Hyperthyroid cat

[ruthypfdraper]

Our 12yr old rescue cat has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. We spotted age was looking thin and gaunt around the face. She also has a heart murmur. She doesn't go outside, it was a condition of her adoption.

Vet says treatment is either pills, liquid meds, transdermal stuff, radioactive treatment as an inpatient, or surgery (rare).

Giving her daily meds will be tricky as she has a sister and they eat together. However, of course we'd try to figure that out. I'm wondering if anyone has experience of the radioactive treatment? I'm worried it would be distressing for her but if it cured the problem that would mean much easier for all of us in her twilight years. We are well insured thankfully.

Experiences welcome and a picture of my little shadow for cuteness.

Our girl was diagnosed when she was 14 and after a few stressful weeks of trying to give her the pills (she's a bugger about meds!), we opted for the radioactive iodine. She was isolated in hospital for a fortnight (while the radiation worked its way out of her system) and then she stayed in our garage for a further 2 weeks ( she could have come into the house at this point, but we didn't have anywhere we could keep her away from the kids). I was worried how she would cope, but she did really well - apart from being desperate for fuss when she came home. 2 years on and she's still in great condition. If you can do it, I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks. So was it important to keep the cat away from children for a while? We have two teens.

The vet said three weeks away from home

Ours is currently in the hyperthyroid treatment centre. He’s on week 5 because there’s no way of separating him from kids in the house so he’s expected to be in for another week or ten days then home all cured, fingers crossed. Expensive (thank gods for insurance) but he’s got a lot of years ahead and all the other options seemed impractical even compared to the awfulness of him being hospitalised for 6 weeks.

My babe went for radioactive iodine treatment. It was brilliant. She was completely cured. She was 18 when she had it.

If you've got teens it might not be so bad, as they've got more chance of following the precautions (no excessive contact, no lap sitting, being extra careful with hygiene etc). And if it's a 3 week stay in hospital, the any residual radiation should be minimal.

The eldest is upset at the thought of her being away for weeks. I'm tempted though. Medication twice a day would be stressful for me and for the cat.

I have two cats, both 14 and both developed HT within 2 months of each other. The vet had said that the first step was to dose twice a day and I groaned. It's turned out to be an entire non-event because they don't seem to mind the meds at all. One is a bit less keen but she still takes it and the other actively likes it. I was advised to put the end of the syringe at the side of their mouth and they just open and lap it....the vet was right. I would give that a try first as its not difficult and is relatively cheap once you get past the first couple of months (2 x blood tests and initial dose). Buy a script from the vets and buy online...far cheaper.

My other concern with meds is although we don't go away much, we do have holidays. They are normally fine with a neighbour but wouldn't ask them to give medication. Both cats are nervous of people they don't know as they were not socialised at all before we got them. They are fine with us but very wary of visitors. They also hate the vet!

Our Tabbycat was hyperthyroid. We found that we could easily give her medication by disguising it in a cat stick and chucking it on the floor - she would run over and eat it up. Simply needed her to be in the room on her own. Worked about 9/10 of 10 times.

Quick check of the floor, if she had managed to eat the treat minus the tablet a second try would always be successful.

We would recommend the Lidl ones as they are the most squishy.

We didn't think she would cope with the radioactive treatment being isolated and given the risk of being hypothyroid after and so still needing tablets, we decided it wasn't worth it.

My cat had the radioiodine treatment and it was fabulous. I wouldn't hesitate if I ever had another cat with hyperthyroidism. I was worried about leaving her as she was a rescue cat and very nervous, but she coped really well.

In your situation with 2 cats I'd go for either the gel which you rub in the ear or the liquid and either give it to her directly by mouth or in a small amount of food (1 tsp) away from the other cat so you're sure she's had it.
Or I'd go for surgery over radioactive iodine. It's actually a pretty quick op and once it's done that's it. There is always the possibility of complications with surgery and with thyroid surgery there's a small risk the parathyroid gland is removed which means the cat has to have lifelong calcium supplementation.

My cat was diagnosed about 6 years ago. At the time the vets didn't know how long he would live so we decided to do pills as we also could take afford the operation. He is now 19 and we wish we had gone for the operation option as 1)he wouldn't have the issue with taking his meds (he's home weeks with taking them perfectly but now he is not interested) and 2) it has probably cost us the same amount as the op would be, esp considering he needs blood pressure meds too now as well as he nearly went blind.
He has been in kidney failure and end of life for about 3 years now. He's such a fighter for the runt of the litter and the last one left.
We have another cat which is not interested in people food so we would go down the operation route for her.

My last cat had an overactive thyroid and was treated, very successfully, with transdermal (the gel was rubbed into the skin of her ear, not inside it). She haad the treatment for about 5 years, until she died aged 18, from heart failure.

My cat was only away for less than a week after radioactive iodine, I had to agree to keep her in her own room for a while, I kept her in the spare room while she got better.
She lived until she was 20 after that.

I can't say how well the radioactive treatment works as we decided not to do it with ours, however she had the liquid syringed into her mouth every day for 4 years. The first week or so was difficult but it got so so easy once she was used to it and it genuinely changed her life!

I just wanted to give you a good story as I thought it was the end when my cat was diagnosed but she went on to live happily for many years

Thank you all. Much appreciated. My cat also has a heart murmur we knew about already. Vet also said she will need further scans for that. I suppose they may tell us she is also in heart failure. Or that her heart might not take stressful treatment.

I'll talk again to the vet tomorrow. Suspect we need to try medication first until we get clarity on the heart situation.

My Annie is 18 and a half and has been on the liquid meds for about 5 years. She's plump and glossy and doesn't nearly look her age. We just shoot it into her food and then supervise to make sure the other greedy ones don't get it. FWIW our vet thought the liquid was better than other treatments.

My old girl had hyperthryroidism and we found it easier to give her liquid meds inserted into the side of her mouth - I think it was Thyronorm from memory - more expensive than tablets, but you can get a prescription from the vet and order online (it works out cheaper). It took a bit of getting used to, but I knew I had to pursue for her sake, but was successful for three years (she was 18 by that time, had gone blind and lost her smell so couldn't sense her food in front of her, so let her go for that reason not hyperthyroidism).

We give our 10 year old car the liquid medication. I usually hide it in a liquid cat treat, like cat milk or a cat yoghurt. She won't take the pills either. We've been offered a referral for the iodine therapy and we have enough insurance to cover it but I don't want to put her through that while she's happy on the medication. I'd definitely try the liquid stuff first as it's specially designed to appeal to cats. Hope it all goes well!

Cat not car