Symptomless Hyperthyroid Cat now Hypothyroid

Not sure what to suggest really, but my cat Dorothy, who is 11 lbs, has hyperthyroid, but the vet said it was in the beginning stages. Her T4 went from 5.0 before meds to 1.9 after a month on meds. We give her 1/2 of a 5mg tablet twice a day. That's half the dose of what your cat is getting. It sounds like the dose my be too high for her? If your vet isn't giving you answers, get a 2nd opinion. The thyroid kind of controls everything else in the body, so it's important to get it regulated with the right dose of meds, which is why cats should get bloodwork done every 6 months to make sure the dose is still working.

As for pilling your cat, have you tried mushing a pill pocket or a soft treat like Whisker Lickins around the pill? I'm lucky, Dorothy scarfs treats so there's no time for her to even chew and notice a pill in there to spit out.

Good luck!!

Have you tried using empty gel capsules to put the pills in? They work wonders! Depending on the size of the pills, you can put multiple tablets in the capsule together (thereby having to make fewer attempts), the tablets are protected from saliva, and the cat doesn't have to taste the bitterness of the pills. As for the dose of methimazole, I'd say 5 mg twice per day is too high to start with. I think a lot of vets mistakenly believe that the dose of methimazole should be correlated with how high their T4 is. My experience is that isn't the case. My cat Spot had a T4 level of over 10 upon diagnosis, and at one point had a T4 of 44--11 times higher than the high end of the normal range. Even then, 5 mg of methimazole twice per day was too much. It's better to start with a lower dose (2.5 mg twice per day or maybe even 1.25 mg twice per day) and then go up if necessary. Lower starting doses tend to have fewer side effects. Giving methimazole twice per day is important, though, for maintaining constant blood levels of the medication.

I'm a little worried about your vet--you may want to get a second opinion. How long has your cat been on prednisolone? Prednisolone is used as an immune suppressant, so I would think that her white blood cell count might be lower from the prednisolone. Did she have any blood work done while she was on the prednisolone but before she started the methimazole? If that was normal and the decrease in WBC happened only after starting methimazole, then it could be the methimazole that caused the drop in white blood cells. Methimazole can have a side effect of causing agranulocytosis (not producing enough white blood cells). There are some cats that just can't tolerate methimazole--my mom's cat developed liver issues while taking it. She lived for more than three years after diagnosis before we put her to sleep in the final stages of renal failure. While treatment is ideal, some cats just can't tolerate the medication.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8391444_cau...-wbc-cats.html
http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/19330/2902/2
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/001295.htm