Hyperthyroidism?

[Ratched]

Taking my 15 year old moggy to the vet on Thursday and dreading it!
He is peeing EVERYWHERE, crying for food continuously, even when there is still some in the bowl. Staring vacant into space and is losing weight very quickly.
I know there will be blood tests etc., but I am dreading a diagnosis of hyperthyroidism. Any medication will be exceptionally challenging shall we say. I do feel his age precluded surgery.

I don't know why I am posting really. Just worried about the cost, the actual administering any mess, the whole thing.

• mess should say meds!

Is he insured? My cat was roughly the same age when she had radio iodine treatment, but it was paid for by insurance. There was no way we could have pilled her, we couldn’t really touch her. I think there is a version of the medication now that you can rub on their ear.

No, he's not insured unfortunately.
Was Radio Iodine a one off, non invasive procedure?
I'll go and google it☺️

There is no way I will be able to give him tablets daily!

@Chemenger radio looks great.
£2.5k.... gulp.
Can I be rude and ask where you had yours done? It looks like there are very few places in the country doing it.
Will investigate from this end, but recommendations welcome.

I know I am getting ahead of myself - haven't even got a diagnosis yet! But I just feel better if I have 'a plan'!

Thanks for your help

Sorry for wittering in, but I have found a hospital about 5 miles away that does it! One of my dogs had tplo surgery there last year.

Well, that's one 'problem solved 😄

My older cat has this. Medicating her is a doddle, it’s a liquid with a very hormonal smell, she loves it! I usually mix it with a little cat milk and she thinks she’s getting a treat twice a day. Also, get a prescription from your vet and buy it online. Much cheaper. She’s very happy and healthy since being diagnosed and starting treatment.

@Passmethefrazzles thank you! Well, that is another possibility then! I have just read about tablets that are rather large and as mine has to be pinned down and head locked to get anything but food into his mouth, tablets were always a no no!
Will have a nosy at liquid meds.

This really is helping me - thank you

This one is a nightmare with pills too, so the success with liquid meds came as a huge relief! Good luck anyway, hope you see positive effects as quickly as we did!

My 15 year old cat was diagnosed with this recently. We don't have insurance. There were a few options, radiation therapy? or operation which were both about 2K and involved long hospital stays. We opted for daily tablets which is about £50 a month but you can get them on the internet cheaper. The tablets are small so we either hide them in her food or wrap them in a bit of ham or chicken which she absolutely loves. She has been on the medication for a couple of months and is much better.

@Toomuchleopard

Thank you! I am calming down a bit now that I feel better informed.
I will just have to see what happens on Thursday. I will report back!

What's the liquid med called! My cat is 19 and has had hyperthyroidism for approx 6 years. He takes 2 Vidalta pills a day hidden in people foods. Sometimes he refuses. If our other cat had it we wouldn't be able to do this as she doesn't eat any people food, or not enough to hide pills in it, so this might be a good option for her.

Our cat had hyperthyroidism, we spent 3-4 years rubbing cream into her ears morning and night with 3 monthly vet visits & bloods. After the 1st 2 years the insurer refused to cover it without increasing the premiums by about £150pcm, we paid for it ourselves as it was cheaper. We also had to bulk buy disposable gloves!

Oh God, I do things for our animals I wouldn't do for DH
The things we do eh?

My cat had it at the Dick Vet School in Edinburgh. She was part of a trial there, at the time they were trying to shorten the stay. She had to have various tests beforehand, including a scan under sedation (actually she had to have most things under sedation, she was the kind of cat that had warnings in red on her vet records). The actual treatment is just an injection. Then a week or so in isolation in a special area with really nice big pens like at a good cattery. Then we had her at home where she wasn’t allowed to sleep on beds or have contact with small children and the litter tray had to have flushable litter.

My 14 year old cat had this. Our vets advised against the op on grounds of her age and that it does not always work. So we had to choose between the daily treatment and the iodine. As she's a grumpy / fussy old cat as it is, we didn't think she would tolerate the daily treatment, so we went for the iodine treatment. It cost £2K in total, but we had insurance. She had to stay in the hospital for 10 days after, and then we had to keep her indoors for two weeks once she was home.

A few months down the line, you wouldn't know anything was ever wrong with her, she's putting the weight back on, her fur has lost that greasy sheen it had and she's in perfect health, totally glad we did it as there's no ongoing costs, it's all sorted. I'm glad we went for that option.

@imumme I must admit, I it is confirmed, I think this is what I would probably opt for.
It seems to be a very effective treatment and although 2k is going to have to be found, assuming he has a few years left in him, it may well be cost effective too.
Little sod will probably peg out a month after treatment just to spite me😅

The offender

He’s lovely.

My cat had the radioiodine treatment and it was brilliant. It was very expensive, almost £4,000 as she needed an MRI scan as well. Luckily she was insured. Good luck.

Medication for our Tabby Cat was a doddle too. We were so embarrassed as she had clearly had it for years and we thought she was just annoying and loud - only noticed when she was actually losing weight.

When treated she still loud but not insanely so and the tramping up and down in the evening stopped.

DH used to squidge a tablet in a Lidl cat stick and chuck it on the floor - treat was gone before she realised there was a tablet in it.

OK, occasionally we noticed some rogue tablets left behind but she had 9/10 and it was good enough to be fully treated.

She was a very social cat and we didn't think she would cope with radio-iodine.

My old boy had this for about 7 years. He had vidalta tablets that we used a pill popper for but he was very good about that. After the first time when he put a claw through my nail. We would go through a cycle of blood test, try a dosage for 3 weeks, retest to see if we had the dosage right, adjust if necessary, rinse and repeat till it was right. Then after 6 months or so, usually identified by weight loss, it would begin again.

He had 7 very happy years. In the end he got cancer too and once that needed medicating it was game over, as balancing that lot (and the blood pressure meds, and the diuretics) would have been too complex and he wasn't in good enough shape to start to try. He was nearly 18 then.

Thank you all so much for telling your stories I am fluctuating madly between what the best course of treatment would be, so it's really useful to hear different opinions.
I am a wee bit concerned about him being away if I go for the radio treatment. He went into a cattery when he was about 18months old and really did very badly. He has never been away from home since 😌 So how he would cope is a concern.
Hopefully, assuming I am correct in my diagnosis, the decision will just be made buy gut reaction to what vet advises.

Off to try and find the cat basket.... its in the loft somewhere!

My cat had it. He lived for another 10 years, just on medication. There is an op but we were reluctant as he was so skinny despite the meds.

One of the difficulties was the neighbours thought he was a stray as he was thin and hungry all the time. We fed him plenty but he would approach the neighbours all the time and was often fed by them. I'm not complain really, I know it came from a good place, and they me and well but I ended up getting a collar saying "do not feed, thyroid condition''

Giving him tablets was difficult at first as they're not supposed to be crushed, but we got it to a fine art. I would gave him on my lap facing me, then pressing his cheeks where the jaws end which forces his mouth open, sticking the tablet in as far as possible, then stroking his neck/throat area to get him to swallow. You can probably find you tube videos. He objected like mad at first but got used to it.

Sorry for typos

My cat had the radio treatment, it was just an injection but then she had to stay in hospital for a while as she would have radioactive wee or something. Procedure was about 2500 but there were tests to pay out for as well before and after. Had it done in Canterbury. Over a year later now and she is absolutely fine.