RECENTLY DIAGNOSED 19 YR OLD KITTY WITH HYPERTHYROIDISM

Hi!

Our kitty Roscoe, a girl, who is 19, was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and she is on 1/4 of a ml of Methimazole twice a day.  The problem is she does not want to eat like she use to.  Our vet gave us Oxazpam   .1 ml twice a day.  Sometimes that works sometimes it does not.  Any advice on how to get her to eat more like she use to. 

I would appreciate any advice.

Thank you!

Rita

Order chews from 800-481-1729 BCP VET PHARMACY. These are not like any chews you know. They are super-soft, easy to embed pills in, and they come in three flavors -- liver, chicken, fish - they probably have beef, too. My cat really likes the liver-flavored ones. It is super-easy to give her her meds now. The only thing she doesn't like is getting her Lactulose orally. 



Hyperthyroidism is a precursor of kidney failure. If your kitty will eat the chews you're in like Flynn. If not, there is the radio-iodine option. I did that with one of my three Siamese. But my remaining kitty, the sister of the cat who got radioactive iodine treatment, is flourishing at age 19 with full-blown kidney disease. She gets methimazole, amiodipine, and benazepril, as well as Lactulose (in kidney disease, they get constipated), and of course subcutaneous fluid treatment.



Any other questions you can PM me if you'd like. 

nelleworatnac said:

 
Order chews from 800-481-1729 BCP VET PHARMACY. These are not like any chews you know. They are super-soft, easy to embed pills in, and they come in three flavors -- liver, chicken, fish - they probably have beef, too. My cat really likes the liver-flavored ones. It is super-easy to give her her meds now. The only thing she doesn't like is getting her Lactulose orally. 



Hyperthyroidism is a precursor of kidney failure. If your kitty will eat the chews you're in like Flynn. If not, there is the radio-iodine option. I did that with one of my three Siamese. But my remaining kitty, the sister of the cat who got radioactive iodine treatment, is flourishing at age 19 with full-blown kidney disease. She gets methimazole, amiodipine, and benazepril, as well as Lactulose (in kidney disease, they get constipated), and of course subcutaneous fluid treatment.



Any other questions you can PM me if you'd like. 

Click to expand...

I never heard of Hyperthyroidism as a pre-cursor to kidney disease.


I wonder where you got that information.



Many cats have hyperthyroid; and many have kidney disease. I do not think they go hand in hand.



@talkingpeanut  


@Margd  


@Columbine  


@betsygee  



Can you help out with this.



@mickeyminnie424    I am sorry you are going through this. I paged some people who can help you much better than I can.



A couple of suggestions of mine:


Have you tried just warming the food in the microwave? not hot but just a bit. Warming causes more of an aroma and may entice your little girl.



Try getting a jar of baby food to feed your cat. Try Gerber or Beech-nut. Make sure there are no added garlic and onions..just plain meat.



Can you pick up some freeze dried raw? The ones from Natures Variety are soft nuggets which I have tried crumbling on top of my guys food. It is not really raw--more like freeze dried so it does not freak me out.


They come in some small bags. I have seen them at Petco and Possibly PetSmart. I ordered mine on line from Chewy.com. They are really good about prices. 



Can you try some treats crushed on top of her food?



I know there are lots of threads running around this forum about how to feed stubborn cats. I had to resort to many of these tricks, with my guy..


Good Luck

Wow, did not know some of that.  Actually I posted incorrectly she is on Tapizole  What could the effects be of taking her off the meds?

@mickeyminnie424  

I would wait until one of the advisors come on. They should be here soon. They are really the ones who can help you out.

I definitely would not take her off of any medication until I spoke with her Vet.. this is serious stuff you are dealing with..

Thank you!  How do I get them to answer!

They will answer you. They are good people who know their stuff. The page goes directly to their email.

First of all, welcome to TCS M mickeyminnie424 I'm sorry it's not under happier circumstances

I'm afraid I have zero experience with hyperthyroidism, so I can't be a huge amount of help :disa: One thing I would say, though, is do NOT take your girl off her meds without veterinary guidance. She needs those meds to stay well. If they really don't seem to agree with her, then talk to your vet about alternatives, or even seek a second opinion if you're not happy with the treatment, but don't play around with the meds on your own. It rarely ends well [article="33011"][/article]

nelleworatnac said:

 
Order chews from 800-481-1729 BCP VET PHARMACY. These are not like any chews you know. They are super-soft, easy to embed pills in, and they come in three flavors -- liver, chicken, fish - they probably have beef, too. My cat really likes the liver-flavored ones. It is super-easy to give her her meds now. The only thing she doesn't like is getting her Lactulose orally. 

Hyperthyroidism is a precursor of kidney failure. If your kitty will eat the chews you're in like Flynn. If not, there is the radio-iodine option. I did that with one of my three Siamese. But my remaining kitty, the sister of the cat who got radioactive iodine treatment, is flourishing at age 19 with full-blown kidney disease. She gets methimazole, amiodipine, and benazepril, as well as Lactulose (in kidney disease, they get constipated), and of course subcutaneous fluid treatment.

Any other questions you can PM me if you'd like. 

Click to expand...

It sounds like this poster has experience with this.  Unfortunately there is a connection between hyperthyroidism and CKD  http://www.allfelinehospital.com/hyperthyroidism.pml   explains it.  Some people think that hyperthyroidism uncovers underlying CKD.  This article says that it is actually hard on the kidneys and the damage shows up after the hyperthyroidism is controlled.  

I have no experience with this but from what I have seen here it seems to be very much a matter of trying different things until you find the 'magic bullet' for your kitty.  I know there is a prescription diet available for it.  I know many people have a knee jerk reaction to any and all prescription diets but we have a vet who occasionally posts here and he calls it a 'get out of jail free card' for this.  It is Hill's Y/D if you want to ask your vet about it.

Has your kitty had levels rechecked?

Denice said:

 
It sounds like this poster has experience with this.  Unfortunately there is a connection between hyperthyroidism and CKD  http://www.allfelinehospital.com/hyperthyroidism.pml   explains it.  Some people think that hyperthyroidism uncovers underlying CKD.  This article says that it is actually hard on the kidneys and the damage shows up after the hyperthyroidism is controlled.  

I have no experience with this but from what I have seen here it seems to be very much a matter of trying different things until you find the 'magic bullet' for your kitty.  I know there is a prescription diet available for it.  I know many people have a knee jerk reaction to any and all prescription diets but we have a vet who occasionally posts here and he calls it a 'get out of jail free card' for this.  It is Hill's Y/D if you want to ask your vet about it.

Has your kitty had levels rechecked?

Click to expand...

Thanks Denice!!

Honestly, I was not aware of the correlation with hyperthyroid and CKD... Thank you for clarifying things for me...

If I think about it, it does make sense because the hyperthyroid, is overstimulating everything, including all the waste products that the kidneys have to filter. Hyper-T is also increasing the Blood pressure, causing the kidneys to overwork. That would eventually lead to a 'burn-out' of sorts in the kidneys, i.e.: kidney failure. 

It a cats/humans kidneys were already prone to CKD, then this could just push them over the edge. I know that it can also increase the elimination of calcium, so it all makes sense to me....

sorry, I was just thinking out loud and trying to understand the connection in my mind. That is how I got to learn things when I was working. I had to understand the mechanisms, in my own way....

thank you

Not my personal experience, but a very close friend had an 18 year old diagnosed with hyperthyroid.  The vet knew the connection to the kidneys.  If you cut down the thyroid and it lowers the blood pressure, the kidneys may not get enough blood and may fail.  For this reason, the vet suggested trying the methimazole (generic name for Tapazole, same thing) to tone down the thyroid to the level it would need to be and see how the kidneys reacted.  If they were OK, then do the radioactive iodine treatment to stop the thyroid, and give thyroid supplement medication to adjust it to where it should be afterwards.  If the kidneys were NOT OK, then they would lower the dose of methimazole until they found a happy medium.  Fortunately for him, the kidneys were OK when the methimazole brought the thyroid back into normal range, so they got the radioactive iodine done and the cat is fine and happy now.  I think she just turned 20.  Her name is BIJOU and he adopted her from me when she was six months old.  They all live in Portland, Oregon.

My 18 year old is the same.  By co-incicdence she also had two bad upper front canines and once these were removed her appetite returned and she gained some weight.  However she is now eating less and less.  I have given up trying to get her to eat the KD food the Vet wants her to eat (and she takes the ear gel too) and a complication is she is having difficulty with constipation..  Right now I am cycling her through real canned pink salmon, and flakes of ham, turkey and chicken.  It seems a food she likes one day she doesn't the next.  I fear this is just old age as well as her other conditions.  Oh, and she does also have early stage KDisease..  I know this wasn't much help but 18 for some is  old age and my thinking is make her as comfortable as I can and let her eat just about anything she wants.  She's a former feral and difficult to handle at the Vet's.

My almost 18 yr old Dave is on the transdermal form of methimazole (tiny bit of cream rubbed in his hairless part of inner ear), has been for a few years now. I chose that over pills, because I read side effect of pills is tummy trouble. He has been doing great on it, maybe discuss with vet to see if that could be causing little Roscoe appetite problems, the oral pill might be too harsh on her stomach.