Off-Topic Radioactive iodine treatment for older cat with hyperthyroidism

[Lucky Star]

Thank you dear Sherry.

[Sand]

What ever you decide, is what's best for your animal!

I have Graves disease and at the time of my diagnosis, I was deep in a thyroid storm that I had no other option but to do RAI. As a human, it sounded much more complicated than it actually was.

My current dog Heidi, has been dealing with an aural hematoma for two weeks. On the first visit to the vet, she gave us the worse case scenario of surgery because it looked really bad. She's now 12 and her age is what gave me pause. I did as much research as possible, asked a ton of questions.

I noticed that a lot of owners mentioned that their dogs were healed wearing a wrap or hoodie to secure the ears. I happened to already have created some when Heidi was dealing with cutting her cheek. That has helped heal her. At her checkup last week, the vet said there was no need for the surgery!

I think a lot of times, our animals guide us as to what's the next course of action.

My cat Max had a slew of issues, he was a rescue that my sister left behind in my care. He had to have major surgery, it was incredibly expensive. Because of all his issues, he was on a special diet. There wasn't anything I wouldn't have done to extend his life. For a long time, he flourished and then all the sudden, he just declined so rapidly.

His loss still hurts, I can't get another cat. He was my one and only!

[mena]

I just went through the radioactive iodine treatment this past August for my cat, Biggie. I adopted Biggie at 6 months so I didn't have the concerns about her feeling abandoned, but I did have all the anxiety about dealing with disposing of the litter properly and how restricted our interactions would have to be for the two weeks after the procedure.

It was a success for Biggie, and she is no longer hyperthyroid. I would go through it all again because it has made such a difference in her. My vet described the hyperthyroidism as Biggie feeling like she was "over caffeinated" all the time. This led to her hissing a lot and bullying our other cat and just general bad behavior. All of this has decreased by a good 90 percent. She has turned into a total love bug and is like my Biggie of 5 years ago. She no longer looks like such an old cat either. She has put back on weight and her fur looks so shiny again and she is just a much happier cat.

I tried my best to follow the rules, but I honestly spent a lot more time with her than the 30 minutes a day at no closer than 1 foot to her. I did not let her lay in my lap or sleep next to me at night for the most part. Although the last few days on restriction she did sleep in the bed with us at our feet. I figured she must have eliminated most of the radiation by that time. My vet said the radiation she emitted was equivalent to a cross country airplane flight.

I hope this was some help to you. It's not easy to go through, but I will say it was totally worth it for Biggie. She is like her old self. I feel like we gave her a new lease on life.

[mena]

I just re-read your post again and wanted to add that we didn't decide to try medicine with Biggie first because she has had some problems with anxiety/stress (which has caused some cat box issues from time to time) and I was afraid that giving her medicine every day for the rest of her life would cause her (and me) too much stress. The treatment is a sort of "one and done" kind of thing. By the way, Biggie is 15 years old.

You didn't mention anything about cost so I don't know if that's of any concern to you. It was expensive ($1450.00) and we also paid about $1000 to our vet for the x-rays and blood tests she needed before the treatment.

Good luck to you and your kitty.

[eam531]

Worked like a charm with our cat.

She was a very sweet girl but we didn't want to go with the meds and having to calibrate them all the time.

As I recall, we took her to the special vet practice that did the radioactive thing, she spent a day or two there, then home.

As I also recall, it was pricey, but we felt it was a 'one and done' procedure and a lot better than dragging our cat to the vet for frequent monitoring.

Best of luck with your kitty.

[adawn]

****OLD THREAD ALERT****

Just wanted to update and let everyone know that we dropped my kitty off to have his iodine treatment Monday Jan 13 and we picked him up early Friday morning later that week. One of the techs at the specialty vet called me with updates about kitty every day and I could ask questions about how he was doing. Everything went as expected but boy was kitty happy/ready to go home when they brought him out to me on the Friday we picked him up, i.e. he was very vocal the whole ride home and didn't even get car sick like he usually does. He's used to A LOT of attention and the most the vet techs could really do is pet him with a long back scratcher thing since they can't get close to the animals so soon after the radioactive treatment.

Kitty settled right back in at home although was not thrilled about being locked out of my bedroom at night and not being allowed to cuddle with me on the couch, but we somehow managed for the 2-week period following his return home to have very limited close contact.

Kitty had his first round of followup bloodwork at the regular vet on Feb 14 and his thyroid levels are now in the normal range.

Kitty started a potassium supplement gel (that I mix with his wet food) a couple weeks before the iodine treatment based on his pre-treatment bloodwork results because I guess his potassium was a teensy bit lower than they wanted prior to iodine treatment. The regular vet is having me continue the potassium supplement a little bit longer.

I'll have to take him back to the regular vet for followup bloodwork again at the 3-month, 6-month and then 1-year mark I guess, but so far, so good.

In the month since his treatment, kitty has put back on a little weight (less than half a pound) so is back looking about normal again and has drastically reduced pulling out his fur/excessively grooming so no more thin patches of hair on his back and no more throwing up giant fur balls or leaving little clumps of pulled out hair around the house. Also, he used to throw up about once a week even though the vet has him on a special diet for food allergies. Since his treatment, he's only thrown up once and it was during his first week back.

Just wanted to update everyone who shared their thoughts on this thread originally. Also, I should probably mention that not every cat is a good candidate for this treatment. Cats with any kind of kidney issues for example I don't think are considered good candidates for iodine treatment, and the specialty vet required bloodwork, thyroid labs, urine tests, and chest x-rays to be done in the month before the iodine treatment so the specialty vet radiologist could review the results and approve kitty as a good/safe candidate. All that pre-treatment testing though was done at the regular vet in one appointment.

Hopefully kitty's labs will continue to look normal and he's with me for many years to come.

[Joni O]

So happy it turned out well. I have a friend who is considering it, but she just adopted him a month ago, he’s shy and 7 years old. She doesn’t want to upset his good settling into the household with such a disruption right now. The pills are working well for him.

[adawn]

Originally Posted by Joni O

So happy it turned out well. I have a friend who is considering it, but she just adopted him a month ago, he’s shy and 7 years old. She doesn’t want to upset his good settling into the household with such a disruption right now. The pills are working well for him.

That makes sense. There's no way I would have considered it if kitty was still new to the house, especially because regular medication is very effective too.

I know when we first adopted kitty, it took about 2 months for him to stop periodically urine marking/spraying outside the litter box (the vet had us use Feliway plug-ins; not sure if they did the trick or if kitty just finally settled down). That's why kitty was previously returned one of the times--spraying outside the box. I think it took about 6 months before kitty would stop jumping out of my lap and go running every time we would have a guest over and the guest would make a sudden motion like standing up or gesticulating with their arms. I mean he wasn't a super nervous kitty all that time, but he was definitely not 100% settled in/sure of himself like he is now.

[Sand]

Nice to have a good update!