Ah, those liver enzymes... sometimes they are up when you don't expect them to be. Sometimes they're up a bit... but not that much, so you don't know if it's actually significant. Or sometimes they're way out of whack, but you're not sure what that means exactly, or what to do next.

In this episode, Small Animal Medicine Specialist, RCVS Course Director and clinical reasoning guru Prof Jill Maddison helps us take a fresh look at  liver enzymes. We review what each enzyme tells us in dogs and in cats, how to interpret changes in both the 'well' patient with the surprise finding on bloods, and in the sick patient, and Prof Jill clears up common misconceptions and pitfalls around ALP, ALT, GGT, and bile acids.

This clinical episode has been unlocked for you by Vetnostics Pathology, one of the largest veterinary pathology groups in Australia with the most veterinary pathologists and veterinary medicine consultants. Vetnostics is the new nationally aligned name of what used to the SVS Pathology Network ( (Vetnostics NSW/ACT, Vetpath Laboratory Services WA/NT, ASAP Laboratory Vic , QMLVetnostics Qld/NNSW and TML Vetnostics Tas), with a new consolidated website (www.vetnostics.com), but the same exceptional quality diagnostics, same extensive courier network and same veterinary pathologists and veterinary medicine consultants on other the end of the phone or email to talk you through any tricky results and cases. 

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Episode Topics and Timestamps

05:01 ALT and ALP: Detailed Analysis

05:40 Challenges in Diagnosing Liver Disease

06:40 Liver Enzymes in Cats vs. Dogs

20:44 Bile Acids and Liver Function

26:51 Pre-Anaesthetic Liver Checks

36:35 Understanding Cholangitis in Cats

36:53 The Complexity of Diagnosing Liver Disease

37:45 The Role of Blood Tests in Wellness Checks

38:11 Interpreting Reference Ranges

40:53 Case Studies: Real-World Examples

42:05 The Challenges of Wellness Screening

44:21 The Importance of Biopsies

55:14 Biases in Diagnosis