Questions on milk thistle and slightly elevated ALT

Hi all,

Well Katties paw is back to normal and that is good, but I brought Oscar in for just a well check and over all he is healthy but needs to lose 2 or 3 pounds. He's a chub at 18  pounds even though he is a big cat already. Anyways, we did a baseline bloodpanel  to make sure he wasn't prediabetic or anything. He isn't showing any signs of ill health but the vet thought it would be a good idea because he is a big boy. Well he is not prediabetic, his glucose was in the normal range and all his other values were perfect except his ALT was just 2 points above high normal. The reference range for the lab she uses is odd at 5-65 U/L when most other labs are up to 100. Well Oscars ALT was 67 U/L for his ALT.  The vet isn't too worried  as he isn't exhibiting any signs of illness, but she wanted me to start giving him milk thistle and then recheck bloods in a month or two. I ordered some alcohol free liquid milk thistle from Pet Well Being, so I have to wait for it to come. How worried should I be? I trust this vet completely as she has helped me with some complicated cases that other vets couldn't, I just want to do the best for my boy, he is only 5 yo so I want him around for a good long time. This has been a hard year already as we lost our 14 yo dog just a few weeks ago.

I had always heard the normal being 100 or less as well.  When my kitty had cholangioheptitis and fatty liver his ALT went up to over 1200 so I don't think this number is too worrisome.  The milk thistle is a supplement that won't cause any issues, it's kind of like it may not help but it won't hurt either.

Very Very low increase, I wouldn't be too worried, just use the milk thistle and then recheck as the vet recommended. 

Thanks! Also I am trying to get him to lose the weight although I want to do it slowly so we don't run into fatty liver disease. I have tried raw in the past and bought some of the various premades and both cats are really interested. They both currently eat a rotation diet of a mix of grain free and grain inclusive dry foods which is in limited amounts and grain free canned twice a day. For the dry I have been doing a mix of natural balance ultra premium which has grains and wellness core taste of the wild or felidae pure elements which is grain free. I mix them in a container 50/50. Each cat gets 1/8 of a cup twice a day, though I think Oscar sometimes eats Kattie's dry. As for the canned, I use various grain frees like wellness, tiki cat, werurva, natural balance, ect with the occasional friskies or fancy feast if they are being stubborn that day.
Now Oscar is picky about his canned and really doesn't like pate. He loves gravy and shreds or minced and will eat both the food and gravy unlike some cats. They each get either 1/4 a 5 oz can or 1/2 a 3 oz can twice a day so the majority of the food is canned. Now my vet said it is ok to go just grain free for both cats. She carries Acana and Orijen in her office and said that it was fine to use because the cats eat canned and both drink from their fountain and bowl several times a day. What do you guys think of orijen or Acana? It has much lower carbs than the other grain frees and it is a small portion of the diet. I would like to try raw again and picked up some rad cat and am waiting for it to defrost. We shall see. I do know that a raw diet is best but may not be feasible at this point. Thanks again!
Becky

For weight loss a good amount is 15 calories per pound of their ideal weights.   If the calorie counts aren't on the containers you should be able to find it on the food's website.