Hyperthyroidism Management

[FL Cat Mom]

My 18-year-old cat Lily was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I started her on the oral medication Monday, 1/4 of a 10 mg. pill twice daily. So far, so good ... she has a true aversion to pills so I've been crushing the medication and mixing it with baby food and/or Vita Cal.

I was really just curious how those of you with hyperthyroid cats have helped them to regain their weight and improve their coat condition. Lily is skin and bones, although she is hungry 24 hours a day and eats as often as I will feed her. Her coat is very matted and unkempt ... she just doesn't groom very much anymore ... and no amount of daily brushing seems to be making much difference.

She is strictly a canned food girl and will generally eat 2 cans of Fancy Feast per day (or more, if I give it to her). I've just started adding the Vita Cal 2 to 3 times daily and this week, I've added one of the Stage 1 pureed meat baby foods per day to her diet. She still continues to be hungry a good bit of the day so maybe this will continue until the medicine takes effect.

Any suggestions or advice from those of you who are currently managing this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Fallon]

Oh poor Lily. I'm sorry for both of you having to go through that. I've never had any of my pets go through that before. I'm sorry I don't have any advice but I just wanted to let you guys know that I hope she gets better! It sounds like you are taking good care of her and doing all you can.

[FL Cat Mom]

Thanks, Fallon. I hope the medicine will make a difference for her and help her feel more like her "normal" self. I hope she still has a good few years left and I'd like them to be enjoyable for her.

I appreciate your encouraging words.

[slick]

Hi FL: I see you are a newcomer. Welcome to Pet Talk. It's always nice to see new faces around here.

I'm owned by 2 kitties, Max the Persian is 11 and Speckles the Tabby is 17.

I have not had any experience with hyperthyroidism at all so I don't have any advice to give you. I'm interested to see what responses you get because, having geriatric kitties, I too could be in your shoes one day.

I seems to me that Cataholic has had experience with this.

http://www.petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?threadid=41007&highlight=Hyperthyroidism

Check out this thread.

[FL Cat Mom]

Slick, thanks so much ... what a memory you must have to remember that thread from January! Clearly you have not reached my age, where just remembering something from yesterday can be a stretch! :) I appreciate the welcome and look forward to sharing the experiences of others here. I will also contact Cataholic, since she has been managing for 2 years now!

I'm sorry for your losses with Casper and OJ ... we lost Callie (20 years old) in October so I know how tough it can be.

I'll probably be posting often. In addition to Lily, we also have Socks, a 1-year-old baby. I'm having to get reacclimated to what a youngster can do, since my "girls" have all been old for so long! :)

Thanks again!

Deborah

[Cataholic]

Slick, thanks for helping Deborah out! She pm'd me this am, and I shared the knowledge that I had with her. As I told her, hyperthyroidism IS manageable. Tex has had it for years, and is doing as well as to be expected.

Johanna

[slick]

Originally posted by Cataholic
Slick, thanks for helping Deborah out! Johanna
Actually I cheated!! I remembered someone had experience with it so I did a search.......:rolleyes:
Deborah, I'm older than most people think and yes my short-term memory is not was it used to be so I take the help when I can get it.:D

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Welcome to PT Deborah! Gee, we have so much in common. My two kitties, Tubby and Peanut, are 18 and 15 1/2 respectively, so I'm familiar with having geriatric kitties around and have already decided that when it's time, I'm adopting older cats because I don't know if I could reacclimate to a youngster again. ;) :D

The other thing we have in common is our name. Technically mine is spelled differently - Debra - but I've preferred Debbie ever since I can remember.

Unfortunately I have no advice on hyper-thyroidism. Ask me about kidney failure and I can go on and on since Tubby is in the beginning stages, but he's been stable for at least 2 1/2 years now, so I have all the faith in the world that he'll be around for a long time yet. :D I know Johnanna has provided you with some of the best advice out there anyway.

Please keep us updated on Lily's progress - and if you haven't noticed already, we really like pictures around here......;) :D

[FL Cat Mom]

Thanks so much to all of you for the warm welcome! I will try hard to stretch my somewhat limited abilities to be creative with the computer and share pictures of my "girls"!!

I look forward to reading and sharing with you in the days to come and I feel sure I'll be seeking advice on many occasions! :)

Debbie, I'm sorry to hear about Tubby's problem but it sounds as though he's managing well. We'll certainly hope that all our aging friends will still be with us for many years to come.

And Johanna has been a wealth of information! I can't thank her enough for sharing with me and thanks again to Slick for the tip.

I hope I didn't leave anybody out! I feel like I just won the Oscar! ;)

[RockysMommy]

Here is a link to an online hyper-T support goup:
Hyper-T Support Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hypertoptions/?yguid=173447272)

The group is a place to discuss any and all treatment options for the hyperthyroid cat including medication (Tapazole and methimazole), surgery, radioactive iodine (I-131), in addition to holistic or homeopathic remedies and natural supplements to complement the above.

Their purpose is to provide information, education, and support to the caretakers of hyperT cats through the sharing of personal experiences among all treatment modalities.