Gatsby has hyperthyroidism. Good update! #31

[Prairie Purrs]

Thank you all. Gats is such a sweetheart, and I really hope this will be manageable. He's curled up on my lap right now, purring like thunder.

Gatsby only eats canned food, and I add some water to it because he doesn't drink much otherwise. He's on a pretty low dose of methimazole right now--5 mg once a day. I hope it does the trick.

[Prairie Purrs]

Gatsby's a lot less frantic than he's been lately, so maybe the medicine is beginning to kick in. He's still eating all of his food, but he's not wolfing it down in a matter of minutes--he eats some, then goes back later and eats more. I just hope he doesn't lose his appetite altogether, because he could stand to gain back a pound or two.

Has anyone opted for surgery or radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism?

[Cataholic]

I am sorry to hear this about Gatsby. My RB tux, Tex, was hyperthyroid. The medication worked really well for years.

I did consider the treatment, but it was 5 years ago, and it was somewhat 'new' and since the meds worked, well I went with that option. Today, presented with the same dx? I would do the treatment.

Good luck with it all, and special tuxie pets to Gatsby.

[Medusa]

I haven't considered either of those options due to Boo's age of 19. Perhaps if he were younger, I might consider the surgery but not the treatment. That just sounds scary to me.

[Freedom]

None of mine ever had the surgery or the readioative treatment. I wanted it for my first one, RB Amber. My vet said not necessary, he wasn't "that bad," and then he was gone 2 months later.

PetCo has this canned food, Soulistic. I am using the Harvest Sunrise and the Chicken in Gravy for my Sparkle. It has a TON of fluid in it, I bet you wouldn't even need to add water in that. It does come in 4 or 5 other flavors, they are fish related, haven't tried those just yet. It seems a good food, made in a human food facility, so high quality. You may want to check into that as well.

[krazyaboutkatz]

PetCo has this canned food, Soulistic. I am using the Harvest Sunrise and the Chicken in Gravy for my Sparkle. It has a TON of fluid in it, I bet you wouldn't even need to add water in that. It does come in 4 or 5 other flavors, they are fish related, haven't tried those just yet. It seems a good food, made in a human food facility, so high quality. You may want to check into that as well.

I also highly recommend this food. I only bought the two chicken flavors mainly for Storm but all of my adult cats loved it. Storm needs the extra moisture for his urinary problems. I read that it's Petco's version of Weruva which is a fairly expensive canned food.

[smokey the elder]

A lady in my rescue had the iodine treatment for one of her cats, who was only 7-8 years old at the time. It's expensive and the post treatment is a pain (you have to store the litter for awhile; it's radioactive at first) but the cat is doing very well several years later. But, as I recall, this cat was an absolute bear to pill.