90% but seems to me to be able to get up and down just fine. Would you recommend the ACL surgery anyway? My concern is her developing an infection post-surgery because of her skin issues and I’d rather have a live broken dog than a dead repaired one.
Any advice you could give me would be truly appreciated. I simply don’t know what would be the best thing for her; and that’s all I want for her…the best.
Thank you in advance for your help.
– Shawn (Daisy’s mommy)
Dear Shawn,
Hypothyroidsm seems to be one issue Soloxine more or less should be at 0.8mg every 12 hours by mouth; however she might be allergic to specific components in the Soloxine pill; also I have seen issues called vasculitis that can occur with any medication.
I also would recommend you to get her off prednisone ASAP due to long term side effects. There are other alternatives for the allergies, which your vet can address with you. If they cannot come up with an alternative to Prednisone, please search for another veterinarian that may offer alternatives. Prednisone is very hard on the liver and long term use should be avoided.
Atopica can be an effective method to control allergies, but before you put her on anything else you need to see a specialist for the skin issues. They can do an allergy test and proceed with the indicated tx at that point.
If she is not limping, I would hold off on the surgery and concentrate on the weight reduction program.
Your first order of business is to see a specialist for the allergies and hypothyroidism. You should also change her diet to help with the weight loss and allergy issues, and a diet change may also help with the hypothyroidism.
Good luck!
Diego Fernando Florez, DVM
