Elderly cat has hyperthyroidism - help and support please on pill giving!

skintchick

Woooohooooo!!!!! I hid it in tuna!! Yay!

although I can't feed her tuna twice a day every day can I?

Well, at least tonight's battle is over.

Sagaris

Why not get a bit of tuna on a spoon and hide the tablet in there - hopefully your cat will just wolf the lot down and not notice the medication? And the tuna might last a bit longer!
I know my dog is very good at spitting out tablets - and I've been trained in dosing animals with tablets etc, but she is in a class of her own when it comes to regurgitation! But a low fat dairylea cheese triangle (supermarket own brand to be really MSE!) or some cheap liver pate is good for hiding tablets in for her - and one tube (or tub of dairylea) goes a long way - they last long enough for a complete course of antibiotics, so perhaps a tin of tuna might last a couple of days?

Vancat

Hi
My old cat,was diagnosed as hyperthyroid and had to have 2 tabs every day. They worked a treat...and gave her another 2 years...(she finally went to Rainbow Bridge last year, aged 19 and a half).
I used Brussels Pate !!! ,,,,,get a tiny bit, roll it into a little ball, stuff the tablet in, try to rub it on the roof of her mouth....it sticks and they swallow, and swallow the tablet too. Luckily my Dizney didn't have many teeth left, so it wasn't too bad!
A tip, if your Kizzy is on the same expensive tabs as mine was, and isn't insured, you can get the vet to write a prescription for the tabs and get them from Vet medic. It cut the cost from £30 a month to £12 by buying them this way.
(You will probably still need to get her thyroid levels checked by the vet frequently at first, though, which cost me about £70 every few months,to regulate the dosage)
It was well worth it though, for the remarkable improvement.
Hope she feels better soon
VC

skintchick

THanks Vancat for the tip on cost - what is Vet medic?

I'll try pate - she's never had any but that might work. I don;t want to feed her too many treats but she does need to have this medication. I'm amazed putting it in tuna worked to be honest - I was convinced she'd spit the tablet out.

Vancat

VetMedic is an online pharmacy which sells animal medication.
I'm not sure I can do links, or if they're allowed, but if you Google VetMedic you can find their details. (There are lots of these pharmacies online these days, but I've always used VetMedic for wormers etc, and they're really helpful if you call them, so I've stuck with them.)
The little tablets my cat had to have are only available on a veterinary prescription, but your vet must write one for you if you ask for one. Then you send the prescription to the pharmacy, and they supply the medication by post.
My cat was prescribed Felimazole 2.5mg twice a day, but your cat may be on a different medication.
I didn't use much pate...the tablets were quite tiny, so it was just enough to sort of cover it and make it sticky!
First improvement I saw was that my cat's fur went back to being shiny again...it had started to look unkempt and matted in clumps....
Hope Kizzy's soon o the road to recovery!
VC

spookylukey

I posted this on another thread about hyperthyroid cats the other day...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=7042773

spookylukey wrote: »

My cat had an overactive thyroid and lived with it from 14 - 19 years of age. She had to have tablets daily but in all the time she was on them I only had to resort to using 'reasonable force' twice. I used to hide them in all sorts of things: Dairylea, wafer thin ham, chicken breast, defurrum treats from the pet shop - I had loads of tricks. The tablets themselves are tiny so really easy to hide.

I didn't opt for the operation at the time as I was worried how she would cope with the anaesthetic - if you're cat is healthy other than the (presumed) thyroid issues then it may be worth considering the op.

I used to buy the tablets (with a prescription from the vet which by law they must give you free of charge) from www.vetuk.co.uk for £24 for 100 with free delivery. Even at the maximum dose of 2 x 5mg tablets a day that's less than £15 a month, bear in mind you will also have to factor in the cost of bloodtests - normally every 3 - 6 months if the cat is stable but if you're struggling to stabilise his levels then more regularly.

Hope this reassures you, let us know how he gets on.

My top tablet giving tips would be:

Dairylea or Primula cheese - a small blob with the tablet hidden in.

Defurr-um treats - available from places like Pets at Home, Jollyes - these are actually hairball treats but when you snap each treat in half it is the perfect size to hide a tablet in and the sticky goo inside means that if the cat eats the treat then it has no choice but to eat the tablet!

Tuna, squish a small ball around each tablet - you need to be quick with this one as the Felimazole tablets coating disolves quite quickly!

Wafer thin ham (Bernard Matthews seems the best type as it's moist and sticks to itself really well sealing the tablet inside a small piece.

Chicken breast - as moist as possible.

Cheddar cheese - as moist as possible.

Sandwich paste - avoid ones with garlic or onion in though.

As I said in my quoted post my cat had literally thousands of Felimazole tabs taken in the above methods, the best is probably the defurr-um treats and Dairylea a close second.

Good luck with your cat, if you can get her stabilised you could have a lot longer left together than you first thought.

Edit:

Just had a look at vet medic - 100 x 5mg tabs from there are £27 so the one I recommended in my quoted post (vetuk) is cheaper at £24. Remember that's for 100 tabs so depending on the dosage your cat settles at this could last between 3 months and 50 days.

You can get all sorts from these online pet pharmacies - Frontline and Drontal with no prescription needed (£15.29 for 6 cat £1.54 for Drontal worming tabs from vetuk). I've always used www.vetuk.co.uk as they seemed to be slightly cheaper than all the others for the particular tablets my cat needed. Delivery is free and I normally get my items within 24 - 48 hours of ordering.

sandy2_2

My old cat changes what he likes DAILY, and will never go for the same things 2 days in a row...don't you just love cats!

SilverScooby

Heres a funny about pilling cats. I'm sure all of us who've had this struggle can do with a laugh! http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=10278

But seriously, there's a lot of good advice on the net. A great source is http://www.felinecrf.org/related_diseases.htm#HyperT1 which although primarily about cats with chronic kidney disease, has a lot of links about hyperthyroidism (which seems to get shortened to hyperT

There are yahoo egroups (mainly US based) for support, eg http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/feline-hyperT/

One word of caution - treating the hyperT with felimazole may unmask hidden kidney desease, as the high blood pressure caused by the hyperT will "help" inefficient kidneys filter better, so do get kidney function checked once the hyperT has stabilised. It's often a matter of experimentation to get the dose right to give the best balence between treating the hyperT and not ending up with high Urea.

And a few pill tips:
Chorizo worked for a while!
Walthan pill pockets worked a bit, but then she got bored -don't uou just love the little dears!

Minerva_2

My elderly cat had hyperthyroidism and was on 2 pills, then every other day 3 pills a day, plus one pill a day for blood pressure, plus steroids and a course of anti-biotics!!!

I bought a "pill popper" from the vet, little plastic device, similar idea to a syringe, you sort of "fire" the pill down the cat's throat - I had to resort to the pill popper when he was fed up of cheese, pate, ham, tuna, fish paste, chicken, dairylea....

So pop the pill and then give them a treat of nice, unadulterated food afterwards.

It does get easier with practice, though many is the time that I have battled to get a pill down and it has all ended in tears (mine, of sheer frustration!)

Good luck,

Minerva

greenmoneysaver_2

Tuna every day isn't bad, Skintchick!

Make sure it is tuna in springwater, as it has less salt, and you can give her the tuna flavour water in her bowl as a treat too, mine love this!