Liver Enzymes!

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AngelinaL

Forums Regular
Haley has been battling an issue with her liver for months. Her ALT shot up to 749 in September. She just wasn't her spunky self. I took Haley to a new vet who specializes in internal medicine. After blood tests, urine, another ultrasound, X-rays, lower protein kibble, a month of Clavamox and Ursodiol, I'm very happy to report that her ALT dropped to 257. And her GGT is 11. Vet recommended another 60 days of the Ursodiol and a follow up in her office in two months. Hooray!

She is definitely feeling better. I found a half chewed tube of Petrodex, she snagged off the counter. She had a toothpaste treat while I was at work. Perhaps she was celebrating!

Here she is at the specialist's office yesterday. She was enthralled with the calico kitty in the kitty carrier.
 

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Those are amazing results! How old is Haley? I don't recall.

Bacca's ALT is at now at 319, after months of Hepato Support (Milk Thistle). I think the highest his ALT got was 641. Bacca is now just over 3.5 years old.

I must ask my vet about Urosidial. I've never heard of it before.

For long term, you might want to consider the Milk Thistle for maintenance.

Folk on the forum: The more I read about this, the more I discover that liver issues and hypothyroidism are a bigger issue for Shelties than you think.

The problem is that the symptom tend to stay dormant until they older and then get attributed to "old age". Not so!

So I put out a question to the forum: should our pups get periodic bloodwork in order to proactively diagnose these illnesses or wait for the symptoms to show up?
 
Bambi, my foster, had that problem too. She's about 4. Her ALT went up to 1600+ (off the charts!!) and an ultrasound showed that her gall bladder or duct was blocked and she was prescribed SAMe, milk thistle and ursofalk. And of course 3 different antibiotics to fight off whatever crazy infections she had in her (her WBC was also through the roof).

I do bloodwork once a year on Romeo and Juliet just to be sure everything's ok. Romeo's turned out just fine at the last one. Juliet's kidney readings were on the low side. I'd rather know and take preemptive measures than wait for it to blow up before fixing it. And we all know how well dogs hide their problems!!
 
Ursodiol

Hooray for Haley. Continued good health to her.

My sheltie Seamus was on ursodiol for 8 months for liver and gall bladder disease. He was on a mix of cocktails. Ursodiol is a hydrophile bile acid used in the treatment of liver disease, hepititis and toxic injury.

Seamus died last month but more importantlly he outlived his diagnosis by almost nine months. By the time that his diagnosis was confirmed he was already in liver failure. I don't tell you this to make you sad, rather to show that these drugs plus Dr. Dodds diet can do wonders for quality of life.

Packaged, dry kibble or wet is so much garbage to our shelties, in my opinion. Too much protein can be a determent to their well being.

I do recommend yearly blood tests to determine the state of our shelties liver and gall bladder since this disease can be deadly and shows little or no symptoms until it is too late. Liver and gall bladder disease is more prevalent among our shelties than any other breed.

I am so happy for you and Haley and over the moon with joy for her good diagnosis and test results. Key in Dr. Dodds liver disease diet on the website and buy her books. You can learn more from her than almost anyone about the ins and outs of a healthy doggie.

My tri girl, Harper Lee continues on the Dr. Dodds diet as a preventative and got a clean bill of health from the vet last week.

Best,
Kate
 
BarbV said:
.The problem is that the symptom tend to stay dormant until they older and then get attributed to "old age". Not so!

So I put out a question to the forum: should our pups get periodic bloodwork in order to proactively diagnose these illnesses or wait for the symptoms to show up?
Click to expand...

Glad to hear Haley is doing so well.

I have say this before but I do baseline blood work(CBC and Chem) on my dogs aorund 6 months of age or so. This lets me know that everything is ok going forward and if there is an issue I know what the values once were. For dogs under 7-8yrs, I do cbc and chem once a year and after 8yrs every 6 months.

I also do a thyroid panel at about 1.5 yrs then every 2 years until they are around 8 yrs and after that only if signs warranted.

I also recommend an ultrasound of the liver for any shelties with elevated liver enzymes because of the mucocele issue in our breed.

I truely believe in proactive bloodwork. My first dog, lab was diagnosed with CAH at 9 yrs and lived to be 14yrs(beyond avg. life span of breed) and my JRT mix I diagnosed with chronic kidney failure and she lived 2.5yrs(avg survival is 6 months post diagnosis) to 15 yrs. The sooner you catch things the more successful the treatment.
 
Praying for Haley's continued, renewed good health.

By the way, Haley is a beautiful sheltie.

Please continue to update us on how she is doing. Thanks.
 
Her last ultrasound only showed some "sludge" around her gall bladder. This specialist told me Shetland Sheepdogs have one of the highest incidence gallbladder mucoceles.

http://www.assa.org/documents/Gallbladderarticle-webmarch2011.pdf
Click to expand...

Dr. Shelli told me of the Gallbladder Muscoceles in Shelties as well when Chandler was sick.

Happy to hear you have seen such a great improvement in her.

I should add, I do blood and urine tests yearly on all the dogs I have had and after 7 every 6 mos. If there are any issues of course additional testing is done where needed. I like Dr. Shelli's idea about the thyroid tests and will do as she has recommended on my next pup. ( No none in my future yet!)
 
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Elevated Liver values

Hi All,

Thank you for this invaluable info. My doggie Frankie just got back his blood tests with elevated liver values but no other symptoms - no fever, etc - but he is not himself and this all sounds like what you are all describing. This seemed to come out of the blue - he just all of a sudden seemed blah, seemed to be drinking more water, seemed to loose the pep in his step, was a little stiff - he has had all the other tests - lyme, urine, and those are all normal. The only other thing I could think of was that I changed him from Taste of the Wild - Salmon - to Orijen - when the Taste of the Wild was recalled about three weeks ago. Could this higher protein diet be the cause or a cause?

He is having an ultra sound on Wednesday and further bile testing and blood if that shows nothing. I also put him on Denamarin for now to give his liver some support but am open to learning about other supplements - I know milk thistle is one you suggest and is this a more homepathic version of Denamarin?

Any comments any of you have would be helpful - as well as your wonderful warm thoughts and prayers for my guy - Frankie is my everything and it makes me crazy that I don't know what is ailing him. :uhoh:

Thank you - and my prayers to all of you who are dealing with this same thing. I didn't realize the liver was such an issue for Shelties but it seems to be so and I keep asking my vet about the food and high protein and they say feed him less of it but I am wondering if there is more to this.

Thank you again and hugs to you all and your beautiful special pups!:hugs
 
Bacca is BOTH hypo-thyroid and "liver-challenged".

About once or twice per year, he goes into a low cycle where his energy is at a low. But because this normally occurs when heat and humidity is high, and because of his dual conditions, I'm never sure which med might be out of whack.

Yesterday, I would have said that it was time to bring him back for testing. However, this morning, Bacca woke up early and was full of zoomies from 6:00 a.m. onwards.

But now, at 8:30 p.m. he is flaked on my bed.

Up to know, I've relied on milk thistle, reduced protein diet and thyro meds for Bacca. As you say....more homepathic.

I've always assumed that more intrusive intervention would come for him eventually. This may be sooner than later.

I share your pain. Bacca is only 4 years old so it is difficult to decide next steps.
 
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