Thyroid and Basenjis

Last year Loki started "blowing her coat" a term meant to describe shedding that looks like a stuffed animal losing its insides.

Basenjis aren't supposed to shed. To be more precise, all mammals shed but some less so than others. Basenjis are supposed to be on the less so side.

So we knew something was up when her fur started coming off in clumps. Her weight seemed to be creeping up as well. We rarely give our animals treats, preferring instead to consume treats ourselves :-)

We had her thyroid tested and it came back in the low-normal range. Our vet was not in favor of starting any thyroid medication yet because she didn't want to create a "thyroid storm" a potentially fatal situation. Instead we treated Loki with melatonin supplements and her coast started coming back. Her weight was still high and not coming down despite additional exercise and being extra careful with her food intake but it wasn't creeping up either. Our vet told us to expect the same thing again in about a year.

Sure enough around December 2006 we noticed Loki's coat starting to fall out again and the weight slowly creeping up. Her thyroid tests came back the same low-normal. But over the past 2 months her coat is looking worse and worse. After another consult with the vet and some online research we just started Loki out on a very low dose of thyroid supplement. We're to keep an eye out for potential thyroid storm but the dose is so low no one is anticipating trouble. We'll get her blood levels checked again in about 4 weeks.

In the meantime Loki shows no additional clinical sings of thyroid...no lethargy, no excessive thirst, no behaviors out of the ordinary, just this awful shedding.

So we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping we'll see some improvement in her coat in the next few weeks.

One thing we read was that Basenjis are prone to thyroid issues and that for sight hounds in general "low normal" is still too low. There are those vets who strongly disagree of course but Loki is living proof that something is going on even if her blood results are still within "normal" range.


** Update-- Loki has been taking her thyroid supplement for about a week and already we are seeing some improvement in her coat. The really excessive shedding has stopped. She is still shedding more than i wold consider normal for her but she doesn't look like she's about to go bald. Her coat color has returned to an even black all over. The coat feel brittle in some spots but I'd say she's regained about 80% soft fur over her body. Cautiously optimistic! **