Margaret,
My 17 year old cat, Fred, has just been diagnosed with it. My vet said he could feel a nodule (sp) in her neck & that her heart was beating hard & quickly. My vet said that if it wasn't treated the heart could become enlarged. She's on Tapazole now for the rest of her life.

My mother, who is 84, also has hyper thyroid and is on the same medication as Fred.

I found Tapazole on the internet at a great price. Much cheaper than buying it from my vet.

I had a compounding pharmacy make it into a solution for me so I could give it by dropper as a liquid. Tweety wasn't very cooperative. She took it for about 5 years. She has since passed on. She did fine on the Tapazole. So do people mostly. In people you can do the radioactive iodine treatment which takes care of it pretty easily. It is so expensive to do it or surgery in cats that I didn't do it. The cost about 7 years ago was about $1000 at UGA for either treatment. I figured that would buy a lot of tapazole.

Good luck with Fred and your mom!

low thyroid could cause problems with conception and should be checked prior to breeding. low thyroid dogs will show up with skin problems, lethargy, obesity, and other things im sure i don't know.

if you are asking because there is a problem, i would think a simple t4 level will let you know basic thyroid function, and then go from there with more testing if you need.

if you are checking because you are planning to breed a female, you want a full thyroid panel (don't know what that cover's off the top of my head)...but there is more info on thyroid at http://www.offa.org.

i don't see the need to send to the ofa, the test can be done by any lab and you can get the results yourself. any puppy buyer/stud can see the results you provide them...although this is probably more for your knowledge then anyone else.

liz

They draw blood to check the thyroid hormone levels and the TSH(thyroid stimulating hormone. The thyroid is a gland in the neck area that controls metabolism to some extent. Thyroid can be high or low. High thyroid can be associated with rapid heart rates, heart arrythmia, hair loss, heat intolerance, weight loss. Low thyroid can be associated with sluggishness, hair loss, poor coat, abnormal heats, weight gain, elevated cholesterol. Neither of these is a full list.

Hyperthyroidism(high thyroid) is really common in cats. I had a cat that got it at about 12 yo. I gave her a pill for it, although there are other options to treat it. She lived to 17 yo.

Thank you all for info. We don't have any problems but I would want to know for future. Maybe will breed my male one day.
That why ask so many info on trachea, tyroid and hips.