Thyroid problems in cat

[Adollop]

My 11 year old siamese cat has just been diagnosed through a blood test with thyroid problems. I took him to the vets because he had diarrhoea and despite changing his food it wouldn't clear up.

I'm going back tomorrow to discuss options.

In the meantime, is it normal for a siamese to sleep most of the time at his age or could this be due to thyroid problems?

The blood test also showed raised liver test results, which the vet said could ber linked to thyroid too. My worry is that as a kitten a blood test showed raised ALT results and they never got to the bottom of what caused it, but another blood test later showed they'd gone down again, although not as far as they should. He's been fine, not often ill, although his eyes dart around a lot, all the time, but I understand there isn't much that can be done about that, he's always been like that as long as I can remember, the vet has never been worried about it.

What can I expect to change if he's given tablets for the thyroid problem and how soon?

And here's the obligatory picture

My girl had thyroid problems. We went down the tablet route, as I didn't want to put a 16 year old cat through a thyroidectomy or othertreatment.

Depends how bad his levels are but I'd hope to see some improvement within a couple of weeks. Sometimes it's hard to get the dose right though, a vet will often underdose to start with as problems can be caused if they go the other way. It's fairly usual to check levels about three weeks later, hopefully they're spot on, if not the vet will change the dose.

Over the two years we had Lottie on treatment (we lost her due to lots of old age problems not her thyroid or anything that'd be raised in blood tests), she did have to have tests every few months to check levels were still ok. We had to increase her dose twice during that time. It's not cheap, but they can generally live a good life and we had two lovely extra years with her. Each time her levels were up, her liver levels were up, also she had a heart murmur. Not every cat will have a heart murmur but for her it was a tell tail sign to get levels check. Once under control liver levels were better and murmur went.

Sorry for the long response, but hope it helps.

Of yes, and a lovely photo!

Oh, forgot to say, once levels are right, it's much cheaper to ask the vet for a prescription and order online from somewhere like Animeddirect. You just need to make sure you can get the prescription a good or so before you run out.

Lottie started off on tablets, but the last six months we had her on liquid Thyronorm as it was much easier to ensure the dose stayed in her mouth. If you have problems with tablets, ask about this.

If your cat already has liver problems I’d be very careful . We lost our Ragdoll last year at 16 , he was diagnosed with thyroid problems after blood tests ( like yours had diarrhoea) , he started on the tablets and unfortunately had a reaction to them and went into liver failure which due to his age and various co morbidities we didn’t feel it was fair to carry on . Our vet said he’d never seen a cat react in this way to what is a very normal medication used by loads of people . Hope your cat feels better soon ,he’s very beautiful .

My 13 yearl old tabby has been on thyroid medication for 18 months now and is doing quite well. We use the liquid, while it's more expensive it's really quick to squirt down his throat twice a day. We've had to up his dose three times over a year, and the vet thinks that his thyroid is getting gradually worse. His weight loss has settled for now. He also had very stinky breath - probably ketones.

He often had diarrhoea, and had taken to pooing in the bath. I can't be bothered to fight that as it's quick to pick up in tissue and flush and I keep a naice smelling dettol bottle in the bathroom to wipe it down after.

For now he seems happy enough, eats like a horse and likes to sit on me and sleep all evening. Normal cat stuff.

Thanks for the replies. I'm at the vets this afternoon, so I'll see what she says. Thanks for the warning about potential liver problems. We never found out what caused the problems before, but I've mentioned it to the vet (I've moved house so it's a different vet).
It's going to be difficult, I'm on a very low income due to disabilities so I'm hoping it won't be too expensive, but needs must.

@Adollop if it helps, our 16 year old cat is on 0.5ml of Thyronorm twice a day. It cost us about £70 for a bottle which will do her for about 3 months (100ml). She's been on it 4 months and is like a different cat, much happier.

thanks, that's quite a lot.

He doesn't seem unhappy, but then he's a siamese, a bit demanding, bolshy ...

He seems to feel the cold and sleeps in bed with me and is always on my lap. He doesn't play much these days, but I put that down to his age.

It's this damn diarrhoea that's getting to me

Adollop, he is absolutely beautiful. Good luck with the vet visit, I hope you get some positive results. I wouldn’t be too concerned about him sleeping a lot, my cat sleeps for about 18 hours a day, I think Oriental breeds like Siamese sleep much longer in cold weather. Hope things go well for him.

Thank you, he is the love of my life ❤

Here's a photo of him as a kitten, he was 13 weeks old when we got him.

My cat is on thyroid meds. It has returned her weight to a decent level. But it is not a pill--it is a cream that I rub into her ear twice a day.

He really is absolutely beautiful. We have a rescue who is part Burmese and quite highly strung. Like you, I absolutely adore him. It’s such a worry if they are poorly. The very best of luck with his medication, I hope you get good news.

I'm back from the vets now. She's given me Thyronorm liquid, he's to have 0.5 ml twice a day, 12 hours apart and to go back for another blood test on 4 weeks. 🤞

Hope treatment goes well. Let us know how he seems.

Thank you, I will. Weirdly since being at the vets - and before his first dose - he has been a bit subdued and not as interested in food as usual, so I'm keeping a close eye on him.

I hope he does really well on his medicine. Let us know how he’s getting on, hope he makes a good recovery

Thank you. I was extremely worried about him today, he was reluctant to eat, he was sick twice in the night and then this morning after his breakfast, he had diarrhoea still but it looked different, sort of beige/pinky almost. I'm keeping a close eye on him and will ring the vets if it gets worse, but i guess it's the medication making him sick. He's settled down this afternoon, cuddled lots and got his appetite mostly back - usually he's always hungry, he's eating now and follows me into the kitchen, bit he's not falling on his food like he usually does .. maybe he just feels a bit icky.

@Adollop My DCat was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid during the summer and was put on 0.5ml of thyronorm twice a day, which was far too much and sent her thyroid levels into the minus’ - I thought I was going to lose her, so please keep a close eye as I personally feel that’s far too high a starting dose for any cat. I questioned this with 3 different Vets at my previous practice and they just looked at me blankly, shrugged and said “Well it’s just the standard starting dose”. Not good enough in my opinion and I consequently moved to a different practice and Vet, who agreed that it was far too high and she’s now on 0.05ml of the transdermal gel and we’ll work our way up from that.

igot thanks for that, I did wonder how they arrived at this amount. I'm on thyroxine myself and I know I started at the lowest possible dose and increased slowly. What signs was your cat showing when the dose was too high?

He seems ok at the moment, he asked for his breakfast and tucked in, he slept most of the night in bed with me. I'll keep an eye on him.

I had a hyperthyroid cat who happily had meds for about 2 years before she died v suddenly.

We felt mortified as when she was treated she got so much better that we realised she had been ill for a very long time - we had just thought she was annoying and all these behaviours went away.

So be prepared for many things to change - our cat had been always hungry, always following me to the bathroom where her water bowl was, shouting a lot, marching up and down.

We didn't notice she was ill until she lost weight as her normal behaviour was to be greedy, shouty, bossy and follow me around. When she was on meds it was obvious that she went back to normal levels of greedy, shouty, bossy and clingy and poor cat had been off the scale for years.

My babe aged 18 has hyperthyroidism. This has given her chronic smelly diarrhoea.
Tablets have failed to control her condition completely and surgery is out as she almost died under general anaesthetic.
Thankfully I am insured and the insurer has agreed to pay for her to go up to the animal hospital to have radioactive iodine treatment which will cure the problem completely.
There is no anaesthetic involved, they inject her with the substance and it makes its way round the body and destroys the thyroid from within so it's really safe.
After that she should be fine.
She also has raised liver enzymes from the condition, most of them do and it's not good for them long term.
If you have a separate room at home like a dining room they can come home after a week as long as they are separated from the rest of the family and you,ll need to store their cat litter in a shed until it's no longer radioactive.
The council tip picks up all radioactive waste and will refuse to let you dump it, they have monitors I believe.
The only drawback is it's 2k but if you're insured that shouldn't be a problem.

@Adollop She became very lethargic, kept bringing up ‘foamy’ sick and refused to eat. It was a shock seeing her like that after her being so lively, I was convinced I was going to lose her! 😔 Her thyroid level went right down from 83 to minus 3 and I felt so guilty I hadn’t questioned the dosage - I mean you don’t, do you, you just expect the Vet to know what they are doing! None of them could seem to understand that a cat with a level of 83 should have a lower dose than a cat with a level of 150 (for example)! 🙄 Utterly ridiculous that they just trot out the ‘standard dose’ without taking into account that every cat is an individual. Hope he gets on OK 😊

Thanks for that. Mine only had a level of 70 so he's probably on too high a dose too Having said that, he seems ok at the moment, although he still has awful diarrhoea.

madcatlady thanks, he's not insured and it's not financially possible. I also don't like the sound of it tbh.

A hyperthyroid cat will usually eat a lot more, once on medication they're appetite should drastically decrease. Just keep on eye on him and the amount he's eating. My girl had loose stools, can't remember the reason but it's common in cats with this issue.