Ask your vet

Having a diagnosis of hyperthyroidism for your cat can be a real shock. It can be hard to take in all the information your vet is giving you and there are often additional questions and concerns that occur to you later. Although we are very happy to speak with you to discuss hyperthyroidism with you in general terms we can’t discuss your own cat unless your local vet refers him or her to us.  This enables us to see the clinical history and laboratory results and assess your cat’s suitability for radio-iodine. We can then guide you on options and how to proceed.

Your local vet will have made a diagnosis of feline hyperthyroidism most likely with a blood test. It is common for most vets to choose to start treatment with medications which block the developing thyroid tumour from over-producing thyroid hormone, sometimes planning to continue with medication life-long, or in preparation for one or two operations on the thyroid tumour(s). However, radio-iodine can usually be used without having to use any medication beforehand, and studies show that life expectancy is doubled compared with medication. Critically, radio-iodine destroys the underlying tumour. Your local vet may not be aware that the provision of radio-iodine is now much better since our Clinical Director, Andrew Bodey, first became involved in 2008. In the past waiting times were usually measured in months and the minimum hospitalisation period was often 3-4 weeks whereas now, at our Centre, cats can return home from as little as 4 days after treatment and being the largest Centre in the UK waiting times are kept to the minimum.

If you would like to pursue radio-iodine treatment for your cat please ask your vet to refer him or her to us which they can do via the website, by using our Referral Form online or by fax or by email or by post, or by sending your cat’s clinical history and laboratory results.  If you have health insurance for your cat you could also contact your insurers (to give consent for us to discuss your policy with them under data protection) if you would like us to check your cover for you. This is essential if you would prefer us to accept a direct payment from your insurers.