Anyone want to play"what's wrong with my dog?"

fankino04

fankino04

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I have a 12year old (next month) female (spayed) malamutes. This winter I thought she was drinking a bit more than normal (I often think this in the winter and attribute it to the house being warmer due to doors closed and heating on), appears hungrier than normal (she has always loved her grub so tricky to tell but she has started eating paper and card if she can get to it which she didn't do before and she's shouting for food earlier than normal), seems to always be too warm (I'm assuming this based on the fact that she wants the back door open all the time even though she doesn't want to go out), in every other way she is totally her usual self. These things were niggling at me even though she is happy in herself so took her to the vet for "senior dog mot", no odd lumps or bumps, healthy, gums, heart, chest and temperature all fine, she has lost a significant amount of weight (she was overweight) and the blood test showed her ALP at 958 (normal apparently is up to 150). Vets first thought was Cushing's so took her back for her ATCH (?) test which was inconclusive so either it's not that or it's too early in the early stages to give a positive response. She is now booked in for a liver ultrasound on Friday.
Anyone have any suggestions what might be going on, personally I think it's hormonal that it's effecting her thirst, hunger and she seems to be overheating???
 
Clodagh said:
Can dogs get thyroid problems? Becuase I have many of the same symptoms. :)
Or is Cushings thyroid related?
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Yep, thyroid problems are apparently quite common in malamutes but weight loss would mean an over active thyroid and that would make her more energetic and hyper so vets don't think it's that but will raise it again when I drop her off on Friday.
 
fankino04 said:
Yep, thyroid problems are apparently quite common in malamutes but weight loss would mean an over active thyroid and that would make her more energetic and hyper so vets don't think it's that but will raise it again when I drop her off on Friday.
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My friend (human) had almost exactly the opposite symptoms to those expected when she was eventually diagnosed with an underactive thyroid.

The other thing I would suspect is kidney problems if she is drinking a lot. I would have expected the vet to do blood tests for kidneys, liver, thyroid, as the bare minimum at the first vet visit.
 
fankino04 said:
Yep, thyroid problems are apparently quite common in malamutes but weight loss would mean an over active thyroid and that would make her more energetic and hyper so vets don't think it's that but will raise it again when I drop her off on Friday.
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Hypothyroidism in dog (under active thyroid). Symptoms for my dog were lethargy, exercise intolerance, weight gain, hair loss - generalised coat thinning but particularly the tail.
 
skinnydipper said:
Hypothyroidism in dog (under active thyroid). Symptoms for my dog were lethargy, exercise intolerance, weight gain, hair loss - generalised coat thinning but particularly the tail.
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Our first malamute had that, so if it's thyroid I would have thought it would be hyperthyroidism due to weight loss but nothing in her character has changed and tehya was significantly different to her usual self both when she was suffering from it and when on medication which was initially too high for her and therefore essentially turning her from hypo to hyper.
 
fankino04 said:
Our first malamute had that, so if it's thyroid I would have thought it would be hyperthyroidism due to weight loss but nothing in her character has changed and tehya was significantly different to her usual self both when she was suffering from it and when on medication which was initially too high for her and therefore essentially turning her from hypo to hyper.
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I hope you get it sorted, F. They can be such a worry to us.
 
fankino04 said:
Our first malamute had that, so if it's thyroid I would have thought it would be hyperthyroidism due to weight loss but nothing in her character has changed and tehya was significantly different to her usual self both when she was suffering from it and when on medication which was initially too high for her and therefore essentially turning her from hypo to hyper.
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A simple pee test will gage where her blood sugar levels are at and whether they’re normal or too high, if diabetes is suspected.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
My friend (human) had almost exactly the opposite symptoms to those expected when she was eventually diagnosed with an underactive thyroid.

The other thing I would suspect is kidney problems if she is drinking a lot. I would have expected the vet to do blood tests for kidneys, liver, thyroid, as the bare minimum at the first vet visit.
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She had blood tests at her first visit which only showed ALP issues but I don't know enough about reading blood tests to know what was included. I've attached a copy of her results if anyone more knowledgeable wants to tell me what perhaps should have been tested for that wasn't...Screenshot_20200219_184910_com.android.chrome.jpg
 
fiestiemaestie said:
Do a low dose dex test. You can have equivocal results on acth stim tests that come back positive on low dose dex. With the results you report that is what I would suggest!
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Hi, thanks for the reply, I've just checked her online notes and it says she had a Low Dose Dexamethasone Suppression Test done, I think I was confused with horses and saying ACTH just assuming that they were the same thing.
 
I’d still vote cushings, hopefully if the liver looks normal they try to find the adrenals. Possibly +/- hypo T but weight loss would be unusual if it was ‘only’ thyroid going on. Fingers crossed they get to the bottom of it :) The acth test is a much shorter day for them so if nothing on the scan hopefully they’ll have time to do that too.
 
Cushing's is still the most likely answer but some of the tests are bad for catching it in the early days which is incredibly frustrating.
A liver scan is no harm-i'd ask them to screen adrenals if possible while they are looking in the abdomen-a small percentage of Cushings dogs will be due to adrenal not pituitary tumors.

Was it ACTH stim or low dose dex test?
ACTH stims can be a challenge to do and expensive because the synthetic drug used in the test has runs of being difficult to buy. Test itself is very easy and more accurate then a low dose dex test.
 
Aru said:
Cushing's is still the most likely answer but some of the tests are bad for catching it in the early days which is incredibly frustrating.
A liver scan is no harm-i'd ask them to screen adrenals if possible while they are looking in the abdomen-a small percentage of Cushings dogs will be due to adrenal not pituitary tumors.

Was it ACTH stim or low dose dex test?
ACTH stims can be a challenge to do and expensive because the synthetic drug used in the test has runs of being difficult to buy. Test itself is very easy and more accurate then a low dose dex test.
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It was a low dose dext test, I just got confused and put ACTH lol, my gut still says Cushing's but I'm not a vet so....
 
My malamute cross had under active thyroid. He was 5 and lacked energy and was gaining weight. He also had chronic diarrhoea.
The diarrhoea turned out to be food allergies and he was eventually diagnosed with a thyroid problem. The vet has initially dismissed this and had done blood tests for everything else. I was only when I insisted they check his thyroid that we got a diagnosis.
 
Well scans were all clear so still looking like early stages of Cushing's, her symptoms all have possible other causes except the weight loss (unless that was a response to ashkii dying?) Seems odd to have 4 symptoms come along at once if they are not linked so going to monitor her for next 3-4 months then possibly repeat Cushing's test.
 
Well I'm still convinced that she has some sort of endocrine problem, all the original issues are still there but no worse and she's still bright and happy in herself, new symptoms are that she is now showing muscle wastage in her back end and the hair is being very slow to grow back where she was clipped in Feb for ultrasound. Night before last she peed in the living room, boyfriend was up first so cleaned it up but from the smell I assumed she had pooped, just got a sample this morning and it's not as bad but still smells pretty rank and it quite cloady, will call vet when they open to take it in to test. Is this likely to be part of the same problem?
 
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