Can being very HYPOthyroid (low) affect blood glucose levels? Full explanation below, but the quick version is that someone has not been giving the cat his thyroid pills for several months, and the cat is now hungry all the time, and the last few days literally attacking the waterbowl (shoving it all around, even flipping it) when he hasn't even been drinking from it for a long time--he's toothless except for diagonally opposing fangs, so we liquify his canned food to about 50/50 food/water, so he can just lap it up instead of trying to eat without poking his own gums with his remaining two teeth.
Lamborghini is over 18 years old. When he was 12, we found out he was HYPERthyroid. Treated with meds for about a year and a half, but then they were no longer sufficient so we had the radioactive iodine treatment done. This was so effective (they thought he might be going malignant, so they basically overdosed him to be sure all would be gone) that he became severely HYPOthyroid, and has been on levothyroxine ever since.
About the time of discovering the hyperthyroid, he also was borderline diabetic, but a strict diet change to very low carb has kept that in check all these years.
Now, I find out yesterday that my hubby, who handles all pills, etc because I am disabled and nearly legally blind, has been "occasionally forgetting" Lamborghini's thyroid medicine. I looked in the bottle, and it's mostly full. The date is scuffed off the label, I cannot see the month it was filled, but it appears to start with a zero, which means the best it could be would be 09/xx/2024. Which means my poor old cat has gone without his medicine for at least 4 months.
During the last several months, he has gone severely downhill. To the point where when he is sound asleep, I watch to see if he is still breathing. We figured it's because he's on the upper side of 18 years old, and has had so many medical problems during his life, that it was just his time. I am furious to find out husband has been just plain not giving him his essential medicine, because he forgot about it. He KNOWS this is critical. He has for the last 6 years. And it just occurred to me that he has probably not been giving him his daily gabapentin for the arthritis pain. At least I know he's been getting his solensia shots because I make the arrangements for those.
So, will being severely hypothyroid affect blood sugar? It may just be that Lamborghini IS very old, and his time is nearing its end. Or it may likely be that he is just so metabolically messed up at this point. I don't want to subject him to all kinds of medical torture to find out that he's just old, so am wondering if I should just wait and see if restoring his thyroid levels help him out, or take that long hard look at his situation. He gets so freaked out by going to the vet that he pees and poops in his carrier, and foams at the mouth so badly that the thick saliva sheets down his front. And the vet insists if he comes into the office, he has to have a rabies shot because it's now a few months overdue--but we learned the hard way with previous cats that when old, frail cats get vaccinated, they die within a couple of weeks (and, if after 18 years of rabies vaccines he doesn't have immunity yet, then the whole vaccine thing is a sham anyway.) We do have a mobile vet who comes to the house once a month for the solensia shots, but it's expensive just to have them show up, let alone testing and procedures, and he just got a shot so he's not due for almost 4 weeks for her next visit.
Oh I am so mad at husband I could beat him with a stick. A really big one.
Lamborghini is over 18 years old. When he was 12, we found out he was HYPERthyroid. Treated with meds for about a year and a half, but then they were no longer sufficient so we had the radioactive iodine treatment done. This was so effective (they thought he might be going malignant, so they basically overdosed him to be sure all would be gone) that he became severely HYPOthyroid, and has been on levothyroxine ever since.
About the time of discovering the hyperthyroid, he also was borderline diabetic, but a strict diet change to very low carb has kept that in check all these years.
Now, I find out yesterday that my hubby, who handles all pills, etc because I am disabled and nearly legally blind, has been "occasionally forgetting" Lamborghini's thyroid medicine. I looked in the bottle, and it's mostly full. The date is scuffed off the label, I cannot see the month it was filled, but it appears to start with a zero, which means the best it could be would be 09/xx/2024. Which means my poor old cat has gone without his medicine for at least 4 months.
During the last several months, he has gone severely downhill. To the point where when he is sound asleep, I watch to see if he is still breathing. We figured it's because he's on the upper side of 18 years old, and has had so many medical problems during his life, that it was just his time. I am furious to find out husband has been just plain not giving him his essential medicine, because he forgot about it. He KNOWS this is critical. He has for the last 6 years. And it just occurred to me that he has probably not been giving him his daily gabapentin for the arthritis pain. At least I know he's been getting his solensia shots because I make the arrangements for those.
So, will being severely hypothyroid affect blood sugar? It may just be that Lamborghini IS very old, and his time is nearing its end. Or it may likely be that he is just so metabolically messed up at this point. I don't want to subject him to all kinds of medical torture to find out that he's just old, so am wondering if I should just wait and see if restoring his thyroid levels help him out, or take that long hard look at his situation. He gets so freaked out by going to the vet that he pees and poops in his carrier, and foams at the mouth so badly that the thick saliva sheets down his front. And the vet insists if he comes into the office, he has to have a rabies shot because it's now a few months overdue--but we learned the hard way with previous cats that when old, frail cats get vaccinated, they die within a couple of weeks (and, if after 18 years of rabies vaccines he doesn't have immunity yet, then the whole vaccine thing is a sham anyway.) We do have a mobile vet who comes to the house once a month for the solensia shots, but it's expensive just to have them show up, let alone testing and procedures, and he just got a shot so he's not due for almost 4 weeks for her next visit.
Oh I am so mad at husband I could beat him with a stick. A really big one.
Last edited:
