MURPHY'S 2ND DAY HOME

Well, she has been home since yesterday morning. My vet emailed me her labs from last weekend, and I have no idea what these are, so I thought I would jot them down for anyone who can interpret:

BUN: 40 (high)
CREATININE: 0.8
BUN/CREATININE RATIO: 50
GLUCOSE 317
AMYLASE: 1573
LIPASE: 239
URINE SPECIFIC GRAVITY: 1.004
PROTEIN: 2+
GLUCOSE STRIP: 3+
OCCULT BLOOD: 2+

 

Without the norma; ranges for the lab it is difficult to interpret the values. However, it the urine specific gravity (USG) really 1.004? That is very very low. Normally it should be greater than 1.040. A somewhat low USG could be due if Murphy was on IV fluids since you did not list the CREATININE as being high but the 1.004 seems too low. A low USG like 1.004 typically means severe kidney insufficiency. The urine dipstick protein reading of 2+ also points to a kidney problem. The specific gravity of water is 1.000. Does/did Murphy have a kidney infection?

 

I believe she did because she had a high fever when I took her in. Isn't the USG the serum sugar in her urine? Regardless, hopefully, as I have heard cases worse than this, she won't get worse. She's never had kidney problems before, so I'm not sure. But, all I know is this all was disregarded by her previous vet last year, these numbers kept creeping up and he did nothing.

L & M

 

One thing that has always bothered me is why vets don't look at lipase and amylase? These are identifiers for kidney/diabetes issues? I never understood this?

 

The USG is the density of the urine. The higher the value better the kidneys concentrate the urine and less extra water is in the urine and thus water is needed in diet/subq.

 

No amylase and lipase are pancreatic enzymes. They tend to be unreliable in cats--almost all of my cats have had elevated amylase levels but only one has been diabetic.

Is that all of the lab testing that they did? If so, they've missed out on a lot of good information to have. It's pretty meager testing.

 

Oh, no, this was an entire host of panels they did, I'm just pointing out the obvious diabetic labs.

 

ms murphy - I have "normal" lab ranges for many of these results since I made a copy of my cat's bloodwork, and most of murphy's tests were also done for Stinky... The lab was Antech Diagnostics, if that means anything to anyone. Let me know if you want me to post them.

 

Yep, Murphy's internist used Antech, and I trust them, totally. Okay, situation today. Murphy is not acting "weird" per se, but after I gave her breakfast this a.m., she gets very sleepy. She's been up several times today, as was looking out the window for quite a while, I played with her - of course, with her asthma, she needs coaxing to play, but she did play. I see her sleeping, and she has developed a horrible case of neuropathy, twitching in her sleep, she cannot get comfy, and it's so bothering me. And, the sleeping all day, well, she is hyperglycemic, but her internist wants to see if by not giving her the 1 unit tonight, it brings her out of her little sleepiness. She glucose may be getting lower than she's used to. Then, I'm to give it to her tomorrow morning and bring her in for monitoring tomorrow morning. I'm assuming that twitching is part of the neuropathy, it is mostly in her little front paws, and her ears and sometimes her little face twitches. Any thoughts?

 

all my cats have the "twitchies" when they are in a deep sleep. so I think this is normal. neuropathy is something totally different