Hello.
Thank you so much. Totally agree, these are challenging cases and the decision making can be difficult. Many will do well with antibiotics, hepatoprotection and supportive care. Much of the decision making will depend on imaging too. If there seems to be disease in the GI tract and pancreas too, I will often be more proactive at taking biopsies. If there is any sign of significant biliary tract obstruction, them may also be more immediate surgical candidates. There is not a definitive answer as how long to wait before GA. Sometimes they are still sick when they go for GA. I am happy to send them for GA if cardiovascular system stable and blood pressure normal.
Regarding the immunophenotyping, it is something that can be done on some FNA tissue and sometimes on blood. It depends very much on the individual lab. I would contact the lab you use and they should have a list of typing and staining they are able to do.
Hope that helps.
Scott 🙂
Regarding the cats with weight loss. The answer might be yes! I definitely will run cobalamin folate and fPL in most of my cases. TLI might depend a bit on signs, but not all cats will display classic signs of diarrhoea. Any case with more chronic signs, I would definitely run all of these.
