Diabetes & overactive thyroid

Hi,

I previously belonged to this forum but unfortunately lost my login details and email address.

Around 2 years ago, my cat Tinkerbell had ketoacidosis and diabetes and this forum was a lot of help.

The diabetes is under control but Tinkerbell has just been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. We got medication from the vets and unfortunately her eye swelled and she had an allergic reaction. The vet told us that if she is allergic to this medication, she will be allergic to all the overactive thyroid medications. The vet gave us 3 options: the first being we change to their iodine free but DRY food which I’m not keen to do because after everybody’s help on this forum, I don’t give her any dry food. It will also mean she can’t even have anything else, any wet food, a scrap of chicken or fish. The second option is radioactive treatment but she has to go on a long car journey (she pants usually when she goes on a long journey so I avoid this now). And has to stay there a week. This we were told costs around £2000. There could be all sorts of dangers to the treatment too, I suppose? I haven’t researched it yet. The third the vet says she doesn’t recommend but is an operation.

has anyone had similar or can give any advice please?

ive seen there is a food that’s low in iodine on zooplus which could maybe be a possibility I’m thinking.

 

Hi there,

Here's a thread discussing hyperthyroidism treatment:

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-steroids-ends-remission.233815/#post-2614587

Obviously with Tinkerbell's allergy to the thyroid medication perhaps it might be worth at least considering putting her on the low/no iodine diet for a while to establish how her kidneys are functioning before committing to a non-reversible treatment (I-131, surgery). Not ideal, I recognise, but at least with the insulin treatment there is the possibility, if required, of working dosing around the needs of other conditions.

Member @Gracie85 has previously posted a recommendation for a good hyperthyroidism support group in this thread:

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-steroids-ends-remission.233815/#post-2614587

Maybe they might be able to give you some guidance specific to Tinkerbell's situation.


Mogs
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Definitely join the facebook page listed above. Maybe they can help with the medicine reaction. They can also give you full info on the radioactive I-131 treatment.

To treat hyperthyroid with food, it has to be completely iodine-free. The thyroid gland needs iodine in order to produce its hormones, so no iodine, no hyperthyroid production. That is why the cat cannot eat ANYTHING else. Low in iodine will not work. has to be no iodine.

The radioactive I-131 treatment is expensive, but usually highly effective. And when you consider the cost of the medications for hyperthyroid, and all the blood testing that goes with it, it's usually cheaper in the long run. Cats become hyperthyroid because of a (usually) benign tumor in their thyroid gland. This tumor will continue to grow, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, so you have to keep doing the blood tests at least twice a year, more if not stable, and increasing the medicine accordingly. We were up to $60 a month in medicine plus all the vet visits and bloodwork in only a year and a half. The benign tumors can go malignant (cancerous), and then it becomes a much bigger problem to deal with, all evidence--the increasing levels and need for very high doses of meds--indicated that this was happening to our cat. So we went for the I-131. The biggest danger is that the cat then becomes hypothyroid; ours did because they wanted to make sure they got rid of all of the tumor since it did seem to be going cancerous (rather than biopsy and go through all of that trauma and expense, we just went for the "go for it" treatment). But hypothyroid is easily controlled with very inexpensive thyroid medicine, one or two pills a day, and once the cat's level stabilizes, it generally stays there so rechecking levels can be part of routine check ups, and not needed very often.

As for the stress of the car ride, ask your vet about something to calm her. At the treatment center, the I-131 is given by a simple injection, then the rest of the stay is just monitoring her radioactivity levels until it is low enough to be released (according to government radioactivity regulations). You send her usual food with her, and you can also send a blanket or bedding for while she is there. You won't get it back because of the radioactivity, so most people send a towel or old t-shirt that they have been wearing and sleeping on (without washing) to make it smell like home.

 

My diabetic has hyperthyroidism. She's on methimazole, but if she were a candidate for the i131 treatment I would have done it.

 

Thanks for this valuable nugget of information, Gracie.


Mogs
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My non-diabetic kitty Ginger was diagnosed with hyperthyroid in 2016. After researching, I knew that I wanted to go the i131 route as it is the "gold standard", and is a cure, and because she's near impossible to pill..

It is often a long drive to get to one of the i131 clinics, and that long drive and the long vet stay often concerns the pet parents most.

Ginger did end up going hypothyroid, and now takes a tiny tasteless pill that is dissolved in water and added to her breakfast.

I recommend the face book group Hyperthyroid Cats.

 

Our Lamborghini is such a pig, I can put his hypothyroid pill on a plate with some tiny bits of freeze-dried chicken around it, and he just eats it. Doesn't even notice.
Hubby goes for the "shove it down his throat" technique, but Lamborghini no longer has any back teeth, so it's really easy to slip a pill in there; most cats don't have this dubious advantage.