Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Sounds like Mouse loves that room now :D
Her new kingdom, where humans aren't allowed :lol:
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Lol only this human in the cause of room service - cats have to have staff :lol:

Blood test today, so she had to fast for 10 hours; I'm glad she's so attached to that room (though she's been exploring downstairs a bit) as I could shut her in with a bowl of tuna until midnight and then keep her isolated from the rest of the house with her special tray of plastic granules for her urine sample.

It was late at night when I began to wonder, how fresh does a urine sample have to be? What if I gave her the tray in the morning but she didn't need to wee? Better give her the tray through the night, but will the stuff go off by morning? Damn, should have asked the vet. So I googled and gathered that unless a sample's being given and tested within the hour, it's wise to refrigerate it.

I kept waking up to check but she never obliged (not even in the wee hours! :lol: )

However this morning at 6.30 - there it was! I filled the little test-tube thingy with the pipette, corked it, sealed it up in a clean food bag, and put it carefully in the fridge door, propped up between a jar of mustard and a jar of chutney ... fancy a sandwich, anyone?

Reminds me of the folk-myth about someone's auntie taking a specimen to the doctor's. She put it in an old whisky bottle but someone stole it out of her basket on the bus ... What you might call taking the pi** ... :o (sorry! :oops: )

Mind you, it was worse the time I had some corn snake hatchlings, who ate frozen/thawed newborn mice ... tiny little pink curled up mice lollies, but you had to be careful if you were absent-mindedly throwing a salad together, would be awful if you took the wrong packet out of the freezer ...my zingy prawn cocktail, a scrummy new chewy twist on this classic family favourite ... errm, only when I barf ...

I shouldn't laugh because poor Mousey was bawling for her breakfast and I felt awful about shutting her in again with no food.

The appointment was for 10.20 so all over now and they're very pleased with her; she's gained weight too. In July she was 4.06k; now she's 4.14k, don't know if that's particularly rapid, but going in the right direction.

She came home, ate a tin of Encore and is settling down again. Just waiting to hear what her T4 is now.

Hope Pallina's going on ok, Antonio, Mousey sends her love x
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by alanc »

I don't know what your vet or you expect in terms of rapid fattening, but years ago when my Honey had hyperthroidism, getting her to gain any weight at all was seen as a triumph, so I think 0.08kg should be considered good.
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Ah thanks for that, Alan - I was a bit at sea. I'm not that worried as she's lean but not skeletal, and if she's slowly gaining weight that's what matters, but always good to know a bit more.

I wasn't able to take her to the vet; a friend took her round for me, otherwise I'd have asked about the expected rate of weight gain.

The centre have given me a sort of graph or chart to fill in (this is optional) with weight and T4 results etc as they are continually researching recovery etc and I'm going to try and keep up with it (I'm the kind of person who always fills in the wrong bit lol) and send that in. They like to receive photographs of the cat afterwards too; in their brochure there's a 'before' picture of a tortie who really is skeletal and an 'after' one of her looking perfectly well-covered - very encouraging :)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Ah, a ps on that, just remembered the story Julia (vet) told me of one cat who'd been admitted to the centre for 6 weeks, as his owner was pregnant. She arrived with a thin cat and when she saw him again she scarcely recognised him; he was so much larger (I expect she was too!)

But they're all different of course; weight gain will vary. Mousey is a lanky cat but still I can see that she's a bit plumper, and that's all that matters :)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by alanc »

Wonder how long it will be before you're told Mousey is too fat!
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Lol, that'll be the day - that girl has hollow legs when it comes to food :D

Have just given her her supper though and she hasn't bothered to get up for it yet; a hopeful sign that now her food is nourishing her instead of being burned off by the wonky thyroid :D

I only hope the hovering - or should that be hoovering - Molly leaves her her rightful share though ...
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Mayday21 »

Hi Lilith to me the weight gained by Mousey is pretty +Ve. Poor Elsa went from 8kg to 5kg & then dropped to 3kgs on meds. She put on 300kgs after radio iodine treatment & that was due to being fed kitten food. I prayed she'd get to 4kgs but it never happened - poor girl. What's Mousey's cost like? Towards the end Elsa's lost sheen ....Fusses to her & Pallina too. Vivian
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Hi Mayday, I've been looking up her centre records (though I can't get to grips with these graphs!) and it seems that while she was there in August her weight had fallen to 3.5 kilos - so in that case she's since gained more than I thought! :)

Sorry - anything mathematical and I'm rubbish!

Turns out she was a bit off her food and sick last night (just one of those catty episodes; I'd treated them to a little evaporated milk but it was a mistake. Molly had wind and was sitting under the bed competing with the 'room fragrancer' - you can guess who won - and I was sitting there with insomnia and a book, as usual, and thinking, this is worse than having babies! :shock: :lol: )

But all well today. Breakfast bawled for. Mouse's coat is great; I know what you mean, I always go by coat. Considering she's such a timid cat, she's come through all this very well; my first reaction to the idea of the centre was, she couldn't possibly manage, but she has, paws crossed she has some peaceful years in front of her now ...

I'm so sorry to read about poor Elsa :( (hugs) That's a huge weight loss.

Good luck to all HT cats everywhere - and special purrs to Pallina, how's she going on, Antonio?
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Hi everybody and thanks for thinking about me and Pallina.
Pallina is doing rather fine, I will write more about it in my thread, I don't want to take over in here :lol:

Glad to read that Mouse is gaining some weight, though I wouldn't say that 80 grams are a success... Yes, it's 80 grams more than last time you weighed her, but in my experience such a little variation is something that comes and goes...
Of course I DO hope that Mouse will get more and more weight, 80 grams at the time.

Lilith, I know how worried you may be for Mouse's appetite that goes up and down, but cats are like this, we know them well, don't we? ;)

Lots of kisses and hugs to Mouse! :D :D :D
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Antonio, you're so right :)

She's had a bit of an iffy weekend but that may just be the stress of the vet visit, today she's fussy and cheerful, her coat's like satin and she tucked into some Felix this morning ... think it's me that's the wreck lol.

Sorry I got her weight records all wrong - in July she was 4.06k, in August she went down to 3.5k and now she's 4.14k, so she's actually gained half a kilo.

Like I say, me and maths ... :? :oops:

Lots of love to Pallina :D
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

A satin-like coat is one of the best indicators that things are going better!
I know that hyper-T cats tend to have a messy coat. It wasn't much the case of Pallina. probably because she got the apathetic form of the disease.

Anyway Mouse has got a bit more than 600 grams in just one month and this is absolutely wonderful! WOW! :D :D :D
Another indicator that things are going the right direction, she's eating and no wasting anymore, that's great!

By the way, don't you British use pounds and ounces? Are you familiar with the metric system?
When I talk about Pallina I'm still converting metric to imperial units to make you feel comfortable ;)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Thanks Antonio, lol I'm not really 'British' (long story) but I've lived here all my life and metrics have been around a while, but yes, weights and measurements are chaos over here; I find myself switching from kilos and metres into pounds and feet reasonably easily now, but when it comes to cookery ... :o In the US they have a measurement called a 'cup' which I believe is roughly half a pint or quarter litre, to say nothing of something called a 'tablespoon' which is what I call the big serving spoon I'd use to ladle out rice or veg but which seems to be roughly the capacity of the size of the spoon people would eat 'pudding' with ... or 'sweet' ... or 'dessert' ... which so many people spell 'desert' (Waiter, waiter, there's some sand in my desert!)

I swear I once came across a recipe that demanded a cup of this, four ounces of that, 800g of thingummy and a tablespoonful of oojahcallit ...

Life in this respect in the UK is very confusing and the only cure is to resort to a pint (550ml) of beer. Or 3 :D :lol:
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Well, a quick update at the risk of tmi.

No news as yet re Mouse's T4 level/urine result - and it's only just sunk into my feeble brain that urine tests are needed after this treatment because HT cats' rapid heartbeat causes a faster flushing-through of the kidneys = healthier kidneys. So when the body processes slow down to normal, the old kidneys might be let down and silt-up a bit. Hence the need for the urine sample.

I hadn't quite grasped (when do I ever?) the financial arrangements; naturally I expected to pay the vet for this but turns out that the
Wetherby centre invoice me for these later tests - they gave me prepaid packaging to give to the vet to send to the lab they use so as to obtain consistent results ... again tmi but relevant to anyone who might be in a similar situation. They are very well organised and the cost wasn't terrifying :) They will ring me with results, but my vet may ring meanwhile. There was a consultation fee to pay at the vet's, of course.

Again on the financial front - I forgot to mention that the centre will help with sorting out an insurance claim if your cat is insured (Mousey wasn't; we save instead) and obviously this will depend on the insurance you use, but again they're well organised.

The last few days have been a bit of a rollercoaster - the poor lass's stomach is still iffy. I knew she was constipated and was very worried last night as back in spring she had to go into the vet's all day to have a blockage washed out, and thought it was going to happen again today ... yesterday teatime I phoned the vet and said I'd given Mousey a dose of the lactulose prescribed last time and would wait overnight but if no result, could I make an appointment and would they? ... They would.

Approaching midnight, there was a SMELL. Now although I'm as squeamish as anyone else, on this occasion this was Dior#5, Jo Malone and the Body Shop combined - heaven-scent! :D :D :D

And there it was! HORSE DROPPINGS!

I was so relieved not to have to drag her back to the vet, after all she's been through! I rang them first thing to cancel - lol everyone says. 'oh. MOUSE!' - they all know her name by now lol.

She still wasn't ideal though; she was off her food, and then massively sick. Then she bawled for food so I offered her some chicken Encore ... she licked it, but no.

I think it will do her good just to rest her stomach. I have the Encore covered and waiting, but happened to have one of those poussins in the freezer so have put that on to stew ... rather extravagant I know but it will feed us all, and there'll be broth too.

Cats eh?

Oh and in the midst of all this, my ex and good friend Adrian is on holiday ... in the Dominican Republic :shock:

Slept through Hurricane Maria ... umm yes - he would!

He was damn lucky as I know what the thing did to Dominica and Puerto Rico :( All power and protection to those people and everyone else involved! :(

VERY glad to hear from him!

Again sorry for all the TMI and off-topic and self-indulgence :oops: - thanks for reading if you struggled this far :)
Last edited by Lilith on Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Mayday21 »

Hi Lilith glad to read that Mouse's 'catstipation' issue's sorted. Poor girl. Hoping her stomach settles too. And as for your friend sleeping through 'Maria' in the Dominican Republic..is that where they make rum? :lol: On the weather note it's Spring here & we're having temps in the 30s over the next few days. Desperately need rain - definately a 'sunburnt' country ATM. What's our Summer going to be like!! Antonio if Italy was the barometer... Sounds like the clinic that treated Mousey has all bases covered. One thing if she's bawling she must be feeling better. Fusses to the girl. Vivian
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Lilith wrote:Well, a quick update at the risk of tmi.

No news as yet re Mouse's T4 level/urine result - and it's only just sunk into my feeble brain that urine tests are needed after this treatment because HT cats' rapid heartbeat causes a faster flushing-through of the kidneys = healthier kidneys. So when the body processes slow down to normal, the old kidneys might be let down and silt-up a bit. Hence the need for the urine sample.
What they told me was that if the hyper-T cat has some existing renal issues, after the treatment the issues could worsen.
Pallina had her creatinine at 2.3 (max 2.0) before starting the radioiodine treatment. The vets in Belgium told me that I should have expected the creatinine to go up to 3.0 or slightly higher. Luckily the last blood report told a different sotry and her creatinine is now at 1.7.
I hope it stays this way even in the future.

I'm sad to read that Mousey has some issues with her stomach and her appetite isn't great.
What did the vets tell you about this? Would she need a help for it?
Approaching midnight, there was a SMELL. Now although I'm as squeamish as anyone else, on this occasion this was Dior#5, Jo Malone and the Body Shop combined - heaven-scent! :D :D :D

And there it was! HORSE DROPPINGS!
LOL! :lol:
I know that wonderful feeling of a large poop coming after a long period of constipation. I still remember my tears of joy when my cat Tom (at the Bridge since Sep 2013) had a large poop after nearly 4 days of nothing! They were tears of joy!

Your friend must be a super hero to face the storm without a worry ;)

By the way, what is a TMI? :?:
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Mayday21 wrote:On the weather note it's Spring here & we're having temps in the 30s over the next few days. Desperately need rain - definately a 'sunburnt' country ATM. What's our Summer going to be like!! Antonio if Italy was the barometer...
We had an unusual summer (tonight at 10 pm it will be officially autumn), never had 16 weeks of hot, dry and clear weather in a row before. Now it's still clear and dry, but much cooler.
It hasn't been raining for months, agriculture has lost 60-70% of crops, hundreds thousands acres of forests have been destroyed by fires, some rivers ran dry and lakes are below their minimum levels.
Don't know if, and hope not, we are a good barometer of the global situation.
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Thanks Mayday and Antonio - Mousey says thanks too :D

Lol Mayday, the rum hadn't occurred to me - wait till he gets back! :lol: Typical - he's in Punta Cana where it was at its worst; he's lucky as the hotel has its own generator (a lot of the DR has power outages :() Atm my email's down and I'm trying to access news sites with little success; they're all very vague and all they do is blare videos and ads at me with no way of turning them off ... :evil:

The whole world seems to have had some very odd weather this summer - I hope things get better, and in Australia and Italy too. Even in the UK there have been some freak gales and rain but nothing dramatic - fortunately!

Antonio, TMI is 'too much information' - well I do ramble on! :lol:

I asked the centre if stomach upsets were to be expected but they said that if they soon cleared up, not to worry. I think this time I should have given her Lactulose much earlier, but I dislike using laxatives unless necessary as I believe the system can become dependant on them. She'd kept passing some solids but not enough. I think, though, that I need to ring them and discuss using a stool-softener if her constipation (which I don't think is connected with HT) persists.* Poor girl! She ate some freshly cooked chicken last night and she''s a lot brighter today though didn't want chicken Encore (too bland, but she had a nibble later) but just ordinary Gourmet ... blimey, the days when they got just biscuits and a daily tin of Butcher's between them and got on with it ... but this I reckon is how it goes with elderly or poorly cats ... and a greedy 6 year old Molly. We don't have a feeding routine any more - just chaos!

*Stop press - just found a website that tells me that constipation CAN be connected with HT. Will be doing more research and also asking vet for advice.

Love from Mousey and Emily and Molly and me to Pallina and the Famous Four of Oz by the way :D
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Results today -

T4 is 10.3
Creatinine - edit, in my scribbled notes I saw 162 - think this must be 1.62 ... there's a difference ...

Kidney function fine.

I believe the T4 level is about the same as Pallina's, Antonio?

I asked about constipation and it's not thought to be directly connected with HT - I think the centre is likely to know more than that website :)

All in all, she's fine. More blood and urine tests in November, but otherwise, at last, Mouse is an Ordinary Cat once again, leading a normal life ...

Well, what passes for normal in this house! :lol:
Last edited by Lilith on Tue Sep 26, 2017 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by alanc »

Glad to hear all is back to the usual chaos!
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Lilith, glad to read that normality is going to settle again in your home :D
Mousey T4 is 10.3, which I think is below the range if the range of your lab is the same as mine.
Pallina had fT4 level at 10 (range 5-20 pml/l) and T4 level at 12.9 (19-65 nml/l).
I had written an email to the Belgian clinic but they haven't replied yet... :shock:

While their reply isn't coming, I made some researches on the web and apparently a low level of T4 is expected right after the treatment. The *bad cells* of the tumor were over reacting and producing much more T4 than necessary, so the *good cells* were just sleeping. Now that the *bad ones* have been destroyed, the *good ones* have to wake up and start working again, which is expected in the next weeks. So I think that Pallina is doing fine at the moment.
Tomorrow we'll have the new scan for her chest :)

As for Mousey's constipation, have you tried to mix some psyllium seeds in her wet food?
I do this everyday since May 2015 and not a single day has gone by without Pallina (and Lola when she was still with me) using the litter tray regularly.
It's a natural thing, it adds absolutely no flavour to the food, it can be used forever and costs nothing.
Just 10-15 tiny seeds mixed into her wet food and the problem is fixed :D

Lots of kisses to all your furry friends ;)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Thanks, Alan - lol, I couldn't put it better myself :lol:

Good point, Antonio about the low level T4. The Wetherby centre certainly didn't seem to think it was a problem. I'll look into psyllium; she's not too bad atm and I'm experimenting a bit foodwise, but I do need to be vigilant; I've always said I'd rather an elderly cat was on the loose side rather than the firm side.

Fusses to the magnificent Tilly, and to Pallina and the new residents :)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Lilith wrote:I'll look into psyllium; she's not too bad atm and I'm experimenting a bit foodwise, but I do need to be vigilant; I've always said I'd rather an elderly cat was on the loose side rather than the firm side.
I need to add that as far as I know the seeds have no side effects, so even if Mouse doesn't need them it's no harm giving them to her ;)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Thanks Antonio - sorry forgot to say good luck tomorrow for the chest scan - all paws and tails crossed here :)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by booktigger »

If you use psyllium husks, you have to make sure they drink enough,
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

booktigger wrote:If you use psyllium husks, you have to make sure they drink enough,
I'm not using husk, in my case they are seeds, tiny wee black seeds.
You could use them as they are into the wet food, or leave them rest for one night in a little water until they become like a jelly and add some of it to the usual wet food.
Yes, if the cat drinks more water it is better. I forgot to say that I always add 20 ml of fresh water to Pallina's food and then mesh it all. She drinks an average of 70 ml of water daily from the bowl.
I also add a little taurine powder to the food ;)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Antonio »

Here's a photo of the seeds, compared to some coins from different countries :D
Unfortunately I don't have Aussie coins, so Vivian you have to use "ours" ;)
They're tiny little black seeds
Psyllium seeds.jpg
With fewer than the seeds you can see in the photo, daily, it is possible to keep a cat regular to their tray :)
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Lilith »

Hi Antonio, how did the scan go?

I'm interested in the psyllium but cautious ... as Booktigger says the cat would definitely have to get enough fluids. Mouse produces several big wees in a day(drinking well) and her results seem to indicate healthy kidneys, so I might try giving a little of the jelly from some soaked seeds in a bit of wet food.

She's being naughty because she's supposed to have Royal Canin Fibre response and, typical cat, she's bored with it at present. This stuff is expensive but works very well - if they'll eat it!

From my reading I've learned that psyllium should only be used in the short term - but at what dose? This doesn't seem very clear. I'm hazarding a guess that the dose you use is very small? I've read the same advice about Fibre Response, but have never found a problem with constant feeding of that.

Also, and this is important - I'm including this in case someone's reading this who has a cat with the same impacted constipation that Mouse had last spring - psyllium, or its commercial brand Metamucil, must NEVER be used for impacted constipation that the cat is straining to pass and can't. It will make matters worse as it dries out what moisture's left in the gut.

I think in Mousey's case I'll still have a word with the vet and see if I can have more Lactulose to keep in for emergencies; at the moment she's passing a motion most days but it's on the hard side. I've been experimenting a bit with different food - even different brands of dried food in small packets, to mix with the Fibre Response and get her interested. I don't want to be syringing a powerful laxative like Lactulose down her regularly; proprietary laxatives like Katalax I've tried in the past and never seen much result with ... there's a tuna-flavoured one called Tomlyn's, I think ... willing to try that but again really don't want to be using any of this kind of stuff too often. There ARE stool-softeners too - does that bring us back to psyllium? :)

We shall get to the bottom of it eventually! :lol:
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by Mayday21 »

Hi Antonio thanks for thinking of me - our 5 cent would be the one to use :lol: And Lilith thanks for info on Metamucil. Vivian
booktigger
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Re: Tails of the radioactive cat (or Mouse.) Radio-iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism

Post by booktigger »

I used lactulose regularly on Molly, she didn't seem to have any side effects. I also used Slippery Elm Bark
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