Health
BENSON AND ORSON'S STORIES
Over the past few months, there have been many people writing in about their dogs’ health problems, including hypothyroidism. HT is a very difficult illness to understand as there can be so many symptoms going on at the same time and many of these symptoms can be because of other illnesses other than HT. I was always led to believe that a dog had to be fat and lethargic to have a thyroid problem! The dog whose story this is will never be remembered for being fat or lethargic.
Benson, ‘the wild one’, in his early years, was just a normal young dog that enjoyed his showing and was wonderful to live with. The only thing I would have changed about him was his profuse coat that soaked up oil like a sponge!
Then one day in 1997, a friend of mine was looking after my dogs for a few days while I took a short holiday. She knew all my dogs very well and it was a second home for them. She telephoned me and told me that although Ben wasn’t actually ill, he didn’t seem to be his usual self and appeared to be depressed. However, after a couple of days, he was back to his old self.
But for the next few months, Ben had almost continuous stomach upsets. We ‘lived’ at the vets, with him being prescribed different tablets to try and cure the problem. Sometimes it would get better, but it always returned worse than before. The vet wanted to test him for pancreatitis, but a second vet thought it would be better to test him for HT, as he said that pancreas problems can be caused by HT. He was right. The test proved positive and Ben was started on Soloxin.
I knew nothing at all about HT, not many people did then. However, I was told by someone who attended a saluki lecture on HT, given by Jean Dodds, that this problem also existed in other breeds. I was so surprised to discover that I could relate so many symptoms to Ben. One of these was wasting of muscle tone and many people had commented that Ben’s muscle tone was surprisingly poor, given that he had so much free running. He also had sore ears; one eye had a white spot, due to fatty deposits; a dull, dry coat; slow heart rate and a worsening temperament, which meant that he had to be carefully watched both with people and with other dogs.
Then his breathing began to suffer. We thought it may be something to do with his larynx, but chest x-rays showed up white ‘spots’ in his lungs, caused by severe bronchitis. The HT was weakening his immune system, enabling the bronchitis to really take hold. He was put on antibiotic steroids, which the vet said would not cure the bronchitis, but would help him to breathe more easily. He advised some homeopathic treatment, which I am pleased to say, worked very well, his health greatly improved and I was able to return to the ring, where he gained BVIS.
But not long after this, his condition once again worsened, so much so, that we were advised not to walk him at all. I started to wonder if he was worse at particular times of the year, as I had noticed that he did not tolerate cold weather very well.
One day in July 2003, I asked a friend to help me clip him off, as he could not stand on the grooming table for long. I put him in the car, but before we got out of the village, he began to have breathing problems. I drove straight round to the vets. He looked down his throat and told me that his larynx had completely closed and Ben had died.
Even though I knew there was a chance HT could be hereditary, we had already bought a puppy out of Ben’s sister. We have also got his nephew, Orson, who is now 6 years old. Three years ago we found out he had thyroid problems as well, but his symptoms were very different to Benson’s. The only symptom they had in common, were bald patches of coat. Orson also lost the hair around his eyes, is very nervous and has temperament ‘seizures’.
He now has a lovely coat although he is still overweight. HT seems to age them very quickly, as to look at him, you would think that he is 10 years rather than 6 years old.
Orson and Ben also had the same tooth missing. They both lost this tooth one Christmas when chewing on bones, Benson was 7 and Orson was 4. This may just be a coincidence, but I know that HT can also cause gum problems.
Even though I have had two related dogs diagnosed as HT and I also know of other siblings with problems, I know not all related afghans have this problem. It is such a shame that not enough was known about this 10 years ago, but hopefully by breeders and owners now talking openly about HT and other health problems, we can start to help others and the breed we all love.
Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the book of some other countries breeders and test all bitches and dogs before they are mated. This would be a good start
Joanne Kidd
July 2005
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