Radioactive cat

Our cat is going to receive radioactive iodine next week for a thyroid tumor.  When he comes home, he will be radioactive for a couple of weeks and we have to take some precautions.  Keeping him out of our beds is doable and he doesn't come up on counters any more.  Keeping him off of furniture will be difficult to impossible.  What have other people done in this situation?

Other than keeping him out of the bedroom and away from us as much as possible we were pretty relaxed about it.

I had radioactive iodine to treat thyroid cancer and I was told I had to sequester myself for a few days, but that after that being in a room with others was fine, just no sitting on laps or anything close for a couple of weeks. Kitty shouldn't be able to shed radiation onto furniture just by sitting on it. 

I was specifically told to not get close to children, but they specified physically close, as in less than 5 feet, same room was fine and a child being in a place I had been a few moments before was fine.

My endocrinologist explained that they used to isolate patients but that current research showed that wasn't necessary. 

If you are still worried I would suggest keeping kitty in a separate room for the duration.

One thing to remember (at least this is what my doc told me) is that the radioactive iodine is expelled through bodily fluids, urine, snot, etc. For you this just means making sure the litter is changed as much as possible so that kitty doesn't get tempted to pee (and contaminate) something else in the home. If at all possible use a flushable litter during the two weeks following the treatment. If your trash hauler finds radioactive materials and finds anything in the bag that can trace it back to you they will stop picking up your trash. This was told to me by the nuclear medicine doc at St Barn (for people it was tissues used to blow the nose, not litter obviously).  

Funny about the trash.  A Cornell Vet School bulletin said that you should hold onto litter for a couple of weeks until the I-131 decays.  I am somewhat impressed that they apparently check garbage so carefully.

Pile boxes or books on the furniture such that the angles and spaces you leave are uncomfortable. Put the openings of the boxes down. You might want to build some wedding cake shaped towers out of boxes and books in the shape of the empire state building. Most cats don't want to perch on a very narrow tower, though there are exceptions. You also might want to drop some lemon juice or tabasco sauce on forbidden zones, as these odors repel many but not all cats.

Meanwhile try to give him his own bed that he likes such as a pillow or blanket. When the risk is down, wash it, if that works, otherwise dispose of it.

tjohn said:

Funny about the trash.  A Cornell Vet School bulletin said that you should hold onto litter for a couple of weeks until the I-131 decays.  I am somewhat impressed that they apparently check garbage so carefully.

The doc at St Barn told me she found out about this after some of her patients had their trash delivery stopped due to radiation found in the garbage. She said they even supplied a letter stating it was a result of a medical treatment, but that the trash haulers dug their heels in. She now advises all patients to be extra careful in how they dispose of used tissues and to make sure that there is NOTHING in the bag that could be traced back to them.  

Perhaps a lead (Pb) apron for the cat? Would serve doubl-duty as a shield from radiation and reduce his roaming range by the sheer weight of it.   

Tom_Reingold said:

Pile boxes or books on the furniture such that the angles and spaces you leave are uncomfortable. 

Sheets of aluminum foil are easier.  They hate it.

on the bright side, you won't need to buy one of these for the kitty:

Here is a link about the precautions for after receiving radioactive iodine.  It is similar with what I was told, basically physical closeness is key.  I don't think you need to worry about kitty being up on furniture unless you are on the furniture at the same time and/or if kitty has issues with incontinence. 

http://www.snmmi.org/AboutSNMMI/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=5609

I just finished reading a book about Marie Curie, and she lived to age 66 with incredible amounts of exposure to radioactive material before they fully understood the ramifications. I'm thinking that this has to be small potatoes in comparison. ; - )

Best wishes to Cat Curie.

Three of our cats have gone through the treatment over the years. We kept them off our pillows, washed our hands after handling, and stored the used litter in a special bin for a few weeks before disposing of it.

Now another cat was just diagnosed with hyperthyroid and if she tolerates tapasole I don't think I will do the radioactive iodine. What led to your decision to do so?

hauscat said:

Three of our cats have gone through the treatment over the years. We kept them off our pillows, washed our hands after handling, and stored the used litter in a special bin for a few weeks before disposing of it.

Now another cat was just diagnosed with hyperthyroid and if she tolerates tapasole I don't think I will do the radioactive iodine. What led to your decision to do so?

He has been on tapizole for a couple of years and it has been hard to keep the thyroid levels steady. We have been administering the tapizole transdermally - pills twice a day forever aren't so great with a cat.  Plus he has a large thyroid tumor.  Also, we hope that with this treatment he will be able to regain lost weight.