My cat has high liver enzymes. What causes this and how to improve?

Although we can not prescribe treatment via an online method (illegal with our veterinary licenses), what i can tell you is that an ultrasound can not assess liver function. Ultrasound is just an image so it can tell you size and texture changes to organs and evaluate for masses, fluid, etc. Also the good appetite and energy level are not typical with liver failure. Your cat has elevated liver enzymes and total bilirubin but this does not always mean liver failure. I would try to get better clarification from your vet about what was seen on the ultrasound and were the other organs normal (pancreas, GI tract, etc.). More common causes of these bloodwork changes would include liver/biliary infection, pancreatitis, and underlying GI disease associated with the above. Cancer and certain infectious diseases such as FIP can as well. So options would include additional testing to search for a cause (such as pancreatitis testing, liver aspirates, etc.) and/or symptomatic treatment can be attempted for pancreatitis, liver infection, etc. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

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

Hello, sorry to hear about Noa. Based on the information you provided, I would be most concerned with liver disease. This may require further diagnostics to rule out an infectious cause vs an inflammatory cause vs cancer. Most commonly in cats, we can see infectious and inflammatory causes for liver disease. Other diagnostics your veterinarian may offer is additional bloodwork, an abdominal ultrasound, and a biopsy of the liver. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Hello and thank you very much for your question. Because the liver enzymes are increasing, even with liver protectant medications on board, I now believe it is time to perhaps consider a liver biopsy. It is possible that when the original ultrasound was performed, there was a liver specific disease that was not detectable on the ultrasound. So at the very least, I would repeat the ultrasound, as well as try to get a liver biopsy. Make certain that your general practitioner feels confident with this procedure. If they are not, please have them refer you to an internal medicine specialist. Thanks a lot for your question. I hope you find the answer.

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.

I would recommend feeding a specialist diet formulated for cats with liver disease such as royal canin hepatic or hills l/d. These are high calorie, easily digestible with limited liver function and supplemented with antioxidants and liver protectants. These can be diluted and syringe fed if necessary

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.