Kord and his issue's. (UPDATE PAGE 2)

FWIW, neither of my dogs can have rice and they do not do well with fish, especially salmon.

If I were you, I would feed turkey and potato (or sweet potato, or butternut squash) for Kord---turkey is considered a "cool" meat and should not flare up any existing inflammation. 

Poor guy-----good luck.

Truley

Just an update. I did a fish source and some rice for 5 days now. If anything he is scratching and itching more.

Cleo gets VERY itchy on anything to do with fish. Not a good choice for her. She is on a lamb based kibble and can do fine if there's a little chicken in it...but the fish n sweet potatoes Blue Buffalo was TERRIBLE for her!

Maybe these German dogs need a diet like the old country LOL. simple, meat n potatoes...maybe. I know a ton of the Northern breeds do very well on fish but that's a more "Native" diet for them...lol.

thanks for the replies. I might just switch him to turkey and potato. I have a 25 lber in the freezer I am going to take out.

I went with fish because he did do well on that 2 winters ago. Who knows.

I broke down and gave him the turkey innards from the bird that is cooking today, and the neck, he seemed to like it.

he is still not fond of that shirt.

No advice, Dawn but lots of good thoughts that you can solve the itchies for Kord. 

Soooo. I got the blood work back and this is what we have:

TT4-27 range is 15-67

TT3-1.0 range is 1.0-2.5

FT4-10 range is 8-26

FT3-3.3 (L) range is 4.5-12.0

T4A-8 range is 0-20

T3A-1 range is 0-10

Thyroid Stim Hormone-12 range is 0-37

Thryroglobulin Autoantibody- 4 range ius 0-35

The vet said that his test is negative for the autoantibody. On that one I know the higher the number the worse it is.

We are going to keep him on meds for 4 weeks (3 to go) to clear up all skin related issue's. He is scratching less on the current routine which is:

1-probiotic tab

2-fish oil tab

1-keflex

1-tbl plain yogurt with milk thistle daily

Every other day he gets:

1 Keto

or

1 predisone.

No add in's straight kibble for right now. If after 4 weeks his hair has not started to grow in, she is considering starting him on a very low dose of medication for hyperthyroidism.....

thoughts?

and thanks!

It looks as though he's low-normal, so I would think that putting him on a low dose of meds might be a good idea too. My own thyroid tests have been less than crystal clear but I am low enough to warrant using meds and I think the meds help me. Sassy's values were so low, zero in some cases, that it was really obvious but I would've still wanted to try meds if her results looked like Kord's do. Maybe it won't be necessary after a few more weeks of the course you're on now, but if not, it's not a bad option.

Wishing the best for Kord....

 my gut says try a low dose of thyroid as some of his numbers are at the bottom of the range - he is very young so it is likely to decrease that is my understanding anyway

(BTW B's autoantibody number was like 250 or something when we started  his other numbers were all low normal)

the thyroid stimulating hormone is still pretty low -- which means his body is "working" but not trying very hard TO bump up the thyroid.  Sorta like the body is not trying very hard.  Like most things, the body gets lazy -- it won't do any more than it has to usually -- but it's not used to working *at* a proper thyroid level ... and some of that is too darned low.  And it's ALL in the bottom half or lower.

Now if the tsh was high -- that would be different but it's like the body isn't used to a higher number so it doesn't know it should be trying harder to be more efficient.  That, if I'm understanding what I've heard correctly, is why some dogs start on supplementation and then can get off it -- because once the body gets used to the *right* levels it will actually get in the habit of it and kick itself into gear.

All depends.  I'd probably ask Dr. Dodds for her conclusions -- but make sure if you do you tell her how long he's been on all the anti-fungals and stuff.  Because those wreck havoc on the liver.  And the pred does a major number on the thyroid and that doesn't just stop when they stop it for the testing.