Dear Helen,
I became aware of your cat's problem when I was searching the internet for side effects of VIDALTA. I was shocked when I read your blog and decided to register with purrsinourheart in order to be able to respond to you.
I am not a vet but since we got our cat about 7 years ago (he was 9 1/2 years old then) I read a lot about alternative remedies and I believe that they can often help or are even better than the normal medicine.
Unfortunately, there are not many vets in the UK who also deal with alternative treatments so you have to get into it yourself. One book I can highly recommend is "The Natural Way for Dogs and Cats" by Midi Fairgrieve. I managed to heal quite a few problems withthe help of this book (for example his skin problems when we got him!)
But now he is also suffering from hyperthyroidism. And in fact, Vincent has a similar experience with VIDALTA. He got very sick after 4 doses of 15 mg which the vet prescribed. He has been suffering from Hyperthyroidism since about a year. It wasn't that bad in the beginning and I treated him with the biochemical tissue salts which worked. Luckily, we had a vet who was not adverse to alternative remedies and she just stated that the tissue salts obviously worked and that there is no need for anti-thyroid medication as long as we control his weight and his heartrate. Stupidly, when his appetite got back to normal (he was getting really fussy) I stopped the tissue salts.
Then about 4 weeks later (it was beginning of October) he started loosing weight dramatically, drank a lot of water and was generally unwell. We first thought he had diabetes but the bloodtest only showed that his thyroid has gone up very high. Otherwise, the vet said his blood was as good as the one from a young cat. She was really impressed (unfortunately, the previous vet is on maternity leave now and the new one has no understanding of alternative remedies). In any case,we decided to put him on VIDALTA as I was getting worried about his heart.
Then after 4 days he was so ill (diarrhea, feeling sick, no appetite, insomnia, lethargy, depression) that I thought he is going to die. The vet then also said that we should stop it and start again as soon as he has recovered with 10mg dose. He got immediately better when we took him off the VIDALTA but his diarrhea did not stop. His heart rate was good, his appetite came back and he became more lively again. I have to say that he is back on the tissue salts and I also ordered some very good homoepathic medicine including enzym therapie from Germany (this is for balancing the thyroid, heart and kidneys). Last Monday then also his diarrhea stopped and he looked like he had almost completey recovered. The last Thursday after he ate fresh trout all of a sudden his state deteriorated and the diarrhea started again. He had no appetite and of course I got really scared that he might lose more weight. His stool was quite bright brown so we though it has to do with the liver.
As his liver was perfect before we started with the VIDALTA we thought that it has to do with the medication. Also I had spoken to a homoepath in Germany (who wrote a book about tissue salts for cats a.o.) before we started the medication and she told me that I should avoid it if possible as all anti-thyroid medication has bad effects onthe liver). In particular in our cat's case his diarrhea started with the VIDALTA. Very often diarrhea is the body's way to eliminate toxins. I then read about how to deal with liver problems and yesterday we bought immediately milk thistle, lecithin and started to do warm wet compresses on the liver (2x a day for 10 minutes each at 60c -it is a treatment discovered by Dr Kneipp a German doctor and is still applied in Health Clinics). After the first compress, which he enjoyed a lot) he got up, relieved himself and then he got really hungry (he then ate 2 lamb kidneys with vegetables). First thing this morning I made another compress and he did not have diarrhea for the whole day, he also ate his whole breakfast (admittedly, the third one I gave him - as he became really picky recently). Our neighbour who also saw him yesterday (when we both cried) was here today and she could not believe it. he was a different cat.
After all I have read about this anti-thyroid medication and what I saw happened to Vincent I have already made up my mind not to put him on the medication again and instead trying it with the tissue salts and the other homoepathic remedies and the enzym therapie. I think that the side effects are just too strong and i have the feeling that I will rather kill him than help him. Also in Vincent's case the alternative remedies seem to work - you always have to control the heart and the weight though). It also requires a strict regime.
As regards the liver, I do not understand how one can give antibiotics and steroids. They usually effect the liver badly and very often liver problems are the result from such medication. You just have to help the liver to detox. It is like giving alcohol to someone with a liver desease... I also have another vet coming to see Vincent next week. She is doing Chinese medicine and I read that acupuncture is really good for liver problems.
As I said, I am not a vet and I can surely not advise you on how to treat your cat - but it might give you some thought about alternativ remedies.
You can get bio-chemical tissue salts in the UK but unfortunately not the ones for the thyroid. These are additional ones discovered by the successors of Dr Schuessler (the doctor who discovered the salts) and I receive them from Germany. You might also get them in other European countries. The other medicines I get from a company called Heel (you might also get them in the UK but I am not sure - these are excellent but also quite expensive). They do also the co-enzymes. I also give him Terrakraft which is OPC (oligomeric proanthocyanidin), the enzyme from the kernels of grapes which amongst a lot of other things supports the liver.
I hope I was not too confusing. There is so much I wanted to tell you but obviously it would be too much for this forum.
I hope your cat is getting better soon!!
All best, Hanna
