01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187 positive ketones

yesterday's condo


We are blue this morning, I'm so excited!!!!
Let's see what happens after breakie

AMBG=187

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMPS=187

Good morning.

The PS in AMPS stands for Pre Shot. When you are skipping the shot, you want to change it to AMBG, so AMBG=187.

Good luck to you, today.

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMPS=187

Morning Jenny, I hope today is wonderful for you and Emmy!!! good luck. mary and ollie

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMPS=187

Good morning Jenny,
very encouraging! Did you go with Fancy Feast for breakfast?

Carl

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMPS=187

good morning, jenny. nice start this morning! it'll take some time for the counterregulatory hormones to clear emmy's body.

btw, we don't want you to have to get up every few hours all night long. you could feed her at what would have been shot time (6pm) and then again at 10pm. then leave the remainder of her daily allotment of food out for her when you go to bed.

there are quite a few sets of experienced eyes tracking emmy's progress. worst case scenario is having to resume tiny doses of insulin until she's ready to handle things on her own.


fingers and paws crossed! :mrgreen:




edited to add:
if you've managed to give her normal amount of food spread out over the course of the day/night between the time you wake up and the time you go to bed... it's not necessary to leave food out for her all night long. there's no danger of a hypo when there's not any insulin on board.

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

Not on FFeast yet going to go get some this morning

+3=218

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

Princess is up finally from her morning slumber

+5.5=196

I have Fancy feast and I'm going to feed her now ( I also have ketone test strips and I'm going to see if I can get a sample)

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

First ketone test=failure lol I bought non-clumping cat litter and it may be non clumping but it is super absorbant so did not work, going out to buy some aquarium gravel see if that will work

also she doesn't seem interested in the fancy feast. I'm leaving it out and maybe if she gets hungry enough....we will see

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

very nice numbers today. GOOOOOOOOOO Emmy!!!

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

Home at 12 noon she ate some so , I pulled it so I can test say at 2 PM.

Washed the aquairum gravel and it's drying now.

+7=257 1 hour after she ate roughly

 

Re: 01/17/13 EMMY AMBG=187

+8=248

And she is hungry again, gonna feed her

 

So, I'm in tears right now and I'm very worried
I tested her and she tested positive for ketones

small amounts 15 mg o .5mmol

what do I do now????

 

do you still have the urine sample? if so, retest for ketones.
i'll stay online to see what the result is.

 

yes did 3 rd test all the same

 

ok. time to resume insulin at your last good dose.. it's approx. 5:30 your time. does that shot schedule work for you?
you may also want to call your vet.

you could also syringe water and add water to her food.

any questions?

 

question: does emmy have any infection that you know of?

 

How bad are they? Can she recover on her own if we start insuline again, I am 3 hours away from the vet office.

 

No infection that I know of

 

"small" ketones isn't good, but on the hand this is only one test.
do you have sub-q fluids at home and do you know how to administer them?

NOTE: i am not suggesting fluids unless your vet says it's ok to give them.

ketones = an inadequate supply of insulin + not enough food + infection or other systematic stress.

 

no no fluids, and don't know how

 

when was the bottle of ketone strips opened?
most are only good for 3 months once the cannister is opened.

you're sure you're using ketone testing strips... not diastix?

 

just got it today good till 2014

ketostix

 

she's eating now and I just shot her up now what??

 

ok good. they're the right stix.

here's what i would do:

feed, add extra water to her food and resume insulin.

call your vet. explain the situation. ask for advice.

i'd be on alert, remain vigilant, but wouldn't jump to any conclusions based on one test.

continue syringe feeding water every hour until you can get the next ketone test. make sure she eats well. give her whatever she'll eat, but don't resort to dry unless you have to because dry is counterproductive when you're trying to allow water to wash ketones from the body.

 

I don't understand


continue syringe feeding water every hour until you can get the next ketone test. make sure she eats well. give her whatever she'll eat, but don't resort to dry unless you have to because dry is counterproductive when you're trying to allow water to wash ketones from the body.

 

later on, date the cannister and look for the expiration in the pamphlet that came with them for once the cannister has been opened.
most of them expire 3 months after opening.

 

water/fluids will help rid the body of ketones. it's why sub-q fluids are often part of the treatment plan when kitty is throwing ketones.
making sure she eats well will also help.

feeding dry uses up moisture from the body.

 

how do you syringe feed water, just force feed water out of large syringe.

 

question: once you dip the ketone strip in the urine you count 15 seconds and then compare the color to the colors on the side of the cannister.
if you compare them after 15 seconds have passed, the color usually turns darker... resulting in an inaccurate reading.
did you compare after exactly 5 15 seconds?

 

yes I'll do agaiin

 

i usually use a 3ml or 5ml oral syringe. i slowly give kitty a 1ml at a time by syringing into the side of the mouth. you don't want to shoot it down her throat. alex will usually tolerant 6ml - 9ml in one sitting.

 

have you called your vet for advice?

 

Yes it says small15mg/dl or 1.5mmol how bad is that?>

 

It's new strip and new gravel.. Could this be false positive? Can u test the strips using plain water , and again using clean gravel and clean water?

But do it later, check everyone's advice and give fluids first... Also u later could maybe try chicken broth(no onions) or water from the tuna can to see if she will drink more on her own.

 

we usually suggest taking kitty to the vet for anything above trace ketones.
that's why i want you to call your vet.

i'm suggesting things you can do at home to help since you said the vet is 3 hours away.

 

good question.

was the gravel rinsed and dried before using?

i've never used gravel myself. i just stick a long handled soup ladle under her to catch urine for testing.

 

It was aquarim gravel yes I washed and dryed it

 

ok, i've given you some ideas of what you can do from home, but you should really call your vet and ask for advice.
let us know what he/she suggests.

 

water with gravel came out negative

 

good to know.

please read my last post in this thread.

 

Ok..
1 go now and get some fluids into her
2. Then call the vet for advice over the phone.
3. then take the vets advice
4, test the gravel and strips like I suggested.. and if negative test her again
5. come back here and let us know or ask if u have more questions!


We will be here.

 

no, please call your VET before they close for the day.

 

vet is already closed and nearest vet is 3 hours away on a snowy covered highway.

 

does your vet accept calls after hours? some do. it's worth a try.

 

Hi Jenny,
First off, sorry to read about the ketones. That said, you couldn't have asked for a better person to be helping you with this. Jill has had to deal with ketones in the past with Alex, and she has you doing all the right things.
When you have a few minutes, here's a link to Marje's video on how to give sub-q fluids if it comes down to that. NOTE - YOU SHOULD ONLY GIVE FLUIDS AFTER BEING ADVISED TO DO SO BY YOUR VET. Sometimes cats will have other conditions that make fluids the wrong thing to do. Your vet will be able to tell you whether or not fluids are the correct course of action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtSzMuDgx78&feature=youtu.be Not only is the video extremely helpful (I wish I'd seen it before I had to learn how to give sub-q fluids to Bob), but it features her kitty, Gus, who is probably the most adorable kitty ever!

I'm thinking that Emmy has probably got some sort of undetected infection going on. She's been eating okay, and although she hasn't gotten insulin for a day, she was on a really tiny dose for quite a while and didn't have out of control BG numbers. So that's two thirds of the ketone equation that don't seem to be "the issue". It could be that some of the numbers you had been seeing, that all of us were thinking were "bounce" numbers....well they could have also been due to some kind of infection. Infection can also raise BGs. And lead to ketones even when the BGs are not at high levels.

What you're doing right now is just what you should and can be doing from home, absent of sub-q fluids. Emmy will need to see a vet, if not tonight, then as quickly as possible when the vet opens in the morning. Tonight would be better, but you have to deal with your "reality" if your vet is closed and the roads are snow covered badly enough so that a 3 hour drive is not possible.

Continue getting as much water into Emmy as you can. The water or sub-q fluids are intended to flush the ketones out of Emmy's system. You want her to pee. Hopefully once the water does it's thing, the readings on the sticks will look better. Try to catch her every time she goes for the litter box. And if your vet has an after-hours number, definitely call it and ask for their advice. Maybe a vet or one of the techs would be willing to meet you at the clinic?

Carl

 

Jenny --

I'm not going to add much since Jill has covered lots of ground. One other thing to do to check the Ketostix, test yourself. See if the strips are the same for you and for Emmy. You're just going to need to test Emmy whenever you can.

 

she doesn't look sick at all, she's running around, stupid cat.

Can't do anything tonight

feeding her syringe water, and water in her food.

+2=211

I did find this:

Treatment

If the cat is bright, alert, and well-hydrated, the cat will not require intensive care. Your cat will require insulin, food, constant access to water, and close monitoring for signs of illness such as vomiting, anorexia, and lethargy.

Treatment of cats who show signs illness require inpatient intensive care. The goal of treatment is to correct dehydration, electrolyte depletion, to reverse the high ketones in the blood and the metabolic acidosis that is present, and to increase the rate of glucose use by insulin-dependent tissues.

she's running around playing, showing no signs.
eases my mind for tonight

 

Jenny --

Test yourself. It will let you know if the strips are good.

We are all being hypervigilent about ketones because some of us have been there. When Gabby was diagnosed, she was in full blown diabetic ketoacidosis. Ketones can become DKA relatively quicky so we want you to intervene as fast as you can so ketones don't develop into DKA. Having had a cat that was admitted to the ICU for several days, I don't want anyone to have that experience. So, it's good news that Emmy is acting normally. Test for ketones as often as you can so you'll know what's going on and what you need to do.

 

you're doing everything you can. i'm so glad she's not acting sick at all.
keep on keepin' on!

i have to work tonight, but i'll check back here to see how you're doing as soon as i'm done.

 

I think Sienne's suggestion to test yourself is a good one. When I first opened a new bottle of ketostix a month or so ago and tested Gracie, it looked like it had a tinge of pink and I got concerned. So I tested them on myself and it looked exactly the same. I wondered if the sticks were a little "too fresh" and super reactive. The big difference I see between us and Emmy is that ours just had a tiny tinge of pink....it wasn't even to the "trace" color. Emmy is obviously showing you something more. So check it against yourself.