Cat has VERY high ALT, AST, CPK, liver disease, but nothing works, HELP!

My cat has 860 alt, 200 ast, 740 cpk.  He has been on predinisone 2 weeks, retested and no change.  Before he was on Baytril 34mg 1x per day for two weeks, no change after liver panel.

He is 14, and now they want to cut out part of his liver via laproscope, or surgical incision.  ANY help would be appreciated.

Has anyone had a cat present like this?

Thanks,

I've not had a cat with liver disease myself, so would be remiss if I tried to offer any suggestions other than to work with your vet. I know enough about liver disease to say remain very serious about it. The liver is a very sensitive organ and damage to it can be difficult to reverse. What does your vet say about his condition and what are they trying to achieve with the biopsy? If they suspect cancer, then antibiotics would have no effect on it.

With values so high, the only thing you can do is stay very close to your vet and understand what they suspect and why they are offering various treatments. Keep asking questions, and challenge them if they are not answering you in a way that makes sense to you.

to get you through this.

I would go for an ultrasound scan before any sort of surgery.  It's non-invasive, safer for the cat and a good operator can spot what sort of state the liver is in, if there are any growths and if both lobes are affected.

Roger has had Ultrasound to start with.  It was clear.

My cat Alex had Triaditis, fatty liver, pancreatitis and IBD. I would do the ultrasound before an endoscopy but please mention Entocort (budesonide) to your vet! It's a steroid that does not need to be filtered by the liver. I wish I had known about it when Alex was alive! It's helped a lot of kitties I know of with severe IBD and liver disease. Also Denamarin, it's all natural and vets usually always recommend that to bring down the values. But please mention the Entocort, it's been a life saver for many kitties.

crossfree,

I'd like to ask you, did your vet do any X-rays and an ultrasound? I mean, a whole body ultrasound which checks the chest cavity, especially the heart for any possible defects, plus the other part, which checks the abdominal cavity and all the organs there. This whole body ultrasound is normally done in two steps, which part is done first is the specialist's choice. If liver function is a concern, the specialist normally starts with the abdominal ultrasound and then goes on to the chest cavity.

It would be important for us to know which of these tests were performed and what the results were.

When it comes to blood work, elevated CPK can be an indication of serious disease, including heart disease, or, the elevated value can simply be the result of a poorly collected blood sample that has no meaning.

Personally, going by my experiences, I would be extremely hesitant to do an invasive liver biopsy on a 14 year old kitty. Quite frankly, I would not want to do it. There are other, much safer ways for a vet to figure out what might be wrong. Ultrasound being one of them. Plus other values in the chemistry profile and CBC.

And, of course, depending on safe, non-invasive test results, there are other medications besides prednisone that can be/should be tried. Complete blood work results (chemistry profile and CBC, plus a urinalysis) would give the necessary guidance to the vet. (Actually, there are liver diseases where prednisone is no help at all.)

any info would help.  He is 14 yrs. old, so I dont want a surgical incision, he is so old.  He has had Bytil 34mg 2 weeks and prednisone for 2 weeks, no change in ALT.

Could cancer cause this?  Small cell lymphoma?

I'm going to ask a moderator to merge your 3 threads on the topic. People are responding to the original you started early this morning.

The Internist is insistant on a laproscopy (scope) or a full surgical incision to take large enough sample to culture, histology, ect.  Baytril had no effect, though it was the third antibiotic used.  The first two, clindamicin made him slow eating by half, and clavamox made him vomit terribly.

His bile acid test came back today, normal.  Perhaps I should see another internist?  My regular vet says this one is the best.  But I can't, in all good conscience, let them cut him open at his age.  Moral, ethical issues, as much as I love him.

Ultrasound was negative, NSL anywhere.  All clear.  Of course, there is small cell lymphoma.

Ultrasound clear, NSL for Roger.

I don't know if you are still dealing with this problem, but my cat had high ALT and I put him on a daily pill of Marin, which is milk thistle.  His ALT started at 328 and 2 months later after getting the marin daily it was 155,.

Cat Advocate: Denamarin same as Marin?

Denamarin is Denosyl and Marin together. 

I guess the Denosyl is the SAM-e component then. Four months of Denamarin pilling and ALT values came in this order: 2171, 532, 335, and then a jump back up to 368 in an otherwise healthy exhibiting cat. Stumped.

My cat's Alk. Phosphatase is 125.

His ALT is 574.

AST is 170.

He's only 3.5 years old and has been listless, but is eating. He just lays there and sighs, just isn't himself. If your cat has any IBD symptoms, go raw. They sell frozen raw patties at Petco. This has helped my cat's poop, though the color is still light.

I ordered Denamarin for my cat to see if that helps, and my vet is going to start him on Veralox on Monday. I feel for you because I'm in the same boat. My cat is also dealing with elevated cardiac enzymes, and like I said, he's only 3.

If your cat's poop is light colored, that's malabsorption syndrome. You need to give B12 injections (only injections will work, not pills) and probiotics.

I wonder why my vet never told me this - I've been complaining to her about his light-colored poop for 3.5 years. Actually, one thing that seems to help is FortiFlora. I plan on trying him on a little plain yogurt too today.

I don't know. I'm not a fan of FortiFlora myself as it contains animal digest which is disgusting. I would go to a health store and get a pure probiotic with no additives at all. Something that's at least 6 billion in healthy bacteria. That would be much better. but the probiotics alone will not help. You need B12 as it is an important component for absorption of nutrients and it HAS to be injection. Pills will only be digested away before it hits the bowels. 

tailzzz24 said:

 
I wonder why my vet never told me this - I've been complaining to her about his light-colored poop for 3.5 years. Actually, one thing that seems to help is FortiFlora. I plan on trying him on a little plain yogurt too today.

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Light colored stools if they are greyish in color can indicate a bile duct problem, as well as malabsorption.