What does the term Hepatic mean?

Our question this week was:

Dr. Debra – my vet said my cat that may have some hepatic issue. I don’t have a lot of education – I got my GED – didn’t even finish high school and I was a bit intimidated to ask. She is 12-years-old and got some routine blood work done and this is what he said when I picked her up. She seems healthy.

Jilly H.

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email. You wrote asking what the term “hepatic” means. I’m glad you asked. Please ask your vet questions too. This is a medical term and medical terminology really its own language. I would not expect you to know what hepatic means.

Hepatic is a term that refers to “the liver”. I am guessing there must have been an elevated liver value on the blood work and your vet made some comment about it.

Give your vet a call and find out how they interpret this. Was it one value, more than one, what do they recommend? If your cat is doing well – they may want to repeat the blood work at some time.

An article that might be helpful to you is Understanding Blood Work: The Biochemical Profile for Cats. This explains the different parts of some routine blood tests.

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra

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