waywardcats | Camus Update

Well, he is still in good spirits and seems ok, but he has been eating a lot (whole cans of food in the span of an hour) and still losing weight (he was at 9lbs 15 oz on Saturday). But at least now we have a diagnosis. He has hyperthyroidism.

I got the T4 back from the lab.  It came back CLEARLY high at 7.3
(normal = 0.5 to 5.8).  So he is definitely hyperthyroid.  Our treatment options are limited
to oral medication (methimizole, also known as Tapezole) as he is not a
candidate for I131 treatment (radioactive iodine) due to his kidney disease.
Here's the catch though: Sometimes when you treat thyroid disease in cats who
have kidney disease, the kidney disease can get worse.  One theory as to why
this happens is that the hyperthyroid condition increases blood
pressure, which in turn increases the perfusion and filtration rate of the kidneys.  When you
correct the thyroid, the BP may DEcrease, causing INcrease of kidney values.
On the other hand, chronic high blood pressure will also cause damage to the
kidneys over time.  And there are certainly other negative metabolic and
physiologic consequences to high thyroid level, which lead to weight loss and
can also cause heart disease over time, if left untreated.  So as you can see,
we are in a Catch 22 situation with poor Camus.

My suggestion at this point would be that we try starting Camus on a VERY LOW
dose of methimazole, and then closely monitor his kidney values, weight, blood
pressure and thyroid level.  If things are going well, we may be able to
gradually increase the methimazole if needed.

So I will try the treatment she suggests and continue to monitor him closely. All I can do is hope for the best outcome now. Truthfully I think I have been lucky that his kidney disease has been stable for over a year. He's a tough little guy, my Camus