My cat has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism

[MegBusset]

She is 12 and used to be a right fatso but has got v skinny in the last year or two. Blood tests have just confirmed that she has an overactive thyroid. Just wondered if anyone else had experience of this? We have been given a course of tablets to give her for a month to see what happens...

Hiya, My parent's cat has just been diagnosed with the same. To be honest, it didn't sound good, as her heart was too weart to undergo any operation. HOWEVER, the vet put her onto heart medication and apparently she's doing brilliantly. Looks like she's going to be OK. Mum and dad just have to treat her as though she's 19, not 15.

Its usually pretty easy to control with tablets in most cats - the difficult bit is getting the tablets into the cat! Talk to your vet if you do struggle though as there are alternatives - thyroid removal or iodine therapy that can remove the need to give tablets all the time. Pros and cons to all options, but in general these patients do really well.

My cat was diagnosed with this at 12 and he is now 16 and going strong. He is on tablets and has to have blood tests every so often to check the dose is still right. You get to know the signs when the thyroid starts to go wobbly again (lassitude, thin and throwing up as soon as he has eaten) and we just get him back in for checks as soon as possible to avoid strain to the heart.
I avoided the iodine treatment when he was younger because I dreaded the effect of four weeks isolation on him. I do regret this now as it is harder to keep his thyroid stable now than it was even a year ago (all I need is a lazy catsitter to "forget" his meds and he is back at the vet as soon as we are back from holiday) - so if your cat is not particularly clingy I recommend you have that done. Ours is too old for the surgery now as well so we are stuck with the meds.

I had a cat a few years ago with this. She started on 3 tablets a day which we gradually reduced down to 2. We used to give her them in cream cheese as she hated having tablets. She did really well until she got a tumour on her bladder. She was approx 19-20.

One of my cats now may have it, we have to take him back in a month or so to see how it's doing as if it is going it was in the really early stages. He is fitter and younger (14) so would probably have the op done.

Hope this helps