Low T4 level on Chino's most recent blood tests.

[BigBadPibbul]

I just got an e-mail from the blood donation people about Chino's most recent run of bloodwork. We've had three vets run blood tests on her but none have said anything about her thyroid function, provided they even did check that, but hey we've known for months that she's not diabetic which seems to be the only thing the vets down here are concerned with.
I swear after three runs of bloodwork and nobody catching this I'm going to start driving the hour and a half to our old vet in Colorado Springs.
They said her T4 level was "low" but didn't go into too heavy of detail, I asked that they fax a copy to me as well as to the internal medicine specialist we used extensively when my Chow was so sick but I probably won't receive that fax until Monday.
So for now I get to worry myself stupid and wait.
I'd swear I've seen discussions about thyroid issues here in the past. Does anyone know how thyroid issues are treated in our canine friends? Is it the same as with people, like a synthetic thyroid hormone pill?
I'm pulling my hair out, I wish I'd have gotten the email sooner so I could be picking veterinary brains.
For now I'll settle for learning as much as I can until we get professional information, so if anyone has information they'd like to share any input would be greatly appreciated.

[BigBadPibbul]

The blood donation people were in the office today when I sent the e-mail asking for a fax on the bloodwork so the fax went through to my Grandmother at work.
I had her read off the T4 information for me over the phone so I could post it here in case anyone knows about this stuff.

"T4 result 0.04 Reference range .09-3.9 UG/DL Flag L Results verified by repeat analysis. "

So if .09 is the low end of the spectrum Chino's .04 is a problem. I'm going to go ahead and call in first thing Monday morning and get an appointment with either the better clinic here in town or with the specialists up in Co. Springs, whichever can get us in first, most likely the specialists.

Hoping this will be an issue with an easy solution and not something painful and expensive.

[BigBadPibbul]

They were nice enough to send the test stuff as a PDF document as well, her Cholesterol is up and several other things are down.
Where oh where are you knowledgeable people today?!? *sniffles*

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

if you want a true thyroid level and your dog isn't symptomatic of hypothyroidism, have them run a full thyroid panel, not just a T4. Then yes, you can medicate if he is truly low

Buddy has been on thyroid meds since I adopted her and I can tell when her levels are off. Too much and she drops weight like she's been starved. Too little and her skin/coat gets dry and brittle and she acts like a sloth.

[Misskiwi67]

Hypothyroid is one of the most over-diagnosed problems in canines.

Thyroid function is VERY sensitive to other medical issues, and the T4 will be low every time there is another disease process, or even stress going on. However, a high cholesterol can be another symptom of low thyroid, particularly if the dog is of good body weight and was fasted prior to the blood draw, so maybe your pup really is low...

You need to send out a full panel to Michigan state before you worry about a low T4. Otherwise you may be stuck treating your dog for a disease it doesn't have for the rest of its life.

[BigBadPibbul]

There's other stuff reading off on the test, I'll copy and paste the test, perhaps that will offer some insight. It would be nice to kind of know which direction to go when talking to the vet. Plus I'm really going nuttier than you could imagine because I'm worried about my girl, also be nice to know if I'm freaking for no good reason or if it's warranted.
Here we go, I apologize in advance for the length of this post and the all caps as that's how the results are written and it would take me hours to retype without the caps.

Test_________________________Result ___________________________Reference Range_______Flagged
ALK. PHOSPHATASE____________17 ______________________________10 - 150 U/L
ALT (SGPT)___________________28_______________________________5 - 107 U/L
AST (scor) ___________________31_____________________________ 5-55U/L
CK _________________________ 211__________________________10-200uil _________________H
GGT _________________________5__________________________0 - 14 U/L
AMYLASE____________________ 454 ______________________ 450 - 1240 UtL
LIPASE ______________________ 691______________________100 - 750 u/L
ALBUMIN_____________________ 3.8_______________________ 2.5-4.0gldL
TOTAL PROTEIN________________6.8________________________5.1-7.8g/dL
GLOBULIN _____________________3.0________________________ 2.1 - 4.5 gtdL
TOTAL BILIBUBIN_______________ o.2________________________ 0.0-0.4mg/dl
DIRECT BILIRUBIN ______________0.1_________________________0.0-0.2mg/dl
BUN _________________________ 11 __________________________7 -27 mg/dL
CREATININE ___________________13 __________________________ o.4-1.8mg/dl
CHOLESTEROL ________________425__________________________112 - 328 mg/dl_____________H
GLUCOSE _____________________ 93 ________________________60 - 125 mg/dl
CALCIUM ______________________10.4_______________________8.2-12.4mgldL
PHOSPHORUS___________________36 _________________________21-63mg/dl
TCO2 (BICARBONATE) ____________18 ___________________________17-24 mEq/L
CHLORIDE _____________________110 ____________________________105 - 115 mEq/L
POTASSIUM____________________4.7_____________________________ 4.0-5.6mEq/L
SODIUM_______________________146___________________________141 - 156 mEq/L
A/G RATIO____________________1.3___________________________ 0.6-1.6
B/C RATIO ___________________8.5
INDIRECT BILIRUBIN_____________0.1____________________________0-0.3mg/dl
NA/K RATIO____________________31_____________________________27-40
HEMOLYSIS INDEX
Index of N,+,++ exhibits no significant effect on chemistry values
LIPEMIA INDEX
Index of N,+,++ exhibits no significant effect on chemistry values
ANION GAP_____________________23__________________________12 - 24 mEq/L
WBC __________________________8.6__________________________5.7 - 16.3 THOUS./uL
RBC___________________________7.63_________________________5.5-8.5MILLION/uL
HGB __________________________18.1_________________________12 - 18 g/dl_______________________H
HCT __________________________55.8_________________________37 -55 ___________________________H
MCV ___________________________73__________________________60-77 lL
MCH___________________________23.7_________________________19.5 - 26.0 pg
MCHC__________________________32.4_________________________32 - 36 g/dl
NEUTROPHIL SEG_________________60__________________________60 - 77 %
LYMPHOCYTES___________________33__________________________ 12 - 30 %________________________H
MONOCYTES_____________________2____________________________3-10%__________________________L
EOSINOPHIL_____________________5____________________________2-10 %
BASOPHIL_______________________0____________________________0-1%
AUTO PLATELET_________________154___________________________164 - 510 THOUS./uL _____________L
**SEE PLATELET COMMENT**
POIKILOCYTOSIS_______________SLIGHT

PLATELET COMMENTS
SCANNING THE BLOOD SMEAR REVEALED ADEQUATE PLATELET NUMBERS. DUE TO CLUMPING AND/OR LARGE PLATELETS THE AUTOMATED PLATELET NUMBER CANNOT BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED.
REMARKS SLIDE REVIEWED MICROSCOPICALLY NO PARASITES SEEN

ABSOLUTE NEUTROPHIL SEG_________5160__________________________3000 -11500 /uL
ABSOLUTE LYMPHOCYTE____________2838___________________________1000 - 4800 /uL
ABSOLUTE MONOCYTE______________172____________________________150- 1350 /uL
ABSOLUTE EOSINOPHIL_____________430____________________________100-1250 /uL
ABSOLUTE BASOPHIL _______________0_____________________________ 0 - 1o0 /uL

TH PLUS, T3 AND FREE T4_____ FREE T4 (EQUIL DIALYSIS)
FREE T4-ed (ng/dL)________________0.4__________________________ O.7 -3.7 ng/dL_______________L
FREE T4-ed (pmoUL)_______________5.1___________________________9.0- 47.4 pmol/L_____________L

TH PLUS, T3 AND FREE T4 _________T4
T4____________________________ <.04 ____________________________o.9 - 3.9 ug/dl______________L

TH PLUS, T3 AND FREE T4__________T3
T3______________________________59______________________________55 - 150 ng/dL

HEARTWORM ANTIGEN - ELISA_________________NEGATIVE

Ok I think I got it all there, my PDF reader decided to play games with letters and numbers but I'm pretty close to certain that I fixed the ones that were important like where is was substituting B's for 5's and E's for R's every time I pasted.
Keep in mind I may not have gotten every last one fixed, so if something looks wonky it's probably my fault for not catching it.
And upon preview it bunched everything up so I put in the lines to try and help make it readable.
Not sure exactly why I felt the need to get this fixed enough to post here, I know it's not like you guys can tell me exactly what's wrong and how to make it go away. I guess I'm just hoping for a little light to be shed on what it all means.

[BigBadPibbul]

However, a high cholesterol can be another symptom of low thyroid, particularly if the dog is of good body weight and was fasted prior to the blood draw, so maybe your pup really is low...

Forgot to add in the last post...
Chino was fasted before the draw, I feed once daily, Chino ate at Noon time on a Wednesday and the blood was taken at 11:30 Thursday morning.
She's got the rat tail going on and thickening of the skin where the hair was lost. I hadn't previously put much into it as Chino has always had a bald spot on her tail due to how she sits on it, I'd kind of figured the reason it had gotten so much bigger was because she had gained so much weight and was applying more pressure to the tail.
She's not exactly lethargic but her naps have increased in frequency and duration. She's always been a lazy dog but here lately she doesn't get her usual daily boost of destroy the house zoomies energy. She's obsessed with blankets lately too which, even with the colder nights we've started having, is very unlike her, she usually hates being warm, she's always been the lunatic who digs a little trench in the snow and rolls in it after going out to pee while the rest of the dogs tuck tail and shiver their way back inside.
Her skin has been greasy but her coat is kind of dry and somewhat brittle. Her coat looks like it might be thinning a little bit on her belly, near her collar and down her chest and front legs but at this point, because I'll worry myself to death one day, I may just be looking for any little thing that could potentially be not quite normal Chino.
I'm going to go bang my head on the proverbial wall for a while now... I'm harboring major guilty feelings for not trying more vets, I just couldn't see how three blood panels could have missed anything that important.

[Misskiwi67]

You need to get a TSH, if it is high, then your pup is a true hypothyroid. If it is normal, then your pup is "euthyroid", meaning low secondary to something else. If you pup is true hypothyroid, treatment is a tiny pill twice a day for life, recheck T4 1 month after starting pills, one month after any medications change, and yearly when doing well.

The HCT and HGB are elevated due to stress response, same with the high lymphocytes and low monocytes.... nothing to worry about at all. The low platelets is likely due to the blood draw, and I don't care unless its 40 or less.

The CK is interesting, but not high enough to care about. Its a muscle enzyme, and is usually in the thousands when there's an actual problem.

[BigBadPibbul]

Misskiwi you are a divine being, thank you so much for taking the time to look that over!
When we talk to the vet on Monday we'll go over the bloodwork again I'm sure but at least I'll have a direction in which to shove if they start throwing Diabetes around again. Then again, perhaps it's worth another round of testing everything that might even have a slim chance of having anything to do with a fat lazy bulldog being fatter and lazier than ever before.

Just out of curiosity what does that CK muscle enzyme do? I know a little about some of the internal workings of tissues from the Equine Science classes I took ages ago but that kind of stuff was minimal, we focused more on the genetics end of things. I'm always on the lookout for the opportunity to learn something new.

Thank you again for helping me out with the reading of the bloodwork! I'm still going to worry myself stupid until we know for sure what's going on but at least now I'm not going to worry myself into a heart attack or something.

[Misskiwi67]

Here's a link to an article on CK, or Creatinine Kinase Its for people, but except for heart attacks (which dogs don't really get), it pretty much works for dogs too.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 003503.htm

[BigBadPibbul]

That's pretty interesting! I may just have to look deeper into it while I'm waiting on callbacks from my vets

Today is going to be loaded with fun, I'm trying to get Chino an appointment with a good vet, trying to get myself an appointment with a good chiropractor or an acupuncture person, phone fighting with my bank over a 145$ withdraw from my checking that I did not make or authorize, and waiting on two calls from the college one from my advisor so I can talk with student service and the disability people, and from the Mechanical end of the automotive shop so I can have them replace a broken wheel sensor on my car.
I suppose it won't be too bad seeing as most of the tedious work will be phone based, but gods do I hate waiting for people to call me back. I'd almost rather be stuck driving all over town and catching the people I need to talk to in person. *grumbles*

[starrlamia]

i have 3 essays to write, trade ya!

[BigBadPibbul]

i have 3 essays to write, trade ya!

I love to write! I'd make that trade i a heart beat if you loved closer

Just got a call back from one of the vets, he said he thinks it may be a good idea to go ahead and start Chino on the thyroid pills and check her levels in a month. He's going to go over her bloodwork and call me back this afternoon and we will see what his recommendation is from there.

[starrlamia]

i have 3 essays to write, trade ya!

I love to write! I'd make that trade i a heart beat if you loved closer

Just got a call back from one of the vets, he said he thinks it may be a good idea to go ahead and start Chino on the thyroid pills and check her levels in a month. He's going to go over her bloodwork and call me back this afternoon and we will see what his recommendation is from there.

oh good you heard back, not the ideal situation but could be worse!

and if i had the cash, I would jump on a plane tomorrow :P

[BigBadPibbul]

i have 3 essays to write, trade ya!

I love to write! I'd make that trade i a heart beat if you loved closer

Just got a call back from one of the vets, he said he thinks it may be a good idea to go ahead and start Chino on the thyroid pills and check her levels in a month. He's going to go over her bloodwork and call me back this afternoon and we will see what his recommendation is from there.

oh good you heard back, not the ideal situation but could be worse!

and if i had the cash, I would jump on a plane tomorrow :P

you just wanna snuggle my crew