Hyperthyroidism and IBD.

We adopted Mo 10 years ago from the Humane Society. She was about 6 years old at that time. She's been a wonderful, social, cuddly, sweet cat.

About 3-4 years ago, she started pooping outside of her box on the floor once in a while. We blamed it on a too-dirty litter box, and once, the vet squeezed her anal glands and the problem went away.

In December/January, Mo started pooping more and more on the floor and even on our bed (where she also sleeps). At this point we increased scooping her box from once a day, to multiple times a day, without any result.

We took her to the vet in January. She was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and prescribed the prescription food.

However for the past four years Mo has been unable to tolerate any change to her diet of Iams Indoor Weight & Hairball Care. We tried repeatedly to slowly ease into a more healthy food, but with no success. Always puking and pooping problems.

It was the same with the prescription diet, so we had to go back to the Iams.

The pooping problems became worse and she continually pooped in the bed, on the floor, and finally even on our sofa! We had to block her from the bedrooms and cover the living room furniture with cardboard. Mo would have drips of poop down the back of her legs and also on the floor around the house. Not ideal!

We took her to a new vet who prescribed Methimazole, 2.5mg twice a day. And also Flagyl metronidazole 50mg twice a day to help the diarrhea. (This vet also finally squeezed her anal glands, as we requested. They were very impacted.) We put the medication in pill pockets and fed at 6 am and 6 pm.

The pooping problem was immediately better.

As soon as the diarrhea medication ran out after 10 days, the pooping problems were back. (She also had some unusual throw-up during this time and perhaps even before.)

We contacted the vet who prescribed another 10 days of the diarrhea medication. This medication just ran out a couple days ago, and we are back to the pooping problems.

We can't afford to keep going back to the vet for the $160 visits for blood work and medication adjustment, particularly when it seems that they will not offer good results. (If we had hope of a solution, we might be able to make it work for one or two more visits.) The radiation treatment is not possible for us.

So we now feel like we're out of options and must now euthanize our beloved cat. But before we do that, we'd like to get a second option from you on two points:

- Do you agree with the dosage of 2.5 mg of Methimazole twice a day? Or is it perhaps too much?
(Mo is a small cat: about 8-9 pounds at a healthy weight, though she is down to 5 pounds 4 ounces right now.)

- If there is a chance that this medication might work to control her hyperthyroidism, it is very possible that her pooping problems would still remain unresolved?

Thanks so much for your help.