PANIC! Wrong dose of Thyronorm for hyperthyroid cat.

[BrainInAJar]

Hi everyone. BIT OF A PANIC TONIGHT! I think I've been giving my cat completely the wrong dose of Thyronorm.

I was told her thyroid was "sky high" in November. I was told to give her 5mg/day which is 1ml, divided into 2 doses per day. I did this for 4 weeks (or so I thought).

I was then told to increase it to 0.75ml twice a day. So that would be 7.5mg. She had another blood test 2 weeks after that and I was told her thyroid was now 30 which was right in the middle of the normal range. So all fine, just continue as we are.

HOWEVER it is only today that I have noticed the syringe that I've been using to give her it (which is branded "Thyronorm") has both ML and MG marked on it. I have only been giving her 0.5mg twice a day and then 0.75mg twice a day. So 1/10 of what it should have been.

But then how the hell has her thyroid normalised then?

Any help appreciated.

@Cattymonster sorry to hear of your stress as well!

I think the drug manufacturers and the vets need to be more clear about:
a) mg/ml. they need to label the bottle, syringe and instructions more clearly and maybe actually show you before you leave the surgery. I'm not trying to be funny but if I made this mistake, I fully agree a lot of people must do also!
b) what the best doses actually are. As I say, a lot of folk online seem to be saying the recommended doses are way too high.

Morning all, the vet just phoned. They fully agree they or the nurse/receptionist need to show owners how the syringe is marked, going forward.

She says just keep her on this tiny dose as it appears to be working. Only consider increasing if her weight drops (or behaviour changes presuambly) And do a urine test first to see how the kidneys are holding up. She says the head vet there purposefully underdoses her own cat slightly on thyroid med to save the kidneys.

Our original thyroid reading was 130. Down to 30.
Kidney creatine 101 now 169.

Great news! 👏👏👏👍

Hello all, just a small update for you and anyone who might be going through this in the future.

I monitored how long it took for the bottle of medicine to be used up.

A 30ml bottle is lasting 6 weeks. 1ml is 5mg. So there's 150mg in the bottle.
150 divided by 42 days is about 3.5mg.

So she's been getting about 3.5mg per day which is 2/3 of the recommended starting dose but a) she's small and b) the recommended starting dose is thought to be too high for many cats.

So luckily it does seem like my mistake worked out well for her in the end.

The battle now is monitoring her early stage kidney disease.

Thanks for the update @BrainInAJar. I hope all is going okay for your kitty and that they can keep the kidney issues under control.

Mine has been taking his meds twice daily for about 3 weeks now and is going to vet later this week for new bloods. It's great that he's taking the meds, but it's still a struggle to get him to eat much. (I've had a name change, btw - I'm CattyMonster from above.)

Thanks @Shiveringinthecountry

My cat isn't on any particular treatment for her kidneys as it's at such an early stage. Not even renal food as the vet isn't convinced about it. She's a good eater though, eats plenty of good, wet, fresh food from Katkin, Untamed and Blink.

She seems happy enough even though her life is really just limited now to sleeping, eating and cuddling. She hasn't been interested in going outside or playing with toys.

I'm weighing her and just keeping an eye on her. Will need to decide if/when to put her through another blood test, depending on various factors. She finds it really traumatic.

Fingers crossed for your blood test!

@BrainInAJar Thanks for those food suggestions. I've ordered a trial of Untamed 👍

Hi , I've been told to give 5 mg of thyronorm to my cat , the bottle is nearly finished and it's made no difference to my cat .

@Dog02 Have you had his bloods done again? Based on my experience, that's a very high dose.

Mine started on 2.5. Levels dropped to 13. Thyronorm was reduced to 2 and (after a month) levels had dropped further. Was then reduced to 1, and now his levels are appropriate, he's much more like himself and he's finally beginning to eat again. The whole thing has taken about 5 months.

Ask your vet to check his bloods again, if they've not already done so 🤞