2/6 Loose Lips - Low potassium question for GA Zener's Civvie Tillie

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Anne & Zener GA

Anne & Zener GA

Member Since 2011
I believe this is our first posting using the new software. We've been lurking and stopping by other condos since Zener's passing but haven't done a condo ourselves, so please excuse any mistakes we make, so out of practice! Our civvie Tillie, age 14 with early IBD and on a small dose of Prednisolone regularly, went for her "senior" dental today. Both beans were very nervous, of course, though so much less than when Zener had to have his dentals. All was good and no extractions! Tillie had borderline low end of normal potassium levels in her senior bloodwork in September and in her pre-dental bloodwork today, her level has dropped lower into the abnormal range to where she needs supplementation which we will start today. We'll supplement for two weeks and go back for repeat bloodwork. Our wonderful vet, formerly know as Captain Team Zener, is not able to pinpoint a specific cause, as Tillie , otherwise healthy except for early iBD, does not have CKD or FD, but our vet suspects her IBD and perhaps long term steroid use may possibly be part of it. Just wondering with all the experiences here in LL, if you can share any information about low potassium, causes, treatment, and so on. We will be very grateful! We are starting on tablets because our vet carries those, but we know there are gel and liquid options, any thoughts?

Anne
 
No help here. Just wanted to say we LOVE hearing from you!

Glad Tillie's dental went so well. I hope you get the potassium issue handled, and don't be afraid to post now and then to let us know what's new!
 
Hi guys,
I can't comment on the issue, but just want to say hi and send some extra-special scritches to Tillie. Rusty is so happy that she was at the Full Snow Moon party. They had a ball.

Have a good weekend, and good luck with your quest,

:bighug::bighug: and scritches,

Ella & Rusty
 
Potassium supplements typically taste awful. If you're giving a pill, you might want to put it in a gelcap.

The only thing I know that can routinely effect potassium levels is diuretics. It doesn't sound like you're giving Tillie anything like Lasix so I'm not sure why her K is off. You might also want to see about using foods that are higher in K.
 
Bob had low potassium but it was related to his FD and DKA. Because he needed fluids a lot his vet added potassium to his bags o' fluids and that was how he was supplemented. He was retested every two weeks too. It took six weeks if I remember correctly, and that was about four bags of fluids. Had it not worked, the plan was Tumil-K tablets, which I would have had to crush and mix in his fuds. He was never easy to pill or gel.
If they could make all meds taste like shrimp, he would have been the easiest cat to medicate, ever. ;)
 
Sodium and potassium have an opposite balance in the kidney. Steroids cause the kidneys to retain more sodium, and therefore more potassium is wasted through the urine.
 
Also, routine administration of steroids may elevate glucose levels, resulting in more insulin being generated to help it get into the cells. This process can reduce potassium, too.
 
Thanks everyone. Our vet suspects it is the use of prednisolone causing the low potassium. We have the Tumil K tablets (horse sized) for two weeks, then will repeat bloodwork. In meantime, we are going to research getting it compounded as a liquid. These pills are huge.:arghh: At the moment, TT is resting comfortably in her heated "pyramid" bed. She is still a little punk from the dental, but happy to be home.
 
The one time we've had to deal with low potassium, it was not easy. We tried powder, gel, compounded treats. NO WAY! Sophia ate anything, snarfed treats, but the second one of those got within smelling distance that little old blind lady bailed out of her bed and ran. We were giving subQ fluids and finally just has it put in there.

The really sucky thing about the potassium is that you need to get a pretty large volume into the cat when they are eating it. We did dilute the Tumil K gel into something not so thick for Sophia and syringed it into her for a while and that worked OK, but it ended up being 4-5 syringes a day and got to be just too much.

Good luck. I hope just a short cycle gets things back to normal and you can stop.
 
It likely is the steriods as it takes both glucose and potassium molecules together to enter the cells thru the ion channels making the cells work. Meya also pointed to another area of potassium loss from the steroids. Potassium supplements are about the only thing for cats to raise it unless you're also giving LRS fluids.

There's a 'Renal K' gel that's a potassium supplement with B complex vitamins that we used for Doc when he went ketonic and had low K. It's a yellow liquid and was dosed at 3.75cc's twice a day. Doc didn't like the taste but KT licked it off the end of the syringe when I laid it down.

Hope sweet Tillie starts feeling better quick!

HUGS and headbutts too!
 
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