This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Amy K White) Valerie, TSH is used in veterinary medicine with small animals (dogs,cats,etc.) but not with horses yet. This may be due to cost, lack of research, or both. Herbivores can vary from carnivores in their endocrine and metabolism systems so it is not always easy to use the same data between the two. Work is being done on the subject by Dr. Nat Messer at the Univ. of Missouri Vet School and hopefully a more reliable test is in the near future. -Steve Steve and Amy White
On Wed, 17 Jun 1998 16:08:15 -0500 Steve McIlree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >This message is from: Steve McIlree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >With Valerie Galton's permission I am forwarding this message from her >to >Cynthia to the list. > >This message is originally from: Valerie A. Galton ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Hi > I am not a vet, but a scientist/teacher in a Medical School, and my >field >of investigation just happens to be thyroid. I am Ph.D., but two of >my >colleagues are MDs and see a lot of thyroid patients. I suspect that >your >statement is right on line, and it use to be the case also in humans; >probably still is outside the major Endocrine clinics. I do know >that >plasma T4 and or T3 levels are no longer considered useful >measurements for >determining thyroid status in humans. Plasma thyrotropin levels are >currently the diagnostic aid of choice, along with an astutely worded >history (do you feel cold all the time, do you wear more clothes than >you >colleagues etc etc). The latter is a bit hard with our beloved equine >friends. Have you any info regarding TSH levels in horses? ( I suppose >I >could look this up on medline). I had been wondering for some time >whether >this could be used as a diagnostic tool in a horse. Fortunately >overprescription of thyroid medication is perhaps one of the >situations >that is least likely to cause trouble, unless too much is given, since >exogenous T4 will simply suppress the animals own T4 secretion. >Nevertheless, as you imply it is likely to be unnecessary in many >instances. > My two fjords (one of whom can get lazy in summer) clearly are not >hypothyroid; they just hate the heat and seem totally unfazed by even >the >worst winter weather (-30 and windy!!) >regards >Val Galton >PS Any idea what the female/male ratio of thyroid disease is in >horses? >As you probably know thyroid diseases (all types) in humans are >primarily >diseases of women (A notable exception being George Bush) > > > _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
