Animal Endocrine Clinic

Figure 1: Hyperthyroid cat with a huge thyroid tumor after 3 years of methimazole treatment. Notice the swollen neck, which turned out to be a massive thyroid carcinoma.Thyroid carcinoma is a relatively rare cause of hyperthyroidism in cats (1-4). Our recent review of almost 2100 cats showed that less than 0.5% of cats with newly diagnosed hyperthyroidism will have thyroid cancer (5).After months to years of methimazole treatment, it is not uncommon for the hyperthyroid cats' thyroid […]

Gizmo is a Turkish Angora with hyperthyroidism whose owners brought him to Dr. Peterson's Hypurrcat treatment center. Dr. Peterson pioneered the radioiodine treatment for cats with hyperthyroidism. This video was taken after Gizmo was treated with radioiodine during his "photo shoot."Gizmo came to us shaved (Turkish Angoras typically have long hair) due to the matting in his fur- failure to groom is a common symptom of long-haired cats with hyperthyroidism. As you can see from the video, cats […]

Ideally, treatment of a hyperthyroid cat with a single dose of radioiodine should restore euthyroidism without inducing hypothyroidism. In other words, the goal of this treatment should be to irradiate and destroy all abnormal thyroid tissue (adenomatous or carcinomatous) but to leave the normal (nonadenomatous) thyroid tissue intact (1-4).The optimal method for determining the amount of radioiodine required for effective treatment in cats remains somewhat controversial. Reported methods to […]

Merck Animal Health announced last week that Vetsulin (porcine insulin zinc suspension) will again be available for distribution in the USA (1). This is welcome news, especially for dogs with diabetes mellitus that are not be well regulated with other available insulin preparations, such as human recombinant NPH. Most authorities consider Vetsulin, known as Caninsulin outside the USA (2), to be the initial insulin of choice for treatment of dogs with diabetes mellitus (3-6). It can also be used […]

Thyroid scintigraphy provides valuable information regarding both thyroid anatomy and physiology and can play an integral role in the diagnosis, staging, and management of thyroid disease in cats (1-5). The procedure is extremely safe, does not require the use of anesthesia, and is cost-effective, especially when considering the costs of an incorrect diagnosis or inappropriate treatment.What radiosotopes are used for thyroid imaging?The basis for this procedure is the unique physiology of the […]