Friday, January 17, 2014

bloodwork 1/16/14

Phenobarb level done by Antech - for a ridiculous price of $140, when it could have been done for $70 at Hemopet.  Result was 23, which is good and pretty much his regular level.  Therapeutic blood levels are 15 to 45.

Bloodwork was done in office, which I'm not crazy about, but compared to what Antech charges for it's basic bloodwork, it didn't matter much.  I haven't been getting the Keppra levels done at Auburn for the last year or so because I thought that they were doing it in order to help establish the feline levels for the drug.  Apparently not; every report included levels based on the human numbers.

Here's the report:

ALB      3.9       range - 2.2-4.4
ALP      27        range - 10-90
ALT      153*    range - 20-100
AMY     819     range - 300-1100
TBIL      0.3      range - 0.1-0.6
BUN      23       range - 10-30
CA++    9.3      range - 8.0-11.8
PHOS   4.0       range - 3.4-8.5
CREA   1.2       range - 0.3-2.1
GLUC   102      range - 70-150
NA+      140*   range - 142-164
K+         3.7      range - 3.7-5.8
TP         6.9       range - 5.4-8.2
GLOB   3.0       range - 1.5-5.7

QC    OK
HEM 0, LIP 0, ICT 0

I was expecting the ALT, which is always elevated because of the phenobarbital, to be even high than normal, because for the last month or so, he hasn't been getting the Marin twice a day.  The company is no longer making the Marin tablets, and the "sprinkles" which have replaced them aren't appropriate for a cat who's as reluctant an eater as Milk is.  I bought a liquid milk thistle, and got suggestions from Cody, a friend on the Feline EpiKitty Board as to dosage, but for some reason, I can't bring myself to give it to him.  I was avoiding starting him on Denosyl because it's so expensive, but maybe that's the only resource.

Other than the bloodwork, the vet felt that he weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces.  I have this wonderful and terribly expensive Japanese scale that Hope sent me a couple years ago, and the cats NEVER weigh the same at home as they do at the vets.  I haven't weigh Milk at home for several weeks, so I'm not arguing about this one, but I'm not sure I agree with 9 pounds, 6 ounces.

Still some indications of conjunctivitis, although his eyes are so much better than they were before I started giving him the tetracycline drops that the emergency hospital gave BooWeenie.   Other than the eye stuff, he doesn't really have any leftover stuff from the horrible epidemic of 2013.

Poor little cat is absolutely catatonic from the minute I put him in the carrier.  I guess we should be grateful that he only has to go to the vet every six months..........