Hyperthyroidism in cats - success stories please!

[Umbongo]

Hello!

Well I have started to suspect that my boy is becoming hyperthyroid. He is 12 years old this year, has always been a big boy and VERY food motivated and vocal around food so it has been quite hard to tell. I have not long started to work in a vets, and the more I hear about it the more I suspect.

His acting like he is starving CONSTANTLY, whenever I phone home I can here home meowing for food in the background all the time. I live in London (he lives with my dad) so I only get to see him every 4 weeks. I went home a couple of weeks ago I noticed that he is a tiny bit thinner (we aren't talking much he is a 5kg chunk) and his fur looked unkept.

I have him booked in for blood tests soon. Has anyone had much success with the operation? He is only 12 and I am thinking that this may be a viable option for him as he can be difficult to tablet.

Here's the gorgeous man himself

 

[Jools2345]

we have lots of cats at work that the op has been very successful for

 

[twiglet84]

We perform thyroidectomies often and with great success but have recently been trying to get owners to try the new hills y/d food instead. Unfortunately not many takers which im a little suprised at as this is used as a treatment, no tablets or surgery just a diet change. We retested a cats t4 last week which has been fed solely on the diet since diagnosis and t4 now normal. Might be worth looking into.

There are also other treatments like radioactive iodine. Got to weigh up all your options.

Good luck.

xxxx

 

[Crazy Friesian]

Umbongo - Get on this quickly!!! Sorry to be harsh and don't want to scare you - but I have been going through hell with my boy with this for nearly a year.

There are some very good HT sites - mainly in the States (surprise surprise). Make sure they check his renal function as the 2 generally go hand in hand. One thing you should be aware of is that if it is HT and you get rid of the Thyroid you lose your bargaining chip with the Kidney.

There are so many other factors to consider. Is it possible to get your vet to do a scintograph to determine if it is one or both glands involved? If you do go ahead with surgery it is poss wise to ask them to remove both at one go as if they do one, because of the load on the remaining gland, they will prob have to remove that one not long down the road...

Apart from an incompetent vet nearly killing my boy at the beginning with a stupidly high dose of drugs (Felimazole), not warning me of the side effects and not filling in his records accurately with the initial readings... Even tried changing drugs (Vidalta). My poor boy's personality has changed radically, a concept the vet seems to be unable to grasp... (having changed vets 3 times..)

I have even tried the Hills diet - read up on this. The trials were on a VERY limited about of cats with varying results. The idea that a restricted iodine diet is long term effective is suspect on what can amount to a benign tumour of the thyroid gland. Many cats reject this diet after a while as it is very bland and cats do prefer variety.

HT cats generally go into what is called a catabolic state. The body is using more calories than it can consume. Cats are obligate carnivores and therefore need protein that is easily available to it - first port of call - the muscles.

So you will need to look into his diet too. Ensuring he has optimum nutrition is key long term.

There is soo much more to this - but I don't want to depress you or scare you, but you do need to be aware of the facts. I wasn't given much help by my vets, I had to do loads of research and get the info myself. My boy has been very very poorly and I would hate for anyone else to go through this.

Thyroid is not always a straightforward condition to manage.

www.catinfo.org
www.animalendocrine.com (Dr Mark Peterson)

These are 2 very good sites to give you an idea about this condition.

Feel free to pm me if I can be of any help / support.

Your boy is very beautiful btw - My lad is also a black beauty.

 

[Umbongo]

That's ok you haven't scared me! I work in a vets and have seen a lot of hyperthyroid cats and have learnt a great deal about it too. I have seen many cats thrive on the medication or surgery, but also a few cats that have not done too well.

His renal function is fine (had a full blood test recently but not T4).

I would love to try the diet but it won't work for his current situation. He steals the other cats/dogs food, dad feeds hims scraps...even if he stopped he still goes out and someone else feeds him. I have asked neighbours not to feed him in the past as he was overweight, and he wears a "DO NOT FEED ME " collar.

He also hunts every so often and will sometimes eat his kill. Until he can come and live with me then the diet won't work
We have not had many takers for the diet either, some people have tried, but picky cats just don't seem to want to eat it.

Radioactive iodine, can't afford at all and he is not insured.

I'm not sure what info my vet at home will give me, but the vet I work for is very experienced and has been very helpful. So I feel like I know the facts before my appointment.

Fingers crossed!

 

[pines of rome]

My cat has it and he is managed on one vidalta tablet a day which has brought him back into normal range!

 

[That old chestnut]

My old cat was diagnosed when she was about 12. She was on tablets for the rest of her life and we managed it really well. Every so often she would either start to lose weight or gain weight and her medication would be slightly adjusted. I suppose we were lucky that she would happily take them crushed into a little wet food (she was usually on dry so she saw it as a little treat). She lived to be 19 and apart from that she was healthy to the end.

 

[Booboos]

Maggie started on Felimazole when she was about 10 and is now at 17 years old on 15mg per day. For her it works really well although I am not sure how much more we can increase the dose - so far she has not had any side-effects. She has blood tests 1-2 times a year and is very keen to take the tablets wrapped in ham.

 

[Mrs B]

Both my last old ladies had this op - one aged 15 and one aged 13. Both very successful and they lived to 18 and 16 respectively.

 

[here_i_am]

I know you said success stories, but just to make you aware of possible complications that can come with hyperthyroidism. Not to scare you!

We had one with this. We treated him with oral meds for a while, but he eventually had the op. After a year, he was hyperthyroid again! We were really confused, but apparently in some cases (I assume if they're not removed properly), they can grow back. So we started him on the meds again. However, we found him collapsed in the front garden very soon after. We rushed him to the vets and they diagnosed 'destruction of the parathyroid'. His body was totally rigid / spasmed and he was crying constantly. He was hypercalcemic, so was put on a drip to try to get his levels back to within normal range. They did, but he was just so so poorly. The vets tried to save him for a couple of days, but we eventually agreed to have him put to sleep He wasn't massively old (for a cat) - about 12 years. It was such a shock - it all happened very very quickly. Still miss him - he was a proper dude x



Good luck with your cat though. Ours was a very rare case apparently.

 

[millsandboon]

My cat had two operations to avoid medication and was still hyper thyroid
If I had her again I would go for the radio active iodine treatment.

 

[twiglet84]

Here I am, I suspect your vet did a bilateral thyroidectomy? The parathyroid glands are so tiny that during the op they can be removed or damaged without knowing. If this happens they become hypocalcaemic and this usually means long term calcium supplements (at10, calcium tabs).

If you go for surgery always go unilateral and do two surgeries if necessary, never both together xxx

 

[here_i_am]

I always get my 'hyper' & 'hypo's' mixed up! But yes, he'd been on the calcium supp prior to the collapse. And you're right - they did a bilateral. It was a specialist referral vets & tbh, we just did as we were told. Knowing what we know now, we'd have gone about it all differently. The second vet said exactly the same going as you regarding the parathyroid. Hindsight & all that.... x

 

[twiglet84]

To be honest most of our clients opt for bilateral on a cost basis rather than paying for two surgeries and worried about two g/a's, even my nan did the same, result - hypocalcaemic cat that didn't respond to calcium supplementation, had to PTS. Now I'm totally against bilateral, don't think it should be done or offered.

There's studies too that say 1 in 3 cats have ectopic tissue so even if you remove the thyroid glands they can still become hyper t4 again. I think if I had a cat and knowing what I know now i would either stick to tablets or try the food xxxx

 

[Sarah_K]

Will be interested to hear how you get on as I'm due at the vets in an hour with my cat. Bit of an odd story, I think she's about 11/12- got her as a rescue about 7 years ago, they thought she was about 4. Always been on the big side, she was 8 kilo's when I got her. She slimmed down to a healthier weight but over the last 4 weeks she's lost a lot, especially over her back and hind legs. I'd say if she was a horse she'd have been a condition score of 4.5 and now a 2. Think it's mostly muscle thats gone. She's funny about being picked up and stroked, very much on her terms only so not always easy to feel if there's been any change. Her coat looks horrible although she's moulting at the moment. Not any more hungry than usual and still acting normal (for her anyway).

Will see what the vets say this afternoon. Just hope she behaves and doesn't try to kill them like last time

Hers a pic of Her Royal Highness:

 

[Dr_Horse]

Our cat lived for many a year on one tablet a day for hyperthyroidism