PET CARE Overactive thyroid in cats – symptoms and treatments

Getting the purrfect balance 


Ask the vet
Esther Van Luipen

Do you have an old cat that is losing weight even though he or she is eating the same amount or even more food than ever? Your cat could be suffering from an overactive thyroid gland, especially if he or she is also more thirsty than normal.
Other signs of a hyperthyroid cat include restlessness, recurring vomiting and diarrhoea or recurring urinary-tract disease. Most hyperthyroid cats also have a high blood pressure which may result in sudden blindness.
The thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones that control metabolism, calcium balance and other functions throughout the body. Some older cats, generally from the age of 13 years, have an overactive thyroid gland. This is mostly because of a little benign tumour on the thyroid gland that makes it produce too much thyroid hormone.
If the above mentioned symptoms sound familiar to you it is a good idea to bring your cat to the vet. Sometimes the vet will be able to feel a little swelling in the neck area. But this is not always the case, so it is safer to do a blood test. With a blood test, the liver and kidney functions will be tested, and also the T4 which is the actual thyroid hormone. Blood test results showing a high levels of thyroid hormone indicate hyperthyroidism.

Treatments
Until recently there were three treatment options: Surgery on the thyroid gland, medication or radioactive iodine treatment. Each treatment option had its side effects or could be very costly.
Now, however a new way of dealing with hyperthyroidism has been developed, and it is much easier and has no side effects: Hill’s has newly formulated a food called Y/D, which is extremely poor in iodine. Normal food and water contain iodine, which would be used by the normal thyroid to produce thyroid hormones. The new food contains so little iodine the overactive gland simply hasn’t got enough to use to produce too much hormone anymore.
All you need to do is to give your cat this food, and this food alone, in combination with mineral water. The diet is very healthy: it contains all the vitamins and minerals your cat needs and it also protects the heart and the kidneys, which are often also under pressure because of the hyperactive thyroid gland.
While this food does will not cure your cat, it will make it easy to manage the disease by correcting the hormonal imbalance. The clinical signs will resolve within three weeks, and your cat will be back to his purrrfect self again...happy and healthy.

Esther van Luipen is a veterinary surgeon in Claremorris Small Animal Practice. Feel free to contact her with any of your small-animal concerns on 094 9373955 or at living@mayonews.ie.