Pet of the month for January goes to this handsome boy Max, Max is a 6-year-old Rottweiler, he came into the clinic to see Dr Raj as he was gaining weight even though his owners were not only exercising him more but was cutting back on his food by 25% and he wasn’t losing any weight. When he came in for his last visit back in February 2023, he was 42kg, and so when he came back to see us, and he weighed 53.3kgs we knew something was going on as that is little over 10kgs in only 9 months!! After his check over with Dr Raj, we recommended doing some blood work on Max to test his thyroids for Hypothyroidism.
Hypothyroidism is a condition that is caused by an under production of the thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is controlled by the pituitary gland which is located at the base of the brain. The thyroid gland regulates the body’s metabolic rate, in Max’s case his was underactive so his metabolism slows down. This means that nearly every organ slows down as well, so you will start to notice some signs:
- Weight gain without an increase in appetite
- Lethargic and lack of desire to exercise
- High blood cholesterol
- Slow heart rate
Unfortunately, Max showed some of these signs we sent his bloods to the lab for testing and once we got the results back it was confirmed that he has hypothyroidism. We have started Max on tablets called Thyroxine to replace the thyroid hormone he will be having routines bloods taken to continuously check that his dose is correct.
We would like to thank his owners for taking good care of MaX.