Replied by Deirdre (Earth Clinic) on 05/21/2021

I have a 15+ year old mixed breed dog whose been hypothyroid since he was about 10, like your dog. Yes, he pants too, even in the winter.

Simple fix - I keep a powerful floor fan going. He sleeps right in front of it most of the day and most of the night too and is a very happy pup.

In the summer, I give him a bit of a furcut and keep the house comfortably cool with fans on high and a/c when needed.

I would not mess with natural remedies for hypothyroidism. I tried that for a short time with different forms of iodine (lugol's and kelp), but it didn't work. You need just the right amount for them and that's what the thyro-tabs do. He became incredibly lethargic after just a day on iodine.

I do give him just half the amount of thyro-tabs in the evening because he gets IBS easily and that extra 1/2 tablet tips him over into diarrhea.

By the way, he's doing incredibly well for his age on freeze dried raw food (Small Batch)+ Nupro + Cosamin for joints (human formula)+ my homemade colloidal silver. He's 74 pounds...

P.S. My 15 year old golden retriever also loves the fan on her even in the winter and she's not hypothyroid. Dogs with thick coats love the cool breeze!

Replied by Art (California) on 05/21/2021

Aside from the information Deirdre gave you, you might ask your vet to check to see if your dog is zinc deficient which is common in larger breeds such as yours. Signs of zinc deficiency are hair loss, cracks on the nose, lethargy, thickened, cracked or reddened foot pads, chronic digestive issues, redness and weeping between the toes and open crusted skin lesions in the area of the mouth and eyes, but these can occur in other areas and are often mistaken for dermatitis issues. Other issues are an immune system that does not deal well with infections, malfunctioning thyroid gland, up or down appetite which is often accompanied by up or down weight issues, poor hormone balance and sometimes a cough. Chronic digestive issues are also a symptom and vets often mistake this issue for something else as it is easy to confuse signs of zinc deficiency with other health issues, but a good vet should always consider zinc deficiency in larger dogs, especially malamutes and huskies which are known for zinc deficiency because of genetic issues affecting absorption, but larger breeds in general also have the problem.

At severe deficiency the major organs can fail and there can be seizures because the zinc deficiency does not allow taurine to do its job in the brain.

Zinc supplementation can take months to resolve these issues especially if the digestive issues are present because this will slow the uptake of zinc which is a slow process anyway to reach sufficiency. If your vet has not tested her zinc levels, it should definitely be a consideration

Art

Replied by Art (California) on 05/21/2021

I forgot to mention in my reply to you that zinc testing may not always fully reflect zinc deficiency depending on the lab testing used, but a good vet with experience can combine the test results with your dog's symptoms to make a more definitive diagnosis of zinc deficiency or insufficiency in your dog.

Art

Replied by dkr (lansdowne) on 06/03/2021