Hi all,
I’ve been lurking this forum since my cat started having some issues but it’s such a long story so I thought I’d make a new thread and see if anyone has any insight.
I adopted Ivy in August when I moved for graduate school (I’m trying to earn my doctorate in chemistry), I purchased pet insurance and also have support from my family and my partner. She was a stray that was taken in and when I got her she was very shy but now she’s a massive cuddle bug and laying on my lap sleeping right now. She’s around 1 year and 9 months currently.
She has a very healthy appetite so back in November I noticed she didn’t seem to be interested in her food at all, and this was just her morning meal. I have extreme health paranoia so I took her to the emergency vet immediately. They took an ultrasound and did a complete blood panel and found nothing wrong, except for slightly elevated ALT levels (170 ish I believe). They gave her fluids and anti nausea.
Two weeks after this, I took her to her normal vet because she still was having some appetite issues. The ALT was still elevated and my vet said if it’s just inflammation it’s normal and should go back down. My vet suspected gastroenteritis and gave me some antacids (I forgot the name). I did this and her appetite and activity returned to normal after vomiting up a hairball.
Two weeks later I took her back for a recheck, and her ALT levels were now in the 400s. The vet said to do a URI PCR panel and she came back positive for two bacterial infections, one of them was bortedella and the other was mycoplasma, which the vet said could cause increased ALT and ASP which were both high, so he gave me a 6 week course of doxycycline and also denamarin to keep her liver in check. She was a whole different cat! She was more cuddly and vocal and wanted to play and followed me around so much more.
Just two days ago I took her in again, and her ALT levels were still elevated at around 400 but her ASP and ALP levels were back to normal on the combination of doxycycline and denamarin. I took her in because I was going to be leaving for a week and wanted to make sure she would be ok with the cat sitter while I’m gone. The vet this time said that they would send out for also FeLV and FIV just to make sure she was clear, but she did test negative and had her immunizations when I got her from the shelter. She has been acting completely normal- healthy appetite, playful, grooms herself, uses the litter box (although she does have pretty soft stools which I suspect is from the antibiotic)
I was reading literature and it says that doxycycline can cause elevated ALT levels, and I suspect that the denamarin is just keeping the ALT levels where it was before starting the doxycycline and not bringing it back down, but I haven’t looked into it yet, I was going to bring it up to the vet when I take her back in in January, she will completed her 6 week course of doxycycline and he suggested I continue the denamarin indefinitely until her levels come back down if they ever do. I’m currently kind of freaking out since FeLV and FIV were mentioned and the vet said she might need a biopsy if we can’t figure it out.
I was just wondering if anyone had any insight at all about this?
I’ve been lurking this forum since my cat started having some issues but it’s such a long story so I thought I’d make a new thread and see if anyone has any insight.
I adopted Ivy in August when I moved for graduate school (I’m trying to earn my doctorate in chemistry), I purchased pet insurance and also have support from my family and my partner. She was a stray that was taken in and when I got her she was very shy but now she’s a massive cuddle bug and laying on my lap sleeping right now. She’s around 1 year and 9 months currently.
She has a very healthy appetite so back in November I noticed she didn’t seem to be interested in her food at all, and this was just her morning meal. I have extreme health paranoia so I took her to the emergency vet immediately. They took an ultrasound and did a complete blood panel and found nothing wrong, except for slightly elevated ALT levels (170 ish I believe). They gave her fluids and anti nausea.
Two weeks after this, I took her to her normal vet because she still was having some appetite issues. The ALT was still elevated and my vet said if it’s just inflammation it’s normal and should go back down. My vet suspected gastroenteritis and gave me some antacids (I forgot the name). I did this and her appetite and activity returned to normal after vomiting up a hairball.
Two weeks later I took her back for a recheck, and her ALT levels were now in the 400s. The vet said to do a URI PCR panel and she came back positive for two bacterial infections, one of them was bortedella and the other was mycoplasma, which the vet said could cause increased ALT and ASP which were both high, so he gave me a 6 week course of doxycycline and also denamarin to keep her liver in check. She was a whole different cat! She was more cuddly and vocal and wanted to play and followed me around so much more.
Just two days ago I took her in again, and her ALT levels were still elevated at around 400 but her ASP and ALP levels were back to normal on the combination of doxycycline and denamarin. I took her in because I was going to be leaving for a week and wanted to make sure she would be ok with the cat sitter while I’m gone. The vet this time said that they would send out for also FeLV and FIV just to make sure she was clear, but she did test negative and had her immunizations when I got her from the shelter. She has been acting completely normal- healthy appetite, playful, grooms herself, uses the litter box (although she does have pretty soft stools which I suspect is from the antibiotic)
I was reading literature and it says that doxycycline can cause elevated ALT levels, and I suspect that the denamarin is just keeping the ALT levels where it was before starting the doxycycline and not bringing it back down, but I haven’t looked into it yet, I was going to bring it up to the vet when I take her back in in January, she will completed her 6 week course of doxycycline and he suggested I continue the denamarin indefinitely until her levels come back down if they ever do. I’m currently kind of freaking out since FeLV and FIV were mentioned and the vet said she might need a biopsy if we can’t figure it out.
I was just wondering if anyone had any insight at all about this?
