Hyperthyroidism in horses?

[SammyL]

Does anyone have experience with hyperthyroidism in horses?

I have a gelding that remains quite thin despite having a good appetite. He is a more refined, taller B-sized boy. He turned eight years this year. When he was a yearling, he was a gangly, pudgy boy and as he got older he was in good weight for him. In the last four years or so, he remains thin and ribby. I want to say his BCS is 2/5.

He is otherwise healthy, good appetite, bright, alert.

He is out on pasture, and fed alfalfa pellets, Purina "Mini Feed" and just a little 14% sweet feed. The other horses in the herd are on the exact same diet, and look fabulous, all in ideal weight.

I mean, he is healthy in every other way. Just thin.

I was in class today, and hyperthyroidism was brought up, and I started thinking....

I am calling the vet tomorrow.

Thanks for any help!

 

[epetrilli]

I do not have first hand experience with a positively confirmed case of hyperthyroid in a mini, but I did have one that I highly suspected last year and so we ran some tests in the lab. It turned out that he was low on platelets for whatever reason so I put him on some Red Cell and he improved drastically. He was not quite as old as yours but it is something to consider looking into when you talk to your vet, they do have panels for hyper and hypo-thyroid, some chem panels include the results others you have to ask specifically to have them done. I hope you find some answers, often a horse that is too thin is more difficult to adjust than a horse that is too fat. It is harder to gain than loose in some situations, I have one of each double the fun-LOL!!!

Hope someone else with more information will post as well because I would also be curious to hear what others have done

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

Hyperthyroidism does occur in horses and is actually more common than hypothyroidism (which is exceedingly rare). Hyperthyroidism is usually caused by a cancerous thyroid gland and takes more than a T4 level to diagnose.

Dr Taylor

 

[chandab]

I have an 11 year old gelding that I got spring 2008 (he was given to me, after his pasturemate passed on). He seemed to be of decent weight when I got him in early spring, but as summer progressed he lost tons of weight despite feeding him more than anyone else, then that winter his weight improved, following summer weight loss, winter slight improvement. Then last summer we finally figured out he had an external parasite, still not sure what it was, but monthly dusting got rid of it and he started gaining weight. He looked good this past winter til February when he quit eating and lost weight, started him on senior feed; he had an abcess on his face (thought it might be a problem tooth, til a grass seed awn popped out of the abcess), it didn't show up through his winter woolies; once the grass seed popped out, the abcessed healed and he gained weight and once he sheds the last shred of his winter coat, he's going to look great. Long story short; look into a parasite problem; despite how good a program you might have, sometimes one is more prone to problems with parasites (he's the only one out of 11, 14 if you count the saddle horses, to have problems with external parasites - until this spring when his room-mate got some, guess they jumped ship and found a new location, so he's now being treated).