Hello and Help

[Roscoe]

Hello Basenji World. We're new to BRAT but have been owned by two basenjis for eight years. We raised Cairo, tri-female-drama queen, from a puppy; and we adopted Snickers, red-male-laid-back-handsome-silent-guy. Both of course are as wonderful as every other basenji.

If anyone has information about thyroid levels in basenjis, I would appreciate your help. Last week the kids had their annual check up and the TT4 thyroid test results on Snickers shows his level at .5, which indicates hypothyroidism. The vet says the normal range is 8-40. I've heard that b's thyroid levels run lower than other breeds. He is asymptomatic of the disease.

Does anyone have experience in this area?

Thank you.

[tanza]

@Roscoe:

Hello Basenji World. We're new to BRAT but have been owned by two basenjis for eight years. We raised Cairo, tri-female-drama queen, from a puppy; and we adopted Snickers, red-male-laid-back-handsome-silent-guy. Both of course are as wonderful as every other basenji.

If anyone has information about thyroid levels in basenjis, I would appreciate your help. Last week the kids had their annual check up and the TT4 thyroid test results on Snickers shows his level at .5, which indicates hypothyroidism. The vet says the normal range is 8-40. I've heard that b's thyroid levels run lower than other breeds. He is asymptomatic of the disease.

Does anyone have experience in this area?

Thank you.

Low Thyroid is not uncommon in Basenjis… I would bet that over 50% of them have hypothyrodidism but it is very easily treated with Soloxine... and requires one or two pills twice daily.. cost is very reasonable also... if you get them by the bottle of 1000 it is under 60.00. And if you vet gives you the prescription you can order yourself... Please also, do not use anything but the real thing.... genetric has shown a big differnce to Soloxine. Also, really the thyroid should be checked by doing a full thyroid panel that is totally separate from the T4 that is usually run by a regular blood test. If I were you, I would ask your Vet on both your Basenjis to pull the blood and send out for the full panel.

Basenjis when even at the low end of "normal" is too low and needs meds. Also we find that almost all that have been spayed/neutered become low thyroid.

Did your Vet give you the meds?

[Roscoe]

Thank you Tanza for your reply. A full work up was done on Snickers at the vet's urging and the meds came from his office. The label identifies the the medication as "Thyroid" but doesn't identify the name. The dosage is one pill twice a day for the first month. Snicks will be re-tested at that time.
I appreciate your help.

[tanza]

@Roscoe:

Thank you Tanza for your reply. A full work up was done on Snickers at the vet's urging and the meds came from his office. The label identifies the the medication as "Thyroid" but doesn't identify the name. The dosage is one pill twice a day for the first month. Snicks will be re-tested at that time.
I appreciate your help.

Please find out the name of the Meds… It really does make a difference... I was using the generic stuff for a while...but once I insisted on the "real" stuff, Soloxine... what a difference.... and that is about the normal dose... 1 pill 2x's daily.......

[Mantis]

Welcome to the site. This group is full of information and support.

[tasha]

Welcome!!!

[nobarkus]

If you do need to have your Bs go on thyroid, get it from Omaha Vaccine. It's very cheap at about .02/tab compared to the vet at $1/tablet. That's where I got mine. They will need your vets OK for the prescription. www.omahavaccine.com

[MaxBooBooBear]

@nobarkus:

If you do need to have your Bs go on thyroid, get it from Omaha Vaccine. It's very cheap at about .02/tab compared to the vet at $1/tablet. That's where I got mine. They will need your vets OK for the prescription. www.omahavaccine.com

Both my german shepherd mix (spayed) and B (neutered) were on soloxine for many years. I got it very reasonably priced from my vet–it wasn't $1/tablet--are you sure it was that expensive? Tyler and Zoey had their thyroids tested, and both are in normal range at this time. My other two were probably middle aged when they had to start thyroid pills. I never used a generic--only soloxine--and it seemed to work fine--I'd get their thyroids tested periodically--but the dose never needed to be adjusted for them.