Advice on Felimazole dosage needed

[Kay and Penny]

my Trigger was away for 16 days - 2 days of initial tests and 14 days in isolation

it was over a year now, and I have not had to give him any drugs in that time, which is a real blessing - and when he had to be in the vets for 4 days recently prior to a tooth extraction, he was again fine, so no bad memories of his previous time away, it would seem

[paddypaws]

I use a pill cutter from the chemist and split Felimazole in two so that I can give smaller increments in doses.
Instructions say not to cut the tablets, but my vet checked and it is fine...the caution is that we should guard ourselves against contamination from the drug.
I do understand your concerns about the radio active treatment and subsequent isolation....but would give it serious consideration. The HT drugs can be very harsh on the system, and they can just stop being effective, so keeping a cat on them long term is really quite a risk and your cat is relatively young.
I am sure I was told 2 weeks isolation the last time I checked....I think times are coming down. In US, some states only ask for a couple of days!

[Nicola (RockysMum)]

Hi Kay,

Thanks, I looked into the radioactive iodine as bailey is 14 and he's insured.  But it's 3 weeks quarantine and bailey doesn't cope well with being in the vets even overnight. He's a very clingy boy and barely leaves our side. He gets extremly distressed if he's away from us. I just don't think he would cope well with it.

The skin issue is a strange one with Bailey. It started before we got him tested for hyperT. He was scratching at his neck constantly to the point where he got bald patches. The vet was completely baffled by it and ruled loads of things out but as soon as his hyperT was diagnosed and he started felimazole the scratching stopped. So it seems to be a symptom of Baileys hyperthyroidism.

He's been on the felimazole for about a year now with no skin issues so I don't think it's that. I'm inclined to think it's more to do with his T4 levels possibly creeping up again.

I just wondered if anyone had experience of varying the dose day to day. The 10mg per day was definitely too much - he was a zombie. but it seems the 7.5mg may be too low a dose as he's starting to show some mild symptoms again.

I'm just wondering whether 10mg one day and 7.5mg the other would be an option for him?

[Kay and Penny]

have you discussed alternative treatments? the skin problems can be a side effect of Felimazole in some unlucky cats, and he is already on quite a high daily dose

I don't know how old he is, or whether you have insurance, but if he is still comparitively young, and you can afford it, I think the radioactive iodine treatment could well be the way to go for a permanent cure

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Bumping this up as think its got lost amongst auction

[Nicola (RockysMum)]

Bailey is hyperthyroid and was previously on 5mg of felimazole twice a day. While that brought his T4 down, it made him completely lethargic and he gained too much weight.

So, for about 2 months he’s been on 7.5mg a day (a 5mg & a 2.5mg tablet)

He was last tested 3 weeks ago and his T4 was the best it’s been and his heart rate was normal so it looked like it was working and his weight is coming down gradually.

My vet felt we could leave it another 6 weeks before testing again.

Unfortunately, I’m starting to notice a few things that have me worried his levels are up again. In the past few days he’s been very restless, vocalising more than normal and getting a bit hissy at random moments.

He’s also started scratching his chin and mouth all the time. His coat is also looking slightly oily and a bit spikey and has started to matt at the back.

These, along with weight loss & mouth breathing were the symptoms that led to us getting him tested for hyperT in the first place. Back then he was scratching his throat so much that he had a bald spot.

Thankfully there has been no sign of any mouth breathing so his heart still seems to be normal but obviously I’m worried and don’t want him to get ill again.

My vet and I previously discussed other options should the 7.5mg a day not work and we discussed doing 7.5mg one day and 10mg the next and alternating the dosage that way.

I’m trying to decide whether to try this for a week or so until he's due back at the vets....I really don't want to have to put him through more blood tests if I don't need to

Any thoughts? Any of you with HyperT cats had similar experiences? It seems to be such a juggling act getting the dose right 

I would hate to have him back on 10mg a day as I basically lost my cat, he was so overmedicated he barely moved.