I took my cat into the vet on Sunday and got a blood test and set and appointment to get her spayed. Her results came back with a ALT count of 168, apparently twice what it should be. The vet seems to think that the surgery can still be done, but it'd be safer to wait and try to lower it. He wanted me to by some expensive dry food from him, so I took the sample, but I can't afford it and from what I've read the dry food I've been giving my cats may be the problem.

I live in Japan right now, and I have two cats and a tiny apartment with paper thin walls. I just got a new neighbor, and he's a jerk. I'm really worried that if she goes into heat again he'll complain. So far she hasn't while he's been there, but she's over a year now anyway. I need to get her fixed. At the same time, I don't want problems with the surgery.

I'm wondering if anybody knows if it's still safe to do, or at what point it's unsafe.

Thanks

ALT (alanine aminotransferase) is a liver enzyme - levels are raised when there is damage to liver cells for any reason. I can't imagine why this would happen in a normal healthy cat, it may well have been an error in the test.

If your cat seems in good health and has no other abnormal results, I'd say it would be OK to go ahead with spaying. But your vet is the best person to advise of course.

I have no idea how any dried food would do anything to reduce ALT levels - that sounds like outrageous marketing hype to me!!

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"The elevation in the alanine transferase (ALT) occurs when there is damage to liver cells. This can happen for a number of reasons. Medication reactions, toxins, cancer and hepatic lipidosis are probably among the most common causes in cats but there are also lots of times when the ALT rises for no apparent reason and then is normal on testing after a week to a month or so"

Found this on a vet info site. It would suggest in the absence of other abnormal bloods or symptoms either the raised ALT is idiopathic or perhaps as kozykatz suggests error in the test.

Just wanted to add that my cat had raised ALT levels at his first bloodtest, but all other levels were normal. I changed nothing (he's on a raw diet, so can't get any better!) and have just re-tested him after six months and the ALT level is normal.

The vet said it sometimes goes up for no reason they can find, and the cat is healthy. He didn't seem worried about it at all, so it would seem it's just one of those things we don't fully understand about cats

For reference, my cat's first ALT level was 149, while the second was 57. The normal range for ALT is 12 - 130.

If it was my cat I'd wait a month, then do the bloodtest again to see.

Since you mention it, I'd also recommend you stop the dry food and switch either to raw or to a high quality wet food. There's loads of posts on here about both, so just do a search and you'll have reading material enough for the night

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