Our Puppy

Our poor puppy Oreo! We've had issues with his skin lately so a greatly feared visit to the vet was in order. Daddy took him and walked out 1.5 hours, $400, and 3 medicines later... I guess they told him that they weren't sure what is was, but could tell us it wasn't that serious. They were thinking a yeast infection of some sort. So we had to give him a steroid and an anti fungal of sorts twice a day. These medicines made some sort of improvement for a couple days, but then his skin went right back to being dry, flaky, and itchy! The vet called to see how he was doing and I told them not well. So we made another appointment!

I took him last week and they took some skin scrapings and a vial of blood. From the scrapings they could tell me that it wasn't a primary yeast infection, that it was probably more just his glands secreting too much oil. They sent the blood off for all kinds of testing.

Yesterday, I get a call back from the vet with his blood test results. Not good, but definitely not the worst news we could have gotten! We found our poor Oreo has hypothyroidism. From what the vet told me a normal thyroid function level is anywhere from 2 to 4. Oreo's level was at 0.2!!! Yeah practically not functioning at all! So they gave us some meds to help out with his levels, this will be something he'll have to be on for the rest of his life. But like I said it's better then a lot of things he could have been diagnosed with and really it's only $15 for a month supply of meds. Not bad really, especially if its gonna bring our playful puppy back.

In the last year we've really noticed some changes in Oreo. Nothing bad, but we just chalked it up to him getting older! But after we looked up the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism in dogs... Yep, Oreo has the majority of them. Here's the list:
~Lethargic behavior such as a lack of interest in play, frequent napping, tiring out on long walks (we chalked up to age)
~Weight gain, sometimes without an apparent gain in appetite (we chalked up to age)
~Bacterial infections of the skin (we were trying to get treated)
~Dry skin (yep, goes with the one above)
~Hair loss, especially on the trunk or tail (“rat’s tail”) (goes with the infection from above)
~Discoloration or thickening of the skin where hair loss has occurred
~Cold intolerance/seeking out warm places to lie down (we didn't think anything of this until we seen this... But yes this describes Oreo to a TEE)
~Slow heart rate (we wouldn't know)
~Chronic ear infections (chalked up to him being a cocker)
~Severe behavioral changes such as unprovoked aggression, head tilt, seizures, anxiety and/or compulsivity (he can have a lot of anxiety at times)
~Depression (well... he's been lazier, but again age...)

We're hoping to see some kind of improvement in about a week. Mostly just with his skin, but we're hoping his behavior too!