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Posted by Martisimo on January 17, 2003 at 15:10:18:

In Reply to: Tapazole and Thyroid posted by JWR308 on January 17, 2003 at 11:42:53:

I would definitely get a second opinion from another vet at another clinic before deciding to do surgery. Medication works for just about every cat and you didn't mention anything special about your cat's thyroid levels or condition to warrant surgery. Is there a particular reason he's pushing for surgery?

Has your vet re-checked the thyroid levels with a blood test? That's how the dose is determined, by seeing what dose medication normalizes your cat's levels. Levels also can change over time, so he should retest your cat periodically once he's normalized (once or twice a year) to make sure the dose remains correct. The dose shouldn't be changed until he checks bloodwork, and surgery surely shouldn't be pushed unless he's checking blookwork.

Re: Generic/vs name brand: My vet (my ex-boss) recommends the name brand and she keeps very up-to-the-minute on cat information. I also know that for DOGS (which is medicine for HYPOthyroidism, instead of HYPERthyroidism, not the same condition!) that we used to always use generic, but changed to the name brand because long-term studies were showing that the name-brand was slightly more beneficial over time.

:For several months my 13 year old male cat has been on Tapazole for his thyroid. The first month he was on the trade name brand Tapazole.

:Then I switched over to the generic form. I asked the vet if the generic form was as good as the trade brand and he sort of shrugged his shoulders and grunted.

:I asked the pharmacist and he said in most instances the generic form works just as well as the brand name, Tapazole.

:Has anyone had long term experience with the generic for? Does it seem to work as well as the brand name?

:Also, how often do you give it to your cat? When my cat, Sparky, began taking it, the vet said give it twice a day for the first couple weeks or so, then it could probably be cut to once a day.

:A few weeks later, the vet said to stick with twice day.

:How about long term use of Tapazole, generic or otherwise? The vet has been trying to convince me to go the surgery route, but at almost $600, the money just ain't there. Do cats seem to do ok on long term use of Tapazole?
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