Worried about my Callie cat...

My girl is 10 years old she's been the picture of health until the 13th when my husband left a message at my work place to call him immediately. He said I had to rush Callie to the vet as she could hardly breath, she was fighting for her breath. And she had thrown up and pooed on the floor right in front of him and it was diahrea(sp.). He said the vet thinks she has cystitis and hyperthyroidism. Sure enough her T4 was 14.5 I almost had a heart attack. We had noticed she had lost a lot of weight but I thought it to be that I had cut down on her food intake and that because of summer being out in the yard with her sister(2 Yorkies) she was just losing a little weight, well she lost 6 lbs. As she weighed 10 now. I felt sick, I always thought myself to be a good Mommy. She never stopped running and playing she was always a big eater, so her appetite hadn't really changed, and her bowels and everything else were fine till this day. I noticed the 2 days prior to this she was laying under the end table instead of on top of it, I thought that to be odd and just said to my husband she's due for a check up gonna make an appointment.
Anyway the point to this book :) is that he said with the pills he gave it would take about 2 weeks to notice a difference and her to start feeling better. After the 4th day she was not throwing up and diahrea was subsiding. Now she's running and jumping again too. Not laying around. But on Toesday she'll be getting testing to make sure she is in fact getting better and her level is coming down then we can proceed with surgery. It is a fight to give her pills, but I'm worried about surgery too. Has anyone had it done, not really wanting to put her through the iodine treatment as she has to go to MD for that and we live in Pa plus she's never been away from us before. Just wanted to hear what others who have had the surgery done would suggest. Are they sorry they did, or was it the best thing to do, she could in fact live another 10 years
no one knows so I don't want her to have to fight me 2x a day the rest of her life with the meds.
Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Linda

My cat Bo is hyperthyroid, he has been on the pills almost a month. The bad news is, after doing well on them, he started vomiting this weekend.

I ruled out surgery because of his age (14) and the fact that my vet said if they get one side, the same problem often comes back on the other side. :( Plus, the surgery runs about $450, and radioiodine is $900. I would rather have one shot take care of it forever than putting my cat through surgery and having the chance that it may come back. I have been seriously considering the radioiodine treatment, but like you I have qualms about letting him go somewhere for a week. That is so much time to be separated, and in some cases they want you to limit contact with the cat afterwards for a week or two.

However, I joined a list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hypertoptions/

One of the people on the list had the radioiodine done on her cat and she said she dropped him off on a Tuesday, and he was back on Thursday - with no special instructions not to cuddle. You just have to handle the litter carefully for a few weeks after, you can't dispose of it with your normal trash. I think you have to flush it.

Thanks Bo.. for your input, I am so worried for my little one. It's alot to go through for someone who's never been sick a day in their life.
I joined the Yahoo group also, I appreciate you sending this link. I have been reading as much material as possible about all this, and still am confused on the right thing to do. It scares me so much to know that chemicals that strong would be placed inside my baby. I know it's for her own good but it's still so scary.
I also feel the same as you about the same thing happening on the other side, as the vet said he wouldn't know till he got in there if he'd have to take both or not and if he takes both she'd still have to do exactly what we set out to avoid,which is meds that rest of her life. :(
Thanks again for you help

I had a scare with my cat Deirdre and hyperthyroidism. It turned out not to be her problem but I did all the research on it and had decided that because of her age I would go with the radioiodine. I went to the website of the place that would do the shot and I really liked they way they seemed to run things. They have a hospital in Pittsburgh also. Although you being in Lancaster I am not sure that would be any closer. Your Callie is only 10 years old so you could have many many years with her still. While the radioiodine is expensive when you look at how many years she will be on the meds you would most likely end up saving money with the shot. I ruled out surgery because it was just tooo risky in my book. From all I have talked to the shot is very safe and it is a cure not just a treatment.

Denyce

My Tina was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism at the age of 15. Due to her age, I decided to go with medication rather that radiation. There was no way that Tina would take a pill twice a day, so the vet got me together with a mail order pharmacy that would make a tuna-flavored liquid for me. The liquid worked great . She never really put back on any of the weight that she lost, but at least she stopped losing it. She lived for three more years after that in very good health. Unfortunatly, at the same time they diagnosed the hyperthyroidism, they also found out that she had FIV. I had never even heard of it before then. I finally had to say goodbye to her at 18 yrs due to complications of the FIV. I have no doubt that had she not had the added burden of the FIV, she would have continued on several more years on the hyperthyroid medication.

Catholic has been treating Tex's hyperthyroidism for a few years now with pills and he's doing fine. I also know she opted not to do the iodine treatment for various reasons, but I guess this post is more to let you know that it can be treated with meds and the surgery isn't an absolute. I've found that cats get used to being pilled. I've been pilling Tubby for almost 3 years now and he could care less that I'm shoving something down his throat as long as he gets his treats afterwards. :rolleyes: ;)

Good luck and let us know how Callie is doing! :)

Man was it nice last night to see Callie cat laying on her back inside her tent beating the cain out of the mouse dangling down in there, I can't tell you the last time she even went inside her tent. And night before around 1 am she woke me up chasing the milk band around the house. LOL, she loves when you pull them off but I can't throw them down when the other 2 are running around cause they'll(2Yorkies) eat it :rolleyes: LOL, they say cats are smarter Actually they're still pups at 2 yrs old. But man was she on the war path after we went to bed that night. She hadn't done these things in so long and I had assumed it was because she was getting older, didn't realize it was that she was getting sick.
Thank you everyone for all your info I really appreciate it. I can't wait to see how her bloodwork comes back this time. Will let you all know, wondering how long it takes to go back to normal when they're taking theeir meds and with her t4 having been so very high.
Thanks again for all your kind words and advice!! I knew this would benefit me joining here!!