Mercazole? Advice, please!

Piccalo has been diagnosed as having hyperthyroidism, as expected.  The vet says that her thyroid levels were high enough to cause the elevated liver enzymes, even though at her health checkup in November, there was no sign of any thyroid problems.

Anyway, she is on 5 mg of Mercazole once a day for 14 days and then will have her blood tested.  I am unfamiliar with this drug, though I have read on a lot of sites that it is standard for hyperthyroidism in cats.  Have any of you used it?  Have your cats had side effects?  Is 14 days standard before retesting the blood?  What can/should I expect?

This is a different kind of medication to the one my cat had - I gather that the active ingredient (Carbimazole) is metabolised to methimazole and that's the actual thyroid blocking drug.

My cat that had HT was fine on his initial dose so didn't have that many repeat blood tests.

I can't remember how old your cat is.  If she's middle-aged rather than older (my cat was 15 when diagnosed) then in the longer term surgery or radiotherapy might be a good option for her, if they are not too expensive for you, as they should remove the need for daily medication.

Once your cat's condition stabilises I suspect you will see a dramatic improvement in her general condition - I did with Rufus.

http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/hyperthyroidism.html

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/hyperthyroidism/info.html

Thanks so much for the reply, OrientalSlave!

Piccalo is about 11 years old, but we aren't sure, as she is a rescue kitty.

I don't know if radiotherapy is available here in Tokyo, but I might check that out if the medication doesn't work.  I don't know if I would want to put her through surgery.  My vet hasn't suggested either option at this point.  I think they want to make sure that her liver goes back to normal with the medication.

Yes, they probably want to be sure she doesn't have any other problems before surgery or radiotherapy are suggested - hyperthyroid can also hide heart and kidney problems. 

Personally had Rufus been the age your cat is, and had he had no other health problems (he had liver tumours diagnosed just as the HT got under control) I would have been very happy for my vets to operate as whilst surgery is a one-off stress, two pills a day for life are stressful every day of his life, plus he wasn't easy to pill and bit someone else at a cattery trying to pill him - he bit her badly, she bled all over the place.

Radiotherapy is a serious proposition and there are very few places allowed to carry it out in the UK - the cat has to be very much in isolation and used cat litter etc. has to be carefully disposed of as it's radioactive.