Hyperthyroidism

[thecatlikesmebest]

My 14 year old cat has just been diagnosed. He's lost weight and been eating more and very vocal and grumpy. He's always been grumpy so that's not new but the constant complaining was new.
Getting some liquid drug next week to give twice daily. Then blood tests in a few weeks.
I gather this is common in older cats but treatment can be very effective.
Any tips?

After you get first lot of meds from the vets
Get the next lot from an online pet pharmacy much cheaper than vet prices. Ie mine charged approx £62 for 30mls, online it was £48 for 100mls.
Get a prescription from your vet
( you will pay for this ) i asked vets to prescribe me one or two
100ml bottles, then go online choose the meds and size prescribed.

You upload the prescription to them.
Seems alot to do but once you do it its easy.
I used Animed great service via email or telephone. You can also see progress if your order.
You can claim off insurance but if none you save a lot of money.

@Oxo01 thanks that's very useful. No insurance so that'll save me a lot. He's too old to insure now but hasn't cost much in vet bills in his first 14 years other than vaccines and flea/ worm.

Did the meds work ok? Any problems?

I have two older cats, 14 and 18, who have both had hyperthyroidism. Mine were both treated with radio iodine therapy. It was a one-off treatment at a centre, followed by quarantine as were radioactive for a period, then some blood tests over a six month period but both are fully cured and now require no on going treatment. Was all covered by pet insurance , including follow up check ups and blood tests, except an initial £60 excess. The difference it has made is miraculous.

Yes the meds did work really good (but it took over a year to get dosage right so blood test every 8 weeks.
She put on weight stopped crying for food etc was her usual self really.

Its better to give via mouth via syringe.

Mine was only 10/ 11 yrs, once her levels were good unfortunatly not long after she was dianoised with agreesive cancer, her belly swelled up over night I did bring her home for a week once stable, on pain relief and steroids as she was still eating etc but lost weight and breathing got worse by day 5/6 so I knew it was time. Broke my heart but couldnt let her
But definatly order online.

That's great we wanted this as well but mine had a heart murmer (not troublesome) but still did not want her sedated as she was ok with thyroid meds.

I was going to put mine in for iodine treatment too and delivered him to the centre where they did it. Left him. They did these initial tests that they do on them and thought his breathing was faster than it should be. So they said it was 50/50 there could be something else wrong as well as the hyperthyroidism or the breathing could just be a side effect of the hyperthyroidism. It was up to me if I wanted to proceed. I chose to bring him home and do the syringe thyronorm. His breathing was ok I think after all.

Our big lad was diagnosed during lockdown at age 11, he also had a heart murmur and we didn't want to put him through the stress of the radioactive treatment (the nearest centre was about 100 miles away or something) so for the last 6 years we have given him methimozole (not sure if that's his you spell it!) cream on his ears. He's done so, so well, and they reckon when treated with the cream the prognosis is about 5 years.. last time we took him for bloods his levels were raised and the vet suspects the thyroid has turned malignant. He was too old and frail at the time to put him under anaesthetic to confirm, so we made the decision then to make him comfortable and happy and see how he goes.
That was the beginning of January, and now we are nearing the end...he's become even more frail, sleeps all day either in his box or on me, and his breathing is worsening. We've made the appointment for this Friday so we can spend some time as a family during this half term giving him all the love and treats he deserves.

While he is insured, (it went up a hell of a lot per month) we still have to pay a percentage towards his treatment, and we exceeded the claim last year. Looking back, I wish we had opted for the radioactive treatment, but then again we just don't know if he would have coped with it.
However, we still paid less with the insurance so I would always advise anyone with a new kitten to insure them from the very start. Obviously this won't help OP but hopefully it will help someone.

Our hearts are broken, especially my daughter's, we've had him longer than we've had her, and they've always been inseparable 💔

Good luck with your cat OP XXXX

It was quite a while ago but my then female cat had hyperthyroidism and went blind.

She was about 10-11 then and had tablet medication daily and had to go every six weeks or so to the vets for blood pressure and also blood tests.

She carried on this way for about six years before eventually being PTS, not sure if it was the condition or just plain old age.

My darling DCat didn't make it for long after she was diagnosed, maybe a year or so, but she had other health issues that might not have been connected, and perhaps wasn't diagnosed until it was a bit advanced, I'm not sure. For me it's always quality of life over quantity. Hopefully your kitty does well on the meds and feels more comfortable OP 🤞🏻.

@Hattermadness I'm sorry for your situation. I have been though this too and it was awful but it sounds like you are handling it great. I hope his final days go as well as they can.

@Hattermadness that's sad. Hope he has a comfortable week.

The cat is my son's really, we got him from a rescue as a kitten when DS was 13. DS is now 27 and long since left home. We kept the cat because DS moved away to a city and we live in the countryside.
I don't get the medication until next week. I will ask how much it costs for the radiotherapy or surgery options.
Oddly he has been calmer / quieter and less ravenous since the vet visit, he did not take kindly to the blood tests.
@Jadzya how old was your cat? I gather it's commonly older cats affected.

My old cat was diagnosed around 15. It was a while ago so the cream to put on their ears wasn't widely available at the time. We tried felimazole tablets first but he had a catastrophic reaction to them - it badly affected his blood cells, luckily we realised in time that he wasn't right and we were able to stop the tablets. We then decided on surgery as the vet was quite positive about the outcomes, he said although the cat was older and therefore more of a risk for any surgery, thyroid removal was an operation that was almost always done on older higher-risk cats so he thought our cat had a good chance of coming through the op well. He was right and the cat came through surgery well, he lived another three years although was blind for the last year or so (the thyroid had probably contributed to high blood pressure which had damaged his retinas).
Reasons for not choosing radioiodine treatment - it would have been extremely expensive and the nearest centre was a long way away from us so we didn't think he would do well with the travelling, distance and quarantine at his age. Also at the time there was something mentioned about if he became unwell in any way while quarantined he may have had to be euthanised because of difficulties treating a radioactive cat??? We absolutely didn't want that so decided on the surgery. These days, if it happened to our current cat we'd probably try the ear cream first, much less hassle than the tablets.

Mine had this. If the meds is thyronorm my cat loves it - she would come running when she saw it. Agree get prescription and do online. If you get a 6 months prescription I was able to get 3 100ml bottles from it. Think it worked out about £20 a month including prescription cost.

Interesting reading about the cream

We weren't offered a cream option!
We were offered the radioactive option and the liquid thyronorm (which I think is better than tablets for us anyway) and the operation

At age 14, I would not choose the radioiodine treatment.
Meds should ease the thyroid levels x

My cat was diagnosed aged 12 a couple of years ago. We were only offered radio iodine treatment at £2000 and very far away or Thyronorm liquid. We opted for the Thyronorm. His dose has been raised twice since then (he has yearly blood tests). We pay £22 for a written prescription from the vet with 3 repeats (so 4 x 100ml bottles ordered one at a time, because he’s on quite a high dose)
We order from Pet Counter online and we just have to take a photo of the prescription and upload it, and answer a few simple questions. including 48hr delivery its under £48 and they always send a free cat treat stick as well which my cat very much appreciates!
One of the symptoms is having too much energy. So playing, running and chasing more than usual, especially in an old cat, is a sign a blood test needs doing. Also seeming to be asking for food a lot more even when they’ve only just been fed! Things to look out for.
We give his meds through a syringe into his mouth twice a day and he absolutely hates it, but he always comes to remind us when it’s time and he forgives us straight away. Important not to give any type of food for about an hour before or after meds.

@NinePoppadomsAndASaagAloo how long does a 100ml bottle last you?
My cat is very difficult to pill so I hope a syringe is easier and less able to spit it out.

Usually a couple of months but it’ll be a bit less now as his dose has just gone up.
Sometimes it’s hard with the syringe, it’s like some of the medicine ‘bounces’ back out onto the floor! We just leave it when that happens as we don’t want to refill the syringe and possibly overdose him. But there’s no way on earth he would accept tablets! So we muddle on.

We had 100ml bottle of thyronorm delivered on 22nd November.
He has 3.5mg twice a day
It's coming to the end of the bottle now so I'll need to order more soon

I just realised with his new dose of 5mg (1ml) twice a day, a bottle should last us 50 days.

2 to 3 months but obviously longer or less if dosage req changes.

Mine was just hard to get levels right so changed every 8 wks or so.

Vet said a few cats are just prone to not getting it right and she was one.
Mine hated syringe, I tried different ways of holding her she would then try and face away or push my arm with her paws.

Some times we tried 1 holding her and me syringing that worked.

But weirdly it was better / quicker or us and her if I came behind her and kinda stood her up on hind legs so my arm was across her chest with front legs hanging over my arm it was done quickly. Which uou can do yourself.

Sounds brutal but it wasn't lol
You will get used to what suits you and your cat after a few tries.

Our 17yo nervous cat has it. Unfortunately the meds made her vomit so we've given up and will have to let nature take its course.

My 14 year old cat was diagnosed about six months ago. She is on the liquid thyronorm which seems to be working well - I just mix it with a little lick-e-lix paste on a spoon and she gobbles it up quite happily!

I totally get why you do this, but you’re really not supposed to give it with food at all, it affects the absorption of the medicine.

My vet said it was fine