Are SGPT, BUN, Creatinine blood tests enough for pet liver and kidney?

Liver and kidney values (ALT, Alk Phos, GGT, BUN, Creatinine) are on Chemistry panels which can be ordered separately from Complete Blood Counts that measure neutrophil counts (elevated with infection), hematocrit (a measure of hydration status), platelet levels (an indicator of clotting function). I recommend asking your vet for pricing for just the Chem panel vs pricing for a CBC/Chem panel if desired. Good luck!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Sundari. Her BUN and Cr are mildly elevated. This can indicate early kidney disease, but there are other causes as well. Simple dehydration will make these values increase. I would recommend that she has a urinalysis performed on a first morning urine sample. This sample will be the most concentrated and give you more information regarding how the kidneys are functioning. There is also a new blood parameter known as SDMA. This is much more sensitive indicator of kidney function than BUN/Cr. I would recheck her blood work in 1-3 months to monitor the liver value (ALT) that is slightly elevated to see if this is a consistent finding. Liver enzymes can fluctuate in the blood stream so this may not be significant. I hope this information helps!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The liver function tests commonly available in a routine chemistry panel are glucose, albumin, cholesterol and BUN. A more specific, though separate test of liver function is bile acids which is the gold standard as far as liver function goes. Good luck!

Oscar's lab work is pointing to both liver and kidney issues. Unfortunately it's impossible to tell if this is truly a kidney problem or just dehydration secondary to other issues (not eating, not drinking, losing fluids through vomiting and diarrhea) without knowing the specific gravity of his urine. Possible causes these values could include liver diseases like viral or bacterial hepatitis, cancer of one or more abdominal organs (liver and kidney), or the bacterial disease leptospirosis. Unfortunately it's impossible to say for sure how to treat Oscar without more testing, and based on just these values alone. At the very least IV fluids may help to treat either dehydration or kidney disease, so you can talk to your veterinarian about starting there, but ultimately there are more questions to be answered.

It's quite common for a dog, even his age, to have slightly elevated SGPT levels, if this was the only issue with the blood test and if he isn't suffering from any symptoms I would probably leave it for now.

Hello. I am sorry about the diagnosis of kidney disease in Layla. We do generally stage kidney failure based on certain markers in the blood. This includes blood urea nitrogen ( BUN ) & creatinine. Another test, called SDMA is a very sensitive marker for very early kidney disease. Specific gravity refers to the amount of solids found in urine. If urine is very dilute ( has a low specific gravity ), this is a poorer sign, especially if there is also protein in the urine. We really need to look at everything, blood & urine, to determine how serious or dangerous the kidney disease might be, but that is why we sometimes need to look a little further to understand exactly what might be going on. I hope you can work with your veterinarian to manage Layla's kidney problems. Good luck & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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: )