Elevated ALT 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! :) |
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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? |
I bought a male that had a slightly elevated ALT at 1 1/2 when I had his teeth cleaned. By the time he was 2 yrs. he had a full fledged liver shunt. I sincerely hope this will not be the case for you but I think I would have him rechecked again in 6 months to see if he has decreased or increased his number. |
Thanks for the quick replies. He has no symptoms like shaking or GI upset. He is quite energetic most times, even today after his neutering. His WBC was 9.91, and RBC was 9.12. They attributed the elevated RBC to dehydration from not being able to eat/drink before the neutering, and he had IV fluids throughout the day to try to correct this. I sure hope this doesn't point to liver shunt... He received two vaccines about 2-3 weeks ago. |
One more question I thought of- would the high ALT be a reason to feed any less protein than I already do? Sully is on Canidae and Innova right now. |
First of all I hope Sully is recovering nicely from his procedure. What I would suggest is to wait until Sully has recovered from the neutering and then take him in for a full blood panel and full liver panel. Because the ALT #'s were high does not necessarily mean problems, but you do need to have full blood panels and liver profiles on record for future reference. I would suggest this for all yorkies as part of their health screening. |
I agree...When he recovers, take him in for full blood panel and CBC and bile acid test. No fasting is required for a bile acid test. |
Thank you for the suggestions. He has to have blood drawn in September for a heartworm test, so maybe that would be an ideal time to do more blood chemistry tests? P.S. He seems to be doing well after the surgery. Just sleeping a lot today! :) |
The vet put my male on Science Diet L/D and he did quite well on that up until this spring. He started to develop kidney stones and he just had surgery to remove the stones and they re-routed his urine to come out between his legs like a female. He has recovered quite well from that surgery and I am hoping this will be an end to his problems. I agree with the others that it may be worth your while to get another blood panel and bile acid test after he has recuperated. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your little furbaby. |
Sometimes when they pup wiggles during a blood draw, the needle is shaken and causes the ALT to raise. Follow-up with a full blood panel and see if there is a difference. Warmly, Deborah |
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