Thread: Elevated ALT
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Old 07-08-2008, 09:27 AM   #2
Ellie May
And Rylee Finnegan
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Location: Metro Detroit, MI
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Originally Posted by beckyk0031 View Post
Hi everyone,
Sully was neutered yesterday, and his pre-surgery bloodwork showed that he had a mildly elevated ALT. It was 104, and the vet said a normal range is 10-100. She also said that since it is such a mild elevation, we shouldn't be too concerned about it and that since he is still young (just turned one year old) that it usually evens out with age. Do any of you have experience with this being elevated?

I know that this is a liver enzyme and that elevation of it usually means some damage of liver cells, but just am wondering if such a minimal elevation is cause for concern.

I would appreciate any info you guys can share!
It is concerning because elevated ALT could point to liver shunt/MVD.
If there are no symptoms you probably have nothing to worry about (especially since it is a mild elevation) but if it were my dog, I'd do a bile acid test. If you decide to do this, make sure you don't give any meds (including heartworm) for about 2 weeks before or it could skew the results. You could just do nothing and recheck the ALT in a month but I usually take the safer (and more expensive) route of extra diagnostics.

How was his CBC?
ALT can go up due to kidney infection (which isn't likely in this case). When were his last vaccines? Those are hard on the liver.

Does he show any symptoms like excessive urination, GI upset, shaking after eating, lethargy?
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Last edited by Ellie May; 07-08-2008 at 09:28 AM.
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