High creatinine in cats: Is it kidney failure or just dehydration?

His SDMA is normal which is a more reliable marker for kidney function. He may have been mildly dehydrated which can cause creatinine to elevate. Your vet could run a urinalysis to check his urine specific gravity and then recheck his BUN and Creatinine in 3 months to monitor for any increases.

This does indicate kidney disease but not necessarily permanent. Cystitis can cause improper emptying of the bladder. If the bladder gets backed up, it affects the kidneys and can spread the infection there. Clearing the infection and getting the bladder emptying properly can resolve those values. You can switch him to a kidney diet and make sure he gets plenty of water. I would recheck the blood work in 1-2 weeks and see how the numbers compare. If they are worse, then you likely have kidney disease and he may benefit from IV or SQ fluids. If they improve, then it may have been a result of the cystitis and medicines

Hi. Antibiotics wouldn't cause an increase in BUN. It is most likely secondary to the UTI. Although, as kitties get older, primary kidney disease is possible as well. I would meet with your veterinarian to make a monitoring and diet plan.

Every lab has different reference ranges, so according to the lab that your cats blood was run in, the BUN and CREA are considered to be mildly elevated. However, unless your cat has a low specific gravity (concentrating ability of the kidneys), we have to assume that the BUN and CREA levels are not indicating any kind of kidney failure. In other words, if the kidneys are concentrating normally, and the pet is asymptomatic, then the BUN and CREA levels should simply be rechecked at a later date or another more sensitive test called the SDMA test should be done to clarify what is really going on with your pets kidneys. So based on the information you have provided we cannot say if Frodo has true kidney disease, but if his urine test was negative for bacteria then no infection is present. Ask your vet about Frodo's specific gravity and if that was normal or not. If it was normal, then go forward with the SDMA test to confirm that the kidneys are ok. If you need further help regarding your pet Frodo's case, since this can be a bit complicated to explain on the forum, please feel free to request a private consultation with either myself or another expert here and we will be more than happy to assist you further. I hope that this helps and best wishes with your pet Frodo moving forward! Take care: )

These lab results do not provide any "normal" values, which can differ based on the type of equipment used to run the sample, however I would agree that based on what I am used to as normal values Sabrina is in either renal failure or has very severe dehydration. Renal failure seems more likely given that she is also quite anemic (has low red blood cells), although her liver values do not look high to me. Typically renal failure is treated with aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, and with kidney values this high it seems unlikely that only getting fluids every 12 hours will make much of a difference. Also, with anemia such as she has, great care has to be taken not to give fluids too rapidly as to worsen the anemia. Persian cats are predisposed to a type of kidney disease known as polycystic kidney disease. This is easily diagnosed with ultrasound examination of the kidneys. Unfortunately, the prognosis is grim.

Poor guy. I see elevate liver enzymes (ALT,AST) and kidney values on the paperwork you have attached here. Low hgb means that the red blood cells are not oxygenating well, but if the RBC count is also low (anemic) then that is a sign of chronic kidney failure. Cats can recover from kidney disease depending on the underlying cause. An abdominal ultrasound is needed to determine the cause of the kidney failure exactly, or a positive response to bloodwork is used as a means of determining a positive outcome. In most situations we treat the pet with fluid therapy to help idurese (flush out) the harmful toxins (BUN, CREA), get the pet started on a prescription kidney diet (ie. Hill's K/D, Royal Canin Renal) and also a supplement (Azodyl- which helps to remove toxins from the gut) can be given as well. The most concerning values for me on this bloodwork are the liver values (AST, ALT). It is not common for a cat to be in both kidney failure and to have abnormal liver values concurrently. THis raises suspicions for infectious diseases such as any number of tick diseases. I would recommend discussing with your vet about possibly doing a tick panel, if the history indicates tick exposure is probable. Also a FeLV/FIV test may also be indicated, depending on the complete CBC results, which you didn't post here. At the very least a liver protectant medication should be started, which is typically a medicine called Denamarin. Additional treatment may be needed depending on the underlying cause for the liver abnormalities. If you would like to discuss Toby's case further, then please feel free to request a consultatoin with either myself or another expert here. Toby's case is definitely a more complicated case where it is best to have a complete dialogue back and forth to get all the information you need to make the best decision moving forward with his care. I wish you all the best moving forward with Toby's care and I hope that he makes a full and speedy recovery. Take care.

If your vet isn't worried about Kodiak, I would not be worried either. Slightly elevated creatinine can also be due to dehydration, so it could be that he may be dehydrated caused this elevation. A slight elevation isn't a cause for worry when other values are normal and there aren't any other concerning physical signs. To get him to drink more water, I'd consider adding canned food to his diet. It has a higher moisture content, and you can mix it in with his dry food. You would have to cut back on his dry food to a little to account for adding in the wet food, so ask his vet for the correct ratio. The other option is to add a bit of low sodium chicken broth to his dry dog food to get extra moisture into his diet. I hope this helps.