Yipee Muffins New Bloodwork

Muffin had a recheck of his blood today. His ALT has been high. In Feb. when it was checked it was 244 with the normal being 20-100 on my vets equipment. He has had no indication of any sickness. His appetite is good and he has not had any weight loss, no yellowing, nothing to really indicate anything going on with liver other than this high ALT reading,. I would mention here that it was in the same range four years ago when bloodwork was done. In February we decided to try him on Denamarin tabs and he has taken that for two and a half months. Today his reading is 152. So now we are faced with the decision what to do. So I need some help with this decision what to do.

1. Unless I change my mind we decided to keep him on one pill a day.
2. Does anyone else here have a cat taking this Denamarin and if so, how often do you have his blood checked.
3. My concern is will it keep on bringing down the liver ALT and could it cause it to get too low.

Someone please feel free to offer feedback here.
Thanks.

Tolly takes Denosyl for liver damage, but we know the source of his problem, he has been taking phenobarbital for 8 years to control seizures.

Has Muffin been on a course of antibiotics? Tolly's ALT was 598 during his routine annual blood work. My vet started him on Denosyl immediately and in 6 weeks tested again, and his number had dropped to 116, still a little high.

In two months, continuing with the denosyl we tested again, and his numbers had gone back up to 175, and he was losing weight. Vet wondered if there was some infection, so we put him on Baytril for two weeks.

After the antibiotic he perked up a lot, and gained back his weight. His next blood work is scheduled for June 29, but if I see any changes of course I will have it done earlier.

In my opinion I would continue with what your vet is recommending, but ask your vet about putting Muffin on a course of antibiotics, just in case there is some underlying infection lurking, it made a HUGE difference with Tolly.

My vet has Tolly on Denosyl instead of Denamarin because she said he does not need the milk thistle yet, onle the Sam-E.

Where I work (retirement home for cats) we have had several cats on Denamarin and it has definitely seemed to help. We usually recheck the bloodwork every 3 months unless something is going wrong that indicates it should be done sooner.

The cats we have it on have multiple issues tho also - CRF, IBD, Pancreatitis, Hyperthyroidism - and are on multiple meds for their particular issues, so it's not always easy to know what is helping. But I do know that when we started Denamarin and gave it properly - it should be given at least 30-60 minutes prior to any food - it seemed to really make a difference, both in their attiture/appetite and their bloodwork. If you give with food, it won't harm them, but it just won't do any good. So we give it first thing in the morning, about an hour before breakfast. We started them on once a day for a long time and have gone to every other day now.

I don't know anything about this, but just wanted to say I am happy it has come down.

He is a good boy, that Muffin!!

Originally Posted by techiegirl

Where I work (retirement home for cats) we have had several cats on Denamarin and it has definitely seemed to help. We usually recheck the bloodwork every 3 months unless something is going wrong that indicates it should be done sooner.

The cats we have it on have multiple issues tho also - CRF, IBD, Pancreatitis, Hyperthyroidism - and are on multiple meds for their particular issues, so it's not always easy to know what is helping. But I do know that when we started Denamarin and gave it properly - it should be given at least 30-60 minutes prior to any food - it seemed to really make a difference, both in their attiture/appetite and their bloodwork. If you give with food, it won't harm them, but it just won't do any good. So we give it first thing in the morning, about an hour before breakfast. We started them on once a day for a long time and have gone to every other day now.

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Yes that is important and it should be a full hour, nothing less. I'm glad you brought it up.

Tolly gets his denosyl first thing in the morning then a little spoonful of water to make sure it washes down. Then the cats get their first meal about 1 1/2 hours after that.