Gatsby has hyperthyroidism. Good update! #31

[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.

[Prairie Purrs]

Thank you all for the info. I'll have to talk things over with my vet and find out how far we'd have to travel for either surgery or the iodine treatment. Gats is pretty easy to pill, so that's not an issue.