Vidalta for hyperthyroid cat. Vet says we have to change

[suemog 10]

Mine is 17 now and was always a big cat - in the last few months his weight has plummeted and now weights only about 5lbs so I am hoping he does put some back on - looks a right scrawny little devil....

[suemog 10]

I wrote before about my cat who is 17 - has gone from being a big cat to thin and boney and just been prescribed vidalta for his thyroid - well he has had a limp on his back right leg for a while and I have been thinking it as arthritis - but in the last couple of weeks whilst he has been on the tablets he seems to have a sort of cramp in his back end when he gets up (mostly at night) and starts turning round on all fours as if trying to put it down onto something. I feel really sad for him when he does this and it must be painful as he does give me grief if I touch it - we go back to vets tomorrow so they will look but just wondering if anyone else has had this problem

[crowlascraft 10]

Hi,

I have read all the posts on this thread with great interest, as my female cat of 14 has been on vidalta for quite a long time.

 

Our experience has been the easiest way to give the tablet was in a small ball of corned beef as it is easily molded around the tablet. Sliced corned beef on special in our local Tesco,s for £1.

 

She gets very fussy when on the tablets, but keeps her weight constant, and heart rate down.

 

Just found Vidalta online for £14 online! £26 at the vets. :-O

[Nicks Cats 10]

I know this thread is now well out of date but I have read all the posts and learned a lot so its still very relevant I feel.

Just wanted to add my experience in case it helps someone else .

 

Peanut, a 12 year old male has always been a really skinny cat although he is heavily built at the front end. In the past 18 months he has been steadily losing weight to the point that his spine and pelvis is really' bony' and people are remarking on his thinness.

 

he had a dental July 2011 and despite a good appetite was still losing weight ,currently 3.35Kgs .

 

Full bloods taken Dec 2011 revealed low potassium,creatine normal,rest of bloods ok urine diluted, heart not elevated and he has Hyperthyroidism.

 

he was issued Vidalta 15mg which we gave him for about 8 days but within 2-3 days he was being violently sick daily and bringing up all his food. After 6x days or so I didn't have the heart to continue and stopped the vidalta. Later I noticed severe scabbing and some blood both sides of his temples which I had assumed was fight damage but now believe to be a severe itching reaction to the Vidalta.

 

I am currently trying to build up his weight a little before trying him on half a tablet (5mg) a day . Hopefully he will be able to tolerate it for the 3x weeks necessary before he can have another progress blood and urine test.

 

he is still a happy little bunny but he rarely goes out now for more than half an hour and its distressing to see him so thin.

[monzievaird 10]

Hi Nick sorry to hear about peanut! We have Suzie our 17yo old cat just been diagnosed with hyperthroidism and it has taken 16 weeks and nearing £800 later to finally get the proper dosage of vidalta tablets for Suzie. Suzie is now on 10mg in the morning and 15mg at night. We had problems at first but we give suzie her tablet inside a Webbox tasty stick which we purchase off the web. there are various flavours but suzie prefers the trout and salmon. I have also found that the tablets are cheaper to buy from "Pets Drugs Online" as they were costing a fortune at our local vet. We have to pay for the perscription which cost us £8.40 but now that suzie is on the correct dosage we can get a three months supply on prescription at a cost of £78.00 for 100 x 10mg and 100 x 15mg. Big difference in price. i hope this helps and that peanut starts to get better soon as we can clearly see a difference in suzie. we had her to the vets a few times prior to this problem and were always told that she was just a small cat but like you she was so thin and yowling blue murder through the day. good luck.

[monzievaird 10]

hi nick third attempt to post this as i am new to the forum so here goes! suzie our 17yo cat has just been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism after 4months of blood tests and taking Vidalta tablets costing us in the region of £800 but glad to say that suzie is looking a lot better and the vet has now said that the 25mg a day is the best dose for suzie, 10mg in the morning and 15mg at night. we had a difficult time trying to get suzie to take her medicine and was advised not to crush the tablet we tried various tip bits but found that "Webbox" tasty sticks were the answer. We insert the small tablet inside the stick and mould it around it and give other small bits of the stick at the same time and she gobbles it up. you can buy the sticks of the internet (we buy them in bulk its cheaper that buying supermarket but advise to try the different flavours first). we also buy the tablets online at 2Pets Drugs Online" or "Medicanimal2 but you need a perscription form your vet. ours costs £8.30 but now we have the correct dosage we get one perscription for to last us three months and our vet was ok with this as she understands the price difference. hope this helps and that peanut will soon be better.

[Nicks Cats 10]

Hi thank you for responding to my message and telling me about Suzie . I'm glad to hear that Suzie is at last stable and responding well to the treatment.

 

With peanut we tried a reduced dosage for 3 weeks but there was no improvement and his weight still reducing slowly. peanut rarely went out of the house and slept most of the day and night. it was really distressing for me to see his continued deterioration.

 

I finally relented and accepted the offer of surgery to remove part of his thyroid when I heard what an amazing recovery the Vet manager's 2x cats had had following their thyroid surgery.

 

Well it was 3-4 weeks following surgery before Peanut started to slowly recover some of his old self. it was a nervewracking time and I frequently wondered if I had done the right thing or not.

 

Slowly Peanut started to eat more and go out more at night time. Within 6-8 weeks he was almost back to his old self. As I write this now he has just come in and eaten his 2nd complete sachet of felix today and gone out again .he goes out several times a night.

 

On a typical day he now eats 2-3 sachets during the night and early morning and a whole chicken breast or third of a tin of tuna plus most of a further 2 sachets of cat food throughout the day and evening.

 

He started hunting a couple of weeks ago for the first time in over a year . Its sad to see the occasional bird and mouse brought back although they are nearly always alive and get released but I'm pleased to see the miraculous recovery that Peanut has made back to his old self .

[Moonwrap 10]

I was just wondering if anyone has come across an alternative to Vidalta as my cat appears to be one of the 2% who react very badly to it - she stopped eating completely, was nauseous, vomiting and her liver readings went sky high Many thanks in advance!

[Nicks Cats 10]

I was just wondering if anyone has come across an alternative to Vidalta as my cat appears to be one of the 2% who react very badly to it - she stopped eating completely, was nauseous, vomiting and her liver readings went sky high Many thanks in advance!

 

thats the worse aspect of this isn't it.often they are already underweight with no appetite and then their medication makes them sick.

 

My personal feeling is that food and water is more important than medication in an instance like this. There seems little point in persisting with a medication if your cat is underweight and still losing weight and vomiting on a regular basis due to the meds.

 

I stopped giving Vidalta to my cat after he had been sick every day for 7 days and had lost even more weight. he was down to 2.8Kgs .

 

If you have medical insurance and your cat has either a Hypo or Hyper-thyroid condition I would thoroughly recommend that you ask your vet about an operation on his Thyroid .

 

We were convinced that peanut was going to pass away within weeks when I finally relented and went along with the Vets recommendation. I was very worried that the operation might overwhelm him in his condition but it went fine, I needn't have worried

 

Four months later peanut has put on over 1xKg in weight , eats like a horse day and night . His coat has grown and he now has a beautiful thick mane and looks really healthy for a 14 year old cat.

 

he has returned to hunting and has reestablished himself as Topcat in the neighbourhood after quite a few scraps .

 

If your cat loses too much weight and gets really sick then neither medication or an operation may save him. If the meds are clearly effecting his appetite and making him sick and lose weight then for goodness sake stop giving him the meds immediately and ask your Vet for an alternative medication or a reduction in the dosage or an operation.

 

Try feeding him /her on pre-cooked chicken breast cut really really fine and also Tuna in brine, lean minced beef or even some cheap frozen prawns, anything that will kick start his appetite and get him eating again.

[Moonwrap 10]

Hi Nicks Cats (and to anyone else who can help! )

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Well my cat is very tiny and always has been and currently only weighs 2.2kg, so she really does not have any reserves to call upon.

 

She is only borderline hyperthyroid - her reading is 77. She's 18 1/2 and has always been otherwise healthy but her liver alt reading is high at 377 and shot up to 405 after 2 weeks of the Vidalta. The ideal maximum is 130. I've been told that her bloods are frankly amazing for a cat of her age and there is no sign of any kidney disease. Apparently the liver alt reading doesn't give an indication of the livers function, but may indicate that her liver is enlarged and does indicate dead liver cells breaking off and entering her blood stream.

 

It looks like she's had a very adverse reaction to Vidalta (2% of cats do) and it's contraindicated for cats with any suspicion of liver or kidney problems.

 

Her reaction was severe enough that she stopped eating entirely, has been vomiting, nauseaus, had facial itching, depressed, lethargic and I've just had her in hospital on a IV drip for 2 days and nights due to her lack of eating.

 

This is in a cat that was to be fair presented as quite healthy until the Vitalda was prescribed. The vet is now suggesting if we do not have to put her to sleep if she does not pick up to try another drug called Felimazole on a lower dose.

 

The dissussion that I am trying to have with the vet is that actually this is essentially the same drug as Vidalta. Felimazole is a brand name for Methimazole. Vidalta is a brand name for Carbimazole. The only difference is that Carbimazole is metabolised by the body into Methimazole. So I have research to say that all of the side-effects etc are the same.

 

So I am in a position where I am waiting and hoping for the effects of the Vidalta to reverse and hoping that my cat will live and if she does is being recommended to agree to administer to her what seems to be the same drug The vet however says that Felimazole works well in cats where Vidalta has not worked.

 

If anyone has with some pharmaceutical knowledge please help me? My cat is way too weak presently to risk alternatives such as surgical thyroid removal. I know that in some cats you can start and stop this drug at lower doses etc and it can then be tolerated or side-effects subside etc., maybe my vet mistakes the purer form of the drug for these reasons as being OK?

 

I'm really looking for a complete and utter alternative to this family of drugs. The only one I can find is idopate - an iodine based one which converts T4 to T3 (unlike methimazole which inhibits production of T4). It was successful in research but appears to have been removed off the market.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. I know with everything in life we need to do a risk/benefit assessment, but I am severly concerned.

[Nicks Cats 10]

I understand how like me you wish to give your cat every chance to continue to live a healthy active life without pain, discomfort or chronic illness but realistically given the circumstances and her great age i'm wondering if it would be kinder to her to let her go.?

 

I know your vet says that there is no indication of any renal problems but frequently kidney problems can be masked by a hyperactive thyroid and frequently become apparent after thryroid surgery.

 

If your cat is not even well enough for surgery and is severely underweight and not eating and cannot tolerate the medication she clearly needs I do not know where you go from here really. Perhaps at this point you should re-consider what is best for the cat in the short and medium term .? Is this treatment whats best for the cat now or for you ?

 

If it were me ,given her age and condition I think I would take her off the meds that are clearly making her very ill and , feed her up with the best hi-calorie foods I can until she is eating and active again with some quality of life and make the most of the time that I had left with her rather than put her through all this current misery of medication, vomiting and weakness due to lack of food.

[cath0739 10]

My 16 year old cat was just diagnosed with Hyperthyroid and prescribed Vidalta 1 a day. All went well, or so I thought for a week or so. Then I noticed his face above his eyes had become sore and red and the fur had started to come off, his lips looked like he had, had implants really swollen and bright red. He had started to be sick a lot and he was losing more weight . Went straight to the vets by all accounts it was a good job I did.

His heart rate was very high, his temperature was over 40, and he was very dehydrated.

I had a very poorly cat. Glad to say after good veterinary care and TLC at home my old boy is 100%. He's still on steroids at the moment to take all the swelling and in inflammation down. I have to take him back in a couple of weeks to see how he's doing and possibly trying him with a different type of tablet. Will wait and see how he reacts to them.

If you see any change at all in your cat that is on Vidalta please don't leave it thinking it's normal take them to a vet pronto, I'm glad I did or I might have lost my boy.