Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: And happy Sunday to everybody you are here with live
I should say your host, doctor Jeff Weerber here on
pet Life's radio Ask the Beets with Doctor Jeff, and.
Speaker 3: Sorry we missed you last week. At least I did
live because I was.
Speaker 2: In New York doing Fox and Friends at the time,
and I hope you guys had someone had a chance
to tune in and see it. We were talking about
holiday hazards, something we will be talking about on the
show coming up probably next week. I wanted to finish
a series that we started a while ago on some
of the health issues and organ systems that we've been discussing.
And we've been on this kick of endocrine diseases and
we've gone to a lot of them. By now, a
lot of you listening should be experts. So I am
just getting over this ridiculous laryngitis. Try doing live TV
or live radio when your voice is not participating as
well as you are. So one thing you can do
to help me out today is I want to hear
from you. You got to give me a call. I
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Speaker 3: In pet Life Radios as the vets. So just as a.
Speaker 2: Refresher, we've been talking about different organ systems going through
some of the issues. We've talked about the adrenal glands
that was Cushing's disease and Addison's disease. We will be
getting to the diabetes, which are diabetes melodists which is
the sugar diabetes, and diabetes incipitus, which is the water diabetes.
So those two will be talking about. Then what we
also started talking about the thyroid diseases and how in
the dog. The much more common by far thyroid disease
is hypo thyroidism, that is a low thyroid count. And
these dogs typical keepers ant as you wouldcall. They will
be sort of sluggish, They might be overweight, the skinned,
you know, sometimes greasy, sometimes very thin. Their coats are
very thin. They lose hair. But when they lose hair,
it's not because of scratching. They offered prone to disease
or immune system is affected. So this is the classic
hypothyroid dog. Some breeds are more prone to others. We
see golden retrievers. And how important it is, which was
my point from your veterinarian standpoint, to make sure to
do the appropriate testing and just the standard classic T
four test may not be enough because so many other
conditions will present with a sick thyroid syndrome. So if
a dog has another illness going on or something else,
that's just not right. As we joke earlier, adr ain't
doing right. They might have a low thyroid at the
same time, but it's not a real low thyroid. It's
kind of a fake temporary low thyroid. And if a
veterinarian were to decide to treat a dog like this
with thyroid supplement, we can actually throw them into hyper thyroidism,
meaning too much thyroid. So these are things that we
have to worry about. The best test is the T
four by ed. It's called free T four by equilibrium dialysis.
It should be run in conjunction when suspected with the
regular T four. Now that leads me to the other
four legged species that I love working with, of whom
I have seven, that is the feeline. And typically cats
that present with thyroid disorder are presenting with hyper thyroidism.
And what's so interesting about the thyroid gland and the
disease in cats when compared to that of people. Twofold
number one, The thyroid gland is a bilobed It's a
two lobed gland in the cat that are not attack.
Speaker 3: So if you knew, for example, with the.
Speaker 2: Old fashioned wave, we had disease in one of the glands,
we can remove just it, leaving the other gland. This
is not the same with people. They actually have a
little island. It's a little connection called an isthmus between
the two lobes.
Speaker 3: So whatever is.
Speaker 2: Really happening badly in one gland is sort of happening
with the other, so you have to remove both. One
of my kids, my oldest daughter, for example, had a
thyroid problem and when she was treated, she also had
she had to have both of her thyroid glands removed
because of the connection between the two. So with cats, however,
it's different. So what we're going to see with a cat.
The classic presentation of a thyroid disease and a cat.
Speaker 3: First of all, is age.
Speaker 2: We usually don't see it before seven years of age,
and typically really after nine.
Speaker 3: Years of age.
Speaker 2: But I've seen a few between seven and nine. And
because of that, and because of the subtleties when it
comes to cats, why because the cats that are hyper
thyroid are still acting great.
Speaker 3: In fact, they're acting even more than great.
Speaker 2: So you have a cat that's maybe a little bit
more active and animated, and you're thinking, myself, oh my god.
You know, as my cat's getting older, he's eaten great,
he's very active, he's very animated, and you're kind of
like so thrilled that your older cat is.
Speaker 3: Doing so well.
Speaker 2: But as a matter of fact, if you continue to
weigh this great, doing well eating cat, you're going to
find that they're losing weight and they're losing weight certainly
at the beginning of hyper thyroidism, because that thyroid is overacting,
so their metabolism is greater. That's why they're eating so much.
But that's also because why they're losing weight now as
a cat if missed earlier. And the reason we're here
today is to try to make sure that you will
not have this missed earlier. But as they get sicker
because of the continued hyperthyroid disease, then they will start
to get more sluggish and you get the almost the
opposite effect and they will start possibly putting on weight,
and you're staying yourself, well, can't be hyper thyroid because
he's putting on weight. The issue is is that now
they're really sick. You waited too long, your veterinarying waited
too long. So here's what I have started doing in
my practice, and I think that if you know about it,
you should insist on it when wherever you take your
cat to the veterinary. But as we know that, we
start treating our pets as seniors somewhere around seven eight
years of age, So that means that when you're going
in for your annual wellness check or for your vaccines,
and your cat is seven or over, I highly advise
having a full blood panel done as well, and that
includes your analysis. Why a number of reasons. If we
start thinking about two of the more common diseases affecting
our middle aged late middle ages early senior cats going
into obviously senior and cats, kidneys and thyroid, I have
to tell you that these are two diseases, two conditions
that we don't often have the luxury of having telltale
signs early. These cats are acting totally normally effective, sometimes
even better than normal, so they often go missed. If
you wait until your cat is showing clinical disease, you
will have wait in too long. So the best way
to manage this is through prevention, is through early detection.
And therefore I say that you want to have these
cats treated or tested early on with a full panel
and includes the T four, the free T four by
ED which is equilibrium analysis cute story thyroid disorders. As
far as our recognition, relatively new and you know invenitary
medicine are Edison you talk about something being new, you
know it could be fifteen twenty years new, but it's
still when you talk to the older practitioners that never
dealt with this a lot of times.
Speaker 3: When these cats get sick.
Speaker 2: What do we notice, Well, first of all, their liver
enzymes can elevate, and secondly, their hearts because of the hyperthyroidism,
the blood is circul and everything is going faster. Their
heart rate is high. To put it to perspective, instead
of you know, maybe one thirty to one fifty, it
could be two twenty to two forty. I mean we're
talking a very very fast heart rate. So if you
talk to an older practitioner, and I mean older, someone
who's been doing this for thirty five forty years, I
should be careful as I say that, because I mean
this third by thirty first. But anyway, but they didn't
really know of thyroid disease. I remember early in my
practice career, I would get these cases classic hyperthyroidism and
they were being referred because of concurrent liver disease. I'm
listening to heart, I'm looking at this cat. I'm reviewing
the blood work. Of course, there was no thigway has
done and I'm started to palpate the neck right here
and I could feel what's called the thyroid nodule, or
even even if the gland is palpable, it's probably too big,
it's probably hyperthyroid, So of course I would. I did
my test, my thyroid tests, and it wasn't liver disease,
it wasn't heart disease. It was hyperthyroidism, which will often
cause both diseases or other conditions. And you therefore think,
oh my god, this poor cat. He's seven or eight
or nine or ten or twelve years old, and he's
got liver disease.
Speaker 3: Already, and he's got heart disease.
Speaker 2: Well, in fact, he had neither of those. He had
something much more treatable, and that was thyroid disease. So
I remember, you know, it was this young whipper snapper.
I didn't want to make a colleague feel badly, especially
an older, wonderful, wonderful doc. He's no longer with us,
And I called him and when I saw his patient
and it did have this condition we call hyperthyroidism, I said,
you know, you knowing one thing I do, and I
haven't seen a lot of this lately. So what I
recommend him, what I've started to do here, I said,
is I automatically add the two thyroid tests to the
blood panel.
Speaker 3: Just do it.
Speaker 2: Whether you think it's a problem or not, just do it.
He goes really, I say, oh, you'd be amazed how
many of these you're gonna catch way early. And on
the one hand, and he was so appreciative and so
thankful that he has this new information from this, you know,
young doctor. But I feel good because I am helping
cats in the long haul. You know, when I lecture
and I do shows like this, When I lecture at
the vet conferences and I can give these pearls to
other doctors, it makes me feel good. Why because I
know that animals are gonna benefit from this information. As
a media veterinarian, when I can get out there and
talk about things like this, I think it's gonna help
way more pets than I can ever hope to see
in my practice in my lifetime. So you know, this
is really important stuff. So anyway, you make the diagnosis
because you run these tests, and you run the thygroid
panel and you see, yes, not only is the regular
T four elevated, but is free T four by ed.
And now we pretty much have a diagnosis. But wait,
there's more which we're going to get to is so
stay tuned, don't go away, especially if you have cats,
especially you have older cats. You're here tuning in with
doctor Jeff here at pet Life Radio's assi Ets with
Doctor Jeff, and we're going to be breaking for a
quick commercial break and be back in a minute.
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Speaker 4: Let's Talk past, Let's talk Pets Talk Radio, Headline.
Speaker 1: Radio, pet Live Radio dot.
Speaker 2: Com and Welcome back to pet Life Radios.
Speaker 3: Ask the Mets with Doctor Jeff. I'm your host, Doctor Kick.
Speaker 2: Before the break, we were talking about diabetes. Excuse me,
that's that's that's coming up soon, talking about hyper thyroid cats.
Now we got to the point of yes, macon diagnosis,
how important it is to do the blood testing including
the T four by e D for four by equilibrium
dialysis and just you know a quick story. You know,
I have a lot of cats now down to seven
and unfortun he had to put one of my cats
to sleep. A couple of weeks ago, by eighteen and
a half year old who was just a trooper, who
was a gorgeous American rag doll.
Speaker 3: But you know what, he had a great life. He
came to us.
Speaker 2: We were a second home. He was terrorized by the
family's German shepherd in his first home. They brought him
into my office. They were clients, brought him into my
office to rehome him. I've always loved the rag dolls,
and I just took one look at him and I said,
holy cow. I didn't quite say it that way. I
have another cat. So and that was almost eighteen years ago.
Speaker 3: So he was andy. He was great.
Speaker 2: But our other old cat, now was now sixty, is
a Maine coon Norwegian forest cat cross. Someone brought him
in a litter of four. They had to have been
maybe three to four days old. They were just starving.
Some old lady heard the meowing under her house and
she sent her neighbor kid under the house with a
flashlight to see what was under there, and sure enough
he found these four huddle together, took him out, brought
him in. Two died within the first day, and two
we just kept fighting. I was two feeding him every day.
There was two week they couldn't even nurse. Anyway, that
little d D thing turned into a twenty two pound monster,
and you know it's amazing. So anyway, I've noticed, and
he's always been a big cat, that he was losing
a little weight. So it was time for his senior
physical anyways, annual, so I brought him in and of
course this time his T four by ED was greater
than one hundred. Now normal is ten to fifty. The
gray zone is to fifty to seventy five. Usually if
they're above seventy five, even above eighty, it's going to
correlate with real hyperthyroidism.
Speaker 3: But the question is how do you know?
Speaker 2: So before the break, I said, after getting the test,
that is only a strong suggestion of But before even
considering treatment.
Speaker 3: We'll get to treatment in a second. We have to
we recommend a thyroid scan.
Speaker 2: This is a synthigraphic scan that lights up the thyroid
by radioactive iodine lights it up on the scan and
then the radiologists can actually make it determination. First of all,
is one glander both is it real? I had a
cat once it was seventy five on the ED. We
did the scan he was normal. So I'm dealing with
a cat right now who went from fifty eight a
year ago.
Speaker 3: That was our scratch.
Speaker 2: The head got to watch his cat as now is
seventy eight, So of course we're sending him in for
a scan. The scan will be the real diagnostic indicator.
And so anyway, good old Oreo, my black and white monster.
Speaker 3: He was down to eighteen pounds. He lost four pounds.
Speaker 2: And he's not twenty two pounds fat, he's twenty two
pounds huge. So sure enough we take him in. His
scan confirms the hyperthyroidism. We go in for what is
now become the Rolls Royce of treatment, and that is
the I one thirty one.
Speaker 3: It's radioactive iodine.
Speaker 2: That literally, what's the beauty of it is it is
taken up by the overactive cells in the thyroid, not
by the normally active cells. The radioactive iodine destroys those
overactive cells. So in the classic perfect world, after treating
a cat with I one thirty one, it only destroys
the abnormal portion, not the normal.
Speaker 3: So at the end of treatment these.
Speaker 2: Cats are left what we call you thyroid, normal thyroid,
which is exactly what happened OREO. So now OREO is normal.
I don't have to supplement, I don't do anything. The
old treatments still being done.
Speaker 3: Nothing wrong with it is surgery.
Speaker 2: Surgery, however, is technically difficult. You still want to do
a scan because the opposing gland, or a gland that
looks normal.
Speaker 3: Still might be hyperthyroid.
Speaker 2: If you do take the glands, you have to be
very careful to not take the parathyroid glands because that
completely messes up the calcium and phosphorus balance in the
body and that can cause a lot of problems. So
the vitamin D, calcium phosphorus all related to the parathyroid gland,
and therefore we have to be very careful. And that
parathyroid is a little teeny gland. It sits right on
top attached to the thyroid gland. So to do the
surgery to remove a thyroid, one really needs to be careful.
And I remember back in the days when we had
that because we didn't have radioactive iodine, our treatment was
removing the gland and it was always a challenge to
maintain the parathyroid gland intact. But if you have to
take both thyroid glands, then you're left with what you're
left with having to supplement the thyroid forever. So now
these cats have to be put on the thyroid medication
levoth Thyroxin now also another treatment, and this really depends
on so many factors, the cat's age once finances, the
rest of the body for the cat. In other words,
do we already have a lot of other disease, because
if so, one might therefore opt for a treatment of methemisol.
The brand name now is felimi Isol, and that is
just a medication that sort of counteracts the hyper thyroidism
and leaves cats somewhat normally thyroid. But it's the band aid.
It's not really doing anything. If you stop the drug,
they're going to go right back up again, so it's
not really getting to the course and the source of
the disease. Personally, I reserve that only for cats that
are extremely infirm. Otherwise, some radiologists like to put cats
on philamosol before scanning and treatment because they want to
make sure that we have an idea of what the
kidneys are like in doing. And the key to that
is when you have failing kidneys and old cats as
we know do so what happened is because of the
hyperthyroidism and the blood being pumped faster, the blood is
going through the kidneys more than they would in a
normal cat with a normal heart rate. So even though
the kidneys aren't doing well, the blood is going through
more than once. So whatever miss they missed on the
first pass as far as filtering, they're going to get
on the second pass. So in essence, cats that are
hyper thyroid are often masking their kidney disease. So you
have this great successful treatment for the thyroid, and then
after treatment you find out, oh, my poor cat also
has pretty bad kidneys that you couldn't tell because of
the hyperthyroidism. So just so we know, you know, information
is king what do we have to deal with once
we do the thyroid treatment, which is why also that
when we have cats like my own successfully treated for thyroid,
when we monitor the thyroid over the ensuing years, we're
going to take a really really close look at the kidneys.
Speaker 3: Also is who want to make sure that we didn't
have hidden kidneys. He's going on at the same time.
Speaker 2: So anyway, now you're experts on thyrop but I will
tell you Oreo, he's already put two of his pounds back.
Speaker 3: He is doing great.
Speaker 2: One thing I should warn you that if you're going
to have the radioactive iodine, which by the way, is
the way to go. It is now the treatment of choice.
After treatment, just be prepared for some interesting instructions. For example,
you have to save all your litter for several weeks
before you can throw it out.
Speaker 3: Everything that's coming out of this cat is radioactive.
Speaker 2: If you have multiple cat households, as I do, I
had to set are you up in his own room,
his own bathroom. I got a special wheat litter which
is flushable, so I could flush it. I had to
keep him separate. I had to wear gloves when I
went into feed him for about ten days.
Speaker 3: So just know that there's a little bit.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, it's no big deal, really, but I
just want to warn you that you need to be
very careful that you want to separate these cats when
they come back from treatment.
Speaker 3: But I went to it, took him to a facility.
Speaker 2: Which was so great where we got to log on
on a webcam and we got to visit our cast.
We got to see them staying in these really cool cages.
I mean, it was really it for him. It was
a great experience. If he could talk, he told me
he had.
Speaker 3: A great time.
Speaker 2: Anyway, next week we're gonna talk about some holiday hazards.
I want to hear your stories, so send me your
stories or just be prepared to give us a call.
Eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight two.
Write that number down. You're gonna call me next week.
You're gonna save my voice. Next week. I want to
hear from you as well as you all's listening to
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we want to thank Mark, our producer, and we will
see you here next week, same time. That is nine
o'clock out in the west by me and noon in
the east and ten or eleven wherever you are in between.
Speaker 3: We'll see you again next week.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
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