First of all, kittens should NOT be weaned before eight weeks of age. Twelve weeks is even better. Put the mother back in with her babies for at least three more weeks before even beginning to wean them again. Nursing mothers require a huge number of calories in order to produce milk and support their own bodies. Six kittens is a large litter, so your female will need a lot of supplemental nutrition. Feed the mother as much as she wants to eat of a very high quality kitten food (higher in nutrients than adult cat food), along with a vitamin/mineral supplement (you can get a suitable supplement from your vet or a pet store). Queens can become very protective of their kittens, which probably explains the mother's aggressiveness toward your other cats. Keep her and her litter in a separate room together so that she doesn't feel the need to defend her babies from the other animals. Laurie

Feeding cats with different needs can be a challenge, but there are several strategies you can use to ensure both cats are healthy and happy. First, it's important to establish separate feeding areas for the two cats. This will allow you to monitor their food intake and make sure the overweight cat isn't eating the older cat's food. You could also try feeding the cats at different times, so they are not competing for food. For the older cat, you may want to consider feeding a high-quality, high-protein diet that is formulated for senior cats. Senior cat food is designed to be more easily digestible, and often includes additional nutrients that can help support aging cats. You may also want to consider feeding smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day to help ensure your cat is getting enough calories. For the overweight cat, you may want to consider switching to a weight management diet that is designed to help cats lose weight. These diets are often lower in calories and higher in fiber, which can help cats feel full without consuming too many calories. You may also want to measure out the cat's meals and feed at set times throughout the day, rather than leaving food out all the time. Finally, it's important to monitor both cats' weight and adjust their diets as needed. Regular veterinary check-ups can help ensure both cats are healthy and receiving the appropriate nutrition.

Definitely loneliness. The canned food is just a distraction from your cat's loneliness which is the real problem. I had to put my 17-year-old cat to sleep in early April. Her companion, my 16-year-old cat, meowed at dawn for MONTHS after. He had never done that before his companion passed. Nothing worked to stop it - not feeding, not petting, not ignoring, not closing the door, nothing. What worked was that I just got a kitten a couple of weeks ago. The meowing stopped immediately upon the kitten's arrival. Even though the two cats are still getting to know each other, and aren't best friends yet (although each day they are more comfortable with each other), nevertheless, there is another cat in the house now, and my cat has stopped the meowing. Get a kitten. I recommend a kitten instead of a grown cat as a new companion, because it will be easier for your 12-year-old cat to accept a kitten. Much easier. Still, there will be a few weeks of adjustment, but the meowing and loneliness will stop.

Wow, that really stinks. I totally guessed he had a different problem, but being hyperthyroid is better than my guess (which was cancer). It's really rare for a cat to need a second I131 treatment, but then again it's really rare for such a young cat to become hyperT4. I suspect most older cats die of something else before having a chance to become hyperT4 again. I did a quick google scholar search and couldn't find anything about stats for younger cats and recurrence of hyperthyroidism. I did find a reference for an 8 month old hyperthyroid cat, and during my time as a tech for RadCats we treated an 18 month old cat. But nothing was written in the literature about long-term follow up for the young cat, except her became hypothyroid after treatment. And I don't know about the young guy we treated except he made it through fine and had a normal T4 the following year. As far as why he's hyperT4 again, he just grew another thyroid tumor, either a benign adenoma or a malignant carcinoma. The I131 destroys all active thyroid tissue, which in theory, is all the diseased thyroid tissue (benign or malignant, doesn't matter). However it cannot destroy *future* tumors. As far as why cats become hyperthyroid to begin with, most if the research now is focusing on environmental and food toxins. There was some research into an autoimmune problem, and some about a genetic reason, but most likely the cause is multfactorial. I went to a talk about hyperthyroidism in cats while in school, and from what I remember, she was talking about metals in fish and canning materials that suppressed thyroid tissue long-term and basically wreaked havoc on the autoregulation of thyroid hormone, eventually resulting in hyperthyroidism. The research is still on-going, and unfortunately it's hard to get grant money for it because 1) cats in general don't earn as much research money as dogs and 2) hyperthyroidism can be managed relatively easily. Here's an abstract from the AVMA journal that says cats who eat fish or giblets foods tend to be hyperT4 more than control cats: http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2000.217.853 Here's a review article about hyperthyroidism http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/11446/1/2006%20Lynn.pdf As mentioned before, methimazole can be used to suppress thyroid hormone, as long as your cat doesn't have a reaction to the medication. It's available for oral and transdermal administration. So not being able to do a 3rd I131 treatment doesn't mean your cat can't be treated. I couldn't find any specific studies done on the effect of radioactive I131 in cats. I know that having treated cats for many years, and being exposed to several doses every week, I never was even close to legal radiation limits. Of course I also never injected myself with it either! I linked a general article on I131 below; it has some references. You can also google beta particles and gamma rays for information on the type of radiation I131 produces. Only the beta particles stay in the cat, and they only penetrate up to 5mm tissue. I found another abstract regarding survival times. On the good side, cats treated with I131 live longer than cats treated with methimazole. On the bad side, the younger the cat is, the more quickly it died regardless of treatment. http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.228.4.559 Of course cats with pre-existing renal disease didn't fare too well no matter what treatment was used. I hope Basil beats the odds and has a long happy euthyroid life after this treatment.