Moby - Hyperthyroidism

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Allysse

Post   » Sat May 21, 2005 1:03 pm


I noticed Moby was losing weight so I brought him to the vet on 5/10/05.

The signs I noticed at this time were weight loss and excessive drinking. He was eating well, his stools were fine.

She ruled out stones and anything else we would have picked up on an x-ray. She did bloodwork and ruled out diabetes. One thing she did note was his digestive tract was unusually full. So we put him on Reglan.

I didn't feel there was much improvement, so I did more research. In my research I found that Moby had every sign of hyperthyroidism. It became apparent to me that he had weight loss, excessive drinking, frenetic movement, huge appetite, and had recently started getting clear eye discharge.

I brought him back to the vet on 5/19/05. I talked to her before I brought him in and explained what I thought it might be. She did some research and told me that there had been only one recorded case for hypothyroidism according to VIN.

They drew blood (this time under anesthesia, from the jubular vein) to check both T-4 levels and kidney issues. I brought another pig in as a control, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful in drawing blood from him. My vet said she had some info on normal ranges of T-4 in guinea pigs and that it would be fine.

Kidney and gluclose levels were also checked and are normal.

Moby did go up slightly in weight from 5/10 - 5/19, but I believe this was due to my feeding of tons of dandelions and other treats :)

5/21 got a call from the vet. Hyperthyroid level is 3.29. According to all the research here that is a level that does indicate hyperthyroidism.

However my vet was reluctant to diagnose that because VIN says the levels report 5 and over. Also noted was that hyperthyroid pigs have a lump in their neck near/on the thyroid. Her advice was that this was probably early in the stage and if it is hyperthyroidism it will develop later.

I'm not waiting for a lump to develop in my guinea pig's neck damnit.
I have a vet appointment with a veterinarian who has dealt with pigs that have been assumed hyperthyroid- but I don't know how much use this is.

Options: Spend $100 to do tests on other pigs and compare levels.
Go to the vet who has this experience (transfer documents and more $$$)
Have my vet call the vet who has dealt with this

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat May 21, 2005 2:07 pm


Did she discuss what the treatment options were for a pig with hyperthyroidism?

User avatar
Allysse

Post   » Sat May 21, 2005 2:36 pm


I talked to my vet again. We're going to go ahead and do a one month trial of Tapazole. It's a 5 mg tablet and we're going to start with 1/4 of the tablet daily (crushed and syringed orally).

Hopefully we'll see some improvement!

User avatar
melcvt00

Post   » Sat May 21, 2005 6:16 pm


I'm not sure if this has ever been mentioned before, but treating hyperthyroidism (at least in cats) can lead to the appearance of kidney disease.

Treating it doesn't CAUSE the kidney disease. The disease was always there, but the higher blood pressure caused by the hyperthyroidism kept pushing more blood through the kidneys to help keep values down.

So, keep an eye on those kidneys once the thyroid is under control.

pinta

Post   » Sun May 22, 2005 5:34 am


There's only one recorded case because most people don't bother to really investigate all the possibilities when their pig is ill. And how many vets actually record on public record cases of anything?

A few years ago it wasn't believed heart disease was common in pigs. Not long ago there were no recorded case of Cushings Disease in pigs because no one bothered to do the diagnostics and ovarian cysts were assumed. As I understand it, my pig was the first definitively diagnosed case of Cushings Disease in pigs(my vet could find no other cases when researching), which has opened the door to Cushings Disease being a possibility when certain symptoms present. As more pig owners push their vets to diagnose and treat their pigs, more information will come to light.

Hopefully, the Tapazole will make a difference for your pig.

User avatar
Allysse

Post   » Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:13 pm


I immediately saw a difference in Moby. A few days after he was on the tapazole I could feel that he was heavier.

But after a while I started to get worried because his spine and hip area did not seem to be putting on any weight, and still hasn't.

He has an appointment Thursday and we're going to check his level again.

Do you think an increase of Tapazole would be a good idea?

dtrusk

Post   » Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:05 pm


How absolutely frustrating! My heart goes out to you.

My opinion is to be patient with increasing tapezole...as hard as that may be. This is a strong drug affecting all the systems in the body, so a little caution is recommended. Did your vet run a whole thyroid panel? TSH and T3 too?

Did your vet do an xray of the thyroid? I know it is sometimes hard to see clearly on a small animal, but I would want to rule out any abnormality that can be seen since an increased production of thyroxin is often a sign of malformation or small growths on the thyroid nodules.

Another problem with hyperthyroidism is that if you artifically repress the thyroid with drugs, it tends to swing the other way and stop thyroxin production altogether and you end up with the other extreme -- hypothyroidism. This is another reason to go slow with the amount of any thyroid medication administered.

The frustrating thing is that any good vet will keep drawing blood to check TSH, T4, and T3 levels before increasing a dosage. And we all know how hard it is to get enough blood to run any bloodwork on a cavy. How exausting for you, Moby, and the vet! Hang in there!

pinta

Post   » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:13 pm


Tapazole can't be given to pigs with kidney problems.

The problems with running blood panels is getting enough blood and the fact that there are no pig norms available for stuff like TSH, T4, and T3 levels. We just guess and extrapolate from cats. You can compare to a healthy pig but samples from one or two pigs aren't enough to really give any reliable information.

Fanny just went on Tapazole because of weird uncharacteristic frenetic activity and unexplained weight loss - gained 3 ounces in about as many days. We dropped the dose to 1.25mg daily from 2.5.mg and are monitoring.

User avatar
Allysse

Post   » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:27 am


The pills are like pin sized. When cutting them it's very difficult to get an even amount. One will be fairly large and another will be smaller. It just feels so innacurate.

Vicki recommended crushing the whole thing, mixing with water or ora-sweet and then giving him a quarter at a time- but I don't feel this is accurate enough either as parts of the already small tablet get lost in the crusher or the mixing bowl or the syringe.

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melcvt00

Post   » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:38 am


Compounding pharmacies can make the methimazole (generic version) into a gel that goes on the inside of the ear flap. It can be made to any dose/strength that you want.

It would be wise to check a whole thyroid profile instead of just a T4 level. Looking for things like the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) being high with the T4 level being normal would indicate the need for a medication change.

I would NOT change the dose without bloodwork first.

pinta

Post   » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:12 am


Mel - since there aren't normals established for pigs, the bloodwork won't tell you much - just what the thyroid is doing if the pig was a cat or a dog.

We have our tapazole compounded into an oral liquid by a compounding pharmacy in Toronto.

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Allysse

Post   » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:03 pm


We did bloodwork again. Will get the results tomorrow.

He has gained weight from his last vet visit.

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