Anyone out there have experience with hyperthyroid kitties?
And now for something completely different.
My sweet, darling kitty Morsel has hyperthyroidism. He is currently being treated with methimazole, one half pill twice daily, which he takes pretty happily all rolled up in a Pill Pocket. However, his white blood cell count is slightly low, and this might be the result of the pills. And lately I think he's started losing weight again, so I have to take him in to the vet anyways to see if his dosage needs to be adjusted.
There is a treatment - radioiodine - that has a pretty good chance of curing him.
Does anyone out there have experience with hyperthyroid cats and making this decision?
I'm considering doing it, and if so, most likely doing it during the move, and definitely doing it before PA school. The reason I'm thinking of doing it during or just before the move is that this way Morsel has fewer periods of stress, but then, coming "home" to a totally new place might be more stress than temporarily coming home to his "real" home, and then moving. And the reason before PA school is, duh, because I want to absolutely minimize the amount of stress I have during PA school. Thoughts/ideas?
Morsel is almost 14 years old, but otherwise healthy, so as an indoor-only cat, could still live another 6+ years.
Pro:
Con:
What say ye, assembled wisdom of LiveJournal?
**Remember, I won't be living at Great Oak for the next 2.5 years, so finding someone to pill my cat 2x/day will be much harder, if not totally impossible, even if it is really easy because of the Pill Pocket routine.
My sweet, darling kitty Morsel has hyperthyroidism. He is currently being treated with methimazole, one half pill twice daily, which he takes pretty happily all rolled up in a Pill Pocket. However, his white blood cell count is slightly low, and this might be the result of the pills. And lately I think he's started losing weight again, so I have to take him in to the vet anyways to see if his dosage needs to be adjusted.
There is a treatment - radioiodine - that has a pretty good chance of curing him.
Does anyone out there have experience with hyperthyroid cats and making this decision?
I'm considering doing it, and if so, most likely doing it during the move, and definitely doing it before PA school. The reason I'm thinking of doing it during or just before the move is that this way Morsel has fewer periods of stress, but then, coming "home" to a totally new place might be more stress than temporarily coming home to his "real" home, and then moving. And the reason before PA school is, duh, because I want to absolutely minimize the amount of stress I have during PA school. Thoughts/ideas?
Morsel is almost 14 years old, but otherwise healthy, so as an indoor-only cat, could still live another 6+ years.
Pro:
- it cures hyperthyroidism in 97% of cases (according to studies by the radioiodine center), and assuming it cures, doesn't have side effects associated with ongoing methimazole treatment, which merely suppresses the thyroid tumor.
- only one treatment
- no more pills 2x/day, which is much more convenient for me if I ever want to take off for a weekend**
- one time cost rather than recurrent cost of repeated cost for meds, Pill Pockets (about $7/small bag, not insignificant), and twice yearly labs to check blood levels, liver function, and such.
Con:
- stressful for Morsel
- expensive for me ($1200) all at once when I'm also expending a lot of cash
- Morsel would have to be hospitalized for at least 4 days, and I would either need to board him or isolate him for 7 days and flush his litter because he will be.... RADIOACTIVE KITTY
- potential that it will cause him to be temporarily or permanently hypothyroid, which would require thyroid supplementation (supposedly very unlikely, and usually temporary)
What say ye, assembled wisdom of LiveJournal?
**Remember, I won't be living at Great Oak for the next 2.5 years, so finding someone to pill my cat 2x/day will be much harder, if not totally impossible, even if it is really easy because of the Pill Pocket routine.