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My cat has elevated lipase on her CBC: 211 (range: 0-205). Nothing else is out of range, but her amylase is 790 (in a range of(NNN) NNN-NNNN. Is there anything I should do proactively? She's about 5 years old, had hepatic lipidosis 3 years ago, but is happy and healthy and active. She's 12.5 pounds and has maintained this weight since recovery. I would love your thoughts - mostly, do I change her food (royal kanin, wellness, natural balance) to accommodate something? do I watch for signs of something else? Thank you for your thoughts!
Optional Information: Age: 5; Female; Breed: Cat-Mixed Already Tried: No 'symptoms' - just an annual exam with a full CBC that revealed high lipase and elevated amylase. She received her FVRCP immunization that same day - don't know if that would affect the blood test results or if they took blood first, etc.
HiCustomer
Good question! Those pancreatic enzymes that are measured on blood tests aren't as meaningful in cats as they are in dogs, especially lipase. Sometimes an elevated amylase can be an indication of kidney disease, but an elevated lipase, especially a mild increase as with your cat, doesn't mean anything at all.
Since she has had hepatic lipidosis, I would highly recommend a high protein, low carbohydrate (grain-free) food. Most cat foods are full of some type of grain (corn, soy, wheat, rice) which are sources of carbs. Cats are obligate carnivores which means they aren't designed to process a high carb food. Even if the first ingredient on a food is meat, if the next few ingredients include a grain, this is still a high carb food.
The brands I recommend include Wellness Core, Innova Evo, Instinct, Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Indigo Moon, Weruva and Pinnacle Peak Protein. I also recommend feeding canned food (most if not exclusively) to provide enough moisture, which is also important in maintaining health.
Good luck and thanks for your question
Experience: 11yrs in feline-only medicine/surgery.
Thank you very, very much! After I received your answer, I reviewed her past blood tests for a comparison and those previous tests (3-4) don't even list amylase and lipase levels so I'm guessing that this vet (first time she's run a blood test on Puff) just included them while the specialty hospital we went to doesn't as they know precisely what you pointed out...
Food: I currently have her eating the low calorie version of the dry Royal Kanin and Wellness and she eats 1/2 can (1/4 am and pm) of the Natural Balance Tuna and Shrimp wet food. My challenge with Puff is that she is SO picky (which is why the HL onset occurred I believe). No matter what, she won't eat anything else - I worked like heck to get her off of the Fancy Feast cod, sole and shrimp that she was eating when we adopted her...she literally turns her head away and most of the time licks her lips and acts nauseas ... I'm guessing there's a history there prior to our adopting her based on the severity of her reaction (vomiting if she smells other foods (periodically), etc.). OY! All that said, I will DEFINITELY try the other types of foods you recommend - THANK you because I've been looking for a better dry food now that we're getting to the bottom of the mondo bags of the others I named above. All in all, I'm all about healthy animals and whatever is best for them so feel free to throw it at me;-)!
Again - thank you and I apologize for the delayed response. I wanted to do my 'homework' prior to responding just to make sure I didn't have to contact you more than once!
All my best and thanks for being out there!
Jenni