High ALT levels, Low Platelet level and Throwing Up...

jesslan rose

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The last three months my kitty has been throwing up after eating. After she'd thrown up (everywhere) the first time I took her to the vet. He did an exam and ran blood work. The exam showed nothing, but her ALT level was high. He gave me Purina EN canned and bioflora to put her on and see if it helped. It didn't. The next visit he gave me Royal Canin canned high protein to try. So she could eat less, but get the protein she needs. She threw that back up too. He did x-rays and blood work a second time and her ALT had gone up more. The X-rays showed nothing. She's been eating a mixture of dry/canned Holistic Select since she was 1 1/2 years old.

Whenever she eats more than roughly an ounce and a half she throws it back up. I can't even give her one Feline Greenie or Zukes chicken mini naturals treat hours later after a meal because then she'll throw up her meal and the treat. Because he couldn't find anything wrong with her he diagnosed her with IBD. He explained it was more a catch-all diagnosis when they don't know what's wrong.

I have a copy of her records and was looking through it tonight. I noticed in her bloodwork her platelet count was low as well. I also noticed that it was low way back in March of last year. He never said anything either time about low platelets. I'm more than a little upset he either didn't notice or dismissed it.

She has an app't next week to see a specialist for an ultrasound, etc to check further to see if she has a blockage. I'm wondering if the low platelets throws another diagnosis out there to consider. I'd like to know if it's possible and whether to discuss that with him.

I don't know if it means anything, but she has been a heavy water drinker since she was a kitten. (She's now 7 1/2 years old.) The past several months she's drinking significantly less water. I mentioned it to the vet and he dismissed it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if there's a diagnosis that includes both bloodwork and the throwing up that I should consider and prepare myself for?

Thank you so much for sharing. I'm very worried about her.
 

jmljml19

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well it could be a lot of different things, liver disease, cancer, leukemia, lymphoma or she could be allergic to something in the food you give her or she's eating too fast or she's stressed about something. so when you take her to the vet, get a thyroid test and maybe an allergy test. until then I'd go to a grain free food and feed it to her slowly and see if that works. now does she throw up every meal or does she get some meals down? does she poop regularly or not so often?
 
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jesslan rose

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As she's been on three different foods the past 4 months I doubt it's allergies, but I guess it's possible it could be grains. I'll do some research on getting a quality grain free food asap.

I always smush her canned food into a flat thin pancake size in her bowl so she can't gobble it down and it takes her a good 10 minutes to eat it.

She keeps her food down if she only has 1-1 1/2 oz of food 2x a day. In the morning that has to include her gel joint meds to, so she's getting even less nutrition in the a.m. Anymore than that and she throws it up. I did try adding some water to help her keep up her hydration and instead she threw up a watery mess for a couple minutes. :(
 
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jesslan rose

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Sorry, I hit reply before I was ready.

She does poop regularly and it's normal looking. I will ask him about the thyroid and allergy tests too. Thank you.

My biggest scare is leukemia or a cancerous mass. I lost my Husband a couple years ago. Gypsy was the second kitty we adopted together. I can't bear to loose her too. I'm not ready.
 

jmljml19

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Sorry, I hit reply before I was ready.

She does poop regularly and it's normal looking. I will ask him about the thyroid and allergy tests too. Thank you.

My biggest scare is leukemia or a cancerous mass. I lost my Husband a couple years ago. Gypsy was the second kitty we adopted together. I can't bear to loose her too. I'm not ready.
If she poops regularly  I doubt there's a blockage but you never know til you look. There is a leukemia test if  you're worried about that as a possiblilty, doesn't take long for results either. I really hope it's nothing serious though and they find out what's wrong
 

denice

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With as little as she has been eating the high ALT could be caused by fatty liver disease.  Anything below about 15 calories per pound of their ideal weight could cause fatty liver.  Unfortunately the only really effective treatment is to eat enough, I have been through this with a kitty that was vomiting everything.  Can you feed her more of the small meals?  

The vomiting can be caused by a number of things that aren't cancer.  The immediate concern is her liver.
 
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jesslan rose

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Gypsy has now seen the specialist. An ultrasound showed no signs of abnormalities or blockage. He thinks it's food allergies. (Thank you JML for the suggestion!) He put her on Hills SD Z/D for the next month. While I'm not happy it's Hills SD if it helps her to eat normally and help us figure out what's wrong I'm willing to try it for a month. So far she's doing good on it. I haven't seen her throw up yet. She's just now back up to her normal amount of food.

I did discover something I'm extremely unhappy about and unfortunately it was after her appointment with the specialist. I looked at the three brands of cans of the foods she's been on for the past few months and the only common ingredients were chicken and/or chicken liver. On a hunch I looked through the ingredients in each can flavor for Holistic Select and there is chicken in every single one including the fish, except the duck flavor. So my rotating the protein meats for six years to avoid allergies did no good with chicken in every can. :/ I called the company and told them how unhappy I was about this and asked if the can says whitefish and tuna why is there chicken in it? I asked they reconsider that practice. Though I doubt they'll listen. And let's face it... this is all on me for not looking at the ingredients and going only by it's 4/5 star rating. Now my baby has to pay for it. :(
 
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jesslan rose

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Denice, The vet mentioned it could be fatty liver disease but didn't explain that it would be because she wasn't eating enough. I assumed it meant there was too much of something bad in her diet. Thank you for explaining that!! I couldn't feed her smaller meals more often because she'd just throw up more often. :( And now most likely being because she was allergic to the chicken in every bite I fed her. :(

I did ask the specialist about the low platelet count. He said that that particular test is never reliable for cats and the results are always considered useless. So that's why the vet never mentioned it to me.
 
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