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Can thyroid problems come back after radioiodine?

10 replies

chemenger · 11/06/2014 08:57

Nastycat had treatment with radioiodine a couple of years ago for an overactive thyroid. She's never been a pleasant cat to live with but she is currently driving us up the wall. She sleeps very little (especially compared to our two year old who is fast asleep all day and evening, occasionally getting up to eat - he is out all night getting wet and muddy and hunting). She howls non-stop all day and much of the night. Her fur is scraggly looking. She is clingy with me but aggressive with everyone and everything else. This all sounds like thyroid, but that is meant to have been cured by the very expensive treatment (and she had tests a year after to check it had worked). Can it come back? She had a good check up last year during her inappropriate peeing episode and the vet thought the howling, which was nowhere near as bad than, was down to her age.

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Lonecatwithkitten · 11/06/2014 13:53

No the radioactive iodine destroys all thyroid tissue. Cognitive dysfunction is the most likely.

chemenger · 12/06/2014 08:59

Thanks Lone - that's what I am afraid of. I feel sorry for her because at times she seems really upset and, because she does not do cuddles etc, there is little I can do to make her feel better. I think the end may be in sight, her quality of life is just not there any more. Back to the vet to check for physical problems first, then...

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cozietoesie · 12/06/2014 09:06

How old is she, chemenger ?

chemenger · 12/06/2014 14:55

She's 17, no spring chicken.

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cozietoesie · 12/06/2014 15:22

Achh. I've been lucky in that I've never knowingly had a cat with FCD - even Seniorboy is only a tad absent minded from time to time despite his advanced years. Her symptoms certainly fit.

How is her litter tray behaviour these days?

chemenger · 12/06/2014 15:43

She is now fine with the litter tray, but only because we have five, her favourite being behind the sofa in the living room, which is lovely when we have visitors and she goes for a very loooooog wee Smile. There is a hint of cat pee around the curtains again but I'm not sure if that is just still hanging around from before.

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cozietoesie · 12/06/2014 16:05

Five, Goodness. Poor old girl.

I'm not sure there's a lot more you can do although you're right - the vet first to check for physical problems.

You might find \link{http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/behavior-problems-older-cats\this article} of interest prior to seeing the vet.

All the best.

DianaTrent · 12/06/2014 16:20

Actually sometimes radioiodine is not a permanent solution. It happens not infrequently in humans that it will need to be repeated. Different issues can interfere with its uptake, and the exact dose delivered to an individual's thyroid is a rather personal thing. Certainly when treating humans with thyrotoxicosis the aim is to knock the thyroid down with the I131 but not destroy it completely, we normally only give doses high enough for that in the case of thyroid cancer to destroy any remnants after surgery. It would certainly be worth asking the vet to check thyroid levels.

cozietoesie · 12/06/2014 16:41

Thanks for that, Diana. I should imagine that chemenger would be asking the vet to check those on a 'just in case' basis.

chemenger · 13/06/2014 08:41

Thanks Diana, that is interesting, I will ask if they will retest her (its a vet school and I know they have research interests in the iodine treatments so they may be interested). However I read the information on the link Cozie gave and it is a very close match to the behaviour Nastycat is showing, uncanny in fact. It includes things I didn't mention like staring into space/at walls which even the DC's have noticed. All a bit sad really. Vet next week. After this there will be no more cats, its too heartbreaking, even when you don't really like them.

(In other words I will be posting new kitten pics about three months after Nastycat's demise Smile).

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