Bailey is 14, has hyperthyroidism and has been on felimazole for almost 2 years. He can’t have the radio iodine treatment or surgery for a number of reasons.
It took a lot of back & forth to finally find the right dose of medication as too much completely flattens him, but he’s been very stable for the past year on a dose of 7.5mg one day & 10mg the next.
However, his T4 levels have now gone back up and in the past 8 weeks, he’s gone from 10mg per day to 12mg per day and finally to 15mg per day – because his T4 isn’t coming down quickly enough.
Unfortunately, last week, shortly after starting on 15mg per day, we noticed weakness in his back legs and he seems a bit doped up. Just not himself and obviously feeling poorly.
I dropped back to 12.5mg per day but haven’t seen any improvement.
Took him to my vet this morning who says he doesn’t think it’s the dosage, but it may be arthritis. He seemed baffled tbh.
He gave him a metacam injection and has told me to put him on metacam for a week to see if it helps.
But I’m not convinced. This started as soon as we put him on the higher dose and we saw similar problems before when his dose was increased. My gut tells me this is linked to the Hypert in some way – either as a side effect of his condition or the drugs. And i really don't feel right about giving him metacam for a week just to see what happens.
Has anyone else had issues like this with felimazole or hyperT cats?
I’m now just not sure what the right thing to do is! I’m so worried about him and it’s horrible seeing him deteriorate like this when he’s done so well for such a long time.
