My dog's ALT is elevated. Can Denamarin help, and is she okay?

Dahlia will need a follow up blood test because thats the only way to know if the medication is helping. Most pets will have the blood retested 1 month after starting the Denamarin. The medication is safe to use long term. Call the clinic to get an appointment at the 30 day mark since starting the pills. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

My best recommendation to supplement liver function is a supplement called Denamarin. It contains several of the known ingredients we historically used to support liver health all in one supplement. Very often, I observe my patients Liver enzymes decreasing dramatically on this supplement.

Hello, & thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. ALT is an enzyme that is released when liver cells are damaged. The normal values are usually less than 100. Unfortunately, the presence of the enzyme does not indicate the cause or reversibility of the damage, nor does it tell us if this is recent, but temporary damage, or on-going problems with the liver. Toxins, including plants, medications, such as steroids, viruses, & endocrine diseases can all cause increases in ALT. If Kobee is not having any problems, then I would recommend retesting in 6 weeks. If Kobee is sick, there are many more diagnostic tests that can be conducted to try & get to the cause of the problem. Often, we actually never find this out, & dogs do very, very well with moderately elevated values. We actually do not even get concerned until the values are at least 3xs normal, or there are other parameters that are abnormal. If Kobee is well, then all I might recommend is discussing with your vet about putting him on a neutroceutical called Denamarin. It can help with oxidative changes in the liver. I hope he does well. Take care.

ALT is one of the most important liver indicators in dogs and cats. It can also be elevated in dogs and cats when there is significant damage to the muscle, but in general it is thought of as a fairly sensitive marker for some type of liver damage. There are also several other markers for liver disease, so only knowing about the elevations in ALT may be misleading. If ALT was the only marker elevated, this is usually an indication of an inflammatory or infectious disease causing harm to the hepatic system. If you would like to discuss all of the laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging performed by your veterinarian, I would be able to take a closer look at your dog's situation. Let me know if I, or one of the other experts, can help you out in any way.

Acute hepatic intoxication is the main suspicion, considering the signs you reported. Denosyl (SAMe) will protect liver cells from further damage and death and it will certainly help to detoxify the liver. It is important to monitor ALT and AST, but clinical improvement is even more important. So i think that he is already improving, since he is eating and surely he is brighter than onset of the signs. It will take time the intoxication will resolve. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

I would be interested to see what all of these lab results were as it would certainly let me be more helpful, but the liver elevations could be chirossis, hepatitis, or even neoplasia. In the meantime I would start her on Denamarin if she is not already on it, and keep at it with fluid therapy. She may be a good candidate for an exploratory surgery. If you would like, a consult may be a great way for us to go over all of this in depth, and let me collect some more info on her so that I can be more helpful.

Hello. There are many underlying causes for high liver values, some more serious than others. The beauty of our livers is it is the only organ that can heal & regenerate once an insult is removed. I am not sure what your veterinarian hoped to accomplish keeping Lucy over night, but if she is otherwise feeling well, use of the Denamarin & prudent monitoring of the liver values is a good start. It would be helpful to obtain a bile acid assay & abdominal ultrasound to try & get as much information as possible about the liver, but the Denamarin can protect the liver from further oxidative injury. It will not help much if this is cancer, or an active hepatitis or infection, but it has helped to bring the enzyme levels down in some patients. Once you can obtain more detailed information about the liver can you determine how absolutely serious this might be. Stay in contact with your vet & try to follow their recommendations as closely as possible. Hopefully, Lucy will do very well. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.