My golden retriever has been diagnosed with an under active thyroid. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is it easy to treat, is it expensive? Does pet insurance cover the medication? Will he get his bounce back?

Hello, one of my cats is hypothyroid. I was very stressed when I found out but it's all worked out fine. They took a blood test and actually measured her blood pressure (with a little cuff on her leg). When the results came back the vet tried her on some tablets and took another blood test three weeks later. It wasn't quite strong enough so she's now on one Carbimazole per day and she's fine. Her blood test indicated it is now under control and she's putting weight back on.

I don't know about the insurance aspect but I imagine it is something they would pay for. I wish your dog well and a speedy return to his old self.

My dog was diagnosed about a year ago. She now has medication every day and a blood test every 6 months just to make sure her levels are right. Within a week of going on the medication there was a huge difference, all her energy was back and she acts like a 2 year old again (she's 10!!)
Don't have much experience of pet insurance but don't see why it shouldn't be covered. Not that expensive to treat anyway, even cheaper if you ask your vet for a prescription and buy the medication elsewhere.

Thanks for that, that's very reassuring! At the end of the day cost and insurance are irrelevant as we would just pay it to have our old boy back! (He's actually only 6, but acts like an old man!)

Mine was the same, she'd put on loads of weight and just had no energy and no spark in her eyes. She'd also started to develop some skin sores. The symptoms creep up so slowly that it takes you a while to realise something is actually wrong. Loki is now on soloxine and a different dog. It sometimes takes a bit of messing about to get the dosage right, and Loki has to have her dose split so she has it twice a day instead of the usual one dose.
Your lad will be absolutely fine.

It is something that seems to affect Golden Retrievers quite particularly. I asked for advice on behalf of a friend of mine and got some excellent feedback from here

http://www.petfriendlyworld.com/chat...ht=hypothyroid

Well he had a further £200 worth of tests, which all came back normal! He's now been diagnosed as lazy! At least he's had a complete MOT and we know he's fit and well, just a very laid back retriever!