Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you have had your cat's thyroid killed...
Can you tell me about it?
We have had great success on Tapazol for over a year and then BAM. Daily vomiting. Got a script for nausea but apparently the pills are bitter because she finds them hidden in treats and now wont take any pills hidden in treats.
This means we are now choking pills down her by force twice daily. She hides from me, she spits them back out half the time despite my best effort and we are both miserable.
Her thyroid is obviously out of control again because we can't get consistent dosing in her. She's under 6 pounds and looks like a walking skeleton.
Im concerned how she will handle being in clinic so long.
Also....I'm newly pregnant so she would have to be boarded longer as we couldn't risk the baby by having her home those first 2 weeks while still radio active.
Im struggling and don't know what to do for her.
If you have had this done did it work? How did your puss handle being at the clinic for days afterward?
Anyone know of a solution I am overlooking?
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
Re: If you have had your cat's thyroid killed...
Hyperthyroidism in cats is tough. I feel for you!
If you want to continue the Tapazol but can't do the pills anymore, I believe you can get it compounded to be applied transdermally (rub on their ears). We've also had some limited success (with a totally different medication) having it compounded in tuna-flavored liquid form and drizzling it on dry treats or kibble. If appetite is an issue (in addition to the thyroid's effects), we also have a liver-flavored vitamin supplement that has helped a lot (one of the vitamins--B6 maybe--is supposed to stimulate appetite). Those might be easy things to try in the near term.
Does your vet think your cat is a good candidate for the radioactive iodine treatment? It's not right for every cat, but we did it with one of our cats, Natalie, about six or seven years ago, and we were extremely happy with the results and glad we did it.
The treatment can unmask kidney failure, so we did some screening to make sure her kidneys and other internal organs were in good shape. Since she was healthy for her age (other than the thyroid), she was a good candidate for the treatment.
We were very worried that the post-treatment isolation would be very hard on her, since she was a sensitive cat and not very good with change or new people, but she endured it surprisingly well. She seemed to start feeling better almost immediately after the procedure was done, so she ate and drank well during her recovery, including the time she was boarded and when she was home but isolated.
The treatment works immediately, and we only had to do follow-up blood work once (instead of every few months like with the Tapazole). There is a small chance of the condition coming back, but I understand that risk is lower than with surgery. Our Natalie lived about four or five more years after the treatment and never had any more thyroid problems, so for us it was basically a miracle cure.
Hope this helps some! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
"The hardest thing is to live richly in the present without letting it be tainted out of fear for the future or regret for the past." - Sylvia Plath
Lurker here...we did the radioactive treatment on one of my cats about five years ago. Would I do it again? Yes. My cat was my child but the entire process was really tough - moreso for him than for us, obviously. We had to take him nearly 10 hours one way to a facility that offered the treatment. They called us everyday and let me "talk" to him - knowing that he loved pizza and chinese food, they claimed they brought him pizza and chinese food as a treat. Sadly, he ended up dying a few years after that. It was worth it, I wasn't "ready" to let him go and I felt like he had a lot of life left in him, but he ended up getting sick again. It wasn't a cheap procedure. My cat was 7 or 8 years old when we had it done.
I am sorry. It would be a very hard decision given that you are pregnant. Radioactive iodine is not a force to be reckened with especially with a new baby/while pregnant.