Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Improvement of the clinical signs of gait abnormality after treatment with levothyroxine in a horse with shivering and hypothyroidism.
- Journal:
- Acta veterinaria Hungarica
- Year:
- 2020
- Authors:
- Saadi, Aram et al.
- Affiliation:
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
An 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding, which is a type of horse used for jumping, was having trouble with his walking and had some hoof issues in his back legs. After a thorough check-up, the vet found signs of a condition called shivers, along with an enlarged thyroid gland and low thyroid hormone levels. The horse was treated with levothyroxine, a medication that helps boost thyroid hormone levels, for a year. By the fourth week of treatment, his hormone levels were back to normal, and after thirty weeks, his walking problems showed significant improvement. This suggests that checking thyroid health and treating issues with levothyroxine can help horses with shivering.
Abstract
An 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding used for jumping was evaluated for gait abnormalities and hoof problems in the hindlimbs. Clinical examinations revealed signs consistent with shivers. A thyroid gland enlargement was noticed, baseline serum thyroid hormone (TH) concentrations were low, and a low response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone administration was observed. Hypothyroidism was suspected. The horse was treated with levothyroxine for 1 year. TH concentrations returned to the normal range by week 4 of treatment. Thirty weeks after the initiation of levothyroxine therapy, the gait abnormality improved. Our findings suggest that the assessment of thyroid status and especially of the subclinical thyroid gland disorders in horses affected with shivering, as well as evaluation of the effects of levothyroxine on the improvement of clinical signs could be promising in establishing the aetiopathogenesis and/or treatment of shivering in horses.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33055306/