Second: DO NOT get freaked out by what I am about to say. The chances of it happening are extremely rare, as I understand it, but it happened to my kitty, so I’m throwing it out there.
My guy had hyperthyroidism and they put him on medication. A couple of days after starting it - maybe even that same day, I can’t recall - I came home to find him in the “sick kitty crouch”. He was hunched over in a dark corner, and not responding to me talking to him, touching him, etc. We whisked him off to the emergency vet, where they determined that he’d had a bad reaction to the medication, which apparently entailed his white blood cells attacking his red blood cells, which is Not Good. Several transfusions later, he was fine - but still had the hyperthyroid issue. We went for the radioactive iodine treatment, and he lived many long and happy years thereafter.
As I may have mentioned, this is extremely unlikely to happen to Sr. Montoya. And I am not a vet. Still, it can’t hurt to keep a bit of an extra eye on him during the first few days of treatment. The meds should make him feel better, so if he seems lethargic or weird (moreso or differently than lately), it can’t hurt to have the doc check him out and make sure everything’s going okay.
I’m relieved you’ve found the problem. There’s a great Yahoo group (called Feline HyperT) I subscribed to when my cat had it and they were great at answering questions. If the pilling gets to be too much look into the ear gel.
I’d do radioiodine again if I had another cat with hyperthyroidism. I figured the costs and the agony of pilling and to me it was worth it.
My long-departed Peggy had exactly the same symptoms and once she was treated for hyperthyroidism she went back to her normal weight in no time and lived another ten years after that. i forwent the radiodine because of the expense, but she and i took our nightly thyroid (she was hyper and i was hypo) pills together for many years.
Nice, that’s an easy one to take care of. My now-late cat Rachel had that. I opted for the gel treatment since we tried pills for the longest time and had trouble regulating the right dosages. The gel is just a white lotion in a syringe - you squeeze out 0.1ml onto your finger and rub it it softly on the skin inside the cat’s ear. The cat thinks it’s being petted, you know they’re getting medicine, and then you’re good to go until tomorrow. She lived quite happily with hyperthyroidism for a few years before she died of unrelated causes at the age of 16.
Sorry if I’m hijacking your thread, Ruffian, but I have an update on Harvey. He seemed to be better after starting the amoxicillin, but he still tried squatting in random places. Roomie took him back to the vet this morning. She’s back; he isn’t. They’re going to do X-rays and the blood- and urine analysis. The vet was surprised he wasn’t a lot better by now, so he’s thinking he may have stones or crystals. We might not hear anything back for four hours.
The vet called this morning with Harvey’s test results. Everything’s normal, except that he has an infection. Antibiotics have been administered since Saturday. Harvey’s also getting a soft muscle relaxant to make it easier for him to evacuate.
The poor thing was totally zoned last night. Pupils dilated, unsteady walk. Totally high. And he’d had his belly shaved for the ultrasound. (His bladder was pretty much empty, so they couldn’t see anything on it.) He hid under my bed for a while, but he slept me last night. He seems more normal today. Roomie just said that he’s just sitting in the litter box now. (And he’s just come back out.) So it sounds like more antibiotics for a while. But I think he’s on the mend.
Hugs for you, Johnny. My former roommate had a cat with chronic kidney problems because he’d grown up on dry food and absolutely wouldn’t eat the wet stuff. He turned up his nose at it! Silly kitty My roommate had to chase his cat around the apartment and try to get him to pee in a medicine cup. Talk about a labor of love.
My roommate had to chase his cat around the apartment and try to get him to pee in a medicine cup. Talk about a labor of love.