October 2004

Control That Powerful, Fragile Thyroid Gland

It seems the thyroid affects everything, and everything affects the thyroid. How do you sort it all out?

Horses with thyroid problems are often overweight.

With all the horses that receive thyroid supplementation, you’d think information on thyroid function and disease in horses would be readily available. Not so. In fact, if you consult veterinary textbooks, you may find statements to the effect that horses don’t have thyroid problems.

Practitioners, however, will tell you they can spot a horse that will respond well to thyroid supplements a mile away and give them routinely, often without doing blood work. They’ll also tell you that when they do perform blood tests, odds are the tests will say the horse is normal, while the horse’s response to the hormone tells the veterinarian and the owner otherwise. Who’s right?…