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- Sep 10, 2013
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I'm trying to decide if I should get an ultrasound examination for my cat, Clyde, who has some form of liver disease.
Clyde was born in April 1997, so he's about 16.5 years old now.
Almost a year ago he had elevated liver enzymes on a senior blood panel. Everything else was okay, including thyroid, blood cell counts, etc. Just the liver seems to have problems.
Since then I've had a total of three blood panels and the liver enzymes (especially ALT) have been higher every time. Supposed to be up to about 76 (don't know the units, might be mmol/L???) and he was at around 500 the first time, then 700+ eight months ago, and now 1400+ just recently. Again, most other values are considered acceptable or borderline, so only the liver enzymes are severely elevated.
He has also had a couple of x-rays, which were not remarkable. The liver looks normal on x-ray.
He has been on 2.5mg/day of prednisolone for about 10 months.
Now the vet is encouraging me to get an ultrasound of the liver. It's about $600. If I believed he could be cured, I would do it without hesitation, but in a cat of this age, I am very skeptical that the vet will be able to do anything, even if the problem is diagnosed. Or, even worse, the ultrasound may show nothing unusual and would then be a waste of money.
Clyde's behavior is fairly normal. He is active, playful, eats (not a lot, but he eats fairly consistently), and uses his litter box fairly regularly. The only way I would realize something is wrong is because of the blood test, and he has lost some weight. So his quality of life is okay at this point.
I'm really not sure what to do. I'm kind of thinking I should just keep him happy and see how he does. Clearly his liver is a serious problem, but all the information I can find suggest that it's unlikely anything truly meaningful can be done about it. It could be managed, and that's a big maybe, but doubtful it can be cured.
What would you do?
(By the way, this isn't really about the money for me. I could spend the $600 and it wouldn't really affect my life one way or the other, but at the same time I don't want to waste money if it's unlikely to help him. The procedure is also unpleasant for the cat, and I believe they have to shave him. I'd rather spare him the trauma if it's not useful in this situation.)
Thank you for your comments....
Clyde was born in April 1997, so he's about 16.5 years old now.
Almost a year ago he had elevated liver enzymes on a senior blood panel. Everything else was okay, including thyroid, blood cell counts, etc. Just the liver seems to have problems.
Since then I've had a total of three blood panels and the liver enzymes (especially ALT) have been higher every time. Supposed to be up to about 76 (don't know the units, might be mmol/L???) and he was at around 500 the first time, then 700+ eight months ago, and now 1400+ just recently. Again, most other values are considered acceptable or borderline, so only the liver enzymes are severely elevated.
He has also had a couple of x-rays, which were not remarkable. The liver looks normal on x-ray.
He has been on 2.5mg/day of prednisolone for about 10 months.
Now the vet is encouraging me to get an ultrasound of the liver. It's about $600. If I believed he could be cured, I would do it without hesitation, but in a cat of this age, I am very skeptical that the vet will be able to do anything, even if the problem is diagnosed. Or, even worse, the ultrasound may show nothing unusual and would then be a waste of money.
Clyde's behavior is fairly normal. He is active, playful, eats (not a lot, but he eats fairly consistently), and uses his litter box fairly regularly. The only way I would realize something is wrong is because of the blood test, and he has lost some weight. So his quality of life is okay at this point.
I'm really not sure what to do. I'm kind of thinking I should just keep him happy and see how he does. Clearly his liver is a serious problem, but all the information I can find suggest that it's unlikely anything truly meaningful can be done about it. It could be managed, and that's a big maybe, but doubtful it can be cured.
What would you do?
(By the way, this isn't really about the money for me. I could spend the $600 and it wouldn't really affect my life one way or the other, but at the same time I don't want to waste money if it's unlikely to help him. The procedure is also unpleasant for the cat, and I believe they have to shave him. I'd rather spare him the trauma if it's not useful in this situation.)
Thank you for your comments....