Hello everybody

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by Antonio, Feb 14, 2017.

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  1. Antonio

    Antonio New Member

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    Feb 14, 2017
    Hello everybody, I'm new, freshly signed in.
    My name is Antonio, I'm Italian and live in Italy.
    I live with my wife and two lovely cats aged nearly 17 and 16. None of them is diabetic, but they have other serious diseases all the same.
    The elder cat, Lola, is nearly 17, but she's been suffering from several problems since she was young. She started with a CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) when she was 6 and has been successfully treated since. The first bad news arrived when she was 11 and was diagnosed with a carcinoma into her left nostril. She was treated with radiation therapy, they told me it would have been a palliative therapy, but they proved wrong and after over 5 years she's still fine on that side. Last year she was feeling sick and after a long nightmare of visits and analyses she was diagnosed with an extremely rare disease, hyperaldosteronism, that is an adrenal gland was producing more hormones that it should have done. This would have led her to death! Lola had one of her adrenal glands removed in July and everything was going fine, but two months later we found a new carcinoma, this time in her mouth. This new monster can't be won, this time we're going to surrender. At the moment she's still rather fine, yesterday she had half of her tongue amputated, but she's still able to drink and swallow her food. I know it's just a matter of time, but meanwhile I am enjoying my life with her as much as possible.
    The other cat, Pallina, is one year younger and has been perfectly fine until this past summer when she was found with an apathetic hyperthyroidism, an uncommon form of hyperthyroidism that causes effects which are opposite to the classic disease, anorexia and depression.
    So you're wondering why I signed up to this forum. Well, I accidentally came across a post of yours on Google where one of the registered users described a problem with their cat and I would like to help them with a bit of my experience, if I'm allowed to.
    I don't know if I am of much help with your issues, but I surely will learn a lot from you and your messages. I always want to improve my knowledges about cats, I love them!
    I told you I am Italian, so it is possible that I will make mistakes in my posts. Please, be soft on me and let me know if I have made a mistake.
    Thanks for accepting me!
    A kiss to all your cats.
     
  2. Dyana

    Dyana Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2009
    Welcome Antonio. :bighug:
    Thank you for your love of cats and wanting to help others and to learn about cats.
    My Ginger was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism recently and is not ravenous (I would say she is eating a little less than normal) and is keeping her weight steady and prefers to hide in my closet. I will Google apathetic hyperthyroidism.
     
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  3. Noah & me (GA)

    Noah & me (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2016
    Hi Antonio, beautiful names for your cats. Always good to know about a cat's health other than diabetes.
     
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  4. Antonio

    Antonio New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2017
    Dyana and Noah & Me, thanks for your warm welcome!

    Dyana, sounds like your Ginger is acting like my Pallina. My cat is not eating much, less than her normal I'd say, hides herself, does not interact with us as she used to, not much interested in the world around her, she's losing weight, drinks a lot, has a poor coat. Almost all these symptoms are the opposite of a cat with classic hyperthyroidism. My vet told me that 9% of cat with this disease develop an uncommon form called apathetic. The therapy is the same as other cats with the same issue. The fact is that she can't stand tablets or pills and vomits them after a few minutes. Now we've just strated treating her with a transdermal methimazole cream to be put inside her ears. I hope it works!
    Noah & Me, thanks, yes, Lola is a sexy name for a cat :), but it suites her perfectly. Pallina means "little ball" in Italian, it's a very common name for a she-cat over here :cat: As a matter of fact until she was hit by this hyperthyroidism, this was a very apt name for her, she was round like a ball, now she's pretty skinny, she lost 2.5 kg (5.52 lbs) since last May, now she weighs a bit more than 3 kg (6.61 lbs), very sad...

    Everything related to cats' health grabs my attention, so I will read your posts with interests!
     
  5. Kris & Teasel

    Kris & Teasel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2016
    Welcome, Antonio! We share many kinds of feline knowledge here. Regarding transdermal methimazole: my mother's elderly cat is successfully treated this way. His dose had to be increased very slowly because he had anorexia and vomiting from the methimazole when it was first raised too quickly to a therapeutic dose.
     
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  6. Gill & George

    Gill & George Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2015
    Hello and Welcome antonio.

    :bighug::bighug::bighug:
     
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  7. Antonio

    Antonio New Member

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    Feb 14, 2017
    Kris & Teasel, Gill & George, thanks for your welcome messages!

    Kris, how long has your mother's cat been treated this way? Have you or your mother checked the hormone values with a blood test regularly? Were they alright?
    Is the cat fine now? Anymore symptoms from the bad thyroid? Thank you!
     
  8. Kris & Teasel

    Kris & Teasel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2016
    His treatment began 4 to 5 months ago but he had a setback because of negative side effects so we (not the vet) made the decision to drop the dose down to the starting dose and work it back up extremely slowly. He's at about 75% of the desired dose now and is tolerating the meds well. His last blood work was about 2 weeks ago and his numbers were much better but not yet ideal. He's an elderly cat with other issues - arthritis, etc. but he seems to be doing well on the current methimazole dose. The plan is to continue increasing. Sorry, I don't have the lab values.
     
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