Worst case scenario if a cat's hyperthyroidism goes untreated?

Blindness can occur, as can kidney failure, non-stop diarrhea, heart failure and death. I would strongly recommend getting treatment. The earlier it's started, the better.

http://www.lbah.com/feline/hyperthyroidism.htm

Hope this helps. :)

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Hyperthyroidism Untreated

Heart failure, blindness, etc Basically tell her that what is going on is the cat's whole body is sped up, so ALL the cat's organs are being overworked which is very hard on the body. Just feeding extra is not treating the problem, that is only dealing with ONE little aspect of what is happening to her cat's body. And it is also very stressful mentally to be coping with the excess of thyroid hormone and experiencing the constant hunger , racing heart etc.

That is absolutely wonderful of you to offer to pay for the radiation treatment that cures hyperthyroidism.. I do so hope she will accept it. I can understand her not liking to accept handouts but she needs to put the cat above her pride.. Maybe it will help convince her if you tell her that you feel like if the situation were reversed -- if YOU had an elderly cat with hyper-T who badly needed help, and she was able to afford to help -- she might do the same for you. That may give her pride a sort of outlet and make her feel you're not seeing her as less of a good person.

But before getting the Radiocat treatment there is something else to consider. Sometimes hyper-T can be masking kidney disease and if the cat has the radiation that totally fixes the thyroid problem, the kidney disease then advances. For a cat with underlying kidney disease it can be better to try to balance the two conditions by using medication for the thyroid problem rather than the radioactive iodine treatment.

You can't tell this from a usual blood chemistry panel because the kidney disease won't show up in those values while the hyper-T is speeding everything up. But there is a test for glomerular filtration rate. If you get that done and a vet says it looks like the cat does have subclinical kidney disease and should be given daily meds instead of getting the radiation, then you could offer to pay for the pills instead of the R.

As someone who got the radiation treatment and then had my cat go into kidney failure and die within less than a year, I would definitely get some kind of test done if I again have a cat with hyper-T.

Here is an abstract that mentions this

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9238796?dopt=Ab...

. Quote: "Pretreatment measurement of GFR is valuable in detecting subclinical renal disease and in predicting which cats may have clinically important declines in renal function following treatment."

another abstract http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19010632

Hyperthyroidism Prognosis

my cat has hyperthyroidism & we can't afford the radiation thing, also don't want to put her through surgery as she is almost 15 years old. we use the pills for her & it seems to be working. vet says its improved the condition greatly the cat will just have to take the pills for the rest of her life. which isn't a huge deal if it means keeping kitty healthy. the cat has to take this pill twice a day every 12 hours. i definitely hope your neighbor looks into this if surgery is not an option. its not that expensive at all (especially when comparing to surgery & radiation treatment) but i definitely would NOT let this go untreated (just changing the cat's diet won't help)...please recommend the pills if nothing else! hope kitty gets well soon!

The smart-aleck answer is "death." Given that all animals eventually die (even cats), we need to look a little deeper than that: what kind of death? A quick, painless death? Or a long, grueling, drawn out process of decay prompting suicide as the only way of preventing the disease from running its course?

As you already know, hyperthyroidism (whether in cats, dogs, or human for that matter) causes an increase in metabolism such that the animal consumes more food to meet the energy demand. This places a heavy strain on the heart and the stomach. The effect on the heart can be likened to a motor running at the highest gear for a really long time. The effect on the stomach is unpleasant, to put it delicately.

The worst case scenario I can think of for untreated feline hyperthyroidism is that the cat will deliberately get run over by a car rather than deal with the pain of the disease.

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Worst case scenario if a cat's hyperthyroidism goes untreated?

My neighbor's cat was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Kidney disease was ruled out. She told me "I'll just have to spend more on cat food." I think if I offered to pay for the radiation treatment she'd turn it down out of pride.

(As for my cat, he's young and I...

Unfortunately thyroid balances are extremely common in cats, the biggest one being hyperthyroidism. It is very sweet of you to even consider offering to pay for the radiation treatment for your neighbor. There is another option that you could tell her to consider, and that is to use homeopathic treatments. There is a herbal formula that I know about called Resthyro. It was created by a naturopathic veterinarian and contains 7 herbs that work together to help balance the cat's natural production of thyroid hormones, supports cardiovascular function and healthy digestion. You can tell her to visit this site for more information: http://www.petwellbeing.com/products/cat-hyperthyr...

If you're not into meds, try some alternative therapies? Therapy without medication? Meditation or hypnosis, or image/guided therapy? Exercise? Exercise/working out has been known to help with depression because it can correct imbalances in your brain and body. When you're out of shape, your heart beats more times per minute, your blood pressure is higher, and because of this your body produces more of the hormones linked to stress (catecholamine and cortisol). A lot of people find Yoga or cardio helpful.

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