Hyper-T - Anyone else using transdermal Methimazole?

We're now looking at Methimazole in gel form because of Chi's liver issues - I have 2 syringes ready and before going ahead with this wanted to check in with the crowd here and see what's going on with you and your cats and how this is going for you and what we need to know.

Chi is taking Gold herbal remedy but I am concerned (very) about her organs and her heart especially - and if there is anything I can do - you know I will. So, putting out the word.

Take care

Really just bumping this up for you.  I haven't used this specific medication in transdermal gel, but HAVE used mirtazapine in transdermal.  Our Vet said it might not work as well, but for us, it worked like a charm.  Callie was impossible to pill, so it was transdermal or nothing.  It did the trick and gave her an appetite, so all was well. 

Hope it works for you little one.  Keep us posted

Thanks for  the bump. Glad the transdermal worked for Callie. I did manage to dose her yesterday, her ear later got very hot and all night she was up. Now am having a lot of reservations. She also refused breakfast..

Loss of appetite is a side effect of that particular drug.  Not sure about the other reaction.  Definitely give your Vet a call about the hot ear AND her not sleeping last night if that's not her usual behavior.

My cat has been getting transdermal methimazole for 5 years, and it's worked well for her. I opted for transdermal because it would be less likely to have GI side effects compared with oral medicine. Just make sure you wipe the residue off her ears with a damp paper towel at least every other day so it doesn't build up, and wash your hands afterward (or wear gloves) so you don't absorb the drug yourself.

I have noticed in the past few days that the outside of Perry's ears are getting a little bald. No idea if that's related to the Methimazole or not. Like I said, she’s been on the transdermal gel for 5 years, and her ears have always been fine. I’m not too worried.

One thing to be aware of – the amount of methimazole that is actually absorbed into your cat’s body isn’t necessarily the same as the # of mg in each dose of gel. So, if you ever switch to oral meds, the correct dose will not necessarily be the same # of mg as the gel dose. Several times I’ve run out of gel before the next shipment arrived from the pharmacy, and had to give her oral meds for a week or so. One of these incidents was right before her T4 check, and it threw off her result – because 2.5 mg of oral medicine gets completely absorbed into her system, while 2.5 mg of transdermal gel only gets partially absorbed through the skin.

The woman I work for also has a cat on transdermal methimazole, and it seems to be working well for her, too.

Yes, my 17 yr.old Dave has been on transdermal methimazole for a year or two now, it works great, has kept his t4 levels acceptable, I am so thankful for it, to not have to pill him!! Clean your cat's inner pinnae (I love that word!) often, youtube has great tutorials how to clean and apply (I have had luck with witch hazel on squeezed cotton balls, followed by a warm water wipe with squeezed out excess cotton ball )

Done with conventional vets. FOREVER>

missbliss said:

 
Done with conventional vets. FOREVER>

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What do you mean?  What happened?

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
What do you mean?  What happened?

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I'm done. Done with the shelling out money to have no quality care, no capable and complete diagnostics and no ability to get to the core of the disease and then actually heal it. Years and years and finally the reality of it all has hit. I've said this before but now it is final. I treat my beloveds with alternative methods that have been proven to heal, not corrupt or disrupt but actually  heal. And if their time has come to go, I will not prolong it with unnecessary measures.

Chi was diagnosed with a mass in her liver in November about the same time as the Hyper-T. It was this condition that prevented us from going forward with the Methimazole then but i tried once, saw her suffering and took her off it. After 2 days. Then this week we said we'd try again since her condition and numbers were rising and it was a disaster. I am just beside myself - and she - what can I say. I have pain relief for her, I am keeping her comfortable. I have Gold's herbal, sub-q's, special food and some herbs are coming in. Homeopathy as well. Some cats do great on the methmimazole and some cats can't take it. I tried. This is not a good match for her.

I am so sorry to hear this - you are obviously beside yourself with worry and with trying to find a solution. But did the vet try to keep her on it? Could he not offer any alternatives? I don't quite understand what happened. Feel free to rant here if you need to (without mentioning actual names!) - we all have to sometimes, and it can lead to others offering up ideas.

It's been a long road with Chi's condition, it started with idiopathic neurological symptoms of sudden startling and then she started showing abdominal issues, so I took her to the hospital to see what was going on, they ran neurological tests and did an US on her abdomen and everything but elevated basophils and eosinophils, were evident. That was about 6 years ago or so. I didn't make the connection then and neither did any one of the vets I took her to did either. That there was a definite gut/allergen that was causing her upset. From time to time I would get her tested blood/urine and there were the basophils/eosinophils,, tested her for various viruses everything always came back ok. Dewormied her. Tested her for hyper-T 4 years ago it was within normal range. She was given a dose of Metacam (!) which couldn't have helped anything but it was given for some spinal issues she has.

So the sudden startling kept getting worse, she started getting hungrier and thirstier and then diarreah - we ran to get another ultrasound in November and this time they said her intensitines were showing thickening and inflammation (IBD) and there was a mass in her liver. All this while we kept on moving from place to place and kept going from one vet to another. We couldn't seem to track down a vet who knew anything about what was going on with her and how to treat her. So I'd go to the internet to check the symptoms and then we had her tested again in January this year for Hyper-T again and it came back positive. That was when the methimazole came into the picture - but because of the liver issue/IBD - we decided to go with the gel as I wrote above. The outcome from this medication just made her other symptoms worse and I've tried to heal her poor gut, with probiotics and changing her diet.  For years I'd fed her Fancy Feast (ugh) now I know how bad it is and who knows if this isn't a main contributor to her condition. Now I make her chicken, lamb and ocasionally some Now/Go or Instinct - but have really tapered the canned food out - to nothing. But she is extremely hungry and thirsty.

I've had a very bad time with these vets - they do not understand the first thing about healing. The stories I could tell, and probably should. The way they would grab her by the scruff (to teach her who's boss. REALLY?) I almost got hysterical with that one. 99% wouldn't even or couldn't even do a complete exam. Or didn't know what a complete exam was. So many didn't even possess the basic knowledge of how to draw blood. One guy was breaking needles in her poor arm. ***. Are you kidding me....Another one squeezed her bladder so hard to extract urine she passed blood on the table. He scooped that up to test the urine. Never mind that it was highly contaminated and probably as a speciimin also worthless. We are both traumatised from all of this - at this point.

We are in Israel, there are no alternatives to the methimazole and Hyper-T is dealt with with the drug or with the Y/D. I had one vet berate me (!) for not wanting the Hill's.

Basically I just took her to be tested and the treatment I'd google. What else could I do. So now we are fortified with remedies and Buprenmorphine if and when the pain/discomfort is too much for her. I alternate that with Heel's pain relief, Rescue Remedy. She gets fresh grass to graze as needed. Basically I am always on call for her as she needs me, and sleep is long a thing of the past. She's been there for me for 17 years without fail - it's what anyone would do for a loved one. 

Am working now on finding answers in Chinese medicine and am looking for venues where I could ask the questions and have someone with knowledge be available (and willing) to answer.

Thank you for that complete story. It does sound as if you have all had a very bad time. Our site owner, Anne , lives in Israel. She may be able to point you in some expert directions, depending on where you are.

JennyR said:

Thank you for that complete story. It does sound as if you have all had a very bad time. Our site owner, @Anne, lives in Israel. She may be able to point you in some expert directions, depending on where you are.

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I don't know (smh) it seems that the veterinarian medicine being practiced is EXTREMELY narrow-minded and limited in its solutions. If at all there are solutions. I do not mesh with this way of healing - at all. I come from an entirely different way of thinking and am seeking really a very high way of doing things. Higher meaning vibratory, meaning being 1000 percent positive in the way you approach something. I just can't with the canned methodology.

Right now we're just doing things as we intuit and that's about as much as can be done. I leave it God's loving hands. And with that, blessings.

It does sound like you had a terrible experience with incompetent vets. I'm sorry to hear that. Not all vets know how to handle and treat cats. I'm not sure where you live, but if you want to send me your location in a private PM, I can try and ask for recommendations for cat specialists in local cat Facebook groups. If you live away from the center, it may be worth traveling with her at this point to see a good vet.

Personally, I think that the alternative of giving herbs and mixtures of herbs which have never been properly tested for effectiveness or safety, isn't better. Homeopathy doesn't worry me so much (assuming the remedies don't contain alcohol) but herbs do.

Herbs are extremely efficient factories of chemicals, some can be toxic in small amounts. Chinese medicine may be thousands of years old but it was developed for humans, not cats, and as we know cats are far more sensitive to certain toxins than humans are. And that would be for a healthy cat. When we're talking about a cat that already has liver issues, I wouldn't give any herbs whatsoever. You're basically giving her a lot of chemicals of various types, none of which have been tested for safety on cats (let alone effectiveness). Also, I'm not sure where you're getting your mixtures but be aware that there are issues with possible contaminations in them. Could be heavy metals or fungal or bacterial ones. It does happen, as these "remedies" are rarely monitored for those in Israel (I'm not sure they are anywhere else either).

I do hope you're working with a vet on this. Even a holistic vet. Someone who's capable of monitoring her liver while on these treatments and with some working knowledge of what can and can't be given to cats. Please, at the very least she needs that. 

Hi - I'lll pm you. It's easier.

I wanted to just put out there that we've done consultations with homeopaths, healers (of many varieties), vets and other speciialist over the phone, over the years, that in conjunction with taking all of my babies to various vets, I am not a person of means, but I will go barefoot and find clothing on the street and give my babies what they need. That's how things are.

 Two of my males died as a result (direct) of malpractice - ages 12 and 11 respectively. One of pancreatitis and my other of organ failure. This in spite of going to the best hospital - there was not one who could give us any solid help on how to go about with their care, but only hindered. I will only say that this has been a very complicated thing for me to deal with on so many levels. You want to believe that vets are there for your animal, that they will help and you willingly do whatever is needed. Then you finally realize what is going on with conventional veterinary medicine and that is - it's a business. Nobody cared that my cats are my family. Nobody went the extra mile to figure out what is causing their illnesses and why after extractions of the teeth, stumps were left in causing untold suffering for one of my males. Only when the stomatitis he was suffering from was not improving with the extractions, I took him to yet another vet who did x rays and told me that the previous vet left in a mouth filled with roots and this had weakened my beloved cat greatly. A year later, in spite of all my efforts he passed away. I contribute the extra stress on his heart to be a major factor in his passing.

So now I am dealing with my Chi in the way that I know. After 50 years of caring for animals I think I know a thing or two, but I am not against consulting with a specialist in TCM who can assist from afar. I will leave nothing unturned.

Am going offlline for a few days. Anyone can leave me a message privately with info or contacts.

Thanks