cost of radioactive iodine for cat and reference in NY?

[nycamberlady]

I have been looking for an hour online, and only on this site have I had a hint how much this procedure costs. thank you. But they were old posts.. in 2014 does anyone know? And does anyone have a reference for me in the Westchester or NY metropolitan area of NY ?  thanks.

[nycamberlady]

wow.  you have been on a financial and emotional rollarcoaster with your cat !  Your pre testing costs are absolutely not disclosed candidly, anywhere.
I travel for work, and daily meds will be impossible.  not that I like what I read about them anyhow.
I am taking her for a test to a new vet.  two years ago my vet said she showed no test-evidence of hypo thyroid, but she has just about every syptom. I read that tests are frequently not accurate..
Mine initially gained 1.5-2 pounds after I took her off canned cat food. ! wow...Thought I had her not-acute condition under control with diet, and nutrical ( hi cal vitamin gel) ,now I see her starting to throw up again.  and losing TUFTS of hair.
She was eating baby food and canned tuna/salmon   ..  so I went and bought lots of this..  and now she loses interest in the baby food, and  I find out that almost all canned fish have iodine.  it is the CAN.   Jeez..........   And I was worried about the mercury....

today I am starting once more to make her food. back in early March, I was giving her ground chicken, which I mde and she ignored it.   and considering her constant pleas for food, I couldn't believe that. .  I was eating the food I made for her !  she would eat any flavor of friskies canned cat food if I put it out for her though... I haven't given her any in 6 weeks.
I have two younger cats, don't want them to follow in her footsteps..
and
I have a 15 yr old yorkie.  don't you think we should be able to declare them as dependents?

[wonko]

I wanted to get this treatment for my cat.  I can't completely answer your question, but as a partial response, you should know that most hospitals that will do this procedure will only do so after rigorously (re-)testing your cat.

In particular, they will do routine bloodwork but also some expensive specialized tests.  For my cat, the pre-testing included an ultrasound (think a few hundred dollars) and a radioactive test of kidney function (think even more dollars).  In the end, my cat was found to not be a candidate for radioactive iodine treatment because she had subclinical kidney disease.  But we spent ~$1500 on the pre-testing phase alone.  

For us, this was on top of $3k in vet bills already incurred in diagnosing her thyroid condition and pancreatitis that she developed in response to thyroid medication.  (Most cats are fine on the medication, but our cat completely shut down and stopped eating.  We're not sure which came first, the pancreatitis or bad reaction to the med, but she ended up very sick, unable to eat, and hospitalized for several days.  Once home, they didn't think she would make it but we were able to syringe feed her and she survived!)

So, we were seeking the radioactive treatment since she could not take the thyroid medication.  After they turned her down for the radioactive treatment, the only option we had left to control her thyroid disease was diet.

Now my cat is on Hill's y/d thyroid diet food.  This is the only food she can ever eat.  She does not seem to enjoy the taste of the food that much so once in awhile we do "sneak" her a little bit of chicken cooked with no oil or other ingredients.  She is 14 years old and has been able to stay healthy on the y/d for about a year now.  

Good luck with whatever treatment you pursue!  Kitties with thyroid problems can still do well for a long time, just for some it is tough to find the right treatment.  I hope your cat is a good candidate for the radioactive iodine, I know my cat would prefer to eat whatever she wants instead of just y/d but that's the best we can do for her.

[nycamberlady]

Thanks so much I'm excited about changing my cats quality of life all of them in fact.the first day I gave her baby food she never threw up once I tried different flavors ..she liked everyone
I'm going to look at the recipe for the link that you sent me thank you very much
.then I got chicken breast I traveled extensively its a problem for me to be here for my cats ... my cat sitter can only be relied upon so much so I have to make this as easy as possible..as a test I prepared two chicken breasts ground them up in my little food processor put in a tiny bit of sweet potato and carrot but I didn't have any protein powder otherwise I would have done that and I made little individualized portions and she's eating while I'm here often I'm definitely going to fatten her up!..I'm going to make fish the same way and maybe some ground turkey and when I analyze the cost I couldn't believe it it wasn much more than the processed cat crap ive been feeding them
Way too long.....she hasn't thrown up once in several days it's almost a miracle

I've been buying

[opus88]

here is the link to making a raw or cooked diet incase you get lost in her site....

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood

[opus88]

any specialized Vet treatment runs into alot of money I'm afraid....

I will send you a great website with tons of info from a very trusted Vet Dr Lisa Pierson. she talks abt the treatments, she's also very renown for her nutritional advice...if you follow all the links in her site you will also find recipes for making your own food...although I do believe her recipes are all for raw(?) which you may or may not want to do...

I also make my own food for one of my boys due to another health issue, my second kitty won't eat it no matter what I've tried. Nemo has been on this homemade diet for 3 years now, its not one of Dr. Piersons and its a COOKED diet if you need more info on that I'd be happy to help.

just be sure you follow a BALANCED recipe from trusted sources...good luck:))

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felinehyperthyroidism

[nycamberlady]

thank you! I found in the ny area, $ 2000 plus prob $ 500 in pre-tests.  wow. but my research told me that the commercial cat food contains iodine.( as well as many very other shocking items).  and the radioactive iodine procedure is an intensive for eliminating it.  So
now I'm feeding her Gerbers baby food and will use her negative experience.. to perhaps change the lives of my other cats.. so this won't happen to them.  I'll start making their own food here in the house instead of buying the foods I have always fed them.  I don't even want to use the 40 cans I have at home !

[opus88]

I'm sorry I can't be of help with either of your questions, just wanted to acknowledge your post and hope someone can give you some help:)) and btw good luck to kitty with finding a good Vet and treatments.