Looking for any past experience with Labrador female, having high liver enzyme tests.

Thanks

What is she getting right now in supportive care??

She is 8 years old, getting a low protein high carb diet, as prescribed by Vet for this problem. Her readings over 6 months have gone from, 375, 565, 375, 335, 400, 100 being normal. She had a ultrasound that looked alright, Doctor said she looked like she had a dense liver? She also had the aleal test which should be bad before enzymes, that was normal.............

Is she on Denamarin? If not...put her on it.

Have you had your Vet run a Lepto Panel? Just a thought.

You could ask your vet to submit her urine specimen for a PCR Lepto test. Idexx labs offers it, although I used a different lab several years ago when it first became available... had results faxed back in 2 days.

Also ask your vet about giving her milk thistle daily.
Lots of info on the net about it's benefits for liver.

Sorry about getting back to all, late. No lepto test, dog has never been sick. Was on Denamarin for two months, didn't seem to do anything. She has had Bial Acid test, which indicates that her liver is functioning good. I have been waiting to spay her for 9 months because we have been trying to figure out this problem first. I'd like to spay her next week, Vet wants to take a biopsy at the same time and send it to Texas A&M to see what they think?

I am having a liver issue with my dog right now too. But her levels were so high they did not even register. They were greater than 2000!!
Ultrasound showed the same dense liver but no other organs or ducts were being effected. Lepto test was negative.
We have not reran blood yet. We do that next week.
She is on Same-E (contains Milk Thistle), Doxy, and water soluble vitamin E.
What ever it is I hope WE both get some answers soon.
If we don't start seeing improvement we will biopsy her live.

Have her tested for Addison's disease?

Good luck.

If you Google "high liver enzymes in dog" you get a lot of info. This is just one site -
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/elevated-liver-enzymes-in-dogs.html.

It's not always indicative of a serious issue.

I went thru this too. US showed Chronic Active Hepatitis.

I used milk thistle, SAMe,B50complex and vit e to support the liver.

It took over a year but came back to normal range and holding for almost 2 years.

I also added alfalfa to support the liver.

Prayers you can get the levels down and keep them there.

I went thru this too. US showed Chronic Active Hepatitis.

I used milk thistle, SAMe,B50complex and vit e to support the liver.

It took over a year but came back to normal range and holding for almost 2 years.

I also added alfalfa to support the liver. I also continue with the B and E for support.

Prayers you can get the levels down and keep them there.

Thanks for all suggestions, going to talk to Vet about them. Going to try and spay her WEDS. I saw in back forums about somebody starting a study awhile ago on this very subject. Might check with her how that's going, and give her my data so far, for her research.

Why are you giving Doxy? Does she have a Tick Borne Disease? People who give Doxy for TBD have found that the ALT can go sky high. Not sure if it's because of the TBD or due to the Doxy, but what many peole do is to give "Country Life Liver Support" which is a brand of Milk Thistle (not very expensive) and it brings the numbers right down.
HTH

My lab had high liver enzymes for many years. The vet put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks, just in case there was some infection that was not evident. that did nothing. We tried SamE which didn't really help either. I kept her on Milk Thistle for the rest of her life.

Evenutally, I fed her a liver-friendly diet. There's one devised by Royal Canine which is basically hard boiled egg and boiled white rice.

The other was written by Jean Dobbs and later adapted by Monica Segal. It is white fish with sweet potato and a little zucchini.

Since I do not believe that dogs were designed to eat a ton of carbs, I altered both diets so that the protein amount was 50% and she ate the egg diet for one meal and the fish diet for the other. She did amazingly well, and died at 14,not from liver disease.

Larry, and others who have Labradors with liver issues: Please email me privately. I have extensive experience with liver issues in Labradors, have some suggestions for you (not prescribing or diagnosing), and am compiling information for an article on liver issues in Labradors.
I need a little more information like age, clinical signs, what the vet said, etc. and we can talk about a couple of other drugs that are successful for liver disease.
FYI, Sam-e does not contain milk thistle but it is a great liver protectant. Milk thistle is good to give and Sam-e and milk thistle (silymarin) together in a manufactured pill is Denamarin. Both Sam-e and milk thistle can be purchased at Trader Joes for a reasonable price, although the doseage has to be right.
Ursodial or Actigall and pred are also drugs of choice for a fibrotic or dense liver.
I agree with your vet to get a liver biopsy done at the same time she is spayed, since her liver enzymes are going steadily up. But you may want to try other treatments with your vet before putting her body through the stress of anesthesia and major abdominal surgery, even though she doesn't act sick, she is. Liver disease can cause a decrease in platelets, which can cause bleeding during and after surgery, and a sick liver cannot process anesthesia very well. Unless it is imperative that she gets spayed right away, I would seriously wait until this resolves.
But please email me, you do not list your email addy.

Robin noted a key issue: a sick liver cannot process anesthesia very well.

She WAS on doxy for infection. She was running high fever and bloodwork showed it. The sam-e she is taking certainly does contain milk thistle But we are giving her more.

So it could be that the infection caused the ALT to rise and the choice of Doxy caused it to rise even higher.

Milk Thistle is supposed to be really great for liver function.

I hope she will be back to normal very soon.

Her alt was was greater than 2000 before we were even on doxy. She is now off the doxy and we take her in this week for blood work to see how she is doing. Fever has been gone for about a week now. She is now just being giving the supplements and on l/d diet.
So far her urine is no longer glowing orange and her yellow skin is fading.
We may never have an answer as to why this happened and her liver may never fully recover from this.
We are currently waiting to hear back from a couple more internist at the university.

I agree. I waited for normal levels to hold before spaying.

Robin for some reason I can't get your email from the icon at bottom of your post.

can you type it out in the body of a post and I will send you all the info from my experience and treatment.

Have decided not to spay tomorrow. We are going to try and get her enzymes down some more before spay and biopsy. Talked to different Vet Monday, he reccomended biopsy on gall bladder also, and a test for copper. Would like to take some weight off her before spay and tests, a naturally big girl that could still stand to lose 10 lbs. Does anybody happen to know proper dosage and strength of Milk Thistle?

I would caution you against dropping her weight too quickly either as well, that can set her up for even more issues with her liver.Rapid weight loss can cause "Fatty Liver syndrome" and that could lead to liver failure.As one who has lost a girl to that it was a hard way to go.

I currently have our JRT on a Liver Support-100 made by Sogeval Laboratories, it hasa few things in it along with Sam E and Milk Thistle, each tab has 100mg of Sam-E and 20mg of Milk Thistle, one tab per 20# once a day. You can get Denamarin for her instead, that has both too.

If you do the biopsy, it will be done while an ultrasound is being performed, so the veterinarian (usually an internal medicine specialist would do this best)will be able to evaluate the liver, spleen, and gall bladder to determine what warrants a biopsy. No point in biopsying a completely normal organ---another reason to go with a specialist.
The IM specialist that did the ultrasound on one of my dogs with high liver enzymes gave me a written report of what he saw in the entire abdomen as well as drug recommendations and doses.
I think if you're going to biopsy, you should consult with an internal medicine specialist. Believe me, they have seen all kinds of liver disease many, many times before and can advise you the best.

Been there: my email is: SweetH20labs@aol.com. That's a "20" not a "2O"---it's confusing, sorry.
Would love to get your information and yours as well, Larry.