Cat hasn't been eating her blood test came back normal

Hi,

I don't know if anyone can help me with this.

Short background, my cat 4 year old female spayed and has all her injections (she's also indoor/outdoor but just stays in my garden) has hardly been eating for the past few weeks I had tried everything to tempt her chicken, tuna, cheese, crumbs of cake everything , recently she began licking her lips a lot, she has been drinking some water but not a lot. 

I took her to the vets who said she had fluid in her stomach, her teeth and gums etc were fine and no temperature. 

They kept her in for 2 nights, put her on a drip to get her hydrated, gave her antibiotics incase she had an infection and pain relief medication in case she was uncomfortable.

She got her blood test results back, vet said they were normal, they done an x-ray which also came back fine.

I brought her home yesterday, still just nibbling at bits of her food, she drank quite a bit of water. Today I bought her a sachet Encore cat food, she ate the whole sachet and

left a couple of crumbs (this is the most she's eaten in one sitting in weeks).

Question is has anyone had similar problems with their cat, and, is there anyone qualified to analyse these blood test results incase the vet has misinterpreted them?

I'll put her results at the bottom if anyone can give me any insight into them or Pandora's behaviour would be greatly appreciated

                          BIOCHEMISTRY

Feline Profile

Total protein              68          g/L            (54.0 -80.0 )

Albumin                    39          g/L            (25.0 -42.0 )

Globulin                   29          g/L            (25.0 -45.0 )

Albumin Globulin  ratio    1.3                        (0.6  - 1.5 )

Sodium                     151         mmol/L         (147  -163  )

Potassium                  4.0         mmol/L         (3.4  -6.2  )

Na:K ratio                 38                         (32   -41   )

Chloride                   116         mmol/L         (107  -125  )

Total calcium              2.43        mmol/L         (2.0  -3.0  )

Phosphate                  1.2         mmol/L         (1.2  -2.6  )

Urea                       9.4         mmol/L         (4.0  -12.0 )

Creatinine                 145         umol/L         (80   -  180)

Alk Phos                   23          U/L            (0.1  -60.0 )

ALT                        41          U/L            (5.0  -60.0 )

AST                        23          U/L            (0.0  -69.0 )

GLDH                       1           U/L            (0.1  -10.0 )

Gamma GT                   1           U/L            (0.1  -10.0 )

Total bilirubin            1.7         umol/L         (0.1  -10.0 )

Bile acids                 1.4         umol/L         (0.1 - 5.0 )

Glucose                    Regret unable to assay-no oxalate received

CK                       * 304         U/L       High (0.0  -152.0)

Cholesterol                5.2         mmol/L         (1.5  -6.0  )

Amylase                    1169        U/L            ( 0   - 2500)

Lipase                     19          U/L            (0.0  -26.0)

Serum quality              Good

                          HAEMATOLOGY

RBC                      * 10.14       x10^12/L  High (5.5  -10.0 )

Hb                         13.7        g/dl           (9.0  -15.0 )

HCT                        41.4        %              (26.0 -47.0 )

MCV                        40.8        fl             (40.0 -55.0 )

MCH                        13.5        pg             (13.0 -17.5 )

MCHC                       33.1        g/dl           (28.0 -36.0 )

RBC distribution         * 23.7        %         High (18.0 - 23.0)

Reticulocytes              56.8        X10^9/L        ( 20  - 120 )

Platelets                  246         x10^9/L        (150 -550  )

WBC                        4.97        x10^9/L        (4.0  -15.0 )

Neutrophils                56.0%  2.78 x10^9/L        (2.5  -12.5 )

Bands                       0.0%  0.00 x10^9/L        (0.0  -0.3  )

Lymphocytes                36.2%  1.80 x10^9/L        (1.2  -7.0  )

Monocytes                   2.8%  0.14 x10^9/L        (0.0  -0.8  )

Eosinophils                 5.0%  0.25 x10^9/L        (0.0  -1.5  )

Basophils                   0.0%  0.00 x10^9/L        (0.0  -0.2  )

Blood Film Examination     3 fresh blood smears and a film made from the

                           submitted EDTA were examined.

                           Red cells appear normocytic and normochromic. No

                           abnormal white cells seen. Platelet morphology and

                           numbers appear normal, with no evidence of platelet

                           clumping or clots on the EDTA smear.

                           Many thanks for the good quality smears from Pandora.

                         CLINICAL COMMENTS

Apparent haemoconcentration at the time of sampling. No additionally

significant findings despite the reported signs.

Cats licking their lips usually indicates they feel nauseous, and not eating would go along with that.  The fact that she is indoor/outdoor could be significant, as there are things she could get into outside that could make her feel nauseous -- she could have eaten a lizard or an insect that didnt agree with her, for one thing.  If you have any lilies in your garden, the pollen of some lilies can actually poison cats if they just get it on their fur and then lick it off.  If there are other people living close to you, they may have sprayed insecticide or weed killer around, which might have blown into your yard.  Since she seems to be responding to the vet's treatment and to the new food, try keeping her inside until she is back to normal, or else go back to the vet in a few days if she has not returned to normal.  Often things like toxins and poisons do not show up in the blood work right away, and this way your vet has a baseline to compare with in the future should she not get well quickly.  If you keep her inside, you will know that she didn't get into anything you don't know about since the vet visit. 

As for reading the results, the normal value for each test is indicated in parentheses at the right.  Anything that is higher or lower than the norm is indicated by a remark to the left of the parentheses.  In this case she has two "high" readings, but they are just barely above the norm, both of which involve the red cells in the blood (RBC = Red Blood Cells) and they are ever so slightly elevated so as not to be significant at this point.  Dehydration is one cause of having an elevated RBC count, and she was dehydrated from not eating and the vet gave her fluids, which would improve her hydration.  Everything else having to do with her blood is in normal range.

The chemistries are all normal except for CK, which is Creatine Kinase (also called CPK for Creatine Phosphokinase) which is an enzyme that leaks out of damaged muscle. When a cat has not been eating enough protein, the body breaks down skeletal muscle to provide amino acids for making protein and to supply glucose for tissues that need it.  Once they start eating or receiving nutritional support from a feeding tube (in extreme cases), the CL quickly returns to normal. 

I'm very glad she did eat for you, and hope she continues to do this.  Feed her anything she will eat right now so she can get her strength back.  Cats can get in serious trouble if they go too long without eating.  Anything longer than 48 hours without food can cause problems, so do get her back to the vet if she doesn't continue to eat.

RedTop has said it very well. I concur-- there is nothing very alarming about this set of results. Nutritional support and encouraging the kitty to eat is probably the wisest course for the moment. Observe to see that she eats and drinks adequately. If she goes more than 48 hours without eating enough to meet her baseline needs, she can be headed for serious liver disease as a result. Thus do what you can to be sure she actually does eat reasonably well, at least half of her usual intake of food. Thus if she goes off her food again, you'll definitely want to get back with her vet.

Hi, thank you for your help! Great news, so far today Pandora ate 2 70g tins of Encore with very little encouragement I'm soo relieved! Fingers crossed she keeps it up! 

I've tried keeping her in but she goes crazy to get out! I've been staying in the garden with her, we've no lizards in Northern Ireland and she roams between my garden and my neighbours (he's never in and he doesn't do any gardening so I don't think it could've been weed killer or anything.

But I did notice the other day she was sniffing all the plant pots as if she was looking for water, could this have been the problem? Could she have been drinking stale/bad water? Incase she had been, I cleaned out a plant pot and fill it with fresh water everyday so she will only go to that one, she has started drinking from it.