Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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What's the Best Treatment for your Hyperthyroid Cat? Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:01 AM PST The title to this post is kind of a loaded question and in some cases it depends on whether your vet is a surgeon or not. The lecturer I listened to today [last week at NAVC] was an internal medicine specialist and she had her point of view. She said that at The Veterinary College at Purdue they don't do many thryroidectomies anymore. Her rationale was that most of the cases are bilateral, meaning both thyroid glands are affected 70% of the time and surgery to remove one gland is often followed later by surgery to remove the other. She discussed a couple of medical options, too. There is a drug called methimazole that is effective in controlling the excess production of thyroid hormone. The issue with oral methimazole is that it has a significant number of side effects. Up to 25% of cats develop stomach problems on this drug. The other issue is that you have to give it twice daily and many cat lovers don't love giving their cats pills. Cat's don't really like it either and if they don't get their meds they suffer.   Methimazole is available in a topical form that is applied to the hairless area on the ears. The drug applied this way is effective most of the time (67%) and it has far fewer side effects compared to the oral route. Problem is that it's expensive.   This doctor's treatment of choice was Iodine 131 or radioactive iodine treatment. Before you get nervous about the radioactive part you should think about the advantages of this therapy. First of all, it does not require surgery or anesthesia. Many older cats are not good surgical candidates and sometimes the location of the gland precludes surgery.   The real advantage to radioactive iodine is that it's very selective and destroys only the hyperplastic or damaged thyroid tissue that causes the problem. It spares the parathyroid gland that lies close to the thyroid gland as is needed for normal bone metabolism. Due to the specificity for abnormal tissue this treatment rarely results in hypothyroidism form destroying too much tissue. Normal thyroid function usually returns in about a month.   The rap on radioactive iodine therapy has always been cost and availability. That seems less and less a problem these days. Costs have come down and you don't have to go to the University anymore as more and more specialists offer this therapy in most urban areas.    And if you had a very affordable PurinaCare pet health insurance policy for your cat you would be covered for something like this.

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