FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER DISCHARGE
The patient should be confined to your home or property during the two weeks after they are brought home.
During this time, do not hold the patient; allow them to sit on or next to you, or allow them to sleep on a bed with you. (They should sleep in an unoccupied room). Keep the patient at arm’s length with minimal (<10 minutes/day) contact during this time. Wash your hands after any contact with the patient or after handling her potentially contaminated litter. This also applies to all others who may be in your household.
No one who is pregnant or under the age of 18 should be directly interacting with the patient. It would be prudent to also limit her association with other animals at home.
Do not allow the patient to walk on countertops or eat off your plates. Any surface potentially contaminated should be thoroughly cleaned.
All bedding, toys, and other potentially contaminated materials should be isolated for three months or washed thoroughly.
You will need to provide the patient with a partially covered, clean litter box in an area where children and other pets cannot be exposed. You should use dust-free flushable cat litter (available at most pet stores). Once again, small amounts of radioactivity will be excreted in the urine and feces up to 4 weeks after discharge.
Soiled litter will need to be discarded every day in the sanitary sewage system (toilet). A clumping type of litter must be used, scooped daily, and along with solid waste (feces) discarded in the toilet. Plastic liners should also be used in the litter box to prevent accumulation of radioactivity in the litter box.
If you are not on a public sewer or cannot flush the waste, dirty litter should be double-bagged and stored in a low-traffic area for at least 3 months. Only after 3 months of storage can litter be thrown out in the trash. Failure to follow this guideline can result in an investigation by regulatory personnel if radioactivity is detected at the dump/landfill.
EMERGENCY CARE
If your pet needs veterinary care during the specified restriction period, AVETS should manage that care to regulate the potential radiation exposure to caregivers. Contact AVETS at 412-373-4200.
If the patient would die or be euthanized for any reason within three months after treatment, it is required that the body be delivered to AVETS and be in radioactive isolation before final disposition.
AVETS cannot guarantee how the patient will respond to treatment. 95% of felines are successfully treated with one dose. Some cats can become hypothyroid (low thyroid level) and require a thyroid supplement.
The patient will require check-ups and repeat labs (at your primary care veterinarian) at 1, 3, and 6 months post I-131 treatment. Some cats with benign tumors may require a second dose of I-131, but this cannot be determined until after the 6-month check-up