My cat's blood test shows high kidney and liver values. Is it serious?

Poor guy. I see elevate liver enzymes (ALT,AST) and kidney values on the paperwork you have attached here. Low hgb means that the red blood cells are not oxygenating well, but if the RBC count is also low (anemic) then that is a sign of chronic kidney failure. Cats can recover from kidney disease depending on the underlying cause. An abdominal ultrasound is needed to determine the cause of the kidney failure exactly, or a positive response to bloodwork is used as a means of determining a positive outcome. In most situations we treat the pet with fluid therapy to help idurese (flush out) the harmful toxins (BUN, CREA), get the pet started on a prescription kidney diet (ie. Hill's K/D, Royal Canin Renal) and also a supplement (Azodyl- which helps to remove toxins from the gut) can be given as well. The most concerning values for me on this bloodwork are the liver values (AST, ALT). It is not common for a cat to be in both kidney failure and to have abnormal liver values concurrently. THis raises suspicions for infectious diseases such as any number of tick diseases. I would recommend discussing with your vet about possibly doing a tick panel, if the history indicates tick exposure is probable. Also a FeLV/FIV test may also be indicated, depending on the complete CBC results, which you didn't post here. At the very least a liver protectant medication should be started, which is typically a medicine called Denamarin. Additional treatment may be needed depending on the underlying cause for the liver abnormalities. If you would like to discuss Toby's case further, then please feel free to request a consultatoin with either myself or another expert here. Toby's case is definitely a more complicated case where it is best to have a complete dialogue back and forth to get all the information you need to make the best decision moving forward with his care. I wish you all the best moving forward with Toby's care and I hope that he makes a full and speedy recovery. Take care.

It is unlikely that diet alone is the cause of significant decrease to liver function. I would agree that Royal Canin and Hill's are not very different in terms of dietary quality. I feel that starting on a liver diet at this point based on one blood test is very premature and that further diagnostics are likely warranted. Some possible causes of increased liver values including endocrine conditions, liver shunts, hepatitis, bile duct / gall bladder issues, liver / gall bladder tumors, or fatty liver disease. Depending on the nature and magnitude of the elevation, it may be insignificant as well if Maki's findings were not coupled with any clinical signs of illness. Some additional diagnostic testing to look into things more would be additional more specific blood work, radiographs, and ultrasound. Rather than dietary change, there are more target liver supplements. One that comes to mind is called Denamarin. There is a feline formulation available that would work fine. Hope this helps.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Creatinine level of 3.3mg/dL does suggest CRF. If Patch was on iv fluids treatment recently (between these two blood tests), it is possible for CREA level to go down to normal. However, if Patch did not receive any iv fluids, I would suspect one of the reading was incorrect and should be repeated. High BUN suggest kidney disease as well, but it could also be due to dehydration, gastrointestinal bleed, recent feeding and more. Elevated TBIL is also a concern as it could be a sign of liver / gall bladder / bile duct disease. Less commonly, it is due to hemolytic anemia (in that case Patch would have evidence of anemia). Please, get in touch with your local vets as ideally, the blood test should be repeated and should include hematology.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Based on these lab results, I would suspect renal disease. BUN, Amylase, magnesium and CPK all can become altered with renal impairment. The weight loss may be due to muscle wastage due to chronic renal disease or something else may be going on. I would consider having Tigger's urine specific gravity checked and also send out an SDMA test to see if the kidney's are the main problem. At 14.5 years of age, renal disease would be high on my list of causes of these symptoms. Other problems such as cancer and inflammatory diseases may be the cause of the symptoms as well. I would recommend having your vet pursue additional testing to get more of a definitive answer on whether or not the kidneys are impaired and if not, coming up with further recommendations on diagnostics and treatment. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Every lab has different reference ranges, so according to the lab that your cats blood was run in, the BUN and CREA are considered to be mildly elevated. However, unless your cat has a low specific gravity (concentrating ability of the kidneys), we have to assume that the BUN and CREA levels are not indicating any kind of kidney failure. In other words, if the kidneys are concentrating normally, and the pet is asymptomatic, then the BUN and CREA levels should simply be rechecked at a later date or another more sensitive test called the SDMA test should be done to clarify what is really going on with your pets kidneys. So based on the information you have provided we cannot say if Frodo has true kidney disease, but if his urine test was negative for bacteria then no infection is present. Ask your vet about Frodo's specific gravity and if that was normal or not. If it was normal, then go forward with the SDMA test to confirm that the kidneys are ok. If you need further help regarding your pet Frodo's case, since this can be a bit complicated to explain on the forum, please feel free to request a private consultation with either myself or another expert here and we will be more than happy to assist you further. I hope that this helps and best wishes with your pet Frodo moving forward! Take care: )

I don’t think this shows renal disease. His creatine is normal with a slightly elevated BUN. To me this is more an indication of mild dehydration than kidney disease. He is slightly anemic also which is not uncommon in senior animals but may indicate a chronic medical problem. The eosinophils are slightly elevated which can be due to allergies or intestinal parasites. Basically for a thirteen year old cat there is nothing here that is overly concerning. Bloodwork is just a moment in time though so if you’re concerned I would repeat it again in a month or two so you can see if there is a trend indicating progression of a medical problem or kidney disease. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Beau.

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Liver enlargement means that the liver is bigger than it should be. It could be because of liver inflammation due to infection (bacterial or viral) or toxins ingestion. In young cats like Arya liver tumors are very uncommon, but enlargement of one liver lobe could be caused by a liver abscess or a cyst. The best way to assess liver size is ultrasound scan and/or x-ray. Blood test tells about liver function. In other words, it tells if the liver, ,despite being enlarged or diseased, is still able to maintain its function. Blood test also can assess the extent of liver damage. It is hard to say anything about the prognosis without knowing why the liver is enlarged and what are the blood results. In general, liver have huge capacity to recover from any insult, but again it really depends what has happened.