Update on Buddha

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Mary - 09 Aug 2004 17:23 GMT

My full-figured hyperthyroid tuxedo cat has been on Tapazole 10 mgs (.5
every twelve hours) for three weeks now and three days ago began showing
less interest in her food, which she formerly gobbled. This morning she had
to be dragged out from under a table to be pilled, then refused her food and
threw up her pill.

Called my vet and she said to quit the Tapazole for two days, then begin the
dosage again. Per Phil's suggestion I asked if I might decrease dosage, as I
had heard it might help and she had such a dramatic reaction to the
Tapazole, having dropped her T4 levels from over 10 to 2 in two weeks. She
agreed and said to give Buddha a two-day break then begin her again at 5 mgs
a day.

Meanwhile I think I will take this opportunity to try and sneak in some
Wellness or other brand of premium cat food.

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Nomen Nescio - 09 Aug 2004 22:10 GMT

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From: "Mary" <rosefan@email.com>

>My full-figured hyperthyroid tuxedo cat has been on Tapazole 10 mgs (.5
>every twelve hours) for three weeks now and three days ago began showing
>less interest in her food, which she formerly gobbled. This morning she had
>to be dragged out from under a table to be pilled, then refused her food and
>threw up her pill.

If the pill came up with mostly liquid, the dosage is too high.

>Called my vet and she said to quit the Tapazole for two days, then begin the
>dosage again. Per Phil's suggestion I asked if I might decrease dosage, as I
>had heard it might help and she had such a dramatic reaction to the
>Tapazole, having dropped her T4 levels from over 10 to 2 in two weeks. She
>agreed and said to give Buddha a two-day break then begin her again at 5 mgs
>a day.

A 5 mg/day dose sounds more reasonable. Tapazole has a fairly long half life
in cats. Nearly a week, if I remember correctly. It sounds like the levels have
built up too high over a couple of weeks. You're probably going to have a real
balancing act for a while. The appetite should start returning in a couple of days.
If not, you may even want to go another day or two before starting again. Or maybe
just 2.5 mgs after 3 days.

After years of giving cats Tapazole, I got to where I could just look at the cats in the
morning and tell how much to give them.

>Meanwhile I think I will take this opportunity to try and sneak in some
>Wellness or other brand of premium cat food.

At this point, any food that you can get to stay in her will help.

Best of luck

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Mary - 10 Aug 2004 02:39 GMT

> If the pill came up with mostly liquid, the dosage is too high.

It was just two little half-dollar sized bits of white foam. She obviously
had nothing in her stomach.

> A 5 mg/day dose sounds more reasonable. Tapazole has a fairly long half

life in cats. Nearly a week, if I remember correctly. It sounds like the
levels have

> built up too high over a couple of weeks. You're probably going to have a

real balancing act for a while. The appetite should start returning in a
couple of days.

I just got home from Pet Smart where I got lots of different flavors of
Nutro, Science Diet, and MaxiCat (anyone heard of that?) in little three-oz
cans. I also got a turbo scratcher and a little uphill scratcher, both
rubbed with catnip. Buddha loves the turbo and after she went wild with it
for a while, I put down some Nutro hunter's stew flavor and she ate it right
up! Yippee we are off of Fancy Feast chopped grill! (Sherry, I have no idea
how this happened, but she will not touch the FF!)

> If not, you may even want to go another day or two before starting again.

Or maybe just 2.5 mgs after 3 days. After years of giving cats Tapazole, I
got to where I could just look at the cats in themorning and tell how much
to give them.

This is really interesting to me. I don't guess you can describe how they
looked?

> At this point, any food that you can get to stay in her will help.
>
> Best of luck

Thanks! Looks like the little chow hound is already recuperating. We just
played with the lazer pointer for a while.

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Nomen Nescio - 10 Aug 2004 05:40 GMT

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From: "Mary" <rosefan@email.com>

>> If the pill came up with mostly liquid, the dosage is too high.
>
>It was just two little half-dollar sized bits of white foam. She obviously
>had nothing in her stomach.

Yup, way too high a dose for Buddha.

>> If not, you may even want to go another day or two before starting again.
>> Or maybe just 2.5 mgs after 3 days. After years of giving cats Tapazole, I
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>This is really interesting to me. I don't guess you can describe how they
>looked?

Each cat have their own personality and behavior (I'm sure you know that) so
I can't give you an absolute indicator. What I'd look for is general behavior in relation
to their "norm". For example: Ebony was a real "people kitty", loved her "kitty hugs",
considered any empty lap to be a great place for a nap, and always wanted every
spare human moment to be spent paying attention to a kitty. When she started to
lose interest in human company, her Tapazole levels were invariably starting to creep
up too high. So I'd slightly reduce her medication for a few days and she'd be back
to normal. If she seemed to get abnormally vocal (and she was always a "talker"),
or started swatting me with her paw, to get my attention, more often and harder than
"normal", her Tapazole levels were probably starting to get too low. This is very basic
and there are a hundred other subtle things that were indicators, many of which
I'm at a loss to define. But I just knew.
And I looked for trends. One sleepy day in Ebony's life told me nothing. A couple
days of not being a "people kitty" was a flashing red warning light. I tried to stay in
the middle and make small (<10% adjustments) over many days. She was on 1/2
pill, twice a day which tended to be just a little bit too much for her in the long term. So the
typical adjustment was to break off a small corner of a half pill and discard it. The
other half was left intact. I must have been doing something right 'cause her thyroid
levels always tested right where they should have been for many years.
The idea is to stay on top of the situation to avoid having the medication level get
too far one way or the other and cause distress.

>Looks like the little chow hound is already recuperating.

Great! Seems like you caught things before they got too far off. As I said before,
it can be a real balancing act.

> We just
>played with the lazer pointer for a while.

I just got one of those for "TK" last week. He's been having a great time trying to
catch that elusive red "bug" that keeps running around the floor.

I hope Buddha continues to do well. It seems like you're on the right track, now.

Best of luck

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Sherry - 13 Aug 2004 04:54 GMT

>I just got home from Pet Smart where I got lots of different flavors of
>Nutro, Science Diet, and MaxiCat (anyone heard of that?) in little three-oz
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>up! Yippee we are off of Fancy Feast chopped grill! (Sherry, I have no idea
>how this happened, but she will not touch the FF!)

Awesome! We're still stuck in Step 2 of the 12-Step Program. I rationalize this
by saying that Pro Plan is much better than FF. Kind of like saying marijuana
is much better than crack, probably, because I have no idea what the
nutritional analysis would be for Pro Plan.

Sherry

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