- e-Vet ALERT: Possible Spring Pet Injuries
- We have lost two special animals this past month
- e-Vet ALERT: Valentine dangers to your pet – roses, lilies, raisins, chocolate and more.
- $5 provides a box of Valentine’s cookies for a dog, or a box of heart-shaped treats for a cat
- e-Vet ALERT: Beware Ibuprofen in Dogs
I have a question about…my dog’s increased ALT
I have a Shih Tzu, named Chocolate that is almost 6 years old. When he was 11 months old, he got into some Rimadyl. As part of checking to see if he was okay, they did some bloodwork which came back with him having an ALT 3x normal. After that he was put on Denamarin for a couple years. His ALT would normalize on the Denamarin and he has been on it for the last 3 years or so with a normal ALT.
Last month he had routine bloodwork that revealed an ALT 2x normal. My dog is asymptomatic. The vets are recommending Xray and ultrasound and possibly FNA or biopsy. My question is, would you recommend this?
If so, and they find something wrong, would you treat an asymptomatic dog? Because I know some treatments can have side effects and then my dog would not be asymptomatic anymore.
I don’t want to put him through unnecessary tests and have him feeling bad with medications when he seems perfectly normal now. Thank you for your response and for all that you do for animals.
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I would start back on denamarin or some other S-Adenosylmethionine supplement. I would do an ultrasound to rule out gross abnormalities of the liver. If a tumor is present I would recommend resection. If there is no tumor I would monitor the ALT.