Hyperthyroidism and irradiation info wanted

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

RuthV

Active Member
A friend who has a ten year old cat has asked me about this - she thinks I'm some kind of cat expert - ha. I know nothing about this but said I'd toss out a question here. She says few vets in her area know about this and she can't seem to get a straight answer. I am not sure what she meant, but says 'everyone seems to have an agenda'. Sorry if this is not in the realm of an intelligent question.
 
Feel free to drop me an email with questions. My Abby had radioactive iodine (i-131) treatment last fall for hyperT. I'd be happy to share what I know.
 
Maui had it done years ago.

Only certain places offer it as it is a "controlled" treatment. The dose is determnined by weight, the stuff is injected into the thyroid and takes seconds to do - no anesthesia or fasting or anythiong required.

The hard part is the cat is quarantined fir 72 hours until the danger is lessened. No physical contact allowed by parent and the staff limit their contact with the animal.

If you bring anything for cat's comfort you will NOT get it back. That includes food. They will dispose of everything.

For two weeks after cat comes home you cannot put litter in trash. You must hold onto to it so it is no longer radioactive and then after two weeks can be tossed. I took a litter pail left it on the poirch and put the bags in it then dumoped the whole thing. - it stunk big time.

So the hardest part of the whole thing is the separation and of course the expense.
 
Hillary & Maui said:
Maui had it done years ago.

Only certain places offer it as it is a "controlled" treatment. The dose is determnined by weight, the stuff is injected into the thyroid and takes seconds to do - no anesthesia or fasting or anythiong required.

The hard part is the cat is quarantined fir 72 hours until the danger is lessened. No physical contact allowed by parent and the staff limit their contact with the animal.

If you bring anything for cat's comfort you will NOT get it back. That includes food. They will dispose of everything.

For two weeks after cat comes home you cannot put litter in trash. You must hold onto to it so it is no longer radioactive and then after two weeks can be tossed. I took a litter pail left it on the poirch and put the bags in it then dumoped the whole thing. - it stunk big time.

So the hardest part of the whole thing is the separation and of course the expense.
Click to expand...

Was the cat 'cured'? Are you glad you had it done? Thanks for the details.
 
My cat was "cured" but we had a different experience than most folks. Most often cats live long and healthy lives after the procedure. My own little man came from a family of cats that all had kidney issues, but his were fine. After the I131, he developed kidney problems and I had to let him go on May 13th, just a few weeks ago. I131 was done January of last year.

I do believe that Gett was predisposed to the kidney failure, I had his mom and littermates since 1995, the litter was born in my apartment, I kept all three kittens and mom. Mom and two litter mates passed away over the years from various kidney problems.

Even with what happened with Gett, I would recommend I131 for any cat that does not have a history of kidney problems.
 
Even with what happened with Gett, I would recommend I131 for any cat that does not have a history of kidney problems.>>

Not only a history of kidney problems but age is a factor also. The hyper thyroid masks renal failure. The older the cat the more likely they are to have kidney problems. The hyper thyroid stimulates the kidneys so that they function better then they should. Take the hyper thyroid away and sometimes you find that the cats kidney's are failing. My oldest cat lady has both. She was around 21 when she died. We kept the thyroid on the high side to help with the renal failure. She lived longer because of that.

Suzie also had the hyper thyroid. However with the diabetes it was not recommend that we treat with the irradiation. If the cat has other physical problems the irradiation can tend to complicate them.

I would do it for a younger cat that is healthy aside of the hyer thyroid. It can be a very good treatment but it is not 100 percent as some claim and it is not without its problems as same claim.
 
Hillary is correct about the litter, and that they have to stay there for a time, however, how long a time they stay and how long you have to keep the litter varies from state to state and maybe even city to city..just not sure. I had to save litter for 1 month, he was there for 3 days, the facility told me the usual length of stay was 4-5. It depends on when the numbers go down to wherever that state has deemed it safe level. He did not have much of the I-131. There was someone on this board in another state that was quoted 2 week length of stay and keeping litter 2 months I think?

I live in a studio and at the time I had Merlyn so 4 cats. No way I could keep clumping litter a month..so I temporarily switched to feline pine clumping and flushed the clumps. Anything non flushable that you use must be kept a month. Garbage dumps have radioactive alarms and they will go off and they can track it back to you using the radioactive signature, and you will be fined. The sewers do not have radioactive alarms.

As far as how much they use, I would recommend finding a facility that does technetium scans
http://www.avmi.net/newfiles/Scintigraphy/Thyroid.html prior to the I-131. they inject stuff that outlines how big the thyroid is and helps determine how much to use. They can also see, based on shape, if it might be malignant vs benign, and if so they just use more I-131. Not all facilities do the scan.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top