Kim, I'm sorry to read of your cat's difficulties. I'm afraid I can't offer any specific advice or insight on your cat's blood levels, but I can provide you with a link to a page that may offer some useful information.

Hope this helps.

Laurie

Here is a link that might be useful: Understanding veterinary blood tests

Elevated CK is usually an indicator of muscle damage or wasting. Your observation of muscle loss is consistent with an elevated CK. Has your cat's appetite been normal? If he is losing weight despite good appetite, that is usually a sign of a serious underlying disease. BTW, the highest CK level I have personally seen was about 2.5 million. It was a cat with pancytopenia (decreased red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets). She did fine, although the cause of her pancytopenia was never found, and it was her 4th occurance. Weird case. Anyway, one wouldn't try to treat an elevated CK level. You try to find out what is causing the muscle wasting, and treat that.

The thyroid levels are not really all that high. Up to 4.0 is normal. I would not at this point blame the muscle wasting on being hyperthyroid. The thyroid level naturally fluctuates throughout the day; it is most likely that the second sample was simply taken at a peak.

What radiographs were taken (abdominal, thoracic)? What was the reason for the EKG?

Lymphopenia (decreased lymphocyte count) is not a specific finding. Many sick and stressed animals have lymphopenia due to increased cortisol. Some other causes of lymphopenia is cats are FeLV and FIV infection. It is not very useful looking at just the lymphocyte count from a CBC. The entire CBC must be evaluated to obtain any meaning.

Platelet count, if it is real, is concerning. 170,000 is not really normal for a cat anyway, slightly on the low side (200-450k is normal). 40,000 is quite low, but not yet low enough to cause spontaneous bleeding (25,000 is considered the level at which you might spontaneously bleed). But there are labratory methods and errors that can seriously underestimate the platelet count, especially in cats. Platelet clumping is very common in cats, and depending on lab methods and if nobody looked at a direct blood smear, could falsely lower the automated platelet count. Was a platelet estimate also done? If that was adequate, then it was a lab error/clumping issue. If the platelet estimate is also low, then your cat needs to be further evaluated for thrombocytopenia.

Without seeing the rest of the labwork, it is really hard to get an idea of what is going on. We never look at just the abnormal values- the CBC and chemistry only are useful when taken as a whole, and in light of knowing the patient's history and physical exam. Sure, it's fun to speculate, but the person most qualified to answer your questions about your cat's bloodwork is your vet.

Is your vet concerned about the thyroid levels? I've been doing a lot of reading about the subject lately as my IBD/pancreatitis cat had his spike to 3.8 last March (2 years ago it was 2.3). He had a mild change in his symptoms this year and with him it is difficult to tell what the cause is. The vet agreed that when we test in December if he shows again at the high end of normal we will do additional thyroid testing.

There is also something called occult hyperthyroidism. This impacts a small proportino of hyperthyroid cats that have normal or only slightly elevated thyroid concentrations. One possible cause of this is concurrent non-thyroidal illness - also I was told recently by a vet that my cat's prednisolone could also surpress his T4.

It is interesting in Dr Hodgkins recent book that she indicates she has never seen a healthy cat test about 3.5 (confirmed with imaging) nor a healthy older cat testing above 2. She seems to hint that 'older' means over 10 but doesn't really say in this part of the book. I don't know whether she is right or not, but I have read a few sources that say T4 levels should be age adjusted.

Has the vet shown concern about the T4 levels? Has he recommened further testing (i.e. T3 supression test, etc.)??

Regarding Absolute Lyphocyte, I have two cats that normally test low on this. One is the cat I mentioned above - and it could be his prednisolone causing it. But in either case, the vet has not expressed concern about it.

I would recommend talking to your vet about the levels. This is one area where I think we can give various opinions, but it is best to have your own vet involved.

Here is a site that might help regarding thyroid issues:
http://www.gcvs.com/imaging/feline_hyperthyroidism.htm

Like meghane said, the T4 levels could just be normally fluctuating, so good to follow up with your vet.

Sorry I'm not sure about CK levels - from the web it looks like your vet running the heart test was the first initial step to rule out heart problems. However the link also indicated in the absence of heart muscle injury, this is a strong indication of skeletal muscle disease.

Has your vet given any further recommendations?

This link might help. If you go to it and then search on CPK, read the vets response.

Here is a link that might be useful: High CPK levels

What do you feed? Honestly most reg pet foods are garbage and leads to all kinds of health issues. Try Innova EVO,Ziwi Peak or if you must do dry(dry isn't good) use orijen.

I was hoping to find some current suggestions - some of the links in this discussion no longer work. My cat is 10 1/2 and just had her annual visit with a CPK reading of over 66K. Follow up test was done yesterday and it has only come down to a little over 64K, so muscle injury is not the likely cause. Heart enzyme test looked fine, so continuing to do another round of blood tests to search for the cause. If anyone has any current links, I would appreciate seeing them! Thanks, Terri

Have they checked for Toxo or Addisons?