Other ways to treat hyperthyroidism in cats

[Adollop]

Following on from my previous thread, my 11 year old siamese has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and prescribed thyronorm.

He's not reacting well to the medication, being sick a lot, still has diarrhoea, which looks pinky at times and obviously feels nauseous and unhappy. I reduced the dose, after reading that the initial dose is often too high, his thyroid count was 70, but he's the same.

I've read about prescription diet food for thyroid problems, has anyone tried that successfully?

He's not insured and I can't afford the radioactive treatment plus he couldn't be away from me and my other cat for weeks on end until he's not radioactive. I'm just not comfortable with the whole thing. Unfortunately money is an issue.

Just wondered if anyone had treated their cat with something other than Thyronorm.

@Adollop, but this is a carnivore with hyperthyroidism so it needs a low iodine diet and all meat is high in iodine. It is a compromise to treat the condition, just as every other treatment is some other compromise.

I had a cat on the Hills food for years who was fine on it. I used the dry stuff day to day and the tins for the odd treat. Plain chicken breast is very low in iodine so I gave her that very occasionally too.

She'd been overweight when I'd first got her so I'd never really given her Dreemies etc, and she was always keener for cuddles than food anyway, so it didn't feel like too bad a trade off for years of controlling the thyroid problem without medication. She was 19 when she died, of something unrelated.

Cheapest place to buy the Hills was part used packets off ebay, second cheapest was zooplus.

Sparklingcat is on quite a high dose it seems @longtompot. She's doing ok though, don't know what the limit is.

I've been feeding him hills y/d since Monday, he's eating it, although would rather have his brother's food! The vet came back with a price for the transdermal gel but it was £50 per syringe and he'd need 3 a month, so unfortunately too expensive.

@Adollop - I’d question that price as I pay just over £50 for 3ml, which is 3 syringes! 😱😱😱

Thanks igot. I'm keeping that as my last chance at the moment, as he's doing ok on the food, the diarrhoea has almost cleared up and he seems happy enough. I'll have him to be weighed and for a blood test in a month.

That’s great news @Adollop! 😊