Cat and possible thyroid problems/removal

Iguana, I'd say that if your vet is already suggesting having your cat's thyroid gland removed before the diagnosis is definite then you need to change your vet....

My cat, Tabitha, had the same symptoms as you describe, and my vet at the time couldn't wait to advise me that she needed her thyroid removed as soon as her thyroid condition was confirmed. I questioned this and asked if there was some other less traumatic, less dangerous and less expensive treatment that could be tried first. He reluctantly let me try her with some tablets (Neomercazole). They were damn good! She stabilized on one tablet three times per day every day for the rest of her life. The tablets were cheap - sorry, it's been a while and I don't know the cost of them now, but if they had been eye-wincingly expensive I'd have remembered. Anyway, you can shop around for veterinary medications now and get the best price that way.

I'm not saying tell your vet that you must have these tablets for your cat, but I would strongly suggest that you tell your vet that a thyroidectomy is an absolute last resort if all else fails - it shouldn't be the first option put to you.

BTW my Tabitha survived for seven happy and healthy years on thyroid tablets. In the end her kidneys started to fail and I let her go when she was 18 years old because of that.

If it is an overactive thyroid ask about radioiodine treatment. This is used widely in humans and I believe some vets do it for cats. Not sure how widely available it is, but I'd imagine it could be cheaper than surgery.

Are the tablets Felimazole? My cat was on them for several years with good results. If you need any tips for good things to hide the tablets in let me know - she had well over 2000 tablets in the last 4 or 5 yeras of her life and I only had to resort to reasonable force twice!

Are you buying the tablets from your vet? Don't know if you are aware but you can buy them from online pet pharmacies much cheaper, my vets used to charge over £40 for 100 tablets wheras I used to get them online with free delivery for £24 (for the 5mg ones, the 2.5 mg ones are £17 for 100).

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=209

There are lots of online pet pharmacies nowadays but I always used https://www.vetuk.co.uk , I get my frontline spot on and Drontal tablets from them too - no need for a prescription for either of those.

If you do decide to get your tablets online you will need to ask your vet for a prescription, they are obliged by law to give you one and they cannot charge for it. You then post the prescription of to the online pharamcy and they send out the tablets, my vet used to give me a repeat prescription which vetuk held on file for my next order.

Hello, my old rescue cat has over active thyroid-and is on medication for it. She's been improving, but it's only been a few months so far. She also got problems with her kidneys because of the thyroid, so is on more medication for that also.

My dad orders the tablets off the internet, which he says will save him at least £100 a year-which i think is good! He will have to take her back to the vets for check ups occasionaly though.

She now enjoys several small biscuit type treats in the morning after the first lot of tablets.

Oh, has your cat got any problems with her eyes? Our's is blind now sadly, due to the different medical problems and the vet says there's not much hope of it coming back...her hearing has improved though.

Keely.