Elevated liver enzymes

I took Purdy to the vet yesterday because regurgitating his food has become more frequent. He has done it ever since he moved in four or five years ago, but it is now every day or two instead every week or two. The vet wants me to give him a very large dose of Laxatone (a five inch strip of the stuff per DAY for three days) to make sure that isn't causing the problem. But he thinks there is a good chance it may be IBD.

In the process of checking things out, the vet did a complete series of blood tests. Everything else came out okay, but his liver enzymes were elevated. I don't recall the exact numbers, but both AST and ALT were about double what they should be. Consequently, the vet recommended I give Purdy a supplement called Denosyl (S-Adenosylmethionine 90 mg) for a month or two and have liver enzymes tested again. (Oh joy, I get to have the fun of giving a cat a pill for an extended period!)

Anyway, I should have asked the vet, but I'm wondering if anyone can shed any light on why a cat's liver enzymes might be elevated?

Some background: Other than regurgitating a meal immediately after eating occasionally, he has frequent soft stools, but not diarrhea, he seems to eat and drink normally, he has lost almost 2.5 pounds in the past seventeen months (but he had been too fat, so I was trying to get him to lose), his behavior otherwise seems pretty normal. His primary food is Hill's Z/D (a hypo-allergenic prescription product), and I sometimes allow him to eat a bit of Sheba's Solid Gold. For treats he occasionally gets to drink some of the liquid from my tuna canned in water or on very rare occasions, a few bay shrimp. He has been an indoor-outdoor cat, so has indulged in rodent feasts in the past, but I've kept him mostly indoors for the past two months.

Elevated liver enzymes are often a symptom of early hepatic lipidosis, which occurs when a cat loses weight too quickly.

Well, I think I can rule out losing weight too quickly as a cause of Purdy's problem, as I bought a baby scale when I put both fat cats on a diet and kept track of their weight loss. Here are Purdy's results:

Purdy weight
\tJuly 19, 2004 14.25 lb
\tJuly 23, 2004 13.95 lb
\tOctober 17, 2004 13.5
\tOctober 22, 2004 13.25
\tNovember 1, 2004 13.25
\tNovember 12, 2004 13.00
\tNovember 27, 2004 12.7
\tDecember 17, 2004 12.75
\tMarch 11, 2005\t 11.85
\tApril 5, 2005\t 11.80
\tMay 11, 2005\t 11.70
\tJune 22, 2005\t 11.65
\tJune 29, 2005\t 11.7
\tAugust 22, 2005\t 11.9
\tSeptember 8, 2005 11.8

I'm not sure just how slow cats are supposed to lose weight, but that seems pretty gradual to me. Comments?

I'm no expert on weight loss, but that seems like a really reasonable, controlled loss.

Our eldest cat Sheba (15) has been on Denosyl for while now.

We found the daily dose of 90mg too much after time for her. Now she is on
twice a week. It seemed to make her FHS worse.

This is how it went... she was fat, listless, and her fur getting dry (inspite of
good food IAMS which always worked for her).
I took her to the vet, who suspected diabetes, and so we did the chem panel, and everything was fine. There was an anal gland issue, but not a big thing.

So because the vet and I both use SAMe I brought that up. I didn't know about Denosyl. We started that, and some prednisolone pulses (2) and I started
rewarding Sheba with a human fresh cooked shrimp --her fave. She started demanding it more and more, so now we supplement her soft and kibble with about 4/day...as soon as I started THIS she started to lose weight.
Now the vet was surprised..too fast a loss is toxic, to the liver, like the other posters have said. We ran a second chem panel 6mos later, and her liver functions were even "better" the vet said..previous they were still normal tho.

We are very satisfied with the results of the Denosyl..she is more active, which helps the arthritis too.. Just watch for overstimulation..that is what happened to us.

There is a vet..who specializes in dogs, but who has very strong beliefs about diet/animals. Email me and I will give you his link. [email protected]
With Sheba, we had food allergies when she was young. The switch to Iams really helped her. But this vet, also monitors monosodium glutamate in food, and is also a proponent in gluten free management. Whenever IBS type things occur (people/animals) I now think----FOOD.

Sheba lost alot of weight-- 6lbs..over 2 yrs..and never had elevated enzymes..since I started giving in to her shrimp craving. We laughingly call it the Adkins meow meow diet!! I suspect there is some nutrient in shrimp she NEEDS.. our other cats can't stand the stuff! But the Denosyl was successful as well. (we found online sources much less expensive than the vet, should you balk at price/cost).

I have been using SAMe since 1999 for my arthritis!! Ironic eh?

Best wishes,
ShrimpLover

What? You have cats that won't eat shrimp? I think my three would go through water to get at the stuff, as would the late Guard Cat! In fact, whenever I have anything in the same type of plastic packaging as the shrimp comes in (like dried apricots), all three come running when they hear that sound. I had worried that maybe there was something in the shrimp or the tuna water that my babies shouldn't have. I think Red Cat is allergic to it, though, so I try to avoid giving it to any of them. Hard to give it to one without the others in an open plan house.

We had thought previously that Purdy's regurgitating his food might have to do with a food sensitivity. That's why I started feeding him that expensive hypo-allergenic Z/D. It did seem to reduce the problem a bit for a while, but lately it didn't seem to matter, so I let him snitch some of Sheba's food.

yep it is sad but true. You know each of our girls gets her own fave
treat each day. I didn't know this worked when I was younger...but having 3 spayed females in the house..leads to snit fits as you may know...(I hesitate to use the phrase hissyfit..since our mod is hissy )

Anyway I hit on this and now we do not have a snit, unless 2 try a doorway at the same time...and so then Alpha goes first-- out Sheba the eldest.

Neither Tippy nor Oreo will touch shrimp.
Tippy likes ..drumroll here... ick ick....Tender Vittles and please don't ask me why.. i don't even remember (she is 11)...We don't do the commercial snacks at all. She has weak teeth so we think she likes these , but she won't eat them for a meal. Just about 6 or 7 for a snack. A box lasts me about a year!!
(the others will eat them when they go stale, behind her back if she leaves any) She will also beg if we have SMOKED turkey breast, but only that!! Must be smoked. it is not often.

Oreo is a dairy kitty...the people who raised her did this. She will take cheese, or cream, but the fave is whipped cream... yep..how decadent is THAT.
This we discovered when we adopted her, she put her paw in my Thanksgiving pumpkin pie dessert and pulled the whole dish over... (they don't do tables normally--so this was a dramatic communication!). We thought this was hilarious...and I did not miss the message!!

Neither Sheba or Tippy will touch dairy, and neither Tippy or Oreo will eat any left over pieces of shrimp --which is not often. But Oreo will eat any stale Tender Vittles if left.

I just chalk this up to cat weirdness... the eccentricities, I have learned to live with and not question since it seems ENDLESS.

My son's new kitten is going to be a TRIP for him...I can see that now...

All three of them will eat tuna waa waa or salmon waa waa (as we call it--the water drained off)
but since the contamination of tuna with mercury hit the news, I don't do tuna anymore. The pouched seafood has no left overs for the kitties..sadly.
But I do canned salmon every once in a blue moon and they all get some of this.

So I see "twofatcats" another Sheba!!! Mine even looks like yours, only bigger, and a few white hairs at the chest..mostly all black. Sheba is porkier tho, bigger head.

You know Oreo barfs sometimes, we always thought it was because she eats so fast.(Oreo is small and hyper anyway) Tippy gags, when her teeth bother her, it is clear sign to get a new vet check up.

My thought would be a milder pancreatitis..here is a good article (note it mentions a relationship between ibd and this):click here

Shrimp Lover, the food likes and dislikes of your furbabies are hilarious. Mine have likes more similar to each other, except that Red Cat likes most anything if it is food. Guess that is why he is over 15 pounds. I put he and Purdy on a diet over a year ago. Purdy gradually lost about 2.5 pounds. But Red Cat GAINED half a pound! The problem is they were indoor-outdoor cats, so if I wasn't feeding him as much as he wanted, RC just thumbed his nose at me and caught another rat. I've kept them in most of the past two months, though, as you should hear the wails for food out of RC!

Thanks for that link, Pat and Alix. There is just so much about cats I don't know.

Boy, are those cats avoiding me today. With giving Purdy his Denosyl the past two days, giving RC his antihistamine, giving RC his Laxatone, taking Purdy to the vet on Tuesday, and taking Sheba to the vet today, they see me coming and run to hide. The only times they know they are safe are when I'm sitting in my computer chair or lying in bed.

I took Sheba to the vet today for her vaccinations. She also needed her anal glands expressed, and sprayed the whole room when the vet did it. Whew! Does that stuff stink! She was good at the vets, though. Didn't even let out a peep when he did it.

Tonight I found a glob of what looks like bloody mucus on the side of one of the litter boxes. Problem is, I have no idea which cat did it. The stool in the box didn't appear to be bloody, but it is so hard to tell when it is totally coated with clumpable litter. Guess I'll have to be watching for any additional problems.

Originally Posted by ShrimpLover

Our eldest cat Sheba (15) has been on Denosyl for while now.

We found the daily dose of 90mg too much after time for her. Now she is on
twice a week. It seemed to make her FHS worse.

This is how it went... she was fat, listless, and her fur getting dry (inspite of
good food IAMS which always worked for her).
I took her to the vet, who suspected diabetes, and so we did the chem panel, and everything was fine. There was an anal gland issue, but not a big thing.

So because the vet and I both use SAMe I brought that up. I didn't know about Denosyl. We started that, and some prednisolone pulses (2) and I started
rewarding Sheba with a human fresh cooked shrimp --her fave. She started demanding it more and more, so now we supplement her soft and kibble with about 4/day...as soon as I started THIS she started to lose weight.
Now the vet was surprised..too fast a loss is toxic, to the liver, like the other posters have said. We ran a second chem panel 6mos later, and her liver functions were even "better" the vet said..previous they were still normal tho.

We are very satisfied with the results of the Denosyl..she is more active, which helps the arthritis too.. Just watch for overstimulation..that is what happened to us.

There is a vet..who specializes in dogs, but who has very strong beliefs about diet/animals. Email me and I will give you his link. PM
With Sheba, we had food allergies when she was young. The switch to Iams really helped her. But this vet, also monitors monosodium glutamate in food, and is also a proponent in gluten free management. Whenever IBS type things occur (people/animals) I now think----FOOD.

Sheba lost alot of weight-- 6lbs..over 2 yrs..and never had elevated enzymes..since I started giving in to her shrimp craving. We laughingly call it the Adkins meow meow diet!!

I suspect there is some nutrient in shrimp she NEEDS.. our other cats can't stand the stuff! But the Denosyl was successful as well. (we found online sources much less expensive than the vet, should you balk at price/cost).

I have been using SAMe since 1999 for my arthritis!! Ironic eh?

Best wishes,
ShrimpLover

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p.s. removing email...to stop web crawlers from finding me.