Jottings from Dr. Dodds’ Webinar on Canine Hypothyroidism

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canine health, canine hypothyroidism, dr. dodds, hemopet, thyroids, vet, veterinary endocrinology

On Sunday evening, I attended a webinar on “[Canine] Thyroid Disease and Autoimmune Thyroiditis” presented by Dr. W. Jean Dodds, DVM and sponsored by the Danish-Swedish Farmdogs USA.

As a pet person who has already read Dr. Dodds’ book and slogged through other peer-reviewed publications on canine hypothyroidism as best as I could, the vast majority of this was repeat information. I paid attention and took notes anyway as if it was all new to me. Perhaps I would’ve gotten more mileage out of the talk and Q&A opportunity if I was a dog breeder, because she had a lot of really thorough information directed towards breeders on how to screen and select for thyroid disorders. Her open liaison with breeders, in my opinion, is quite invaluable and one thing that sets her apart as a public spokesperson for canine health issues.

I also appreciated some of the detailed observations she presented with pictorial examples, which went beyond the level of description in her book (most of her pictures were already in there). Some of her comments about barrel-chested and front-loaded hypothyroid dogs made a lot of sense to me, based on what I’ve come to understand about Bowdu’s form and the range of movement he’s capable of.

She also talked a little about natural thyroid options. It’s hard to find good information about natural thyroid therapy for canines, so I would have liked to hear more about that. I wouldn’t say she embraces the idea, but she does mention it as an option, and she was willing to name-drop a few brands with a couple caveats: 1) it’s much more critical to get the dosage right and monitor reactions, since natural thyroid supplies BOTH T3 and T4 (whereas synthetic pet meds on the shelf right now just supply T4), and 2) it’s more expensive, and would probably be prohibitively so for dogs that weigh more than 60 pounds. This was covered in her book as well.

She mentioned a new double-blind clinical trial that she just wrapped up with Drs. Linda Aronson and Nicholas Dodman at Tufts (they’ve collaborated before). Results should be forthcoming in a veterinary behavioral journal. Thyroid function and aggressive/aberrant behavior were under investigation. I await the publication of that study to see what new information is presented.

In response to a good question from a trainer, who asked how she can talk to pet owners about Hemopet/Hemolife without disparaging the work of her clients’ regular vets as inadequate, Dr. Dodds clarified her organization’s position as a clinical research laboratory that needs to collect its own samples for publication purposes, using its own procedures. Hemopet is not meant to replace the work of conventional vets or compete with the handful of commercial labs that handle the majority of diagnostic tests for North American vets. Dr. Dodds’ lab is open to discussing their interpretations with conventional vets, and this would be an ideal professional relationship for the pet owner. If any part of this process is blocked, however, it’s really up to the client to decide if it’s in their best interest to work with what they have, or to seek another vet.

In all this, she hinted at some of her criticisms of the current state of the veterinary establishment. The talk was interlaced with other non-specific commentary that made it clear she understood her marginalized position, but I thought she was quite discreet. She’s been a lot more diplomatic than some vets have been to or about her, in my experience! She professed her love for the veterinary field and believes strongly in her line of work and research, though she found several things lacking in veterinary education. True to her word, that’s been one area in which she’s been campaigning for a long time. At times this does involve a bit of self-promotion that borders on oversell. But I think once you acknowledge how many questions remain in the vast, open and interconnected fields of canine health, genetics, behavior, breeding practices, pet culture, etc., then a lot of that kind of laboratory territorialism falls by the wayside as petty turf wars — particularly disadvantageous to pet people who have no stakes in that establishment, like myself.

Should the opportunity arise again, I’d recommend participating in one of Dr. Dodds’ presentations or webinars if:

• You want a quick overview of how hypothyroidism affects canine health, and you’re not inclined to spend the same amount of money on her book.
• Your own vet is unhelpful, dismissive, talks down to you, or oversimplifies explanations about thyroid issues.
• You’re a dog breeder and want to understand the dynamics of thyroid health and testing for your own breeding goals.
• You are a holistically-minded trainer who appreciates how genetics, overall health, diet, and living environment can affect a dog’s behavior, and you have some specific questions you’d like to ask.

LINK/VIDEOS: Dr. Karen Becker interviews Dr. Jean Dodds

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allergies, canine hypothyroidism, health tests, hemopet, rabies challenge fund, vet, veterinary endocrinology

from Youtube channel MercolaHealthyPets

Shiba Inu & breed-specific profiles for aggression

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aggression, akita, breeders, canine genetics, canine hypothyroidism, ethology, health tests, hemopet, shiba inu, thyroids, veterinary endocrinology, yukari takeuchi

I hope that breeders and those with any interest in behavioral issues in Nihon Ken are following and taking notice of Dr. Yukari Takeuchi’s work (武内　ゆかり, DVM, PhD). Takeuchi is at the University of Tokyo’s Laboratory of Ethology, and has done extensive research on genetic linkages and manifestations of aggression by breeds, with special attention to native Japanese breeds like the Akita and Shiba Inu.

In a 2006 report surveying a broad range of breeds, “A Comparison of the Behavioral Profiles of Purebred Dogs in Japan to Profiles of those in the United States and the United Kingdom,” Shiba were found to be ranked higher than average in aggressive behavior towards other dogs, watchdog barking, territorial defense, and snapping at children. They were clustered in a group known to have “high aggression, high reactivity, and medium trainability” along with the likes of Pomeranians, American Cocker Spaniels, Yorkshire Terriers, Irish Setters, Maltese, Pugs, Mini Schnauzers, Mini Dachshund, and others. The tag “medium trainability” says to me that Shibas may potentially have these unfavorable behaviors trained out of them, bringing home the point that socialization is key.

In another article from 2009, “Association analysis between canine behavioural traits in the Shiba Inu and genetic polymorphisms,” (Takeuchi Y, Kaneko F, Hashizume C, Masuda K, Ogata N, Maki T, Inoue-Murayama M, Hart BL, Mori Y, Animal Genetics 40: 616-622), what I understood was that there are tentative causal links between certain genes and Shiba aggression. However, because there are many social factors that contribute to aggression, as well as many ways to define aggression, more research needs to be done.

It was also noted that the Shibas surveyed were all from Japan, where many are still kept as watchdogs, particularly in rural areas. In such cases, certain types of “aggression” as noted in the 2006 study are favorably linked to their function.

In the meantime:

The reasons and motivations for having dogs vary from owner to owner; some want a watchdog for security while others desire a companion for family members. If veterinarians working at clinics know the behavioral profiles of purebred dogs and the tendencies in gender differences shown in this [2006] study, they can more appropriately advise prospective owners. This can facilitate a better quality of human-animal bond and perhaps prevent behavioral problems due to a mismatch between dogs and owners. In addition, veterinarians should inform potential owners of the importance of understanding the pedigree line within a breed, the behavior of the dam, sire, and siblings from previous litters, and the early environment during the socialization period, as has been repeatedly emphasized in previous studies (p. 7 of the 2006 study).

Takeuchi seems to consider veterinarian expertise the first line of defense against uninformed dog owners acquiring a potentially volatile breed. This statement stems from his methodology, wherein he asked veterinarians to answer based on their familiarity with the breeds surveyed, instead of breeders and purebred dog owners. In practice, I doubt most owners consult with a veterinarian before bringing home their dog; you usually get the dog first, then bring him to the vet. But his very efforts to find a genetic basis for aggression is intriguing nevertheless. If such a clear, direct genetic factor could be located, this would put a lot more weight on the selective breeding of purebred dogs, as well as throw open a whole set of related cultural issues on why breeders select for the temperaments and the individual dogs that they do.

I also find it interesting that a number of breeds considered to be “highly aggressive” also rank relatively highly on the Michigan State University’s charts for breeds at risk for thyroid disorders. Specifically, I’m looking at Maltese (#9, 16.5% autoimmune thyroiditis), Beagles (#10, 16.5%), Dalmatians (#11, 16.3%), Cocker Spaniels (#13, 15.7%), Irish Setters (#25, 12.6%), all grouped in the same cluster as Shiba Inu. In another cluster of dogs with “high aggression, low reactivity, high trainability,” there are breeds like the Boxer (#6, 18%.0), Great Dane (#36, 10.1%), Akita (#46, 8.6%), and Doberman Pinscher (#50, 8.4%). A lot of the smaller breeds rank pretty far down the list, like Yorkies and Pomeranians, which matches what I understand about hypothyroidism usually affecting medium to large-sized dogs.

But the notable overlaps make me wonder if a statistical correlation between breeds documented to be “aggressive” and thyroid disorders could be made even clearer by someone else with more rigorous analytical methods. While there is a lot of online and anecdotal information about hypothyroidism as an underlying factor contributing to aggression and behavioral changes in dogs (I’m thinking in particular about the work of Dr. Jean Dodds who presented her findings at the 1996 International Symposium on Canine Hypothyroidism), American DVMs seem to downplay the link between hypothyroidism and aggression, and there hasn’t been much published information in peer-reviewed journals echoing Jean Dodd’s findings.

Considering that 1996 wasn’t that long ago, in my mind, and that was the first (and only!) large-scale conference on canine hypothyroidism to have appeared in my searches, I bet more work can still be done. I just hope the specialists are talking to each other, and not content to let endocrinologists do their own thing, while ethologists do their own thing, and dermatologists and neurologists and hematologists and so forth are not limiting themselves to the information immediately at hand.