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My dog's ALP is high. What causes elevated liver enzymes in dogs?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Large (61lb +) | Female | 75 lbs

What can cause a dogs ALP level to be extremely high at 893?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Oneal Bogan, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on November 8th, 2017

ALP is released by the liver when there is damage to the liver cells. Causes can be simply age related, or the elevation can be from diseases like Cushings or Addison’s. It can also be elevated when there is a growth in the liver. I would recommend having your vet retest this value in 2 weeks as long as your dog is doing well otherwise. If it’s still high I’d do more diagnostics (cushings test, ultrasound). Hope that helps and best to you and Olive.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

    Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

    Published on May 25th, 2018

    Hi there. An ALP of 477 is actually not particularly high at all, and may not be of any clinical concern :) This is a type of liver enzyme that can be affected by lots of different things. Increases can be due to certain types of medication (especially steroids such as prednisone), Cushing's disease, an actual problem with the liver such as an infection or tumor, or can be a normal aging change. If your dog is acting normal and having no symptoms of a problem, then you could opt to simply monitor lab work over the next few months for any changes. If you want to investigate further to see if there is a problem, testing that would be helpful would include testing for Cushing's disease, abdominal x-rays and ultrasound, and possibly even a liver biopsy.

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    Answered By Jenny, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on March 20th, 2018

    It is high enough to look into it but not high enough to panic.some are greater than 2000! If the other liver enzymes are normal, I would also worry less. If the cushing's test is normal than I would do an ultrasound to look at the liver and especially the gall bladder. I would also recheck the values in 2-4 weeks to see if there are any changes whether it going up or down.

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