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My dog has a small kidney and high creatinine. How long will she live?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Shih Tzu | Female | spayed | 6 years and 8 months old | 10 lbs

My dog was born with a kidney smaller than the other, she will be 7 years old. She has 2.0 creatine levels. No signs of illness, how long can I expect her to live?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on April 14th, 2018

There is no way to be able to tell how long she will live however you can significantly prolong Linda's life with feeding her a kidney diet, such as from Hill's Science Diets or Royal Canine kidney diet. A Creatinine level of 2.0 is not yet alarming, just slightly high.There are other kidney parameters to check such as Blood urea nitrogen and Phosphates, and if they are within the normal values, I would not worry too much about CREA 2.0. Feed a kidney diet and that should be beneficial.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    This is a condition known as renal dysplasia, and Linda has a better prognosis if she has one normal size kidney. The onset and clinical disease symptoms are highly variable, and kidney failure from this birth defect can occur at any age, including dogs that are older than 10 years. It's hard to say how long she will live with this condition, but it's good that she has shown no sign of illness to date. Blood chemistry and urine content should be monitored regularly to check for signs of kidney failure, and your vet may want to do it as often as every three to six months. Linda may be one of the lucky dogs that don't develop signs until later in life, so fingers crossed that happens. I'm sorry I can't give you an exact answer to your question, but I hope this helps somewhat!

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