Radiocat???

I took my Toby to Radiocat in the northern suburbs of Illinois.  First we
tried medication for his hyperthyroid and it did not work.  The radio iodine
treatment worked like a charm.   Toby was 8-1/2 years old then.  He died
last summer, but the treatment bought us 10 more years with him.  From what
they say about the treatment, it can be successful for the greater
percentage that opt for it.  Worst case scenerio is it won't work and the
cat will be on the medication for life.  It cost us $1,000 and that was 11
years ago.  If I were you, I would get a consultation with Radiocat.  They
will take things into consideration like your cats age, if you tried other
treatments first, if the cat has any other medical problems.

Radiocat is a facility which treats hyperthyroidism with radioactive
iodine (I-131).  This is a treatment used in humans too, by the way,
but not usually until medication has failed.  If it works, it is
perfect.  If it doesn't work, however, which does happen, it is because
it is extremely difficult to be 100% accurate about how much iodine-131
is necessary to kill off the exact number of thyroid cells and still
leave enough tissue to produce the normal amounts of thyroid hormone
which are *essential* for life.  So what sometimes happens is that the
entire thyroid gland gets killed off, and the cat, or human, is then
dependent on daily thyroid hormone supplements for survival.

Luthien is on medication for hyperthyroidism, at the moment, and though
we only started two weeks ago, she is doing fine so far.  Mind you,
this is because she and I have a good enough relationship that pilling
her twice a day is not really a big issue.  For some, however, this is
a big problem.  The choice is something of a lifestyle one, but people
who do decide to go for the radioactive iodine option need to know
that, despite the expense, you might still find, for all your effort, a
cat that needs a pill at least once a day.  As long as one is prepared
to accept this possible outcome, it's not a bad option.

Certainly, treating a cat (or human) with thyroid hormone is a lot less
fraught with danger and side-effects than treating with methimazole
(anti-hyperthyroid med), although this med has come a long way over the
years.  Used to be much more dangerous, and I personally know of humans
who died as a direct result of using PTU (which was its prototype).
Hyperthyroidism is such a dangerous and life-threatening condition in
itself that it justifies the use of a dangerous medicine or radioactive
treatment (just like chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer)

--tension