Thanks everyone for the input. I'm going to check with the two local eye doctors to see what basenji experience they have. The one at the animal referral center has been practicing for 20+ years so hopefully he has some experience.
"The COMPLETE Thyroid Panel is needed for an ACCURATE diagnosis and assessment of Thyroid Function. Dr. Dodds' Thyroid Panel # D8T provides the values for: T3, T4, free T3, free T4, T3 Autoantibodies and T4 Autoantibodies."
I just read the testing description in more detail on the HEMOPET test form. So I don't need to do the actual OFA panel, the D8T is fine? The OFA panel adds a few extra things in addition to the D8T panel.
No, you don't have to do an official OFA panel. But it does help to do that anyways so that results are in the public database. Also if your dog is from a responsible breeder that is good info for them to know, the health testing results from littermates and relatives of breeding prospects.
Dr. Dodds is great for doing thyroids. But I believe if you have the OFA panel done, it's not done at her lab anyways, but at the other Antech lab on the other side of the country. And OFA doesn't look at her interpretations, they just look at the numbers from the test.
You can also ask your vet what lab they use for sending out thyroid tests. The important thing is that you get a full panel done, not the "in house" tests that only look at a couple values. You need at least T4, free T4, TgAA, and TSH. Whatever lab you use, all you have to do is fax over a copy of the test scores to Dr. Dodds and she will be happy to interpret them "Basenji style" for free. 
Sighthounds traditionally have slightly different normal ranges than what the lab machines use.
Also I like to recommend people use an accredited lab that is closest to them, if they aren't near Antech or MSU. I have seen people get equivical or odd test results when the blood had to be shipped out of state. I am not sure of the validity behind this, but length of time that the blood is sitting around may affect test results. Luckily I didn't have that problem, I only lived 40 minutes from MSU which has one of the top 2 thyroid labs in the country. lol
Kudos to you for testing! Hope everything comes back with great results!
Antech is a national labratory company with labs all over the country, if your vet uses Antech and you ask for an OFA panel Antech ships the samples internally to their OFA approved lab. Dr Dodds has negotiated a bulk rate with Antech because of the number of samples sent to her for thyroid and so her prices may be significantly better than what your own vet can offer even if they use Antech.
Most of the problems that I have heard about the test are not about the shipping it is in the OFA procedures for prepping the sample being followed. OFA's procedure differs from what many vet offices tend to do with thyroid samples. It specifically states that you must allow the blood to sit for a specified amount of time before centrifuging. If this is not done then there is an increased likelihood that you will get an equivocal result.
Antech is a national labratory company with labs all over the country, if your vet uses Antech and you ask for an OFA panel Antech ships the samples internally to their OFA approved lab. Dr Dodds has negotiated a bulk rate with Antech because of the number of samples sent to her for thyroid and so her prices may be significantly better than what your own vet can offer even if they use Antech.
This maybe makes more sense now. Dr. Dodd's lab is not on the approved OFA test labs but at the bottom of the second page of her test form it mentions that Antech will do it. Although it is strange that from WI the sample will end up crossing the country twice before testing if I send it to her lab directly.
You need at least T4, free T4, TgAA, and TSH. Whatever lab you use, all you have to do is fax over a copy of the test scores to Dr. Dodds and she will be happy to interpret them "Basenji style" for free.
IF I need TgAA, then that is essentially the OFA panel as TgAA is not part of the D8T panel.
Here is a good article on Basenji Hypothyroidism and what you want to have tested.
http://www.apubasenjis.com/bhealth.html
Since you will want TgAA you may as well go ahead and do the OFA test and have it published.
Yeah, I think I'm going to do the full OFA test. Thanks everyone for the help.
My vet sent blood to U of Michigan and then faxed me their results and interpretation. I e-mailed Dr. Dodds and typed in all the results, comments, and she replied within a few minutes. My charge for 2 tests (Ed & Nicky) was $128 including shipping
Lisa, thanks for the info, that's good to know. I guess a quick chat with the vet is in order when planning a thyroid panel.
Anne, that sounds pretty reasonable. I paid $102 for 2 dogs, with a rural vet that was 30 minutes or less from Michigan State. That didn't include the office visit fee of course. So for a Florida vet to be pretty close to that and ship all the way up here, that is not bad at all. I know that MSU's fee for the test is $37.50 for each sample, last time I checked.
Nemo, you may want to look into if your vet uses MSU at all, as they may have a better rate then sending to Dr. Dodds. She can still be consulted when you get your results. Although ideally she likes you to use her labs.
I have Nemo's thryoid panel results. Is Dr Dodd's email address just the "hemopet" email address on the website?
Thanks.
Is Dr Dodd's email address just the "hemopet" email address on the website?
YEP.
How's things look via the lab's paperwork?
He is rated OFA Normal, everything is in range other than the Free T3 and Total T3 values which are both low. And amazingly, Dr Dodd has already responsed to my email. She said those low values are usually an indication of "some non-thyroidal issues" but everything else looked good (she even provided the normal sighthound ranges for all of the tests). So, I guess I'll have to figure out what "some non-thyroidal issues" may entail and if it's something I need to address. I guess I'll put a separate post about that.
