Hyperthyroid and Your Cat

Hyperthyroidism and Your Cat

by Alana Miller

What is hyperthyroidism?  It s a common disease in usually middle-aged and older cats.
It is caused by an increase in the production of thyroid hormones (known as T3 and T4) from enlarged thyroid glands.

Dr. Becker says that "Sadly, feline hyperthyroidism has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. It's the most common endocrine disorder of domestic cats, with over 10 percent of kitties over the age of 10 diagnosed with the disease.  

Hyperthyroidism is usually caused by a benign tumor on the thyroid gland called an adenoma. In rare cases, the tumor is a carcinoma, which is cancer".

Mack was treated for hyperthyroidism

What is causing this epidemic?  Like with most things and diseases,  no one can come to a 100% agreement.   Some vets think that you can do things to help avoid the bad things that cause it.  Since they don't know exactly what they are.. I am not sure that these things are true, but will share them with you.

* Feed a balanced, fresh food and species appropriate diet that is respectful of a cat's natural iodine intake (much lower requirement than dogs!)  There is nothing that controls food companies with how much iodine they put in the foods.  Unless you are feeding a raw diet you have no idea what is in the food.

* Do not buy canned food that is not labeled BPA free.

* Avoid feeding your cat a fish based diet or any food containing soy products. (That will be hard, fish oil seems to be in every single cat food out there,  not sure how you would avoid it unless you are feeding raw)

* Rid your  environment of flame retardant chemicals.   Here is the link to an interesting study regarding flame retardants  and cats.  Not sure what furniture we would have left if you remove everything that is put into our furniture and clothes.

* Provide your cat with an organic pet bed.   That one should be easy (smile)  Amazon has a nice looking one here

* Purchase a high quality air purified for your cat's environment. 

Pearl has been treated for hyperthyroidism

Symptoms:

Many cats start losing weight and eating like crazy.
Other symptoms may include high blood pressure,  frequent vomiting, hyperactivity and increased body temperature, heart and respiration rates. howling at night, increased thirst and urination

Testing:

Regular check ups and blood tests will help you catch stuff before they become a bad problem.

Have your vet do yearly blood work and after your cat reaches age 7 make sure they are adding  
a T4 test and a Free T4 test.  Or Total T3 & Free T3 and TSH if your cat has chronic kidney issues, that may push the T4 down into the normal range.  

Starting at age 7 gives your vet a base line and you can catch it early.

Natasha's hyperthyroidism was caught early from blood work

That is exactly how we caught  Mack, Jewell, Yoshi, Serena, Jamie & Natasha becoming hyperthyroid.  The numbers on the T4 were on the high of normal but had been increasing over the years so we added the Free T4 and it showed they are in fact hyperthyroid.    Serena's numbers are very high but have not been tipped over yet.  We knew with the numbers we were seeing she was going to tip positive so retested every 30 days. Her numbers tipped to the positive side in 60 days and she was successfully treated with iodine therapy.   

Treatment:

Again,  treatment is something that you can't get the vets to all to agree on what is best. 

Some vets say if you catch it super early you may start with natural therapies.  Homeopathic,  acupuncture, herbals.    Personally, I am a skeptic of allowing the damage to continue...but that is just me.

You may have surgery, a thyroidectomy.  That will stop the hyperthyroid But there may be complications that could cause more problems and the rogue thyroid tissues are still active in the body doing their damage.

You may start on a medication called methimazole.  It is inexpensive BUT has lots of side effects.  GI upsets that cause GI issues (diarrhea, not eating, vomiting)  difficulty getting the right amount to stop the damage.  Some cats are allergic to the meds.  Other side effects can be decreased platelets and increased liver enzymes.  The cat can also develop toxic levels from the medication and also stop eating.  Keller had hyperthyroid and we tried him on the medication until he became toxic.  He then had the iodine treatment. 

Some vets say this is the gold standard treatment.  You could have radiation therapy which is very commonly used on cats and people.  it is pricey but  it almost always gives you a cure.  After all the problems we had will Keller on the medication we go for the cure IF the cat is in good enough physical condition.  We had 2 kitties that we also treated with the medication because they had such advanced kidney disease and knew that we were in hospice stage at that point they may not have been strong enough for the radiation.  But Mack, Yoshi, Jewell, Pearl have had the radiation and Natasha goes next week for hers.  

Jamie had radiation treatment this week.

So bottom line:

If your cat is losing weight,  go to the vet and insist on blood work.  If your vet is just not acting right, vomiting, yowling, etc.. go to the vet :)


Left untreated it will cause your cat a lot of complications including to their heart, and eventual death.