Endocrine/Hormone
Together we can learn to live in hormone-y with some of these more common disease processes related to our pet's thyroid and adrenal glands.
Hypothyroidism
*Commonly affects Dogs*
Hypothyroidism is a classic disease in dogs as well as people. We know that iodine deficiency leads to thyroid gland swelling (a goiter) and thus most of the salt we use is "iodized" to prevent this deficiency. Dogs do not get goiters when they become hypothyroid but they experience the metabolic "slow down" that comes with becoming hypothyroid. Because of the importance of thyroid hormone in metabolism, many organ systems can be affected and multiple symptoms are described. Diagnostic tests can be just as confusing as the symptoms but at least the treatment is relatively straightforward.