The condition can be diagnosed with a straightforward blood test taken by a vet. It would also be important to examine any significance between the median ages of purebreed cats versus DSH cats. How long can a cat live with untreated hyperthyroidism? The median survival times reported are 25 (iodine 131 treatment),1 24 (radioiodine treatment),2 and 48 months (iodine 131 treatment),3 with a more recent paper citing 14 months (carbimazole or methimazole treatment alone or in combination with thyroidectomy). For this test, a small amount of radioactive iodine (called I-131) is swallowed (usually as a pill) or injected into a vein. Free T4 testing has also been used, but is less suited as a screening test due to elevated levels in some euthyroid cats giving a false positive reading (Norsworthy et al, 2002). Total T4 records of 202 clinically normal cats, tested for routine pre-anaesthetic bloods, using a Quantum Saturno 100 Vet wet chemistry analyser, were analysed retrospectively. Research. Thus free T4 levels can only be interpreted in conjunction with total T4 levels that are above the reference range to confirm hyperthyroidism (Scott-Moncrieff, 2012). WebWhat is the thyroid gland? It can be concluded that there is no indication for preferential screening of cats according to gender or neutered status. Routine testing for hyperthyroidism could become standard practice in all cats, before the onset of clinical signs. This research also provided an understanding that, within the small sample of cats tested, routine testing of all cats for hyperthyroidism did indeed cause an overall improvement in diagnosing the disease as it diagnosed 37.6% of cats as being hyperthyroid without showing any signs of the disease, which would not have been recognised until a much later date, if at all. According to Mooney and Peterson (2004) common signs of hyperthyroidism are usually quite subtle at first and can often go unrecognised, but can become severe as the disease progresses. Although there was a slight difference between the results, there was no statistically significant difference as the Mann-Whitney p-value=0.42. Normal T4 ranges in cats vary from 12.87 nmol/Lto 38.61 nmol/L. 9 0 obj Research showed male and females are likely to be affected by hyperthyroidism with an equal frequency and the current study could not offer any further evidence to contradict this finding. Finally, weight was not statistically associated with hyperthyroidism and therefore no conclusions were drawn to suggest any specific weight range to routine test cats for hyperthyroidism.