hyper-T kitty's food interests

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chriscleo

chriscleo

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DH's cat munchie was diagnosed hyper-T last week and we're giving generic tapazole.
she's being weird, tho. very very hungry but not at all interested in cat food (never before that way).
she'll jump on the counter to lick the cutting board or a utensil of human food, bypassing a full plate of catfood, and would rather sit under us cadging our dinner than eat her own.

right now i'm taking care of it by pretending to eat chicken breast that i doctored with supplements/taurine for kitties but can't afford to do this forever. doing this of course means now i have 5 kitties insisting on chicken breast for every meal.

just wondering whether this is common with hyper-T cats or she's just being interesting.
 
Most of my hypert kitties would anything, however Gett was just dx with HyperT after not eating for two days and spending the day at the clinic. He's always been borderline and used to get a smidge of Tap, but now his numbers are high.

Anyway... lately I need to microwave his Fancy Feast in order for him to eat. It's been very hard to keep him from losing weight. I have also given him Temptations treats by the handful just to keep him eating.
 
Hi Chris

If this started after your cat started the Tapazole, I would get her blood (CBC) rechecked sooner rather than later if you haven't done so since starting the medication. The food thing could be behavioral, but Tapazole can have harmful affects so I'd want to screen for those asap just in case.
 
Maui had major problems on tap. I was told to give too high a starting dose and her WBC dropped to almost 0 in days. It took several weeks to bring her back and then I went for the I131 treatment.

So, personally I will always recommend that treatment, assuming your cat is a candidate for it. And yes, I opened a care credit account to pay for it on the "promo" interest free plan the vet offered.
 
I have a hyper-t cat and he's on tapazole, although his is a compounded cream that we rub into his ears. I've heard it can be upsetting to their stomach if given orally and that's why we use the compounded version. It costs us $32 per month. If the dose is too high it can make them lethargic and lower their appetite. This happened to my cat at first when we were trying to get him on the correct dose. At first we were checking his levels every month, but since then we do it every 6 months. If I notice him acting strange I have it checked sooner than that, though.
 
What dose did she start on? There are some cats that don't tolerate methimazole very well. My Charlotte was started, stopped, restarted, stopped, dose reduce, stopped, switched to the ear cream (compound) and dose reduced on that as well. She is not a candidate for I131 because of kidney issues. She just can't really tolerate the methimazole either. Beau, on the other hand, has had no side effects from it. He was slowly raised to 3/4 tab bid, but then he went hypo-T and was reduced to 1/4 tab bid. His appetite almost vanished before I had him tested and found he was severely hypo-T. Recently, his dose was raised to 1/2 tab am and 1/4 tab pm.
 
Conors food interests did not change in that regard, from cat to human food.. but he got picky. I do not think it was hyper T related. He has mild IBD and pancreatitis also.
 
don't know what the normal rx is but she started on 1/4 tablet BID for 2 days, then moved to 1/2 tablet BID. recheck is the 20th or 21st. she's been on it about 9 days.

one nice thing i've noticed is that she's not drinking as much. that was pretty bad at first. not noticing anything weird attitude wise, JUST the issue with wanting only human food and not cat food. i told DH she HAS to eat so if that's all she's eating just continue feeding it. it's not going to hurt her terribly to eat a chicken recipe for cats plus table scraps. don't want HL to add to the mix. but i'm hoping her taste for cat food comes back.
 
2 ideas --

possible that the med is causing some nausea.
when civie wolf is nauseated he will act hungry, but not eat his food. He will ( depending on level of nausea) eat treats-- including chicken breast. so you have to judge by home much chicken. If eating a lot of chicken then that is probably not it.

since this is weekend.....
you could try some pepcid or some zofran( I think you have some for cleo?)
and call vet monday am.
or just keep feeding chicken and call monday.

other possibility-- attitude could be : If everyone else is getting chicken, then heck yes! I want chicken too.

I nuked Winnie for for hyper T. Best thing I could of done. Is expensive. But long term costs of monitoring med and the med itself can add up to more. Yes. Is a lot up front.
Here is link to place we used. they have a little info on the treatment and on the cost comparisons of med vs nuke.
In fact this is page w/ that on it.

http://thyrocat.com/inside/radioactive-iodine.html
 
re I131 my DH would just not spend that kind of money all at once on his cat, or pay a lot for chronic care. his new vet i appreciate a lot for knowing how far he could get frank to go, with some pressure from me. it's frustrating coz y'all know how much time and energy i put into my pets. just can't afford to take on her care with cleo & harry's care wiping out all i have.
i'm hoping the methimazole does the trick for her. really hoping.
today was a good day for us. i woke up with her, bobby, and cleo on the bed at once, which is a big deal. munchie is the type who would like to destroy all kitties.
 
I have a hyperT kitty too. As someonone said, tapazole is known for causing upset tummies and the resulting loss of interest in food. It happened with my sweetheart ( she atopped eating at 3.75 mg/day dose)and what I had to do was to start the dose very low and raise it very slow to the dose that became the effective one. It seems vets like to start too high and it took convincing mine that I wanted to start low. He said he wanted to save on office visits. She did end up on the 5mg dose (he originally wanted to start her on), but I did it in 6 months, with tests after every month (I could afford it then). There is a good HyperT website on Yahoo with lots of info there also, if your interested.
 
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