Smudgie is scheduled to go going in for radioactive iodine (I-31) treatment for his hyperthyroidism. It's gonna be a tough coupla weeks for the Smudgemeister. He has to be off his thyroid medication for 11-12 days prior to treatment, iof the treatment to be most effective and accurate. That means he'll be increasingly hungry. fidgety and busy for the next 11-12 days. He's going to want to eat a lot, and that's okay; I just expect that he'll be gulping the food down fast enough to cause at least a few snarf 'n' barfs (snarves 'n' barves?). Just before he was diagnosed last year, we noticed that he was acting almost frantic about eating. Obviously, he's always been interested in eating...just look at him...but he would get all antsy, try to knock down the treat jar, a lot of plaintive meowing, etc.
He'll go in on a Monday and come out on Friday. He has to stay there bco his radiation levels. I-31 therapy is considered safe, but I'm not sure how it's safe for the cat being treated and not safe for people to be around the treated cat. Maybe it has something to do with it being administered intravenously. Archie's chemo was administered through an IV, but they had to be extremely careful bc it could be very caustic if it got on his skin. For some reason, it was okay to inject in his veins. Whatevs.
He's your classic homebody cat; he is not gonna like this time away from home. Although I must say that he has a penchant for the ladies, so maybe he'll cozy up to his female caretakers. I think unfamiliar male voices scare him. And food = love as far as cats are concerned, so I'm sure he'll come to look forward to seeing whoever feeds him.
We're supposed to limit contact with him during the first 3 weeks after his return home: no lap sitting, no sleeping w/us, no cuddling, wear gloves when cleaning out the boxes, etc.; just interaction necessary for basic care. That's gonna be a bit difficult bc he's very cuddly and especially so after being stressed, so I expect he'll come home and be all over us. He'll often sleep by my head during the night when it's cool out. Usually I notice, bc he's not all that graceful and quiet about it, but sometimes I don't. Guess I'll have to figure out a way to avoid getting my head radiated. He's not good at being confined; he spends much of the time meowing his head off and trying to pick open the door; keeping us awake much of the night.
I predict Clara will be very upset. The Grey Widow - so-called bc she glommed onto Stashy, who died a few years ago, then glommed onto Archie, who died last year, and who has since glommed onto Smudgie (some women always need to have a man around) - will have no one with whom to cuddle while Smudgie's away. I predict that by the end of Smudgie's week away she will be making more frequent advances toward hanging out with me; more frequent than her currently one advance per quarter rate. Other cats don't need to limit their interacton w/the post-treatment cat; I'm not sure why that would be the case, but people do need to limit their interaction. I'll have to find out about that.
I know I'll miss him, but I also think that, by the time he's ready to go in, I'll be ready for him to go in bc he'll probably have driven me crazy by then. It will be a bit of an ordeal for him, but it will be a long-term solution to his condition (since he's 11.5 yo, it will probably be a permanent solution, i.e., he probably won't need it again unless he lives a very long life). And he won't need to take medication any longer. Currently, he takes 2 pills every day. He's easy to pill once you've got him. Kevin finds it a bit difficult to get him; I usually have more time available to let him settle down for a nap and then spring his pill on him. His current daily dose is already kinduva a high dose and, if he received neither surgical nor I-31 treatment, he'd have to receive an even higher dose. And I don't like that he often looks at us as if he's debating whether or not to run away to avoid the pill; I want him to be relaxed around us. (I suppose I really needn't worry about my cat being relaxed!) It is a chunk o' change all at once, but the medicine is expensive, too; I-31 treatment will actually be less expensive in the long run.
I will miss the little guy while he's away, though; fortunately, I have a few spare cats at home to keep me company in Smudge's absence.
My cat Murphy had the radioactive iodine treatment a year ago because she had developed an allergy to the methimazole. When she came home a week later, she was a pound heavier!! That's a 10% weight gain in a week! She went on to gain another pound over the next few months, and she was very lethargic and her fur was coming out in clumps--turns out she had hypothyroidism, which is an underactive thyroid. It's one of the potential problems with the iodine treatment--sometimes it kills TOO much of the thyroid. So now I still have to give her a pill every day (L-thyroxine), but it's a lot cheaper than the methimazole, and it's not a big deal if you miss a dose or two.
Sometimes the hyperthyroidism masks kidney disease (because it causes more blood to be pumped through the kidneys). So after the I-31 treatment, the kidney disease becomes apparent. This also happened with Murphy, though the kidney disease is in the early stages.
They say the radioactivity doesn't harm the other cats in the household because they don't live long enough to develop cancer from it. Not a great explanation, if you ask me. So actually, the other cats DO get radiated, but the effects of that are never seen because of their relatively short lifespans.
Murph's doing great now--she's more active, has lost half a pound, and her fur grew back :)
Posted by: Karen | Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 02:02 PM
Hi Kar, Glad to hear Murphy's well. I forget which one she is...I can never keep those two straight. I think she's the b&w one. Yeah, I understand that 2% of cats treated w/I-31 will become hypothyroid. Smudgie's starting to get just a little antsy. I'll post here re: his experience. Hope all is well out there.
Posted by: Annie | Friday, October 07, 2005 at 12:12 PM