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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Thyroid issues in AIHA/IMHA dogs
| I have seen a few people on here mention that they are getting thyroid testing done and I think that is great. In the many many years that I have been doing this I have seen lots and lots of AIHA/IMHA dogs that have had either hypothyroidism or low thyroid function either before or after their AIHA/IMHA diagnosis. This included my own Meisha. When she was not responding as we had hoped she would, my vet had her thyroid tested and that testing indicated low thyroid function. We put her on thyroid meds and feel it really helped her AIHA recovery. The Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine says and I quote: “The association of IMHA with other immune disorders, including hypothyroidism and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (ITP), lends support to the hypothesis of a general immune disturbance.” End of quote So it may be that many AIHA/IMHA dogs do have an immune disturbance that is causing more then one problem. My Margo (Meisha’s canine sister, no actual blood relation) had hypothyroidism so bad (No AIHA), some of her numbers were so low they could not even be measured. But once she got on the thyroid meds she became a different dog. Now my Maddie has low thyroid function and she is on thyroid meds as well. I think thyroid problems in dogs are a lot more common then we ever could imagine. I see that some of you are sending your thyroid testing to Dr. Dodds and since I have never used her for thyroid testing I cannot comment on what she does. I have had all my dogs thyroid testing done at MSU (Michigan State University). Many believe that MSU is the gold standard for thyroid testing. I have been very pleased with the results I have gotten there. At MSU they do a complete thyroid panel which includes testing for: Total Thyroxine (TT4) Total Triiodothyronine (TT3) Free T4 by dialysis Free Triiodothyronine (FT3) T4 Autoantibody T3 Autoantibody THS (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) Thyroglobulin Autoantibody If testing indicates thyroid meds are needed, one needs to repeat the testing in two months to see if the proper amount of medication is being given. After that testing needs to be done on a yearly basis. I truly believe that every dog diagnosed with AIHA/IMHA should have thyroid testing done at some point but few vets seem to do it. Actually I believe that it would be good for EVERY dog to have thyroid testing done from time to time. When we adopted Maddie, I ran a series of tests on her a few days after I adopted her including thyroid testing. Thanks to that I had a baseline on her so I had something to compare the testing we did on her when we noticed she had a problem. |
| Joanne MN |
| yea, dr. dodds has made sure sway is taking SOLOXINE twice per day since way back in september 07... due to exactly that reason, helping with potential thyroid issues that may develop |
| josh california |
| Joanne -- thanks for posting. I do believe my dear beagle, Wiley, had "a general immune disturbance" given that she developed hypothyroidism in spring 2003, Addison's Disease in spring 2004, and was then hit with IMHA in spring 2005. But what caused it? She had chronic UTI infections. I will always wonder about the vaccintions "angle" and if all of those meds injected into her each year caused her immune system to go out of whack. And I'm especially thinking of the Lyme disease shots. A specialist on Lyme in humans says that vaccinations are not used on humans precisely because of concerns how the human physiology would react to Lyme. He says that the immune system becomes quite stressed from Lyme, and the preoccuption with fighting Lyme weakens the immune system's ability to fight other challenges. I'll never know. But in the case of my dear Wiley, a "general immune disturbance" is an understatement. |
| Brenda VA |
| Ginger also has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and is on solixine this diagnosis was made about a year before being diagnosed with the AIHA. |
| Cheryl and Ginger Pineville PA |
This thread was discussed between 22/02/2008 and 23/02/2008
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