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Why do my dog's creatinine levels fluctuate? Is it kidney disease?
Updated on September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Male | unneutered | 4 years and 4 months old
His creatinine came 1.15 and next day when I again went for blood work it came 0.9 so why just in a day it came down automatically why there’s an fluctuation? I have notice sometimes it came elevated and sometime normal so why so ? Any idea ? His BUN value came 14 both time
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Answered By Dr. Elizabeth
Veterinarian
Published on March 20th, 2020
I recommend to have an additional test called an SDMA run. This test will accurately predict if kidney disease will develop within the next 18 months in about 95% of pets. Bruno should also be having his urine specific gravity tested along with his kidney values as you need to know all the values in order to know if kidney disease is a concern or not. For example, a dog with a higher CREAT and extremely concentrated urine is likely a little dehydrated. Where as a higher CREAT and not so concentrated urine may have kidney disease.
I hope this helps.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpfulRelated Answers from Veterinarians
Answered By Dr. B. DVM, DACVIM (Oncology)
Veterinarian
Published on July 22nd, 2018
Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is a little bit of a complex question that you ask. The challenging thing with these cases is determining whether the pet has excessive protein loss through the kidney (protein losing nephropathy or PLN) because of some sort of disease process going on in the body (of which many diseases can cause this) or if the pet has kidney disease that is involving the part of the kidney that helps keep protein out of the urine (glomerulus). Prolonged excessive protein loss in the urine can also lead to damage to the kidneys causing chronic kidney disease. I'm assuming that your kid had a urinalysis to evaluate that creatinine level. It is minimally elevated so it is important to know if the urine is well concentrated in order to know how to interpret this mild elevation. The hard thing is there are also other diseases that can cause protein in the urine that can cause the specific gravity to be low, so a low specific gravity is not specific for kidney disease in all cases. Was the UPC obtained after making sure that there was no infection in the urine with a urine culture? And was it done on a free catch sample from home and verified with repeat evaluation to make sure that it was persistent? If a UPC is persistently elevated then we take the next steps to ruling out disease processes that may be causing it. Typically this starts with a blood pressure, abdominal ultrasound, and some infectious disease testing. As as you can see these cases can be a little bit more challenging then screening lab work can clue us in to. If you have already been down this road of testing then this may all seem familiar to you. Treatment options are based on how severe the protein loss is and what other issues the pet may present with, but typically do include some sort of lower protein diet as you are on, medication to try to change how the kidney is handling the protein as you are on, and other medications as dictated by progression of the case. Something we also often consider adding is fish oil as it is anti-inflammatory. Your family vet should be able to provide you with a dose. I hope this helps!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful