Cat just diagnosed with diabetes and ketones in urine. Help/Advice

[ewalker405]

Our cat Wrigley has been losing weight quickly and recently not eating. He is only 6.5 years old. He used to weigh around 17 pounds and was a large cat. We switched him to Wellness wet cat food about a year ago and he lost weight and looked healthier. However recently he has been losing weight fast and is down to 9.3 pounds with his spine and bones sticking out. He acts like he wants food but just smells it and walks away. I have tried all the tricks online and sometime they work but mostly he barely eats.

We took him last week to the vet and they tested and found out he was diabetic. They tested him and told us his glucose was 370 and his blood sugar was 630. We were going out of town so they said to come back Monday to get insulin and be shown how to do everything. Today we went in and they tested urine and found ketones in his urine. They recommended us to take him tonight to a 24 hour vet for a 48 hour period to get treatment with fluid and fast acting insulin. It is really expensive. They estimated about $2500

I have read that you don't need to hospitalize a cat to regulate it when they are first diagnosed. But I have also read that ketones and possible KDA is dangerous and requires intensive care. I hope we are doing the right thing for Wrigley by taking him to a 24 hour hospital to be monitored and given fluids/insulin. Both of us work so we can't watch him during the day. If we didn't do this, it really scares me that since he won't eat, we wouldn't be able to give him insulin and he would get worse.

Has anyone had experience with a situation like this? I am hoping he comes home and feels better and will eat his food so we can consistently give him insulin and test his blood from home.

Sorry for the long post. I having a tough time with all this. Thanks, Eric

 

[Patricia & Noodle]

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/looking-for-others-whove-gone-through-dka.135530/

This thread actually has a lot of stories of people who had cats in DKA with similar situations. Rest assured you ARE doing the right thing by getting Wrigley to a 24 hour hospital for intensive care. It is the best place for a cat with ketones to be, it can escalate very quickly and is nearly impossible to deal with at home when it first occurs. You may not need to hospitalize a newly diagnosed diabetic, but hospitalization is the correct choice for Wrigley to help resolve the ketones and get him in a place where you can care for him at home. My cat had DKA when she was diagnosed and it was a long, expensive hospital stay, but it was the only thing that saved her life. You're doing the right thing and lots of us have been there and know how tough it is

 

[Critter Mom]

Absolutely you're doing the right thing, Eric. The 'formula' when it comes to ketones and DKA is:

Not eating + no insulin + possible infection = DKA.

Wrigley's system needs to be cleared of ketones as a matter of urgency. The 24-hour vets will be able to provide all the supportive measures to get food, insulin and fluids into Wrigley. I hope that he feels better soon.

Talk to the vets about perhaps prescribing anti-nausea meds (e.g. generic ondansetron or Cerenia) and possibly an appetite stimulant (e.g. cyproheptadine) to have on standby at home just in case Wrigley's appetite might drop off again.

 

[BJM]

Diabetic ketoacidosis is a potentially fatal condition. Treatment at the vet isn't to regulate him; it is to save his life. Once the ketones have cleared, and the dehydration is resolved, and the electrolytes are back in balance, they will be able to send him home.
Your willingness to home test his glucose and monitor his urine for ketones, plus learn as much as you can about home management of the feline diabetic, will go a long way towards keeping him safe and optimizing the management of his diabetes.

 

[ewalker405]

Update: I think we are going to be able to bring Wrigley home this evening! The vet says that he has been eating and responding to the insulin. The numbers are doing what they expect. We are getting insulin and syringes tonight to start doing it at home. After being rally lethargic, they said he started to get more active and vocal. They had to put the cone of shame on him to stop him from ripping out his IV. We are excited to see him again.

They are a little concerned with his liver. They say his liver numbers are a little higher than they would like. They said to give him insulin for the next few days at home and bring him into our normal vet in 3-4 days to test this further. I think we also have to bring him to our normal vet for about 12 hours in a couple weeks to do a curve to see if his dose is good. We are also going to buy a Reli On meter and strips from Walmart to do home testing.

Thanks for everyone on this forum. I have learned a lot in the last few days. It is overwhelming going through this, but getting this information and seeing what others do is comforting.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Glad that Wrigley is good enough to go home. I wouod expect it is not that out of the ordinary for liver values to still be a little high at this time.
Most of use cartakers here test our cats's BG at home using a human BG meter. That way we know better what is going one and is less expensive than going to the vet for Bgs

 

[Patricia & Noodle]

That's great news. You must be thrilled! When you get the hang of testing his BG at home, curves at the vet won't be necessary. My vet prefers to use my own values, even on a human meter, than the values from tests at the office. She finds they're often too inflated by stress to be useful. Depending on which insulin Wrigley is on, you can find lots of daily advice in the insulin-specific forums.

Higher liver values seem to be pretty common with DKA in my experience and research. Because Noodle stopped eating during her ordeal, she had Feline Hepatic Lipidosis -- liver disease -- which meant quite elevated liver values even when she was discharged. We used a liver supplement for a few weeks, but she was almost back to normal after 4 days home anyways.