Symptomless Hyperthyroid Cat now Hypothyroid

Hoping someone can help or at least encourage!

My cat Pumpkin's T4 levels were very high - 8.4 and 1 month later 13.8 (high norm is 4). We waited to start her on meds cuz she did not present ANY symptoms of hyperthyroidism - no weight loss, no vomiting, no gorging, no crying at night. So we started her on Methimazole 1 Tab (5mg) twice a day right after the second labs. The vet said she should need at least that much.

We just rechecked her labs Monday and now her T4 is WAY below normal - I did not get the #. Her neutrophils and WBC are also low. Her appetite has been decreasing for the past day and today hardly will eat and is hiding under the bed. The vet is having me stop the Methimazole - her last dose was this AM. She is also on 2.5mg Prednisolone once a day for asthma - we are decreasing that to every other day. She has a temp of 104.3 so the vet started her on Clavamox hoping that will help any infection that may be going on due to her suppressed immune system.

I have pilled cats literally thousand of times (not all my own of course!) and never have problems. But OMG she is soooo hard to pill. She ate 1/4 tab Clavamox in a treat earlier but when I tried to give her the remaining 3/4 tab it kept sticking to the darn plunger of the pill popper and I've now ruined 3 pills with her saliva. GAH!!! I'm waiting for her to come out from under the bed to try again.

I'm just so worried right now. I just lost one of my cats a few months ago and I can not go through this again. The vet does not seem worried but I am starting to freak out!

Has anyone gone through this??

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

Hi There...I have 3 cats, and my one just had the RadioActive Iodine Procedure for Hyperthyroidism...she is doing good. You should read up on that.  Also, CLAVAMOX comes in a liquid form, and is MUCH easier to administer than pills!  I've never given pills, always liquid b/c it is so much easier !  Lastly, my cat has asmtha too, and I don't give her oral pred, or anything oral for that matter...I've been using FLOVENT inhaler medicine - same used by humans, only you just need to buy an "AERO-CAT" inhaler thing so you can administer it to your kitty.  SO MUCH EASIER THAN GIVING PILLS !  Plus NO side effects, b/c it just targets the lungs, where the problem is....pills effect the entire body, and give nasty side effects !  Hope this helps :-)

Hello - just joined the forum.

Our cat had hyperthyroidism a couple of years ago and we had the iodine treatment done. Everything seemed to be working out ok. We did a number of follow-up T4 tests and her T4 seemed to stay in the range of 40-44 nmol/L (Note: our vet reports T4 in terms of nmol/L whereas it seems that most people in this forum are reporting in ug/dL). The normal range is 13-64 nmol/L, so the numbers of 40-44 are pretty much right in the middle where she should be. Today, however, we did the blood test and it was down to 16. Still within normal range, but that is a huge drop and I'm wondering if she's starting to go hypothyroid. 

The only sign of hypothyroidism that I notice is that she seems to be cold a lot and is lying on the heat vents a fair deal. But she has always done that. I haven't noticed any weight gain or increased appetite. We're having the vet send out a sample of her blood to have it retested elsewhere just to make sure this wasn't an anomaly with their machine.

Has anyone else encountered this after the radioactive treatment?