- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
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Hello to all of you. We are living in Greece and we just returned from the veterinarian. We have a female beauty named Margot, siamese, 19 years old, who yesterday gave us a real fright. Suddenly at 3 o clock in the afternoon, she cried a very strange and desperate scream in the middle of our living room and got temporarily blind. She started to make rounds totally lost, she became very frightened on our caring touch, and roamed in the house helpless. She crashed to the walls, to the furniture, to doors, to the other cats of our house. She could not orientate herself at all. Her pupils covered all the eyes and did not respond to anything like sudden strong light or movement right in front of her. She was totally blind. We were panicked. But somehow at 10 o clock in the evening, Margot started to see again. She could walk in the house without crashing anywhere, she could find her food, her water and the litter box. Her cries of discomfort and fear stopped. We felt a little . We read that eye treatment must be achieved within 24 hours. We found an veterinarian specialized in ophthalmology who examined Margot today at noon.
Good news first. Margot s eyes are ok for her age. Her pupils reflexes are adequate, they respond slowly but they respond. No retina detachment has taken place, no blood clots inside the eyes. The only problem is enophthalmos in her right eye, something that cannot be cured neither in humans nor in animals.
Bad news next. The temporarily blindness was propably caused by a small stroke that may occur again with worse results. The stroke was due to her hyperthyroidism that is not addressed properly. Here start the problems and the dilemmas for Margot and her parents. She is taking methimazole 2,5 mg per day, 1,25 in the morning and 1,25 in the evening. She is taking methimazole since the summer of 2017. Four years of everyday medication have taken their toll. The T4 results are outside the normal limits or at the highest range of normality. She is losing weight constantly, she has galloping heart rate, she is sick and tired of the pill, she drinks and urinates a lot, she has often diarrheas, she is lying on the floor many times exhausted. How can we augment her dose of methimazole ? How can we stress even more her organization ? We will do it, we have no other solution, we will try. As long as Margot will approve.
Why am i writing all these ? I dont know. I was looking for answers yesterday and today and i found this wonderful forum, where i read some interesting things about other hypethyroidic cases. I believe i started writing because i wanted to tell you that all you who live in countries where radioactive iodine therapy is available, all you are very lucky. Here in Greece, we have not that choice. We were afraid of the surgical removal, so we chose the pill solution. And now we have to "torture" our Margot with augmented doses, which no one knows if her diminishing aged body can tolerate.
The veterinarian said that we must check again her T4 results, in order to control better the thyroxine. The last examinations were made in April. Her T4 result was 4.93 mg/dl with normal range 1,48-4,70. Every time the last years it becomes very difficult to take blood from Margot veins. Her veins are very small. (Today the vet could not measure her blood pressure. She tried three times with no success.) In April we tried both hands with no success and we chose in the end the vein in the front of her neck. Margot was very tired and stressed by this procedure. We feel very sorry for her, very sad, very angry that she must pass all this adventure every time. We are thinking to augment her dose from 1,25 to 1.75 every 12 hours. Lets hope it will work. We dont want to take her for blood exams again.
Good news first. Margot s eyes are ok for her age. Her pupils reflexes are adequate, they respond slowly but they respond. No retina detachment has taken place, no blood clots inside the eyes. The only problem is enophthalmos in her right eye, something that cannot be cured neither in humans nor in animals.
Bad news next. The temporarily blindness was propably caused by a small stroke that may occur again with worse results. The stroke was due to her hyperthyroidism that is not addressed properly. Here start the problems and the dilemmas for Margot and her parents. She is taking methimazole 2,5 mg per day, 1,25 in the morning and 1,25 in the evening. She is taking methimazole since the summer of 2017. Four years of everyday medication have taken their toll. The T4 results are outside the normal limits or at the highest range of normality. She is losing weight constantly, she has galloping heart rate, she is sick and tired of the pill, she drinks and urinates a lot, she has often diarrheas, she is lying on the floor many times exhausted. How can we augment her dose of methimazole ? How can we stress even more her organization ? We will do it, we have no other solution, we will try. As long as Margot will approve.
Why am i writing all these ? I dont know. I was looking for answers yesterday and today and i found this wonderful forum, where i read some interesting things about other hypethyroidic cases. I believe i started writing because i wanted to tell you that all you who live in countries where radioactive iodine therapy is available, all you are very lucky. Here in Greece, we have not that choice. We were afraid of the surgical removal, so we chose the pill solution. And now we have to "torture" our Margot with augmented doses, which no one knows if her diminishing aged body can tolerate.
The veterinarian said that we must check again her T4 results, in order to control better the thyroxine. The last examinations were made in April. Her T4 result was 4.93 mg/dl with normal range 1,48-4,70. Every time the last years it becomes very difficult to take blood from Margot veins. Her veins are very small. (Today the vet could not measure her blood pressure. She tried three times with no success.) In April we tried both hands with no success and we chose in the end the vein in the front of her neck. Margot was very tired and stressed by this procedure. We feel very sorry for her, very sad, very angry that she must pass all this adventure every time. We are thinking to augment her dose from 1,25 to 1.75 every 12 hours. Lets hope it will work. We dont want to take her for blood exams again.
I can also relate to the struggles with Hyperthyroidism in cats and understand what your wife and you went through. Please accept my heartfelt sympathies and know that you gave Margot the best possible life any cat could have imagined. She will live on in your memories and never be forgotten.
RIP sweet angel. 
