🚀 go-pugleaf

"Ivor Jones"  wrote
> On 25/08/09 10:20, caroline wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> I imagine that at some point she will go back on meds, and then remain on
>> them, as by having her thyroid removed she's been put into a permanent 
>> state
>> of hypOthyroidism ;o)
>
> I'm not sure, I volunteer at Cats Protection (UK) and we've had plenty of 
> cats with hyperthyroidism over the years and I've not heard of them 
> needing to go back on medication after the operation, but I'll do some 
> digging.
>
> It does seem strange though as the main alternative to surgery is 
> medication for life, so why remove the thyroid glands only to put the cat 
> on medication again afterwards..?

Because generally (in humans anyway) hypER is more dangerous and harder to 
control than hypO

I would have thought it stands to reason that she'll need medication again. 
The thyroid gland does an important job, its second in command to the 
pituitary if you like. By having it removed, she'll need another way to 
produce the thyroid hormone that her body needs, e.g via synthetic thyroid 
hormone medication.  Just it will be better controlled on meds, whereas when 
she was in a dysfunctional hypER state it was producing too much for her 
needs.

I'm of course assuming the thyroid gland in cats does a similar job to that 
in humans :o)  Can't imagine that it doesn't?

>
>>
>> Never dealt with it in cats before, but I'm due to have my own thyroid
>> removed soon.
>
> Best of luck :-)

Thank you ;o)