Ben had an operation last week to remove his enlarged parathyroid gland

This is Ben.  Ben is almost 10 years old.  He has a condition called cushings which means that his body produces too many steroids– this makes him more hungry and thirsty than normal.  He was well controlled on his treatment, but just before Christmas his owners noticed that he was drinking a lot more than usual again (about 4 times his normal amount).  We checked his medications and found that his cushings was well controlled, but on a routine blood sample we noticed that he had a raised blood calcium level and a low blood phosphate level.

We had to take some further specialised blood tests which we sent to an external laboratory.  We diagnosed Ben with a rare condition called primary hyperparathyroidism.  This is a condition where the parathyroid gland (which sits next to the thyroid gland in the neck) becomes enlarged and produces too much parathyroid hormone resulting in Ben being thirsty all the time.

He had an operation last week to remove his enlarged parathyroid gland (see photo).  We are happy to report that Ben has recovered well at home and he is already back to drinking much less than before his operation.