The cost of treatment is $2815.00 to $3115.00 + GST, depending on the dose of radioactive iodine your cat requires.

Thyroid cells store iodine to incorporate into thyroid hormone. When we give radioactive iodine, the thyroid cells take it up and because it is radioactive, it destroys the cells. The radiation travels only a few mm so only destroys thyroid tissue and does not affect other tissues in the body. Normal thyroid cells (not part of the tumour) will be dormant when a cat is hyperthyroid so they do not take up the radioactive iodine and are spared.

More about RAI and possible outcomes

Please ask your family veterinarian to send a referral along with your cat’s medical records and we will contact you with an appropriate treatment date. We can generally treat your cat within 1-4 weeks of receiving the referral.

This depends on the dose of iodine administered and how quickly the majority of the radiation is eliminated from your cat’s body. Cats that receive low doses of iodine typically spend 1-3 nights in hospital. For cats that receive higher doses of iodine, the stay in hospital can vary from 3 -10 days.

More about your cat’s stay

After treatment, the cats emit small amounts of radiation for a short time. They need to stay with us so we can safely collect their radioactive waste and until their radiation levels drop below the threshold where they are safe to go home. While hospitalized, your cat will be monitored by licensed and experienced veterinary technicians and veterinarians.

More about your cat’s stay

Due to federal radiation safety rules, we cannot allow visitation until your cat is ready for discharge, but we will give you daily progress reports on your cat, and post photos on our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

No, radioactive iodine does not make the cats feel sick. The treatment targets only thyroid tissue so there are no direct side effects. We may see continuing symptoms of hyperthyroidism in the first few days but these usually start to resolve by the time of discharge.

Yes, we can administer your cat’s medications while they are in hospital. Please bring them in the original bottle with prescription label attached, and/or written instructions of dose, drug and frequency.

If your kitty is on a special diet, or they are very picky, please bring enough food for approximately one week. Any unused food can be returned to you when your pet is discharged from hospital. If they are happy to eat a variety, we have a selection of diets in both canned and dry form we can offer to them.

Yes, we are happy to put something familiar from home in your cat’s condo during their stay. Unfortunately, these objects cannot be returned home so we suggest not leaving anything of sentimental value. We have a vast selection of comfy beds and blankets so do not feel like you must send something from home.

We ask that you return to your family veterinarian at one and three months after treatment to check the thyroid and kidney values. Your veterinarian will forward the results to us and we will reply with recommendations. We are always happy to discuss post-treatment results with owners directly if you want to get in touch with us.

Please find all post-treatment homecare instructions here

If your cat does not cure with the first treatment, we will re-treat at no additional charge, usually within a few months. This is one reason the post-treatment follow-up blood work is important to complete.

In some cases it may be fine not to supplement your cat with thyroid hormone but studies have shown it may improve kidney function over the long term. Thyroxine does not have the bitter taste associated with many drugs and can usually be hidden quite easily in food or a treat. We recommend adding it to canned food, using pill pockets, or a favourite treat.

Learn more about hypothyroidism