Radioiodine treatment in hyperthyroid cats: insights into the characteristics of owners and their cats, and owner motivation and perceptions.

Objectives: Radioiodine ( ¹³¹ I) therapy is the most appropriate treatment option for many hyperthyroid cats, as it is minimally invasive and often curative. Nevertheless, ¹³¹ I treatment is not always pursued by owners. Hence, it is important to obtain more insight into owner satisfaction during and after ¹³¹ I treatment, and their decision-making process. In this study, we describe the characteristics of owners and their hyperthyroid cats referred for ¹³¹ I therapy, and determine owners' motivation and how they experienced the ¹³¹ I treatment of their cat.
Methods: A survey was sent to owners whose cats underwent ¹³¹ I therapy (n = 1071) between 2010 and 2017 at Ghent University. The survey contained 35 questions with tick-box or free-text answer options concerning family situation, pet insurance, previous therapy, comorbidities, motivation for ¹³¹ I therapy and owner perception of this treatment.
Results: In total, 438 owners completed 94% or more of the questionnaire. Over half of the cats (55%) had received previous medical, dietary or surgical treatment. Motivations for changing the initial therapy to ¹³¹ I therapy included difficulties in administering medication (31%), insufficient improvement in clinical signs (23%), side effects (16%) and following the referring veterinarian's advice (16%). Almost a fifth of owners (18%) were not informed about the existence of ¹³¹ I therapy by their veterinarian and found information on ¹³¹ I treatment online or through friends. Hospitalising their cat was very distressing for 17% of owners. Most owners (92%) were satisfied with the treatment. Reasons for dissatisfaction were insufficient communication, iatrogenic hypothyroidism, persistent hyperthyroidism and comorbidities post-treatment.
Conclusions and Relevance: Our study stresses the importance of communication regarding the possible outcome of ¹³¹ I treatment, the importance of managing underlying comorbidities before treatment and anticipating the stress of owners during their cat's hospitalisation period. The results of this study could help in improving client communication when advising on ¹³¹ I treatment.