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My dog has high ALT, but vets can't find the cause. What now?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

What are causes of elevated ALT? My dog was discharged from the hospital yesterday after an almost week long stay with beginning ALT of 2200 and yesterday it was around 500. The vets could not find the cause after extensive testing. Its not liver cancer, tick diseases or heart related. Any ideas?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jeffrey Milner

Veterinarian

Published on May 8th, 2017

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.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Ricardo Fernandez, DVM

    Veterinarian, Veterinary Oncology Resident

    Published on November 12th, 2018

    Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! A high ALT could be the sign of many different liver diseases that range from inflammatory or infectious diseases all the way to cancer. How dangerous or serious these are depends largely on the disease process per se that is going on. This is usually worked up with abdominal imaging like an ultrasound and possibly sampling the liver depending on the findings. That would be a good first step to get to the bottom of this. A general medication that may help with liver diseases in general is Denamarin. Your veterinarian could potentially proceed with these diagnostics. Good luck and have a great day!

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