Hyperthyroid

[Mildred]

Well decided to go with felimazole initially and as predicted, Moo is being a nightmare with taking the tabs. Shes a dab hand at separating the tablet from whatever ive tried to disguise it with. At the moment we're on pate which has lasted for 2 tablets!
Hubbie has graciously said that she can share his supply of pate.

Could be the operation at this rate. Will see what her blood tests show in a few weeks.

[Debsymiller (Rufus' mum)]

I personally would look into the op at that age, as meds don't cure the problem, they are only suppressing the gland, and she could have years of med free before the other became a problem, if it ever does.
HK - cats dont generally get meds after taking out the gland, as quite often they only take half out, so the other half produces enough to not have to supplement them.

I totally agree, he would do well with the op. In the hands of a good vet it's a straightforward op and I know even my 15 yr old cat has had a new lease of life since having his thyroidectomy.
Good luck whatever you decided and make sure you get your vet to explain both options fully so you know exactly what you're doing.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I personally would look into the op at that age, as meds don't cure the problem, they are only suppressing the gland, and she could have years of med free before the other became a problem, if it ever does.
HK - cats dont generally get meds after taking out the gland, as quite often they only take half out, so the other half produces enough to not have to supplement them.

[Janeyk]

Other options sometimes used in humans, are: radioactive iodine treatment to wholly or partially destroyed the thyroid, then giving thyroxine to substitute that which the gland can no longer make. Or surgical removal of the entire thyroid, followed by thyroxine. Thyroxine is without any side effects, when the right dose is established.

My experience is mostly with human thyroid problems. I have an underactive one; a close friend has an overactive one caused by heart meds. I always research med problems, as I don't trust doctors (or vets).

If Moomer is up to it, I'd go for surgery.

So have I HK, I suffered an overactive thyroid and have aunties with both over and under A T (the one with over had iodine treatment) but have also had 2 cats with it - all three of us on Carbimazole together! my cats were both 11 ish  they weren't offered the op, I think because one had a heart problem so couldn't be operated on and the other was ok on meds.

[Hippykitty]

Other options sometimes used in humans, are: radioactive iodine treatment to wholly or partially destroyed the thyroid, then giving thyroxine to substitute that which the gland can no longer make. Or surgical removal of the entire thyroid, followed by thyroxine. Thyroxine is without any side effects, when the right dose is established.

My experience is mostly with human thyroid problems. I have an underactive one; a close friend has an overactive one caused by heart meds. I always research med problems, as I don't trust doctors (or vets).

If Moomer is up to it, I'd go for surgery.

[Rosella moggy]

A quickie to say Tom was retested at 10 days which showed up his raised liver enzymes.

Is she insured as Axa confirmed to me they would cover cost of iodine treatment for Tom but we decided against due to his age which is just as well as they wouldn't have gone ahead due to other probs found later.

[Mildred]

Thanks very much for all of your responses.
Am going to try her on Vidalta and see how she gets on. She'll have to be retested in three weeks to see how her levels are.

Im not sure about surgery at the moment - will probably try meds first and see what her response is. We have had a few clients cats who've had a thyroidectomy and then later on it has started up again on the other gland.

Depends how well she likes her tablets i guess!!

[clarenmax]

Hi Mildred

My boy Max has been on Vidalta for about a year now, he's on one 10mg tablet a day, and its bringing his levels down nicely.

He does seem to suffer from some nausea on occastion, but we're not sure if that's related to his tyroid, or his CRF, which we are currently managing with diet.

There don't seem to have been any ill effects with Max, and he takes them fine every day hidden inside a defurrum treat 

[Rosella moggy]

Hi again Mildred

Have you tried going back to Purrs home page and putting vidalta in search box?  I just came up with lots of hits.

[Rosella moggy]

Our Tom who passed away last Sept aged almost 19 was diagnosed HyperT but looking back his levels were not that high, his real problem lay elsewhere (anaemia caused by we don't know what and heart probs). He was however on Vidalta initially and reacted with raised liver enzymes so we had to stop it.  I did a fair bit of research last year and came across a lot of stories of prescribing too high a dose of vidalta/felimazole initially.  You will be very well placed to look stuff up yourself of course but I really would be careful esp if moomers levels are not too high. 

[Tiggy's Mum]

Sorry to hear about Moo's diagnosis, are you considering the op once her levels are stable? I've only ever had a cat on Felimazole, have never tried the Vidalta and I might be teaching you to suck eggs but I have lots of cunning tablet concealing methods which worked on literally thousands of tablets for Tiggy over the years she was hyperthyroid and CRF.

I have an addition the list which I discovered when Riley had a diaorrhea and had to take Metronidazole which had been broken into quarters exposing their bitterness, he refused any of the below as he could obviously still smell/taste the tablet so I discovered Webbox treats.  They're stick treats but quite maleable so I cut a piece off and moulded it round the tablet.

For the last two years when she was having 5 tablets a day my main methods were 1 & 2 below (with no 2 being less sticky!), if she were feeling off colour I had to resort to one of the other methods.  One of the tablets she had was Fortekor (for CRF not heart failure) so the tips definitely work with that shape/size of tablet.

1) Primula Cheese in a tube (Chs, Chs & Ham, Chs & Prawn but NOT chs & chive), also works with Dairylea triangles, laughing cow etc, just cut a small chunk off..  Place tablet on finger, squirt a blob of Primula on, Tiggy licked it off, tablet and all. 

2) De-furrum treats (available from places like Pets at Home, Jollyes etc) they are designed for hairballs.  When snapped in half there is a gooey mix which holds the tablet perfectly when you poke it in.  Tiggy loved these and hoovered them up.

3) Wafer thin ham (Bernard Matthews is best as is nice and moist and sticks to itself when folded over).  Wrap tablet in small parcel and hand feed, the tablet may fall out the first time so I roll up in another piece and keep going.  Wafer thin Beef or Chicken is also effective.

4) Cheddar Cheese, experiment with varieties but the moister the better. Shave of a thinnish layer and squish around the tablet.

5) Chicken breast, don't overcook, needs to be nice and moist.  Shave a thinnish layer and again squish around tablet.

6) Tuna, squeeze most of the juiceout and squish around tablet.

7) For powdered meds: Beef sandwich paste (check ingredients NO onion or garlic) mix with a little hot water to make a yummy beefy paste.

[Desley (booktigger)]

Crikey, that is very young to be hyper-t - are you looking to operate if her chest will allow it? I had a hyper-t cat this year but I couldnt pill him, and he had other health issues, so an op wasnt an answer - I have another one that is borderline and if his ever turns, it will be the op as soon as possible, he hates pills. Tino was sick on Felimazole, so he ended up on Vidalta, but I hardly got any into him and he did end up with diarrhea, although he had liver issues too, so it could have been that. Fingers crossed for her

[pappilon]

My cat Phoebe was put on Vidalta when she was first diagnosed with HT last October it was 10mg and then increased to 15mg but her HT level was very high at that time i think 182 if i remember right, she is very difficult to pill and the vet was planing to have the glands removed but then they realised they were in her chest and couldn't operate , sadly Vidalta had some side effect on her white blood cells so she ended up with a very bad infection but my vet said it does happen with some cats , since then i had to change my vet because of other reasons but she has been on Felimazole now for 5 months and i do find it harder to give her and some days i waist so many till i manage to give it to her , she was on 5mg once a day but since last month the vet increased it to twice daily which makes it even harder but cant put her back on Vidalta.
My other cat Boy is on felimazole 2.5 mg twice a day but i have no problem with him, i just hide it in primula cheese and he takes it
I think you have to see what dose Moo needs to be on and then decide, if i remember right some one else cat here is on Vidalta, if i am right is
Clares cat Max, i am sure she can help.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

 

My vet has one cat of her own she cant get pills into 

I have one semi feral that I cant touch and have to trap her once a year for the vets and when they get her to walk out of her carrier....they do  I think she freezes on the table so they do as much as they can before she becomes miss feral again LOL. Its the only time I can stroke her........sigh

[Mildred]

Shes a real houdini cat - any restraint and she walks straight out of it!
She even managed to get out of the cat bag a few times so extra reinforcements were called into try and keep her still.
Im dreading her next appointment.
 Im not the only nurse with a badly behaved pet so im not that embarassed.Much! 
They were all really well behaved last month when I had to have all six of them tested for FIV after we lost our lovely Kevin so I cant complain.

Unfortunately shes had three blood tests so far in two months so I guess she feels she shouldnt have to give any more blood?!!!
It doesnt help that she doesnt like clippers either so i had to cut her fur using scissors which takes longer to do and makes locating the vein a bit harder.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Hope Moo continues to do well and no more of this sticking in a cat bag....my cats are terrified 

They watch too much puta news on Purrs 

[Mildred]

Moomer has just been diagnosed as hyperthyroid.She is nine years old.

I originally took her into work as she had started sneezing lots - she didnt have any occular or nasal discharge but was found to be only breathing through one nostril.She was whistling alot through her nose which was quite noisy at times.
She had a shot of convenia which made a difference after a few days.

At the time of the examination,my vet found her heart rate was very fast and she had dropped some weight, so we took some blood.
Her T4 came back as borderline for hyperthyroid.
Today we retested and she is now definitely hyperthyroid.

On a plus side she is now whistling much less,hasnt sneezed and is breathing out of both nostrils. She may have to have an endoscopy if it gets worse again.

We have just started stocking Vidalta and I wondered if you find them easier to administer compared to Felimazole? We havent had much feedback yet from clients whose cats have been changed over.
Moo is not an easy cat with tablets so once daily tableting is much more prefarable!!