Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Kitten with congenital hypothyroidism had low growth factor and liver
By Quante, Saskia et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2010·Clinic for Small Animal Internal Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Congenital hypothyroidism in a kitten resulting in decreased IGF-I concentration and abnormal liver function tests.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 7-month-old male kitten was brought in for chronic constipation and slow growth. The vet found that the kitten had dwarfism and a noticeable thyroid gland, leading to a diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism, a rare condition where the thyroid doesn't produce enough hormones. After starting treatment with thyroid hormone (thyroxine), the kitten's liver function and growth improved significantly over six weeks. This case highlights the importance of recognizing thyroid issues in young cats, especially when they show unusual growth patterns.
People also search for: kitten constipation treatment · congenital hypothyroidism in cats · thyroid problems in kittens · slow growth in kittens
Abstract
A 7-month-old male kitten was presented with chronic constipation and retarded growth. Clinical examination revealed disproportional dwarfism with mild skeletal abnormalities and a palpable thyroid gland. The presumptive diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism was confirmed by low serum total thyroxine (tT(4)) concentration prior to and after the administration of thyroid stimulation hormone (TSH), increased endogenous TSH concentration and abnormal thyroid scintigraphic scan. The kitten had abnormal liver function tests and decreased insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) concentration, both of which returned to normal in correspondence with an improvement of the clinical signs after 6 weeks of thyroxine therapy. Congenital hypothyroidism is a rare disease that may present with considerable variation in clinical manifestation. In cases in which clinical signs are ambiguous, disorders such as portosystemic shunt and hyposomatotropism have to be taken into account as differential diagnosis. As hypothyroidism may be associated with abnormal liver function tests and low IGF-1 concentrations, test results have to be interpreted carefully.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20223692/