My cat has a throat lump & lost weight. Is it hyperthyroidism? Cost?

Thanks is for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Your veterinarian may be suspicious of a thyroid tumor. The next step before considering surgery would be proceeding with a CT scan to check on how invasive the tumor appears to be. Then the next treatment option can be determined. A FNA can be performed at the time to determine the tumor type. If not too invasive, surgery may be possible. If too invasive, and this is a thyroid carcinoma (the most common tumor in that region), radiation therapy or chemotherapy may be next best options. The prognosis with these tumors depends on the type which is why that needs to be tested. Also, it depends on how invasive it is and if it can be resected. If you think you have more information on the case that you did not describe in the question, feel free to request a consultation with me and I can continue to help. Best of luck and have a blessed day!

The cost depends on your area and if your vet wants to run a full panel to check all the chemistries and organ functions or if they want to just check the thyroid levels. Call you vet and ask what the cost would be. If it is the first time, the vet will probably want a complete panel and these generally run $100-150. These are helpful because it gives a good baseline to compare future blood results against and can give indications of early kidney or liver disease, diabetes, and is a good indicator of overall health.

I'm sorry to hear that your cat isn't doing terribly well. There are several different possibilities here. One is that his weight loss is completely unrelated to the masses. As cats get older, they're more likely to develop conditions like hyperthyroidism or kidney disease, which can lead to weight loss. While neither of these conditions can be "cured," both can be managed to some degree with certain medications or diet. The other possibility is, as you mentioned, that these masses could be cancerous. I completely understand not wanting to pursue extensive treatment for cancer, but before making the assumption that it is cancer, I'd try to get some more information. For starters, I think it's perfectly reasonable to take your cat to the vet for an exam and some bloodwork to check his organ function. There's a chance that your vet may find something that's not terribly difficult to manage, but you don't know unless you look. I would expect that your vet would recommend trying to diagnose the masses in order to be thorough, but if you are clear that you don't want to look into them further, it shouldn't be an issue. At the end of the day, you own your cat and are responsible for making choices for him. Your vet's job is to present those choices to you and help you to find the approach that works best for you and your cat. I hope this helps and that everything goes well.

Hello, sorry to hear about Lucky. There are a couple of different diagnostics you may chose to pursue to tell wether or not this nodule you are feeling is accurate or not. One option would be to pursue an ultrasound of his neck to further localize the nodule. If this is unrewarding a CT scan or a thyroid scan can also be performed. Some thyroid nodules are non-functional, this means that the tumors will not produce excess thyroid hormone, however in cats most thyroid tumors are functional and they do secrete thyroid hormone. Therefore, one way to tell if this nodule you are feeling is functional is to measure his thyroid levels. If elevated, then you can almost be sure that the nodule is in his thyroid. Treatments for this include surgery if only one thyroid is affected or radiation with I-131. Medications such as methimazole and a diet deficient of iodine can help control and treat hyperthyroid cats. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Older cats like your kitty often get an overactive thyroid which will show weight loss, a really fast heart rate, sometimes vomiting, and more vocalisation than usual. Some cats get skittish as well. Hyperthyroidism can actually cause heart problems and mask kidney disease. Hyperthyroidism is easily diagnosed with a clinical exam and a little blood test and there are various treatments available, varying from Methimazole transdermal ointment or tablets to slow down thyroid hormone production, surgery to remove the overactive thyroid gland or radiotherapy. If your kitty is suffering from hyperthyroidism your vet will discuss the various options. I suggest you make an appointment tomorrow.

The thyroid gland in cats is normally not palpable. The lump may be localized infection, inflammation, fatty tumor or a cyst just to name a few possibilities. You can monitor it for rapid change or growth. See your veterinarian for an exam if it causes discomfort or impedes motion, breathing or eating. A fine needle aspirate can be done in the clinic to collect a sample for pathology if necessary.

Surgery will be a definitive option and treatment won't be needed anymore in the long term. Unfortunately the down side of it is the cost and invasiveness of procedure. Medical treatment on other hand requires constant monitoring and continue treatment but it is a good option as well. The decision is very subjective, but usually where cat and client are right candidates, I tend to suggest surgery. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.