Hi, My 15yr old cat 2months ago became very skinny and was diagnosed with a thyroid problem to which he now takes 1x 2.5mg felimazole tablet twice a day. This has until now seemed to cure his weight loss and return him to his usual self. I have now noticed that he has again become very skinny and his breathing seems to be short and sharp when looking at his tummy. I will be taking him back to the vets tommorrow but am wondering if this could be another problem or related to the thyroid again. Also looking at the various problems with tablet taking I find wrapping it in a small ball of cheese works wonders, he loves the stuff.

Hi, Dean,

You cat has reached a good age. When his quality if life is no longer good, do not prolong it because you do not like the idea of parting with him.
We have the responsibility of sparing our pets suffering at the end of thei lives, and the privilege of being able to do something about it.

W

hey, it is thought that my cat may have hyperthyroidism, he is yet to have the blood tests to identifiy this, but my vet was sure that is what it is. my cat is 10, and always has been a reluctant pill taker, i will try the medication, but if not how much is the average cost for surgery?

d.buxton

Hi,

I am sorry, but ome thing I cannot give advice on is fees. Every practice sets its own.

W

In Veterinaty surgery you can buy special kind of tool made by plastic, just for giving medicine to animals. I give the same medicine, Felimazole to my cat with that tool and its so easy. Its very cheap,as I remember only £1

My cat is 15 years old. 6 months ago she has been diagnozed with Hyperthyroidism. The Vet prescibed Felimazole 2.5mg twice a day. After taking medicine she started to put weight. She was 5kg 500g before, after taking medicine she became 8kg, even though I was cutting her food down almost in half.
Last 40 days ago I also cut the dose of medicine, giving her only once a day,but she still not loosing the weight she put on during last 6 months. Im very worried about other diseases she can get because of her weight.
Thanks for any help
Emma

Hi,

If you maintain her present weight by having reduced her food, and possibly losing alittle more, she should be OK.
It is more important to get the thyroid treatment right than to get her weight down to what it was.

W

Hi

My cat has been on Felimazole for quite a long while now - he has one 2.5mg and one 5mg tablet a day. He seems to be doing fine now but every 6 months the vet wants to blood test him. I don't mind paying if it is in the best interest of the cat but at £75 a time it is expensive. The vet has said he has to bloodtest as it is a requirement by law. Otherwise he cannot continue to prescribe. Is this the case?

Many thanks for your help.
Lucy

Hi, Lucy,

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the vets' ruling body in the UK, insist that an animal on continuous treatment must be seen 'sufficiently frequently as to be satisfied with the animal's condition' or words to that effect.
Six monthly intervals is not unreasonable, but if the cat is showing no signs of illness it could be held that a blood test every time is not necessary.
If this does not answer your question to your satisfaction, go to:www.rcvs.org.uk and see if you can find any help there, if only to get their address to write to the Head of Professional Conduct'

W

My cat has been on felimazole for 6 weeks. He found it distressing to be force fed the tablets twice a day so I use chicken paste. A jar will keep for a week in the fridge and cost about 26p. I use a teaspoon handle to get a small amount of paste, push the tablet in and he happily eats it. Sometimes the tablet falls out but I just pick it up and repeat the procedure. One happy cat!!

I have two questions to previous posts - to ripse about the tool to administer medicine to animals, is that a crusher or some other device? If a crusher, how does it differ from the ones for general use for humans?
The other questions is to anne s, writing from the US, what is chicken paste?

Hi,

I advise crushing tablets between two spoons - put the tablet in the bowl of a spoon and crush it under the bowl of another one.
Chicken paste is a sandwich spread which is sold in the UK in small jars.

W

This thread is very informative - thank you.

Our cat (now 12ish) started life being very overweight, but gradually, we got him down to about 5kgs.

Stangley, about 5 months ago, he continued to lose weight, so we took him to the vet, who subseqently prescribed Felimazole.

His appetite has virtually ceased. He is constantly flicking his head. He appears dazed and has lost his balance (tending to fall to his left side).

He continues to lose weight and now stands at 4kgs.

We have taken him back on several occasions, but after 2 similar blood tests, he is technically "normal".

Today, after no real improvement, we took him back and the vet said that there must be something wrong with his brain!!

After reading this post, I am beginning to doubt this, based on accounts from other people who have had to administer Felimazole.

After querying what we should do if he continues to lose weight, the vet said he can't do anything other than a very expensive MRI scan!!!!!

He also gave him a steroid injection (again) and said that he hoped that would give him a kick start..

He is now on "Recover" food, but continues to show lack of interest in food.

I don't want to see him wasting away. Do you have any suggestions?

Hi,

There comes a time when it is not justfiable, neither in terms of the welfare of our pet animals, nor in cost, to continue treeatment, at whatever price.

I suspect that your pet is coming to the point where his quailty of life is such that you will have to consider just what are his best interests, and unless you are satisfied that you are keeping him going for his sake, and not that you cannot bear the thought of parting with him, you will have to call it a day and ask your vet to put him to sleep.

W

I second the suggestion of hiding the tablet in paste. Our fussy cat takes 2 5mg tablets each day and this is the only way she will take them whole. We use salmon paste and as long as the whole tablet is hidden inside a ball of paste, she will take it happily.

This is a very interesting & informative site - thank you, Vet & other contributors. Our 16 year old moggie has been on Felimazole for just over a year now - 2.5mg twice a day. We give him the tablets hidden inside a little ball of fish paste, followed by another mouthful just to make sure he licks our fingers & the tablet goes right down - he actually looks forward to them as a 'treat' after his meal!
Unfortunately our vet has only been able to get the one blood test from him - he's just too feisty & the subsequent efforts have been very distressing for him & for the nurses. They are reluctant to sedate him just for a blood test as they feel this is a bit extreme, so we have agreed that as long as we keep a careful watch on his general well-being (which we do), they will monitor him just by 'clinical examination' every few months - less traumatic for all concerned! He generally appears well & contented, although he has never recovered his full weight & musculatur - he was a very big muscular cat in his youth. My only concern is that today, as he was grooming himself, I noticed he paused & his head shook slightly for a few seconds - almost like a tremor seen with Parkinson's disease. It happened just the once & he recovered immediately to carry on grooming as though nothing had happened, & then followed me about the house entirely as normal. Do you have any comments or suggestions as to what might cause this?

Hi,

You have an old cat which you (and your vet) have done extremely well to keep going for so long.
I am sure that you are absolutely right to monitor his progress by watching for clinical signs, and not putting him through the stress of taking blood.
Many cats develop some sort of cerebral problem in old age, some becoming quite demented. This odd 'head shake' may be connected with that. There is nothing that I know of which will help. but it may well progress very slowly, if at all.

W

I've just found this site after Googling 'Felimazole side effects'. I've just had to put my 19yr old cat to sleep, so just wanted to add my experiences should anyone be interested. My cat had been on Fortekor for kidney problems for several years, and was stable and doing fine, with 6-month blood tests to check the levels. 3-wks ago she had her latest blood test, when I also asked the vet to check thyroid activity, as she was losing weight. Results came back as kidneys fine but thyroid over 100. Vet prescribed Felimazole, 2 a day. After about 4 days my cat started being sick to I took her back to the vet who said that it was a side effect, especially with an underlying kidney condition, and I should stop completely and re-start a week later at 1 a day, returning immediately if sickness resumed. For the intervening week my cat was fine and back to normal, then I began 1 tablet from Monday. No sickness, but by Saturday she was blind and had bloody urine (the vet said cystitis from the shock of going blind). The vet said to continue with the Felimazole + now an antibiotic for the cystitis. My cat stopped eating, brought up the antibiotic and was hardly able to stand - a pathetic sight, so I took her to the vet first thing Monday and had her put to sleep. I was shocked at the effect Felimazole had on her and, should I have another cat in the same situation, would refuse that drug.

Hi,

Thank you for sharing that with us, but have you not considered that your cat was dying of old age when the Felimazole was started?
The commonst cause of death in old cats is kidney failure, and losing weight is one of the usual signs.

W

Thanks for your reply. No, I put it down to the Felimazole. She was fine (albeit a bit thinner) before she started taking it, and in the week-long break got back to her normal self, then went rapidly downhill when put back on Felimazole. My vet did say that she knew it could cause side effects especially, as I said before, if there was an underlying condition, but to start vomiting, going blind, developing cystitis and becoming an immobile bag of bones over the course of a weekend seems pretty conclusive to me. I've read other posts where owners say their cats respond, which is great, but in my case it was quite the opposite.

Quote:

"Everyone dies sometime after their last meal, but not necessarily as a result of it"

In my experience if the condition of a patient deteriorates after treatment, the deterioration is often attributed to the treatment and not to the natural course of the disease.

W

MY CAT IS ON fELIMAZOLE AND HAS BEEN ON IT FOR ABOUT A YEAR. IN THIS TIME SHE HAS IMPROVED FROM ASKINNY LISTLESS CAT TO AN ACTIVE NORMAL WEIGHT AND HAPPY PUSS. SHE IS 15. THE BEST WAY TO GET HER TO TAKE HER TABLETS IS TO WRAP THEM IN A SMALL AMOUNT OF CHEESE - I BUY A PACKET OF READY GRATED CHEDDAR AN USE JUST ONE OR TWO GRATINGS. SHE EATS IT WITH NO PROBLEMS.

According to my vet, who has been in touch with the company who produces felimazol, you are allowed to crush the tablets. I thought it was bad as well, but I think I have to trust the fact that my vet is speaking the truth.
Good luck.

Hi, my question is my cat [Little-one] had a blood test from my vet and it came back as thyroid 4.8% and liver 263. I was told too try felimazole 2.5mg twice daily. After pills are gone to come back for another test. He is not active at all! Lost his ability to even move around at all. Still vomiting, but not as much. Will take pills with wet food. Hardley touches dry.[Which was his favorite] Little-one was 14lbs now 10lbs. He is 15 years old. My main concern is he in pain?

An over-active thyroid is not painful. I am not sure what you mean by a thyroid of 4.8% because we do not measure thyroid hormone as %. Normal thyroid values are 15-50 from most laboratories. We can measure the free T4 fraction which is expressed as a percentage (and this would be elevated) but is not meaningful without knowing the T4 value itself; in addition this is not the best test in cats. Weight loss and vomiting are however typical for an over-active thyroid. Elevation in liver enzymes is common with thyroid disease and to be expected. Cats with an over-active thyroid often are hyperactive for their age but when treated often become less active but not to the degree you describe. Felimazole can cause some reactions which make the cat unwell so it could be a reaction to the medication or the dose may be too high. Because I am unsure about the 4.8% value you quote it may be that the cat does not have an over-active thyroid. You should discuss this with your vet.

7 months ago, my cat was diagnosed with a liver tumour and put on 1/2 prednisolone and 1 synulox a day. Every 4 weeks or so she would go off her food and start to vomit. The vet used to get her in and put her on a drip for a couple of days, then send her home again. A couple of weeks ago she became ill again, and I was told dher liver was full of tumours. I took her to another vet, who checked her thyroid,
and is telling me she has thyroid trouble. The Xrays have been confirmed as being of a full belly, not of her liver.
I've changed vets, and based on an examination and the bloods taken a week ago, my cat has been prescribed 2.5mg Felimazole twice a day.
She's had the first one today at tea time, seemed OK most of the evening, but has been fast asleep since about 7.30. I'm a bit concerned, as she
is usually up and about for most of the late evening. Does it always make them sleep like this?

Hello....My cat is 19 yrs old and on Felizamole - 3 tablets a day. I am going away for 4 days and am leaving my cat with a friend. My question is would there be a problem with not giving the pills for this period as she is not the easiest patient and my friend wouldn't manage.

This is pretty normal. What you have to remember is that you are used to a hyperthyroid cat and when that stops the cat returns to being normal for a cat of that age, ie less active, although I am surprised you have noticed such a difference so quickly.

Missing a few days of tablets should not cause any real problem

hi, i took my 13 yr old cat to the vets on friday as i was concerned she was losing weight but eating more. He did blood tests, said she had hyperthyroidism and prescribed Felimizole, 1 a day. By monday, she seemed desperately ill, terrible diarrheoa, and not able to physically get up unaided. Vet said this was normal, that i hadnt given tablets long enough to work yet and that i would see a marked difference in her after 10 days. She died at 8.15pm that evening. My family are distraught and i am seeking answers. I have read that Felimizole can remove any protection from the kidneys that is provided by the hyperthyroidism,and that somehow hyperthyroidism can mask signs of kidney damage giving false blood test readings, but this was not discussed with me or i would have asked for alternate treatments.Have these tablets killed our beloved pet?