I took my Sheltie to the vet today at 2pm. I took him because he was loosing hair and he had rashes on his skin and infected ears. A friend told me about Hypothyroid Disease. I read up on it and it sounded like it matched my dog perfectly...and was common in Shelties. Of course I wanted to take him to the vet to confirm what was wrong with him. They did blood work on him and they said that everything on him was fine. He had no problems.
His T4 levels were 1.3 which was low, all the websites that discussed Hypothyroidism in Shelties said that shelties had higher T4 requirements than other dogs and should be treated for Hypothyroidism if the T4 is below the upper third portion of normal. However, the vet said that it was not low enough for her to want to treat him for that. Pockets did however have a staph infection all over his body and in his ears. I knew that was a secondary symptom, but the vet said she wanted to treat that first...and then if the infection persisted she would consider Hypothyroidism. It sounded logical I guess.
She gave me some pills for him to take twice a day for 14 days (Cephalexin Cap 500mg 100#) and topical ear drops (Tresaderm Soln 15 ml) to apply 7 drops to each ear twice daily for 14 days.
I knew with school coming up it would be hard for me to give it to him in the afternoons so I wanted to wait until the rest of my family arrived home before I started the medicine. I waited until just before 6pm to give him the medicine. Dad arrived home a little late (~6:30) and I told him about the trip to the vet and the medicine she gave me. Then he went to check on the dog and he told me that Pockets was dying. At first I told he was joking, but pockets was laying there on his side, breathing hardly, could not get up, twitching, he lost control of his fluids. He drove him to the Emergency Pet Hospital but he was dead by the time we got there. He was dead at about 6:55. I think it was the medicine that killed him.
We buried him in his favorite spot in the yard just an hour ago. And that's it.
His T4 levels were 1.3 which was low, all the websites that discussed Hypothyroidism in Shelties said that shelties had higher T4 requirements than other dogs and should be treated for Hypothyroidism if the T4 is below the upper third portion of normal. However, the vet said that it was not low enough for her to want to treat him for that. Pockets did however have a staph infection all over his body and in his ears. I knew that was a secondary symptom, but the vet said she wanted to treat that first...and then if the infection persisted she would consider Hypothyroidism. It sounded logical I guess.
She gave me some pills for him to take twice a day for 14 days (Cephalexin Cap 500mg 100#) and topical ear drops (Tresaderm Soln 15 ml) to apply 7 drops to each ear twice daily for 14 days.
I knew with school coming up it would be hard for me to give it to him in the afternoons so I wanted to wait until the rest of my family arrived home before I started the medicine. I waited until just before 6pm to give him the medicine. Dad arrived home a little late (~6:30) and I told him about the trip to the vet and the medicine she gave me. Then he went to check on the dog and he told me that Pockets was dying. At first I told he was joking, but pockets was laying there on his side, breathing hardly, could not get up, twitching, he lost control of his fluids. He drove him to the Emergency Pet Hospital but he was dead by the time we got there. He was dead at about 6:55. I think it was the medicine that killed him.
We buried him in his favorite spot in the yard just an hour ago. And that's it.
