Okay - so once again it's been a long time since I've updated.
I thought about updating many times since my last entry, but when it came down to it I didn't feel up to it because Dingle's liver problems were really stressing me out and upsetting me to the point where I didn't want to write about it. It's not that I was in denial abut the liver problems - far from it - just that I didn't feel like sitting down and putting it all out there.
Now that those concerns seem to be behind us (*fingers crossed*) I do feel like I can write about the drama over the last few months.
Dingle's Liver Issues
As I wrote in my last entry Dinglehopper had a dental cleaning on September 8th - his 5th birthday. When doing the pre-surgical it was discovered that Dingle's ALT levels were high... the ALT was 265. Normal is between 5 and 95.
Dingle was put on medication (Zentonil) for 3 weeks and when we re-checked his ALT on September 28th it was 143... which showed that there had been an improvement, though the levels were still not within normal range.
I was happy to see that his levels were going down.
I believed that Orijin, the high protein food that Dingle had been eating for years, may have played a part in his liver issues. So I switched him to another food. Unfortunately we didn't stay on that food long as I believe Dingle may have had an allergy to it... or it didn't agree with him. Now we're on Performatrin... but anyways....
When Dingle started having liver problems I started doing research on high ALT levels.
My research led me to a Yahoo Group for dogs with liver problems.
I joined the group and upon reading the information provided and other people's experiences I learned that many of the members gave their dogs foods such as watermelon and plain yogurt.
I started giving Dingle some yogurt on his food - he loved it. He got pieces of watermelon on occasion, as a treat.
In addition to the food change and the yogurt/watermelon Dingle continued on the Zentonil until November.
On October 31st, about a week before his Zentonil was to run out, Dingle had an appointment at the Downtown Animal Hospital to have a full liver profile. The previous blood tests were just ALT tests - they didn't check bile acids (which were also high on September 8th's liver profile).
To do the full liver profile he had to be fasted for at least 12 hours prior to his appointment.
Our intentions were to get the liver profile prior to him eating then feed him a full meal.
After the meal they were going to draw his blood again and re-run the profile to see his ALT and bile acid levels after eating.
The vet decided to draw the blood both before and after the food... but to hold off on sending the second one (after eating) until we got the results from the first.
The plan was to not run the second test if the first came back normal.
I was excited to hear that on October 31st his ALT levels were 57 - within normal ranges. His bile acids and ever other level included in the liver profile test was normal.
So the vet decided to just throw the second vile of blood out and not run the second test.
When I posted my 'good news' on the Yahoo Group I was told that it wasn't actually good news - someone said that we needed to run that second blood test (after eating) and compare the numbers to get a true sense of how his liver was. Hm.
I decided to not ask the vet about what the group member said.
Our plan was to do another liver profile in January when he was in for his shots... to see if his ALT levels remained normal after being off of the Zentonil.
Our plan has changed as Dingle has had problems since the liver stuff (I will write about that later) and we have to postpone the liver profile until February.
In February I think I am going to ask them to take blood after fasting and after eating and to send both in, even if the first is normal.
Okay, now that I write all of this out it doesn't sound so stressful as the experience actually was.
I gues in waiting so long to write this blog entry I have missed a lot of details. That and I know he's okay and therefore I'm unable to fully articulate just how worried I was at the time.
Since October 31st I've thought about this ordeal and in one of the many conversations I had with the vets it was mentioned that Dingle's blood test wasn't actually drawn on September 8th as I thought it was. It was drawn on the 7th when he was admitted to the clinic the night before his dental... as the blood results take a while and they wanted them by the morning when he had his surgery.
Before I took him to the clinic on September 7th I fed him.
He ate right before we left.
I wonder if it's possible that his ALT of 256 was that high because he had just eaten.
I don't know the 'normal' range for ALT after eating...
Our September 28th ALT test was also done without fasting...
Did we get a true picture of his ALT levels from the beginning?
Was all the stress I put myself through actually necessary?
*Shrug*
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