|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
07-08-2008, 09:16 AM | #1 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 128
| 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!
__________________ Sully & Becky Official Member of the Little Gentlemen's Club and the Spoiled Rotten Club! |
Welcome Guest! | |
07-08-2008, 09:27 AM | #2 | |
And Rylee Finnegan Donating Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Metro Detroit, MI
Posts: 17,928
| Quote:
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?
__________________ Crystal, Ellie May (RIP), Rylee Finnegan, and Gracie Boo🐶 Last edited by Ellie May; 07-08-2008 at 09:28 AM. | |
07-08-2008, 09:29 AM | #3 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: South Dakota
Posts: 60
| 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. |
07-08-2008, 09:50 AM | #4 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 128
| 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.
__________________ Sully & Becky Official Member of the Little Gentlemen's Club and the Spoiled Rotten Club! |
07-08-2008, 11:41 AM | #5 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 128
| 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.
__________________ Sully & Becky Official Member of the Little Gentlemen's Club and the Spoiled Rotten Club! |
07-08-2008, 11:58 AM | #6 |
Donating YT 10K Club Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Alabama
Posts: 17,674
| 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. |
07-08-2008, 12:06 PM | #7 |
Donating YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: USA
Posts: 7,178
| 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.
__________________ Miko 's his Mommy |
07-08-2008, 12:13 PM | #8 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 128
| 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!
__________________ Sully & Becky Official Member of the Little Gentlemen's Club and the Spoiled Rotten Club! |
07-08-2008, 03:36 PM | #9 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: South Dakota
Posts: 60
| 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. |
07-08-2008, 05:29 PM | #10 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Petaluma
Posts: 2,217
| 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
__________________ Peace and Light, Deborah My Sweet Sophie 1994-2007Welcome, Charlie Barley 4.14.07 & Sofia Bella 9.13.08 http://www.dogster.com/dogs/535291 |
Bookmarks |
|
|
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart