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Old November 19th, 2012, 11:45 AM
tweetzer tweetzer is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2012
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Hyperthyroid Cat With Anorexia - Running Out Of Ideas... :-(

Sorry, long story...

Our two 13-year-old sister-cats were diagnosed with hyperthyroid last Spring (through bloodwork). At the time they showed NO symptoms of hyperthyroid, but the vet put them on Methimazole.

They both had very bad reactions to the med - horrible vomiting, diarrhea, stopped eating, lethargic and lying on the floor. Tried lowering the dose - stopping and starting it again - they just would not tolerate it.

Both had a life-threatening allergic reaction to nasal vaccine 4 years ago and are hyper-sensitive to all meds, so not a surprise that they reacted badly to the methimazole...

Next, the vet tried them on SP glandulars for hepatic and thyroid - these started to cause vomiting and diarrhea after a couple of weeks and had to be discontinued.

Before the meds they seemed OK, but since the meds they are now showing the symptoms of hyperthyroid - drinking lots of water, howling, hungry all the time but losing weight, occasional vomiting.

I am at wits end and the vet has become 'unresponsive' - probably has no other ideas either.

The main thing now is getting them to eat enough - they have lost a lot of weight.

They are eating, just not enough.

Because of the allergies, they are on a grain-free diet. I have tried all the tricks in the book to get food in them - opening different cans of food, warming the food, nutritional supplement gel (causes diarrhea)... They love tuna but that can only be a treat because it's bad for them on a regular basis.

They will no longer eat either of the two grain-free kibble varieties they loved, just their grain-free canned foods and some all-meat dried treats.

One of my girls is on a low dose (1.25mg) of prednisolone for itchiness (fur mowing) and 5mg famotidine (for nausea). She is also the thinnest - bony, really. She acts like she is starving, but sniffs the food and walks away, or just takes a few small bites - unless it's tuna... :-)

Stopping either of those meds makes things worse.

They are both indoor cats and have much love and attention. It is killing me to see the weight loss and not be able to do anything about it.
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