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Felimazole
Felimazole tablets are given to control hyperthyroidism in cats
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I am writing this article about felimazole as my stats show my site is getting searches for that as a key word. Felimazole tablets are given to control hyperthyroidism. This is a common condition of older cats and is due to over-production of thyroid hormones from the cat’s thyroid glands. A pair of these glands is present in either side of the neck, but they are usually very small and difficult to feel. In hyperthyroidism, one or both glands become very much enlarged, often becoming easy to feel. Felimazole tablets contain the drug thiamazole which suppresses the amount of thyroid hormones released (called thyroxine, often known simply as T4, and triiodothyronine, known as T3). An enlarged gland will not shrink with treatment, but its activity will be controlled. There are 2.5mg tablets which are pink, and 5mg tablets which are orange, they are designed to be given directly into the mouth and swallowed whole. However this is very difficult with some cats so a “pill popper” might be useful.
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Like all medication side effects are possible, mild side effects are not unusual, though the vast majority of cats show none at all, and thrive on treatment. The most common side effects are vomiting, going off food and becoming listless. Occasionally more serious side effects are seen and these can be quite varied. Some cats seem to feel itchy about their face and neck, they then scratch themselves and develop open sores and scabs on the head and neck. Other effects seen more rarely might involve the bone marrow, resulting in anaemia or abnormalities of the white blood cells and immune system. The mild side effects usually settle down after a short while and do not require treatment to be stopped. If more serious side effects are suspected, treatment should be stopped and veterinary attention sought.
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In the UK felimazole is a prescription drug and so can only be obtained via your veterinary surgeon, I am not going to write on dose rates as this should be worked out by your veterinary surgeon following blood tests to work out the severity of your cat’s disease. Cats on this medication should have blood tests from time to time both to help your vet work out the dose rates and to check for side effects.
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Where to go from here? If having read this article if you need further information or would like to talk over the subject of felimazole with a qualified veterinary surgeon on a one to one basis then please use the Just Answer contact box at the bottom of this page. There is a charge for this service but the fee is minimal and you need not pay unless you are satisfied with the answer, the service is available 24/7. Alternatively there is a lively discussion taking place in the comments section for this article which you can visit and you will find more information there. And finally, again at the bottom of the page are couple of well written and reasonably priced books on the care of older cats.
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30 Responses to "Felimazole"
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So wish i had seen this web site before about Femimazole and its side effects if so our Beloved cat Prince might have been still alive you hope and prey that your vet has all the knowledge but one must search for answers yourself if he cant seem to find an answer as to why hes not getting better but worse especailly as the cat was so difficult to get to take the pill he must have known it was making him worse cats intuition !!! he knew best all along and we wouldnt listen i am so angry with myself for not trusting our beloved pets wishes no pill please.
Hello Irene,
Sorry to hear about your cat …
In most cases this drug works well and enhances a hyperthyroid cat’s quality of life however as I said in the article side effects can occur.
Here is a link to more information on hyperthyroidism http://vetblog.co.uk/vetblog/hyperthyroidism-in-the-cat
Regards,
Scott
thankyou for your reply but our cat was loosing wieght and wouldnt eat had regular blood tests in last three weeks his red blood cells were getting less and vet didnt understand this its not normal he said so increased the doses to 5mg twice a day each time he went to vets was put on drip was better but once home 12 hours later bad again friday he couldnt stand up so off to vets again this blood test almost no red cells and vet said maybe hes alergic to pills so lets stop pills i came home he said come back in morning but he died in the night i was so cross as put in to google side effects of femizole? and came up with answer straight away to late for our beloved puss hope others will read site before it happens to theirs .
regards
Mrs Stanbrough
Hello again Irene,
I will be sure and leave your comments so other people can always read it.
Regards,
Scott
Could you tell me if it is Law that the vet has to do a blood test at least once a year before giving a repeat for the drugs, also can they charge for each perscription. I now have 2 cats on Femimazole and it is becoming very expensive.
Hello Gill,
I assume from your e-mail address you are in the UK.
In direct answer to your question :
1. With prescription drugs such as Felimazole the vet is obliged to carry out regular checks before continuing with repeat prescriptions. These checks could be once every six months or once a year depending on the disease the animal is suffering from and the animal’s condition. The vet has some discretion as far as the length of the intervals go.
2. What form these checks should take is not laid down, it could be a very cursory clinical examination or it could include blood tests or other diagnostic tests. So it is not laid down by law that a blood test should take place, only that there should be an examination. This is largely left to the individual vet’s discretion.
3. With hyperthyroidism though a blood test would be a very accurate way to monitor your cat’s control with this disease.
Regards,
Scott Nimmo BVMS MRCVS
I follow your blog for quite a long time and must tell that your articles are always valuable to readers.
Hello
My 15 (almost 16) beautiful tortishell suffered what my vet thinks was a stroke 10 days ago. Her balance went, her head was nodding and her eyes were flashing from side to side frantically. I called my vet immediately her advised me to keep her quiet for atleast 2 hrs. I waited (almost impossible) until in my heart I wasn’t happy to leave her any longer. again I contacted my vet and I was advised to take her in to my practice straight away. My vet advised that she had had a stroke and gave her a steroid injection. She was quiet for the rest of the day, but by night meowing frantically for food, which of course I gave into. The following couple of days my vet took blood and the results showed Hyperthyroidism. Mitzie is on 2.5mg of Felimazole twice daily. I’m unable to give her the tablet by putting it into her mouth as whilst doing this she became incrediabaly stressed and showed signs similiar to that of the stroke. She takes the tablet in food. I’m giving her a tiny portion with the tablet in to make sure she has taken it. Is this ok for her to have it in food? Also what signs should I look out for which could be of harm to Mitz. Is this likely to shorten Mitzie’s life and if treated could I expect to have my angel for atleast another couple of years?
Hello
I have a 1.5 years old male cat. He has almost all signs of hyperthyroidism, especially he become so aggressive, anxiety, sensitive, even I had to guarantee him in a separate room. He has ravenous appetite, he is always so thirsty, so hyper active, he has vomiting but he has mega esophagus problem too and because of that I’m not sure about his vomiting reason, he has poor coat. he has not weight loss but i should mention that he growths in 3 weeks rapidly and i can say his size become double from 3 weeks ago!
His blood test result for T4 is 4.4 mcg/dl (CLIA method) and TSH is 0.1 mlu/L (human lab)
I want to know, does he has hyperthyroid, my vet said No, but I’m not sure . if he has not then what is the reasons for his signs?what are T4 and TSH normal levels for his age?
My cat also has thyroid problems and she does not take tablets….impossible …but with a pestle and mortar you can crush the tablet into fine powder and then mix it easily with a little food …it works a treat..my cat thinks she is having something very special to eat…do not give the cat to much food at once as she must eat all the mix…
May just be a British thing but my very uncompliant cat (is there anthing else?!) has placildly licked a tab twice day for years off the end of my finger with it plopped on the top of a small blob of primula (Soft cheese in a tube). must admit have only used the original verson – not sure spring onion version would be so successful!
One of my cats as recently been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. She was initially taken to the vet for a dental check. She had bad breath and ?rotting teeth. The vet did a blood test with the resulting diagnosis hyperthyroidism. The cat is unable to have dental treatment until her thyroid blood results are improved. Is this correct? I am also very concerned as the tablets seem to have side effects. My cat has gone off her food, is vomiting, lethargic and appears to breathing rather rapidly. Is this something to worry about. Should I take her back to the vets immediately, or wait until another couple of weeks when she is due to have a blood test again.
I’m quite anxious about her. Is it possible that the vet has made a mistake.
Frances do get your cat back to vet again ASAP
regards
Irene Stanbrough
My cat has recently been given felimazole by our vet, (cat aged 13+). But he never mentioned that one of the side effects was that he would lose his appetite, and I have been worrying that I could be losing my much treasured cat as he wasn’t eating enough. I phoned my vet and told him of my concerns and about what I had read on this web site and he assured me that you were very much in the right and that he was very remiss not to mention any of the side effects. Can I say thankyou very much for creating this website to offer people like myself information about different medicines
Yes Tracey our Prince did not want to eat also(side effect) so was given high protein paste food in a tin which he did eat but not enough to make much difference to his weight good luck with getting your cat to eat if you can but as you know cats have a mind of their own.
Irene Stanbrough
Hi Tracey,
Glad you found the article of use …
Regards,
Scott
MY CAT 16YRS ON FELIMAZOLE ONE A DAY THEN VET SAID 2 A DAY AS BLOOD READIND HAD GONE UP WAS 900 THEN 325 THEN 750 ON 2 A DAY ITS GONE TO 9 BLOOD READING NOW UNDER ACTIVE AND THE KIDNEY BLOOD READING HAS GONE UP MY CAT SLEEPS ALL DAY NOW HAS PUT ON WEIGHT AND EATS OK … HELP SHOULD I STOP THE THYROID TABLETS AND WHAT ABOUT THE KIDNEY DAMAGE DONE RE THE PILLS THANKS A LOT cc.
I think you should put into google search engine the wording “side effects of Femimazole” and read as much as you can and make your own decisions there is plenty to read thats why I asked for my first blog/comments to stay on this site so others could be aware and make their own choices about their beloved pet
Irene Stanbrough
Reading the comment by Jean Briscoe, August 22, 2009, I must warn her that my vet informed me that I shouldn’t crush up the felizamole tablets as they don’t work. I used to crush the tablet for my cat Yanni as hiding a tablet in his cat food didn’t work. I immediately stopped crushing them and I was lucky as Yanni would eat the tablet whole when I wrapped it in a little food before putting down his cat food. I’d have to vary the food I’d wrapped around the tablet but found that cheddar cheese, cooked liver, raw bacon, soft cheese, a small prawn – all these worked well. Occasionally he’d eat the food and out came the tablet from his mouth! But I’d try something else until he would swallow it whole often without even noticing it was in there.
I later read on the internet that crushing the tablets can cause the stomach acid to destroy the tablet.
The other bit of advice I can give is that if your cat is vomiting (as mine did) then a great product that worked for mine is from Pet.Alive.co.uk and it’s their capsules for digestive suport. It’s a herbal remedy that claimed to soothe gastritis, and only I wasn’t convinced I was desperately wanting to help my cat so gave it a try especially as the testimonials sounded promising. I would open up one capsule and sprinkle it on his food (half in the morning and half in the evening). After a prolonged period of intermittant vomitting I can say that after about 2 weeks on these tablets, Yanni never vomited again (only a couple of tiems which was more to do with eating grass). I put it down to the tablets and I am so grateful that in his last few months he didn’t suffer from vomiting. I would wholeheartedly recommended to for any pet that my be vomiting or off their food or could be showing signs of nausea.
I will try and answer any follow up questions if it will be of help to anyone.
My 17 yr old cat Mitzie is on Fellmazolebut hates taking pills. I have finally found a way to get her to swallow pills twice a day. I approach her slowly, then gently but firmly open her mouth tilting her head gently back at an angle if I can. I try and pop in the pill so that it goes down towards the back of her throat. The thing that makes the difference and to ensure she swallows it, is to hold her face gently as she swallows it down and to keep holding her, stroking her throat and head until she’s calmed down. Her stress quickly disappears after about 5 seconds. Then I let her go, she shakes her head and then she’s fine about it. Hope this helps other cats who hate taking pills.
Our 17 year old cat Nemo was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism nine months ago and is on two 2.5 mg of felimazole a day, and seems pretty stable. We have spent quite a lot on vets bills getting him to this point. He is just getting to the end of a three month prescription, and we hoped to get the pills much more cheaply on the internet. Our vet insists he must come in for a consultation before he will give a prescription, the fees for both largely wiping out any savings we may make. We feel prety confident this is unnecessary, and his condition wil be pronounced unchanged, as it was this January when a blood test was taken (not proposed this time). We feel the vet is effectively imposing a kind of restictive practice, as he claims they have a ‘protocol’ requiring three-monthly consultations for this condition, though I note from your reply at 6 above this is by no means usual. What can we do? We feel our concern for our cat is being exploited to maximise the vet’s income.
My 14yr old male cat Jack has been on Felimazole for 6mths. He has had realy bad side affects, hair loss around face, involutary back spasms, scratching of the face and head, lethargic,hiding in corners. The vet then recommended surgery but when I said yes no vets at the practice wanted to perform the operation, the older vets eyes were bad and the younger vets had only performed one or two and were not confident to do it!!! i’m in limbo do I take him off the tablets and just let him be?
To No 19 & 20 I have tried all off those and I spend more time in the supermarket trying to think of what I can put Molly’s felimazole tab in than I do my own shopping. I am at my wits end. Have been searching the net about crushing the tablet as me and Molly are getting very upset. So far 50/50 results.
Also, I understand that that it is a slow releasing drug but my vet seemed to think the effect of crushing tablets may be more harm to humans than the cat? I do wash my hands and am not of child bearing age? soooo the question is CAN I CRUSH THE TABLET?
forgot to tick the notify email thing
This an Great blog post, I will be sure to bookmark this post in my Newsvine account. Have a awesome evening.
In reply to Sheila’s question: I used to work for a hospital consultant and I asked him once about how careful I should be about touching the tablets. He told me that because they were coated it would pose no health risk to myself. However crushing them and therefore breaking the protective coating means that you would have to be careful and not handle it. The crushing the tablet question: I can only go on what my vet told me, that is crushing the tablet wasn’t effective. It would be worth googling the internet to find out anymore info. Hope you find a solution soon Sheila. As you say it’s a trial and error thing – I found vegetarian pate wrapped around the tablet was a hit with Yan!
In reply to Nicholas – I seem to remember having to have 6th monthly consultations rather than 3 monthly ones. But in the early days when Yan was first diagnosed it was more frequent as the vet needed to decide on what dosage was the best. Once that was established I believe it was a regular 6th monthly visit. It is worth asking you vet about this. Felizamole tablets are the most inexpensive treatment for the disease making it a popular choice but that doesn’t take into account that your cat will be on them for the the rest of his life which could be for many years and also that the dosage may well increase as time goes on. It is worth talking to your vet about the operation alternative if you haven’t already done so, which although more expensive in the short term would quite possibly be less expensive long term. It does have the risk of side effects but so do the felizamole tablets. My advice is to get as much info on all the options and work out the pros and cons.
Oh, also in reply to R mead – your vet was right in recommending surgery as the tablets are obviously making him ill and taking him off them is also not the solution as he would eventually become very ill and die. As it can’t be done at your present surgery, I would make an appointment with another vetinary surgery asap – one that can perform the operation. In fact your surgeon should have made enquiries for you. I hope you’ve done this already.
If the crushing of Felimazole tablets destroys its affect Vets need to make this clear to the pet owner. Both of my cats have had this medication and I saw various vets over their treatment and not one of them thought it necessary to mention this. I would think it quite usual for pet owners to crush tablets for animals in the attempt to try and disguise it, it’s a simple thing but it obviously makes a massive difference. Owners should be clearly informed how to administer any tablets crushed or uncrushed.
After my experience with both of my cats I do believe that crushing the tablets renders them inactive; I did not know this at the time sadly.
My first cat to need the tablets was age 14 then and very very poorly with hyperthyroidism, he was put on 1x5mg tab a day. I crushed it into a tiny bit of food to make sure he had it but after 3 weeks I called the vet saying there was no change, in fact he was worse. The vet told me over the phone to increase the dose to 2x5mg a day which I did but again after another 4 weeks he was even worse still.
I changed vets and this one took another blood test which confirmed his thyroid was still high but he said to continue the same tablets for another 4 weeks and then he could go in for surgery. I did this, still crushing the tablets and his condition did not improve. After the 4 weeks I took him for a pre op check 5 days before surgery, the vet said to drop his tablet to one a day now but did not take another blood test to check his levels. I was surprised at that but trusted him as he was the vet not me.
After the op it was terrible, he was so so poorly. He went totally blind, was completely incontinent and just had lost his mind. He was dehydrated but the vet said he didn’t need to be on a drip but other vets and nurses in the practise disagreed but my vet ignored this. They confirmed he was no blind but never said why. I thought it might have been a stroke from the stress of the operation or a bad reaction to the anethestetic.
Caring for him was a full time job but I could not give up on him. I thought if I gave him time he might recover. When people have strokes they can recover somewhat and rehabilitate, while there was a chance he might do the same he deserved that chance. I nursed him for 5 months hoping he would get better but he never did and looking back perhaps I should have let him go earlier but I really thought he would get better. I wanted him to see another lovely summer again and be basking in the sun. I dreamt I’d see him bounding down the garden path towards me in the sunshine as I watched from the kitchen door and he’d be happy and pain free again but it never happened.
It broke my heart on the day we had to take him to be put to sleep, more so because it turned out to be the first lovely summers day, the sun and heat was gleaming through the windows making patterns on his fur and he didn’t know it, this was the day I’d wanted for him but it couldn’t be the way wed dreamed. I cried as my daughter carried him down the stairs cocooned in a duvet nest fast asleep and every step she took threw another sunbeam across his body from the window, it was so painful but I knew it was time now and I felt he needed me to be strong for him.
It was hard but afterwards we brought him back home we wanted to bury him in the garden in his favourite place. I wanted his twin brother to see him so he would know he wasn’t going to be there anymore and why. We each wrote a letter to put into his box and sealed them with lipstick kisses. We put foliage and flowers from the garden that he loved inside and pictures of his life, of him and his brother and the people he loved so he would always remember. We said thankyou for being part of our lives and how much we loved him and always would.
His twin brother now also has hyperthyroidism and started on 2x 2.5mg a day, at first I started to crush them just as I had done with the previous cat and there was no change in his condition. Then one day after about 6 weeks my daughter put a whole tablet into a tiny bit of Brussels liver pate which happened to be in the fridge and rolled it between her hands, offered it to him and it was down in an instant! So now we have absolutely no trouble at all getting him to take the tablets day or night. That dose controlled his condition for 10 months but it’s recently gone high again so the dose has been doubled to 2x5mg a day; he is just over 16 now.
As for administering the tablets, I think it works best by giving the tablet in something they see as a treat, not their usual food. I too have tried putting it in small chunks of chicken etc and yes it works but it seems to fall out more times with that as the tablet is eaten. With the pate ect it seems to stick more to the tablet making it less likely if ever to fall out. I find it’s more convenient and easier to keep his own pate in the fridge, or potted meat or whatever it’s easy to roll it into, you only need a small amount it lasts a long time, you can vary the flavours so he doesn’t get bored, it’s a thing he doesn’t have often so it’s a treat. I always give it before food without any other food to distract him. Forgot this the other day and opened a tin of tuna for him, I then remembered he had to have his tablet but because he could smell the tuna he refused his tablet. He stuck to his guns for a while until I removed him from the kitchen closed the kitchen door and in 5 minutes I tried him again in the living room out of the way and he took the tablet no problem so he then got his tuna.
If you managed to get to the end of this post sorry it’s so long
Thanks for the post Felicity,
I have always taken the attitude that these tablets should not be split or crushed, indeed is says as much in the professional data sheet for Felimazole ” Tablets should not be split. ” You can read the data sheet here by the way :
http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Dechra_Veterinary_Products/Felimazole_2_5_mg_Coated_Tablets_for_Cats/-40419.html
Your post is not too long, hyperthyroidism is a common disease in older cats and it’s treatment is sometimes far from satisfactory so the more that is written about it particularly from an owner’s actual experience the better.
Kindest Regards,
Scott