Old Cat Hyperthyroid

[Napperchat]

We took our 21 year old cat to the vet and were told he has hyperthyroidism. AFter spending a good few hundred pounds on blood tests and medicines, they now want to up the dosage. If there was a genuine improvement in his condition, we'd be happy. However, his yowling, desperation for food, excessive drinking and poor coat condition is very upsetting. They now want us to up the dosage. He is an old chap. I don't want to see him suffer, but am concerned that this treatment is merely deferring the day of decision and cynical as I am, putting money into the vet's bank account without genuine need to.
I wonder what benefits to giving him this liquid in his food twice a day and whether stopping treatment might be kinder to all?

My cat is younger than yours, at 15. But we decided not to go down the medicine route and instead went for the iodine injection. The cat was transformed overnight and came back 10 days later so much happier and healthier. Within a couple of months, she'd put on another kilo and now (a year later) you wouldn't know anything was wrong with her. The procedure is expensive- about 2.5k but as we had pet insurance we only paid £500. Don't know how much money is for you, but for us it was totally worth it.

My lovely old girl had hyperthyroidism for the last couple of years of her life. It does take a while to get the right dose and many vets will err on the side of caution to start with, ie no overdose which can cause problems in itself. Upping the dosage should help with the symptoms you describe - there's a possibility the coat may not improve much due to being an old cat.

Initially I had my ups and downs with it, but I got used to regular testing and dosage changes. We had to up her dosage a couple of times and I could always tell before the blood tests came back she needed it as her hunger would increase.

She was worth every single penny and ounce of effort I put into it, but ultimately they're old cats and there comes a time you can no longer put them through whatever (in her case it was very much old age - blindness, dementia, loss of smell so didn't know I'd put food in front of her - not hyperthyrodism).

Thanks for sharing this, it helps in moving forward on treatment.

Having treated hundreds of hyperthyroid cats, about 40% are on the correct with the initial dose, 30% need to go up and 30% need to go down.
Long term you have choices of:

1. Long term medication
2. Surgery
3. Radioactive iodine treatment.
4. Low iodine diet -must be fed exclusively so no good if your cat goes out.

Once control hyperthyroid cats have a excellent quality of life.

My cat same diagnosis but younger than yours at about 14. There’s another recent thread about this running, have a search. Mine responded well to meds with a few up and downs, and is about to have blood tests to check levels; honestly just a much happier cat. I believe he can have a good quality of life for a few years yet. I am considering going down radioactive route but have insurance. He still yowls and drinks a lot of water but that’s normal with the meds. Suspect slight dementia with the yowling but he’s still lovely and friendly (overactive licker with bad breath and raggedy coat but hey that’s just age and him…).

The symptoms you describe (yowling, desperation for food, excessive drinking and poor coat condition) are all commonly seen in hyperthyroidism. It sounds like the dose you are currently giving isn't sufficient to see an improvement, hence the recommendation to increase it.

Hyperthyroidism can be well controlled and cats can live quite happily with medication controlling the symptoms.
Obviously 21 is a great age, so it may not add years to his life, but you never know how long they'll have.

What would be unkind is stopping treatment and waiting for him to deteriorate; if you decide not to continue, euthanasia would be far kinder.

If left untreated hyperthyroidism can cause very high blood pressure (with associated blindness due to retinal detachment) & heart disease.

Thank you for the experiences and advice. We have decided to proceed with medication until he stops eating, as advised by the vet, or becomes too poorly to continue. Apparently he's too old to have surgery. We won't stop the meds unless euthanasia is advised.