06/22 AMPS 121, PMPS 285, +4.5 138, blood test results

[Amanda & Shmee]

Previous condo

Good morning everyone,
I was not quite sure if I should increase him today since he had to have that 4.25U dose Wednesday. Since he didn't get a full six cycles of the 7U in I decided to keep him on 7 today. Hopefully that was the right move.
My summary and questions about the senior blood panel results are in the condo from yesterday. His liver levels stayed in the normal range without the Denamarin which I was very happen about. The only thing that concerns be is his cholesterol level. It is not high on the IDEAXX scale, but it is high on FDMBs scale and has gone up significantly since his February bloodwork. Someone had suggested that getting the SDMA level would be good, and he is a 9 on a 0-14 scale. To my knowledge this is a good sign for his kidney function, and I need to watch to see if it goes up in the future?

Reply from yesterday:

I sympathize with you. My cat gets extremely terrified in the car & at the vets. My Vet lets me hold Ravan & talk to him which calms him down. (I make sure to trim his nails the day before.) ..... I wonder if there is something the vet can give you to give your kitty before you go to calm him down. It can't be good to let them get so stressed out.

Thanks @JoyBee&Ravan and @Mom2Maverick for your support. I am definitely going to be in the room from now on for blood draws. The vet does give me Gabapetin. I mixed in the powder with a small amount of food, but he only ate about half. I wish I would have made the decision to dry pill him instead with butter and rinse it down, but I did not expect him not to eat the food mixture, especially after fasting all day! I considered still dry pilling him after he ate the food, but he had already eaten half so I didn't want to give him too much.

Happy Friday ​

 

[Amanda & Shmee]

I am also realizing that his Lipase level was high back in February. I am reading this could be from Pancreatitis? The vet did recommend pancreas tests (P1 and T1 or something like that?) but I was told here that the bloodwork for the Acro and IAA was more important so I am a little nervous now. Should I have gotten the pancreas tests too?

Since the cholesterol level is high, I wonder if he should be on a food that is lower in fat content? I organized the catinfo.org chart by fat level, and there aren't many choices that are also low in carb. I do see that Tiki Cat Koolina Luau - chicken (no fish) is 84% protein, 16% fat, 0% carb and Tiki Cat - Koolina Luau - chicken and fish - 82% protein, 18% fat, 0% carb.

I just looked on the Tiki Cat website though and I don't think these flavors are available anymore..

 

[Christie & Maverick]

Hi Amanda, I wouldn't worry about the cholesterol, it's within normal ranges, and from what I have seen here, most FD kitties actually have higher than normal, so Shmee is looking good there. The only thing I'd actually suggest to change with food is to get the phosphorus down, 5.8 is too high, I think it's better to keep that around 4.5.

I'll tag @Marje and Gracie , she has seen and commented on a lot of labs , I'm sure she can advise on some of the other lab results you were wondering about. It may take a few days, I don't know how often Marje checks in.

 

[Carol in Chicago]

I'm no expert on labs, but I would pay big money to see an SDMA at this level. An elevated SDMA is an early indicator for kidney disease. Having it come back within normal range is wonderful. The "take action" number is over 15, so I'm sure having this normal result will be a good baseline going forward. I have found this reference helpful to understand the numbers and next steps.

I agree with @Christie & Maverick on both Phosphorous and Cholesterol.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Shmee's labs are great. The liver values are amazing. SDMA is a cut off so below 14 is happy news. As far as cholesterol and lipase values, they are pretty much irrelevant in cats. At one point, it was thought that elevated lipase was indicative of pancreatitis but that's not accurate at this point. An fPLI is the test that's needed to test for pancreatitis. The phos level is still in normal range as is creatinine. I don't think it would hurt to make sure you're feeding as low a phos food as you can given that diabetes is hard on the kidneys. Being attentive to the phosphorus levels in the foods you're giving Shmee is more preventative at this point.

As far as dosing, with TR, if you change or skip a dose, even if it's only for one cycle, the cycle count starts over. Thus, if nothing else changes today, you might want to increase tomorrow at AMPS since that will be 6 cycles since you dropped the dose on 6/20.

 

[Amanda & Shmee]

Thanks everyone I appreciate the info, I am grateful for his great results overall