Our 17 year and 3 month old boy, Casper had his bi-annual health check this past week. The doctor felt his thyroid was somewhat enlarged. He had all the usual bloodwork done and it appears that the T4 is elevated minimally and has suggested we start him on a very low dose of Methimazole, once a day and come back in a few weeks to recheck.
Casper has been living with Chronic Kidney Disease for a little over a year. That situation is fairly well controlled at the moment - thankfully, nothing has increased dramatically over this time period; his BUN is normal although his creatinine and urea nitrogen are elevated and increased slightly over the last time he was checked. He gets fluids 2x a week (can't do more because of heart issues), along with Vitamin B12 shots every couple of weeks.
He has a small heart murmer as well. We had him go through a sonogram for that about 4 months ago to make sure it wasn't anything overly serious.
My understanding of this is that the HT could possibly mask the severity of the CKD (not going into the science behind it as it's easy for anyone to look up themselves) so I'm a bit concerned that once the Methimazole kicks in his CKD numbers will elevate further.
He is not a candidate for surgical removal of the thyroid due to age and his preexisting heart health. Radiation treatment has not been discussed yet; the vet wants to see if the medication works first. It certainly will be less expensive (I've heard it costs around $2000 pretty much everywhere) and less trouble although the radiation would almost 100% cure him. Not a candidate for the special diet either for various reasons including healthy cats can't eat it and feeding our other one separately could be an issue because he tends to graze now instead of eat in one shot.
I'd like to hear from others their experience with this disease. I know it can NOT be ignored as the cat will waste away, which is utterly cruel to allow.
Any tips on pilling would be especially appreciated. He's gotten somewhat cranky in his old age (although the HT could be a cause of that, it's a symptom) and pilling him is very difficult. We don't want to have to hold him down and we tried compounding another medication a while back and discovered he really hates having his ears touched. Pill pockets would possibly work but unfortunately, I think all have poultry in them and we found out awhile ago he's allergic to it. This week he got smart about me hiding a tiny piece of Cerenia in some cream cheese, which never happened before, and kept spitting it out on the floor LOL.
Thanks in advance for any help, and encouragement you can give me. I haven't even told my husband the full extent of this as he has a very intense bond with Casper and he truly can't handle hearing that he might not be with us for much longer. I read up on life expectancy for cats his age with the concurrent health issues and well, it certainly is not optimistic past a year or so.
Casper has been living with Chronic Kidney Disease for a little over a year. That situation is fairly well controlled at the moment - thankfully, nothing has increased dramatically over this time period; his BUN is normal although his creatinine and urea nitrogen are elevated and increased slightly over the last time he was checked. He gets fluids 2x a week (can't do more because of heart issues), along with Vitamin B12 shots every couple of weeks.
He has a small heart murmer as well. We had him go through a sonogram for that about 4 months ago to make sure it wasn't anything overly serious.
My understanding of this is that the HT could possibly mask the severity of the CKD (not going into the science behind it as it's easy for anyone to look up themselves) so I'm a bit concerned that once the Methimazole kicks in his CKD numbers will elevate further.
He is not a candidate for surgical removal of the thyroid due to age and his preexisting heart health. Radiation treatment has not been discussed yet; the vet wants to see if the medication works first. It certainly will be less expensive (I've heard it costs around $2000 pretty much everywhere) and less trouble although the radiation would almost 100% cure him. Not a candidate for the special diet either for various reasons including healthy cats can't eat it and feeding our other one separately could be an issue because he tends to graze now instead of eat in one shot.
I'd like to hear from others their experience with this disease. I know it can NOT be ignored as the cat will waste away, which is utterly cruel to allow.
Any tips on pilling would be especially appreciated. He's gotten somewhat cranky in his old age (although the HT could be a cause of that, it's a symptom) and pilling him is very difficult. We don't want to have to hold him down and we tried compounding another medication a while back and discovered he really hates having his ears touched. Pill pockets would possibly work but unfortunately, I think all have poultry in them and we found out awhile ago he's allergic to it. This week he got smart about me hiding a tiny piece of Cerenia in some cream cheese, which never happened before, and kept spitting it out on the floor LOL.
Thanks in advance for any help, and encouragement you can give me. I haven't even told my husband the full extent of this as he has a very intense bond with Casper and he truly can't handle hearing that he might not be with us for much longer. I read up on life expectancy for cats his age with the concurrent health issues and well, it certainly is not optimistic past a year or so.
. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with HyperT, although I do have quite a bit of experience with CKD. I just checked with our compounding pharmacy to see of perhaps they could compound the Methamazole into an injectable, which is how we gave our last CKD cat ALL of her meds, but, alas, they don't. They DO, however, make it in a "tastee chew". Not sure that will suffice,however, because when kidney cats don't feel well, they sometimes refuse to eat even their most favorite treats 
I use this chicken-free pill dough 
The ingredient aren't great but a tiny bit daily isn't going to cause any harm, IMO. I tried a fish flavored one before but it was too dry and crumbly to mold around a pill.
