Advice on hyperthyroid cat

fairy2

Just wondering - my cat taking 15mg Vidalta a day and is very very thin. Eats all day. Just had bloods done and apparently normal thyroid range is 7-55 and cat is at 46 so suggesting upping Vidalta from 15mg. Heart rate is 228. Apparently this is very high.Any thoughts from peope who have had hyperthyroid cat? There must be something else I can do for him as he looks so scrawny. Thanks.

Spirit_2

War and peace follows:
I have a 17 year old female Hyperthyroid cat. She too was very thin, ate frequently and was constantly mewling.

Clinical results were pretty much as you describe, including the high heartrate.

We investigated thyroidectomy (she has the problem on one side) and a treatment involving a radio active isotope which would take place at a specialist clinic.

Our own (excellent) vet felt our cat was at the upper age limit where he would be happy to operate. We decided she was too old for the specialised treatment.

Cat was prescribed vidalta and moved to a solely iodine free diet. She has y/d food . We buy it through viovet now as it is a lot cheaper than through the vet surgery.

This regime helped hugely. She is very difficult to medicate and I have upper limb disability so vidalta administration was too difficult to maintain ( it should not be crushed). Our vet prescribed( on a 3 month basis) Carbimazole...an off licence drug that is for human use. It cost £60 for 60 tablets from a high street pharmacy. It can be crushed.

This improved Cat further, she looks a proper cat shape, is much more active and was hunting during the summer. We feed mostly ordinary food now.

At her last examination she moved back to vidalta and y/d and has lost some condition again and I continue to struggle to medicate her. After the new year holiday I will ask our vet to prescribe Carbimazole on an ongoing basis.

Good Luck

JulieM

There is now a liquid medication for hyperthyroidism called Thyronorm, which is useful for cats that won't take tablets. The price is similar to Vidalta. Ideally it should be administered into the mouth via a syringe, but it worked for my cat by being added to food. It's cheaper to buy online but you would need a prescription from the vet.

Mrs_Z

Hi,
You don't mention how old your cat is or how long he/she has been on the medication. Our cat also suffers from hyperthryoidsm and is on 2 Felimazone tablets a day. She has definitely improved with this medication, although we had to increase the dose from the initial 1 tablet per day. There was almost an immediate difference to her hunger - she started eating less and has put on weight to good 3.75kg (she was under 3kg before diagnosis). Our cat is 17/18yrs and was diagnosed around spring last year.

We also had another cat with hyperthyroidsm - her case was more severe and diagnosed at the age of 12. She was also on Felimazole and the tablets bought her almost extra 4 years of good quality life the way I see it. Also in her case, her appetite decreased dramatically once on medication. Before diagnosis she was eating about 4 pouches per day and was just losing weight.

If the Vidalta does not seem to be working for her, I'd have a chat with your vet to see what other options there are; maybe changing the medication or operation or even radioactive iodine therapy could be an option on some cases.

Armchair23

My 17 year old is on the Thyronorm liquid and will come and 'ask' for the dose and happily swallows it down. He was diagnosed just over a year ago after losing a lot of weight and we started on the methimazole gel as he's pretty much impossible to 'pill'. He has a blood test every 3 months , and his dose has increased over the year.
He was always a very greedy cat and overweight but although his weight is now fairly stable he's become a very fussy eater.

TBagpuss

I think it is definitely woth talking to your vet about adjusting the medication and/or dosage to get the one that is right for your cat.

My previous cat developed similar problems - my vet advised against more invasive treatment due to his age and the stress it would have caused him. He got around 3 more years of good quality life. He was always on the thin side after being diagnosed but once we got the medication level right was happy and comfortable.

It's 5 years now so I don't recall what his numbers or medication was, although I seem to recall that we switched from one sort of tablets to another fairly early on as the first ones weren't working for him.

He wasn't easy to medicate but I found sardines worked well - one sardine in 3 pieces. First is pill-free, and lulled him into a false sense of security, second has the pill in, and usually went down with no trouble. 3rd is back up if the pill escapes the first time! I think the strong smell and flavour helped disguise the pill and the fact that he adored sardines helped.

cottage_retreatist

Our cat also had hyperthryoid and we were recommended the radiation treatment as the gold standard (and were eligible on our insurance).

We took him in last week and unfortunately got a phone call this morning to say he passed away last night, alone

I wish we had stuck with the tablets now.:(:(

Kathy535

TBagpuss wrote: »

I think it is definitely woth talking to your vet about adjusting the medication and/or dosage to get the one that is right for your cat.

My previous cat developed similar problems - my vet advised against more invasive treatment due to his age and the stress it would have caused him. He got around 3 more years of good quality life. He was always on the thin side after being diagnosed but once we got the medication level right was happy and comfortable.

It's 5 years now so I don't recall what his numbers or medication was, although I seem to recall that we switched from one sort of tablets to another fairly early on as the first ones weren't working for him.

He wasn't easy to medicate but I found sardines worked well - one sardine in 3 pieces. First is pill-free, and lulled him into a false sense of security, second has the pill in, and usually went down with no trouble. 3rd is back up if the pill escapes the first time! I think the strong smell and flavour helped disguise the pill and the fact that he adored sardines helped.

We do something similar with tuna in spring water. Drop the tablet in the can, mosh it around so it smells of tuna and then scoop it out, with some tuna and feed it to cat on the spoon. Before that we'd tried the tablet syringe things, wrapping him in a towel, late and dreamiest (made him barf). This was is much easier.

HarryAzhar

The best diet for your hyperthyroid cat satisfies his/her nutritional requirements as an aging carnivore recovering from a muscle-wasting disease, and avoids chemicals that may contribute to thyroid disease.

Any canned cat food is better than any dry, which contains too much carbohydrate and plant-based protein. Meat by-products are fine for carnivores: they're simply protein sources such as organ meats and entrails that people don't find appetizing. Gravy foods tend to be high in carbs, so pates are a better cho