Hyperthyroism treatment? Poorly cat in need of some..

[truthisouthere]

I'm SOOO happy, my little girlie (blue burmese X) has done a SOLID poo today, her 1st in 3 weeks!! She was asking to go out yesterday, her normal behaviour, and is actually trying to lick her bottom now, (she just licks the collar instead), so her wound must be itchy and it's healing nicely now. Don't know if it's the Manuka honey I wipe on wound after her bottie washes or what but in 3days her wound has gone from pink and angry to scabbed over and she doesn't actually seem to mind so much when I wash it now. She polished off a plate of cod during the night, some Purina Sensitive, and some Turkey and rice 'Just Nature'. She's adopted her usual curly toed paws in the air sleeping pose again instead of looking SO sorry for herself just sitting up, and was making happy sighing noises on the bed again this morning. She has a lot ahead of her in terms of getting her well and managing her 2 problems, but she certainly seems to have turned a corner. THANKYOU to all for your love and well wishes across the miles!

[Mags]

Pleased to hear she has improved and is a lot happier in hersef...

[truthisouthere]

She is on medication at present and doing fine, that and her age..I'm a wee bit reluctant to go for the thyroid op but we'll see how the medication goes.

[Elaine]

Fingers and paws crossed that she continues to do well on her meds etc xxx

[Tink]

well i'm not sure if this will help but cuddles my seventeen year old is hyperthyroid. the vet checked the gland and said surgery was not needed as it was not bad enough and has put her on methimazole to level it off and her levels are checked every few months and have come back normal the last few times..
sorry i can't help more.

[truthisouthere]

Wow, 17, bless her. My little one is 14.5, and I am STILL in a quandry as to what to do for the best despite talking with my vet several times re the various treatments. She has been on Carbimazole for the past 2 weeks to stabilise her prior to her op next month, and all she's done since she's been on them is sleep! I HAD got her weight up a bit but now I find she has lost her appetitie ( a side effect of the tablets?) and could be in danger of weakening again. I AM very worried about the thyroid op, as I read the fatality rate is 10%! The radiation treatment is now out, as a prerequisite for treatment is that she needs to be up to date with all her vaccinations. This I DON'T agree with cos as far as I'm concerned she has had enough vaccs thruout her life and to vaccinate a poorly cat just before radiation treatment...! Hmmm.. So I am still seeking my fellow catsey readers experiences with both the tablets and the op.

[farthing]

It can take a while for you to find the right level of medication, if she is sleeping a lot she may well have gone hypothyroid and her dose may need to be reduce a bit. Intially, my cats were tested 4-6 weekly until they reached the recomended levels, which is, I think 10-44. After a blip with their medication, Mike was giving them their tablets while I recovered from a carpal tunnel op and it became obvious he wasn't as dedicated at giving them their tablets every day!, we found they had all increased badly- Smudge and Tabatha were at 300, Samson was at 200 and Spice was at 90. They have had their second lot of blood samples since then and are all within the range, except for Samson, so we have upped hisdose. We suspect Tabatha may be heading toward becoming hypo, so will blood test her again to check she is still with the recommened perameters.
Once they are stable they get tested less often, or when we think there migt be a problem.
The other thing to remember is that if she isn't getting on well with this tablet there are others to try, we are having good resultswith Vidalta. We couldn't get Samson to stabilise on Felimazole, but he is much better, and looks better on this new drug.

[Tink]

cuddles sleeps a lot but i can't tell if it's because she's old or her pills..she was not very active to begin with when i got her (in march). however, you can't see her ribs on her anymore and she feels much better when you hold her, if that helps. i also think balancing the dose is worth trying if the kitty can take it. i agree with you that vaccinating a poorly cat that is older is not really necessary. i opted to not vaccinate as she has been vaccinated so many years she probably still has some immunity and even if she doesn't there is not much chance of exposure to a disease in this house. (she also doesn't really socialize with my dogs who could bring something in and likes to stick to her own space most of the time).
just trying to add anything i can think of...

[Tink]

another thought on surgery, have they done bloodwork to see her survival chances? (they did this on cuddles prior to her dental and possible removal of thyroid just in case..ended up that thyroid did not needed to be operated on when she was under but nice to have reassurance of a blood panel)

[truthisouthere]

Her blood's fine, and organ's are in good shape too. She has put on weight, her fur's gained back it's gloss again after being dull for almost a year, and after almost three weeks on Carbimazole everyone's commenting on how well she now looks .I think the levels have adjusted and she's not sleeping all day and night anymore, yaaay! She's now gained her confidence back to venture outdoors again and it was heartwarming to see her join mum for some affection and sunshine on the garden bench yesterday, bless her. I am going to cancel the op for now, probably for good, and keep a close eye on both her anal gland and her thyroid. I think it best to cancel the op for 2 reasons: 1) If her anal gland needs operating on in the near future then I'll be glad I didn't put her thru the thyroid op when she is already doing ok on the tablets. 2) If it ain't broke (on the tablets), don't fix it, let's keep things simple. There is just one thing that's nagging me..I don't know what the long term ramifications are for her system on these tablets and would be interested to hear of anyone else who has a cat who has been on tablets for a while.