The Icteric Cat: Common Feline Hepatopathies

Kelly Cairns, DVM, MS, DACVIM

Dr. Kelly Cairns, DVM, MS, DACVIM (SAIM), graduated veterinary school from CSU, completed a small animal rotating internship at Cornell, and completed a small animal internal medicine residency at OSU before obtaining her Diplomate status. She enjoyed a rewarding clinical practice as an internist and medical director of a multi-specialty/ER hospital. Today, Dr. Cairns currently serves as Vice President of Medical Excellence and Education for the 400+ hospitals in the Thrive Pet Healthcare family.

Overview:

This lecture will review the most common causes for hepatic disease in the cat including cholangiohepatitis and hepatic lipidosis. Different classes of cholangiohepatitis will be broken down with discussion of pathophysiology, causes, symptoms, diagnostic testing, treatment and prognosis. Hepatic lipidosis will be discussed including pathophysiology, causes, symptoms, diagnostic testing, treatment and prognosis. Main categories of medications used to treat hepatic disease will be reviewed for mechanism of action as well as when each type should be considered based upon the type of hepatic disease that is being treated

Learning Objectives:

To understand basic categories of causes of icterus/hyperbilirubinemia
To understand the pathophysiology, causes, symptoms, diagnostic testing, treatment and prognosis for the different types of cholangiohepatitis
To understand the pathophysiology, causes, symptoms, diagnostic testing, treatment and prognosis for hepatic lipidosis
To understand the rationale behind different classes of medications used to treat different types of hepatic disease in the cat

This course is RACE-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits hours in jurisdictions that accept RACE-approval.