Hyperthyroidism - Considering Iodine Treatment

[mcqueen]

Hello all. My 15 year old DSH boy Mortimer was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism. We are considering his treatment options and there is nothing or no cost that would hinder what I would do for this boy. That being said we have scheduled an appointment with an Iodine center for December 29th, however I wanted to chat with some folks that have already gone through this and understand what we are in for, but more importantly is this the right decision. Morty is otherwise healthy, sweet and loving. He doesn't enjoy the vet, but he also does not get crazy like our younger boy who has to be sedated.

Mortimer is very important to me. His brother passed 3 years ago from Saddlethrombus. Both of them were instrumental for my own cancer fight and I want to make the very best decision for him.

Thank you for any insight.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi! I can't help directly, but have you done a search on this site for iodine treatment? I have seen numerous posts about it, and thought that might help you, while you wait for first hand responses. You've been on this site for a while, so I am guessing you know how to do a search? If not, just let us know, we will do it for you.

 

[fionasmom]

Fiona herself was hyperthyridic. She was dxed at about 13 and lived to 16 1/2. I gave her the medication faithfully but she was hard to pill. For the most part it was crushed in BFF food. If there is any question about being able to administer meds to Mortimer, I would investigate the iodine treatment. Since I did not choose that course, hopefully those who have, and I do recall discussions about this, will chime in.

 

[LTS3]

I don't have any experience with radioiodine treatment but wanted to post these links for you that have more info on what to expect during and after the treatment. Your vet will most likely discuss all these with you but it's always a good idea to read up ahead of time and make a list of questions to ask the vet.

Feline Hyperthyroidism

What is hyperthyroidism? Feline hyperthyroidism is a disorder resulting from excessive thyroid hormone. The disease occurs in middle-age to older cats without sex or breed predilection. Though functional benign enlargement (adenoma) is most common (98%), thyroid carcinoma (cancer) is another...

www.vet.cornell.edu

https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/sites/default/files/images/I131%20Client.pdf

https://uwveterinarycare.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FAQI131.pdf

Preparing Cats for Radioactive Iodine Treatment - WSAVA2005 - VIN

www.vin.com

 

[mcqueen]

Thank you for responding. Yes I’ve been reading up on the treatment and have a good handle on it mostly. I’m just terrified to make the wrong decision And wanted to hear from people who have first hand experience. I’ll keep searching the threads and ping people directly hoping they respond.

 

[mcqueen]

My handsome boy. He follows me around like a little puppy everywhere I go.

 

[sperry01]

Hi Mcqueen. I don't post or even login often, but I saw your thread and wanted to give our experience. It's kind of long, so I apologize.

My beloved Biscuit who will be 11 in December, has had very few issues until she started having random petit mal seizures (2-3 a year) starting a couple of years ago. Last September was a whole ordeal with her health that I won't get into with you here, but it's all posted here on this site where I had sought advice and ultimately I have another member to thank for helping me find the hyperthyroid diagnosis. Biscuit has always been overweight so I was laughed at by every vet when I asked if she could be hyperthyroid and finally I just flat out made them do the test and thankfully we caught it early.
Because she has some random skin allergies from time to time and because she is IMPOSSIBLE to pill, we completely bypassed the Methimazole approach completely. By the time we got her hyperthyroid diagnosis I had already spent hours reading about I-131 treatment and knew that's the route I wanted to take. I'm glad I had already done the work on that, because my primary vet didn't even offer that as a treatment option, just gave me the methimazole rx and sent me on my way. So I took it upon myself to contact the specialist and got it scheduled for a month later.

It was expensive ($1100), especially after we spent $5k a few months earlier when she had some serious liver issues, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Because she had health issues in September, she had already had an abdominal ultrasound and echo done at that time. It's standard where we went to do both of those the day of the I-131 to make sure she's still eligible. We could have opted out since it was within 6 months, but we did it anyway. On the NEW echo, they found some enlargement to her heart had started to develop just within those few months. By the time her follow up echo was done in April, her heart had gone back to normal. (She just had an episode of acute renal failure a few weeks ago -- COMPLETELY unrelated -- but they did another echo again and confirmed again that her heart is still normal).

So she has been a HUGE expense over the last 14 months but like you, I can't imagine not doing what I can to keep her healthy to the best of my ability. Our financial situation is drastically less abundant than it was last year, but even so I would do it again in the blink of an eye if our other cat got the same diagnosis today. The $1100 included the actual treatment, abdominal ultrasound, echocardiogram, medications, hospitalization for several days after before she could come home, etc. It was worth every penny. As I said, she just had a severe episode of Acute renal failure mid-October (literally the day before we left for vacation. we had to get on a plane not knowing if she would be okay). Had we delayed the treatment or taken a chance on the methimazole not working or taking a toll on her heart or kidneys, there's a VERY real chance she would not have made it through the last few weeks. As it is, there was even a point where I was sitting at the airport waiting because the vet told me "I wouldn't get on that plane if I were you", and they were rushing to get us the echo in record time so we could make a decision one way or another. Thankfully it worked out and she is a fighter. But I really think it's because we nixed the hyperthyroid right away instead of doing trial and error with the methimazole.

It's an individual choice of course, but for us it was a no-brainer. Some cats can spend years on the tablets and have a healthy life and do well. It just wasn't a risk I could take, especially knowing we can't pill her. And she's already on Keppra three times a day which is stressful for her. I couldn't in good faith add another medication to her regime knowing it would lower her quality of life of by causing her more stress/fear, especially when there is an actual affordable (for us) cure out there instead.

Good luck, let us know what you choose!

Sorry for the long-windedness!!

 

[Graceful-Lily]

I've had experience with this. Hopefully my thread will help you!

Radioactive Therapy For Hyperthyroidism

 

[VinceL]

We have had 2 cats who had hyperthyroidism, and our daughter just went through the iodine treatment for her cat in the past month.

When we had our first cat with hyperthyroidism, we tried the medication first. Our vet warned us that some cats don't respond to it or the medication loses its effectiveness. That is exactly what happened. Our cat improved, but the improvement disappeared in a few months. When another one of our cats developed hyperthyroidism we went directly with the iodine treatment. For our 2 cats, the iodine treatment was a complete success. We did not see any long-term adverse effects. Our daughter's cat only came home from her stay at the vet hospital about 2 weeks ago. So, it's too early to identify any long-term effects.

If another of our cats were to develop hyperthyroidism, I would not hesitate to get the iodine treatment for him/her.

 

[mcqueen]

We have had 2 cats who had hyperthyroidism, and our daughter just went through the iodine treatment for her cat in the past month.

When we had our first cat with hyperthyroidism, we tried the medication first. Our vet warned us that some cats don't respond to it or the medication loses its effectiveness. That is exactly what happened. Our cat improved, but the improvement disappeared in a few months. When another one of our cats developed hyperthyroidism we went directly with the iodine treatment. For our 2 cats, the iodine treatment was a complete success. We did not see any long-term adverse effects. Our daughter's cat only came home from her stay at the vet hospital about 2 weeks ago. So, it's too early to identify any long-term effects.

If another of our cats were to develop hyperthyroidism, I would not hesitate to get the iodine treatment for him/her.

Thank you. After doing all the research and speaking with a few people we are 100% going down this path.

 

[mcqueen]

Mortimer has an appointment at www.avmi.net on December 29th. They will perform the Scintigrophy that day and if he's all set will be treated the following day. My only wish is that I could've gotten him treated sooner.

 

[Antonio65]

My experience with I-131 was for my cat who was diagnosed in August/September 2016 and was put on medication with pills first, eargel later, of methimazole.
Pilling her was a bit hard, furthermore I had to break the pills in fractions for her dosage and this was the worst part, because the dosage must be precise (impossible to achieve with a pill broken or cut with a knife). Then there were the times when I would forget to pill her and I even thought that after all it was still fine... With the eargel it was easier to administer the right dosage and the cat wouldn't suffer from being restrained for pilling her, nor was I damaging her stomach with those pills.

I was able to get access to the I-131 therapy the following year. I made my appointment in June and was at the facility in August. My cat was kept in isolation for 5 days (Mon to Fri), during which she was visited, had a scintigraphy(*) done and the radio-iodine injection administered. She had to wait for the radiations to decrease to a safety level before being discharged from the clinic, and we came back home, where she lived another year without any medication.
The treatment was fully successful, then another disease took her away from me...

The I-131 treatment was the best choice, it's a one-off injection, and saves your Mortimer further tests and therapy adjusting for the rest of her life.
It's clearly expensive, but I reckoned that the cost of the radioactive treatment would match the cost of 12-14 months of meds and tests... Unfortunately my cat left me when we broke even with the costs...

(*) Make sure Mortimer gets a scintigraphy before the treatment. This is the only way for the techs to give him the right dosage of radio-iodine to cure his disease. Too much radio-iodine will make Mortimer HYPO-thyroid forever, too little radio-iodine and he might need a further treatment later on. Furthermore, a scintigraphy is able to assess if Mortimer has any hectopic masses.

 

[mcqueen]

My experience with I-131 was for my cat who was diagnosed in August/September 2016 and was put on medication with pills first, eargel later, of methimazole.
Pilling her was a bit hard, furthermore I had to break the pills in fractions for her dosage and this was the worst part, because the dosage must be precise (impossible to achieve with a pill broken or cut with a knife). Then there were the times when I would forget to pill her and I even thought that after all it was still fine... With the eargel it was easier to administer the right dosage and the cat wouldn't suffer from being restrained for pilling her, nor was I damaging her stomach with those pills.

I was able to get access to the I-131 therapy the following year. I made my appointment in June and was at the facility in August. My cat was kept in isolation for 5 days (Mon to Fri), during which she was visited, had a scintigraphy(*) done and the radio-iodine injection administered. She had to wait for the radiations to decrease to a safety level before being discharged from the clinic, and we came back home, where she lived another year without any medication.
The treatment was fully successful, then another disease took her away from me...

The I-131 treatment was the best choice, it's a one-off injection, and saves your Mortimer further tests and therapy adjusting for the rest of her life.
It's clearly expensive, but I reckoned that the cost of the radioactive treatment would match the cost of 12-14 months of meds and tests... Unfortunately my cat left me when we broke even with the costs...

(*) Make sure Mortimer gets a scintigraphy before the treatment. This is the only way for the techs to give him the right dosage of radio-iodine to cure his disease. Too much radio-iodine will make Mortimer HYPO-thyroid forever, too little radio-iodine and he might need a further treatment later on. Furthermore, a scintigraphy is able to assess if Mortimer has any hectopic masses.

Hi Antonio. Thanks for responding, I read all your other threads. Yes he gets a scintigraphy on 12/29 and that will determine treatment for following day. The center I'm taking it talks about that on their website. www.avmi.net