thyroid

Question
Hi Dana,
long story short, I met another bunny person who tells me that her bunny has  hypothyroidism and when i asked what his symptoms were they were the same as symptoms that my bunny has... {percolating and a gagging sound in the back of the throat}.Let me say that my vet looked for every other possible resean for the symptoms and never thought of a thyroid issue.... She said her vet scoped the bunny and saw laryngeal hemiplegia, did a T4 and discovered his thyroid was very low. Once on seloxine symptoms went away. i told my vet {who is VERY rabbit savvy} and he said we can test my girls thyroid. results came; back my vet said there is no established range for bunnies thyroid value so in extrapolating from cats, the normal range S/B 1-4. My "friend" said her vet said normal is 2.5 - 4. now i'm confused as to what to do... My vet said that if i wanted to get my girls value to 2.5 thats fine b/c its within his range of 1-4, and if her symptoms go away, great. I don't think he is convinced about any of this, by the way.. we are starting a dose of .5mg twice per day. I don't have any idea if that dose is right??
do you have an opinion on this subject?
i just want to help my girl and do the right thing.
Thanks for your time,
Jeanine

Answer
Dear Jeanine,

I've never heard of a rabbit being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, though I suppose it is not impossible.  I have absolutely no experience with thyroid medication in rabbits, so can't help you with dosages.  

Just as a note:  a far more common cause of gagging in rabbits is dental problems (e.g., molar spurs or dental abscess, or even a wad of food caught in the throat and hanging from fur wrapped around a back molar--yes, we've seen this!).  Please see:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

Dental problems deep in the mouth are very difficult to see unless the rabbit is under anesthesia.  So if the gagging persists despite the thyroid medication, I would ask the vet about putting her under to do a really thorough exam of the pharynx and throat, including head radiographs to check the state of her molars.

I hope this helps.

Dana