Mushroom (yes, it's a pet-heavy month in my LJ)

[moominmuppet]

So, blood work came back, and she does actually show signs of the very beginnings of hyperthyroidism. The vet's out today, so we're going to talk at greater length about the various options when Harry's pathology comes back, but I've been doing some reading. The excellent thing is that in catching it this early, she doesn't seem to be showing any clinical signs or evidence of health problems that prolonged hyperthyroidism can cause. Also excellent is that it's generally very controllable. The not-so-excellent part is that the three options appear to be twice-daily pills for the rest of her life and frequent vet visits, surgery, or radio-iodine treatment. Anyone have any experience with having/caring for a hyperthyroid cat?

Comments

[semperfiona]

Yes. Kitty!Fiona had hyperthyroid and a heart murmur. She was on twice-daily topical medicine applied in her ears (but use gloves and don't get any on yourself, was the caveat). She lived about three years with it, and you could definitely see the difference when she was getting her medicine consistently and when she wasn't.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Topical?!?! Oh, you just made my day. Mushroom is hell on earth to pill, so knowing there may be a topical option is very reassuring, especially given the expense of the surgical and radio-iodine treatments.

[semperfiona]

As jenx said below...I bought it from a local compounding pharmacy. I don't actually know whether he compounded it or it came that way from the manufacturer. But ask your vet about the possibility, definitely.

[burnout-ohio.livejournal.com]

I\'ve never dealt with that, no. I\'m sorry, that sounds rough and kind of expensive. I hope Mushroom bounces back quickly!

And in case I didn\'t reply to your email (I can\'t remember) Saturday afternoon sounds great. I should be home from my class by 11:30 or noon, so is 1:00 or 2:00 good?

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

That sounds perfect to me, and I talked to Matt and anytime Saturday afternoon is cool for him.

[jenx.livejournal.com]

John has hyperthyroid, and refuses to be pilled. We tried everything, even the little pill plunger, and I'd still find them in odd corners of the house. So there's a compounding pharmacy that makes a transdermal paste and ships it to me. I put on a rubber/vinyl glove, squirt the dose on my finger, and rub it into his ear. He's not a fan, but I know he's getting the dose.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'm incredibly relieved to hear about all the different forms in which I may be able to get the meds. Mushroom's horrible to pill, and I've really been dreading that idea. Knowing there are other options out there is incredibly reassuring.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Buddy is one 1/4 of a 5 mg pill twice/day and it works fine for him. The pills are quite cheap online (IIRC $20 per 100), and the tests aren't that expensive, since they only need to be done 1-2 times a year. OTOH, radioiodine is exceedingly expensive.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* I saw one location's price for radioiodine and choked a bit. It'd be a great option otherwise, but I just don't have $1700 to throw around, especially when I still don't know what I'm getting into with Harry's leg-testicle.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* That's a reasonable price for my budget, too. Excellent to know that's out there (now I just have to figure out how to find a compounding pharmacy -- is this vet-specific, or a human one that also does animal meds?)

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely ask my vet when I talk to her in a few days. Thanks!

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Our cat Bobbin (the one in the icon) had hyperthyroidism, but it went undetected for a while, as the other cat had digestive ailments, and they were both getting high calorie density food, so she didn't lose weight or anything.

As the other two strategies are ongoing and rather fraught with danger and side effects, we opted for the radioactive iodine treatment. It's expensive, but a one-time thing, and works a treat. Very well proven treatment, been used for decades. No thyroid problems for the rest of her life.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

At this point meds and radioiodine are definitely the two options I'm considering -- I don't see why I'd bother with the expense of surgery, when I could have the expense of radioiodine with a better prognosis. However, I suspect it's likely I'll opt for meds just out of budgetary necessity. Out of curiosity, do you recall about how much in ran you for the radioiodine treatment?

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, surgery is almost as expensive, and it has a tendency to regrow, so the procedure has to be repeated. I think the radioactive iodine treatment ran me $1100 all told, done by Radiocat.

The only thing that went wrong was a miscommuniation. We timed a vacation so we'd be out of town when she was away for a week for the procedure, and gave them our cell phone numbers. We got a panicked call one day and couldn't get back in touch with them for a while and we were totally freaking out. It turns out that they just wanted to know if she preferred wet or dry food or some such trivia. I gave them a long explanation on how to deal with worried people and leave MEANINGFUL phone messages.

[syrinx-77.livejournal.com]

That's poopie. Was going to call to ask but I have trouble getting five minutes to do such things. I'm holding my breath to hear how Harry Dog is doing.