The cat in my icon, belonging to my in-laws, was hyperthyroid. She lived with it for 7 years, when she died at age 25, possibly just from old age. (They got her at age 18 from a lady who was going in to a nursing home and couldn't keep her.) If you end up deciding to stick with the chronic methimazole treatment, you can save some money by filling the RX at a human pharmacy (vets usually charge a larger markup, sometimes double what pharmacies charge - at least this is true in Canada. Worth pricing it out, anyway.) and maybe skipping the pill pockets - we drained the water from tuna cans and mashed the pill(s) in a teaspoon or so - one can's worth lasted almost a week, and we got to eat the tuna too. The cat BEGGED for her tuna juice medicine every day.
I know in humans, the post-op hypothyroidism is actually pretty common. I'm not sure what about cats would make that different, but cats are pretty different from humans. On the up side, thyroid supplements can be dosed less frequently, even every second day, due to the long half-life, so even if you end up having a medication for life situation after surgery, it would be less trouble than the current one.
(have to go to bed, so short replies now) Thanks so much for writing - the cat in your icon is so cute, how wonderful that she made it to 25! And thanks for the tip re: filling at human pharmacy - I'll try the tuna can method, perhaps
But at this point I'm leaning towards the radioiodine - more below for why. *hugs* and thanks.
I know in humans, the post-op hypothyroidism is actually pretty common. I'm not sure what about cats would make that different, but cats are pretty different from humans. On the up side, thyroid supplements can be dosed less frequently, even every second day, due to the long half-life, so even if you end up having a medication for life situation after surgery, it would be less trouble than the current one.
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But at this point I'm leaning towards the radioiodine - more below for why. *hugs* and thanks.
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