is it safe for our cat to have a high number?

[kmteschy]

Our 3yr old cat was tested and his ALT(GPT) number was 168, due to some pills the vet gave us.  Would he need to take the pills the rest of his life, or should we have the surgery that the vet suggested? What would happen if we stopped treating our cat for this liver valve damage?

[kmteschy]

The pills are Denamarin, 1 tablet every 24 hours 1 hour before a meal.  The current vet looked back into our cat's chart and thinks the surgery the previous vet recommended was a liver biopsy to find out more as to why his liver value was high.  At one time, Hunter( our cat's name) had a number of 329, and the previous vet didn't recommend anything, other than monitoring it every 6 months and the surgery.  Hunter isn't vomiting, and his other "functions" are fine also.  We feed our two cats 2X a day and in seperate rooms.  I asked if Hunter could transfer this problem to Oliver, our other cat, and he said it could be possible, altho Oliver doesn't need bloodwork and we don't know if we want to find out. We don't want Hunter to be in pain, and the vet can't gaurantee this, we also don't want to be giving Hunter pills the rest of his life.  We are also thinking of taking Hunter to another vet for another opinion, since the 2 vets at the same clinic had 2 different plans. So, any advice would be helpful.  Thanks.

[Dr. Carol Osborne, DVM]

Feline Liver values including AST can be elevated for various reasons, including mishandling of the blood sample. If you can provide me with the type of surgery in question and the name of the pills you cat is currently taking then I can offer more specific advice.
Dr Carol Osborne, DVM