Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Silvia Maldonado — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 01:07:12 GMT

Keep it touch and let us know if there is any finding. Quite interesting case

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Hannah Donovan — Sat, 13 Jun 2015 10:31:34 GMT

Thank you all for your help,

She had ANOTHER seizure like episode, most of the other kittens have now gone to their new homes, she has increased from 0.62kg-0.76kg now and looks totally normal, on neuro exam I performed, she also seemed totally normal (I was thinking of ruling in/out cerebellar hypoplasia, neuro origin, etc).

I spoke to the lab and he said if she was difficult to get the blood sample from, then this can cause the CK to rise like this.

So, the next step we decided was the Bile Acids test, thank you for that advice, and we will see what we get, just to totally rule in or out, hepatic causes.

The only thing is, the second episode was also associated with the owner coming home, but the kittens had food left out for them, so the fosterer assumes she had eaten, but she did play for about an hour.Then it happened. It is described as front legs stiffening, back legs paddling, bushy tail, hissing and spitting and growling but no urination or defecation, and not unconscious, but not in the normal mentation. ??

Still a mystery but hopefully will have more answers soon,

Thank you again,

Hannah

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Lucy Fleming — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 09:30:06 GMT

How little/ runty is she? Congenital hypothyroidism might be one (extremely rare and probably very unlikely) possibility?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1098612X10000355

http://www.jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1144/1566

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2644727/

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Virginia Campbell — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 00:23:31 GMT

[quote user="Rory Bell"]

perhaps it'd be worthwhile for the minder to feed the kitten separately for a few days to ensure an adequate plane of nutrition?

[/quote]

++1., or even separate the kitten entirely for a bit. Particularly since the litter gobble the food up - it's easy to imagine the runt being bullied off the food. If you separate her out you'll be able to have a better look at the poo as well as feed intake - harder to do when there are several kittens mashing poo into the litter tray. If slushy poo then faecal sample - you can get a smorgasbord of giardia/coccidia/various other poor-kitten-squashing bugs out of the poo sometimes.

If it dies consider post mortem samples to check for panleukopenia- they don't always look like parvo pups - some just wallow along being poor kittens for a while then die without ever having much in the way of GIT signs, or vomit/D+ rather briefly and unspectacularly before dying and fairly often you can get a kitten or two in a litter die whilst the others do well. You can use the dog parvo snap tests in cats but they're not terribly accurate.

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Rory Bell — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 21:59:32 GMT

Hannah

Good points in both replies above, and I completely agree with Kate's post. Was reading your post while Kate was presumably typing her reply, so not sure I have much to add. The CK is perhaps a little higher than I would normally expect for a young cat, but it's a little subjective because young cats will have increased CK relative to adult reference ranges. It (the increased CK) be related to the recent episode of collapse depending on how recent that was. Apologies if you've already thought of this (only mentioning it because it ws not stated in your post) but is this cat's worming protocol up to date; and perhaps it'd be worthwhile for the minder to feed the kitten separately for a few days to ensure an adequate plane of nutrition?

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Kate Richardson — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 21:46:08 GMT

CK is a muscle enzyme, so it could be secondary to the increased muscle activity- it usually rises and falls quickly unless sustained increased muscle activity (but this is only a mild increase- it can go into the 1000's easily)- AST can be measured as another muscle marker, usually slower to increase and to fall. It may be elevated in a kitten due to growth and sec to this funny episode, so I wouldn't be too concerned at this stage, if signs have resolved.

Equally I wouldn't be alarmed about the ALKP, bone activity (ie growth) most likely accounts for this.

The remaining changes are likely all age related.

If you are concerned re poor growth, then a dynamic bile acids will help you rule out a shunt, but seems unlikely.

May have been an odd hypoglycaemic episode as you suggest, or an isolated neurological episode- I think I would watch and wait and see, but run DBA in mean time if you or the owner are keen to rule a shunt out, but as suggested, would expect this to be feeding related, however cats don't read the book!

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Catriona MacIntyre — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 21:29:09 GMT

Hi Hannah

I wouldn't worry too much about a small rise in ALL in a youngster as I think it could be related to bone growth. The CK I'm not sure on. I don't think you could rule out a shunt from these bloods. A bike acid stimulation test might prove useful. I think another test is blood ammonia but that needs blood on ice and very rapid testing. I would usually expect the funny turns to happen after food rather than before. As far as I remember one of the puppies I saw with a shunt was small but very active.

I've never seen a PSS in a kitten and only a couple in dogs, so I'm no great expert. There may be other possibilities like toxo (not sure about age though), Neuro problems e.g. cerebellar etc

Re: Kitten blood results - any cause for concern?

Hannah Donovan — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 20:19:08 GMT

Any ideas or help?

What does the increased CK indicate? Along with the Alk Phos?

Thank you,

Hannah