My cat's GGT is high. Does diet or a recent meal affect blood work?

GGT can be a liver indicator, but does not mean anything when it is the only liver enzyme elevated. It means that the sample was likely hemolyzed, giving a false reading. Mildly elevated HCT and HGB mean that your pet may have had mild dehydration when the sample was taken. The elevated RETIC means that your pet was regenerating his red blood cells which can be due to an underlying immune mediated disorder, blood loss, or decreased blood cell production. However there are no other markers seen (RBCs are normal) to corroborate any of these situations, so a blood smear evaluation can be done to try and find more clues about what the high RETIC count means, or if it is also a false reading. The mildly low EOS is not a significant finding when this is low, only when this value is high, which can indicate a parasitic problem. I hope this helps! Best wishes and take care.

ALT and GGT are both liver enzymes, so usually if they are elevated this would mean that Ginger may have a liver problem of some kind. These values can be elevated in dogs with hepatitis, gallbladder problems, or a tumor in the liver - but if the elevations are fairly mild, they can also be due to normal age-related changes in the liver, in which case there would be no reason to worry. For me personally, in an older pet that is otherwise healthy and does not have any symptoms of a problem, I often recommend repeating blood work in four weeks before doing anything else - liver values can fluctuate quite a bit, and often they are back to normal at the recheck appointment so we don't worry. If they are still elevated after four weeks, then at that point I would usually recommend abdominal x-rays and ultrasound to check for any problems. This is something that you can discuss with your vet if you're concerned, or get a second opinion if needed.

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.

No, pancreatic enzymes in the diet would not elevate AST. AST is usually use as liver disease marker, however elevation in AST can be also seen in heart diseases, pancreatitis, diseases of the muscles, kidney problems, trauma etc. AST of 94 is only a mild elevation, so repeateing the blood test in 2-3 weeks would be a sensible initial approach.

Hi and thanks for using PetCoach! Sorry to hear about Toby. Dehydration shouldn't affect creatinine. It affects BUN. Not sure what caused the slight rise in creatinine but that usually means there may be some kidney dysfunction. It's not that elevated and could be laboratory error also since the BUN is normal. Liver enzymes can become raised for many reasons. Liver inflammation, infection, pancreatitis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, toxin exposure, among many other things. I don't think feeding a wet food is a bad idea, it forces the cat to take more fluids in since canned food has a high water content. I would also recommend a liver supplement to address the rise in the liver enzymes. I would advise checking out this website and the following products- https://vet.vrshealth.com/product/1157 Hepato TruBenefits and Cat and Small Dog Omega Benefits (fish oil) **Use Promo code “petcoach20” for a discount on your order. These two supplements can help the liver and the entire body repair. I would advise trying these and then have the bloodwork redone in 30-60 days to see if the values are better. Good luck

No it would be highly unlkiley that a food intolerance would cause elevated liver levels - especially when they were elevated even before you changed the diet. I would recommend getting a veterinary herbalist to review all of the herbs to ensre nothing here could be causing the inflammation as well as further investigation such as ultrasound and possibly biopsy.

How naughty of Hector to get into some grapes! It is extremely encouraging that his kidney values (particularly the creatinine and BUN) are within a normal range. The SDMA value is thought to be of use in detecting early signs of chronic kidney disease, but is not of much value when concerns about acute kidney disease arise (as in the case of grape ingestion). Remember that there is a wide range of normal to account for individual variation and values at the higher end of this normal range do not typically indicate a problem. I can see that Hector's ALT (a liver value) is mildly elevated, but in all honesty, I do not worry about elevations in this value until they are about twice the upper limits of normal (>240, whereas Hector's value is 181). That said, it is still worth asking your vet if it is possible simply to recheck this value in another week or two. It will most likely return to normal, but if it remains high or increases further, ongoing monitoring of the ALT and further diagnostic testing (bile acid testing, abdominal ultrasound, etc.) may be indicated. I hope this helps to clear up any confusion and that Hector continues to do well after eating grapes!