Where it is
On the sides of the trachea, immediately behind the larynx, along the first 6-7 tracheal rings.
- Layer
- Organs
- System
- Endocrine system
- Region
- Head and neck
What it is and what it does
The thyroid has two long, narrow, flattened lateral lobes, lying on the lateral faces of the trachea, close to the larynx, along the first six or seven tracheal rings. The isthmus joining them is inconstant: in large dogs it may be a glandular band about a centimeter wide, in small ones it is usually absent. The parathyroids, usually four, lie on the lobes.
The position comes from a 1914 treatise (Sisson), the only source read that describes it in the dog; the modern sources consulted had no legible text. In the drawing, the left lobe is a small oval next to the trachea, behind the larynx.
Worth remembering
On its lobes lie the parathyroid glands, usually four.
Names
- Also called: thyroid.
- Latin term: glandula thyroidea.
- In Romanian: Glanda tiroidă (Romanian page).