dka recovery

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S.K. Gieseking

S.K. Gieseking

Member Since 2021
Hi friends! My name is Gieseking and we got Taft as a very fat adult cat, unknown age in 2015. His original owner died and he came to us with no medical history. In the first month we had him, he quit eating. We took him to the vet and $1000 later find he is diabetic and we got him treated. He then started special dry prescription food that was high fiber and prozinc insulin. 6 years have passed without much issue, other than the fact that he is now a skinny cat, until last week.
I had switched to friskies wet food as the Facebook 4 months ago. March 11th 8am he didn't eat breakfast, drank some water and then vomited. Took him to the vet the same day, they gave him subcutaneous fluid under his skin for dehydration and sent him home. He had not eaten, peed, pooped or ate or drank the entire day. The next day I took him back to the vet as he still had zero intake or output. They diagnosed DKA, kept him for treatment until today, March 15th. I got to pick him up.
Decided to start him on Lantus insulin due to cost. Found the dosing guide here in this forum. Any advice on DKA recovery would be most appreciated.
I have 40u insulin syringe, which makes it had for dosing.
 
Hi Gieseking and Taft and welcome to the forum. I am so glad to see you over from the Facebook page.

There is lots you can do to help Taft.
But first I want to ask you about the insulin syringes you have for Taft with the Lantus insulin.
Lantus insulin needs a U100 insulin syringe and not a U40 syringe. Please do not use the U 40 syringes or you will give the wrong dose.
The syringes you need are the U100 3/10 30 or 31 gauge 6 or 8 mm syringes with 1/2 unit markings. You can get them at Walmart or pharmacies.
If you havent been testing you will also need a human glucose meter which can also be bought from the same places
I will post this so you see it and will answer your other questions in the next post.
You will need to get the syringes sorted out today as you don’t want to be skipping any doses of the insulin
 
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Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
The syringes you need are the U100 3/10 30 or 31 gauge 6 or 8 mm syringes with 1/2 unit markings. You can get them at Walmart or pharmacies.
Click to expand...

They can also come in this packaging. The syringes are the 3/10ml, just different colored packaging and the needles on the syringes in this box are only 6mm instead of 8mm long
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Now that you have got Taft home......I am sure he must be so glad to be home with you again.....there are several things you can do to help him in his recovery from DKA.
DKA happens when there is not enough insulin, not enough food and an infection or inflammation present. So we need to make sure he is getting all the insulin he needs, is eating lots of food and is getting an antibiotic if the vet prescribed one for him. Did the vet say if he had an infection?
So we need to make sure:-
  • He needs to eat 1 1/2 times as many calories as he normally does. If he is not eating well, he may need an antinausea medication from the vet. Did the vet send him home with any cerenia or ondansetron?
  • Make sure you have plenty of low carb food to tempt Taft with. Also some higher carb food in case of low numbers
  • Don’t skip any insulin doses. If the blood glucose is lower than normal at shot time....STALL, don’t feed, post and ask for help.
  • Offer snacks every couple of hours except for the 2 hours preshot
  • Make sure he is drinking plenty of water. If not try adding some warm water to the food if he will allow it.
  • Home test the blood glucose levels so that you know what is happening with the BG ( blood glucose ).
  • Test the urine daily for ketones. This is very important. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and test the urine. It is a simple test.

Do you have a spreadsheet for Taft. If not here is a link to how to set it up and I will ask @Bandit's Mom to look in to see if you need some help with it
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/spreadsheets-tech-support-testing-area.6/

Here is a link to suitable food ...look for 10% or under carbs and also for some higher carb food for low numbers
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-food-charts.174182/

Useful link and also has the hypo information in it
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
 
He did have an infection that may have very well perpetuated the DKA. He had a scratch on his right eye and a double ear infection. That was on March 5th. He was prescribed antibiotic eye drops and antibiotic ear drops at that time.
they gave him one shot of penicillin prophylactically on March 12th due to having the IV they said.
I do have an appetite stimulant pill that was prescribed to him about 2 years ago. They gave me many doses and we didn't need them at all that time. I can give one of those.
I have 2 pet glucometers that are both on the cat setting, and feel comfortable obtaining his glucose at home as often as needed. They are varying widely in their reading. I will try to post a picture of the reading I got last night with the same drop of blood tested by the 2 monitors. One was in the 300's the other in the 500's.
I did not have a spreadsheet, so thank you! And thank you all for the support and advice on my sweet boy.

Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Now that you have got Taft home......I am sure he must be so glad to be home with you again.....there are several things you can do to help him in his recovery from DKA.
DKA happens when there is not enough insulin, not enough food and an infection or inflammation present. So we need to make sure he is getting all the insulin he needs, is eating lots of food and is getting an antibiotic if the vet prescribed one for him. Did the vet say if he had an infection?
So we need to make sure:-
  • He needs to eat 1 1/2 times as many calories as he normally does. If he is not eating well, he may need an antinausea medication from the vet. Did the vet send him home with any cerenia or ondansetron?
  • Make sure you have plenty of low carb food to tempt Taft with. Also some higher carb food in case of low numbers
  • Don’t skip any insulin doses. If the blood glucose is lower than normal at shot time....STALL, don’t feed, post and ask for help.
  • Offer snacks every couple of hours except for the 2 hours preshot
  • Make sure he is drinking plenty of water. If not try adding some warm water to the food if he will allow it.
  • Home test the blood glucose levels so that you know what is happening with the BG ( blood glucose ).
  • Test the urine daily for ketones. This is very important. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and test the urine. It is a simple test.

Do you have a spreadsheet for Taft. If not here is a link to how to set it up and I will ask @Bandit's Mom to look in to see if you need some help with it
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/spreadsheets-tech-support-testing-area.6/

Here is a link to suitable food ...look for 10% or under carbs and also for some higher carb food for low numbers
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/links-to-food-charts.174182/

Useful link and also has the hypo information in it
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
Click to expand...
 
I would not give an appetite stimulant unless you have given an antinausea medication first. Nauseated cats can’t eat....
Signs of nausea are wanting to eat but walking away, sniffing at the food and walking away, smacking the lips.
It is very common for cats recovering from DKA to be nauseated for a while....they just need some cerenia or ondansetron until it passes.
 
Thank you! I did not know this. I have some ondansetron on hand. Do you know the dose? I will also contact the vet in the am and ask for the other antinausea medication you mentioned if I don't see results from the ondansetron. He really hasn't touched his food much, and prior to dka he loved to eat. He has had some diarrhea today, somewhat formed and a yellow color. Thank you for all of your help. I have two gluometers for pets and they are giving me very different reading with >200 difference. I'm not sure which one to trust. I can't seem to figure out how to post a picture here. I will try to post in the fb group.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Gieseking and Taft and welcome to the forum. I am so glad to see you over from the Facebook page.

There is lots you can do to help Taft.
But first I want to ask you about the insulin syringes you have for Taft with the Lantus insulin.
Lantus insulin needs a U100 insulin syringe and not a U40 syringe. Please do not use the U 40 syringes or you will give the wrong dose.
The syringes you need are the U100 3/10 30 or 31 gauge 6 or 8 mm syringes with 1/2 unit markings. You can get them at Walmart or pharmacies.
If you havent been testing you will also need a human glucose meter which can also be bought from the same places
I will post this so you see it and will answer your other questions in the next post.
You will need to get the syringes sorted out today as you don’t want to be skipping any doses of the insulin
Click to expand...
Yes! I went and got the correct syringes from CVS pharmacy this am. Thank you for helping me know the right ones.
 
What is the strength of your ondansetron tablets?
The dosage for cats is 0.11 mg/lb very 8 to 12 hours. Sheba was 6 kg (13lb) and I used to give her 2 mg which was 1/2 of the 4 mg tablet. Let me just check that with @tiffmaxee as I think she has used it more recently than me.
We really need to get Taft eating a lot more if we can. have you started the insulin yet?
Not quite sure what to tell you about the pet meters. I don’t know either of the ones you mentioned. If I were you I would go out and buy a ReliOn human meter from Walmart and use that. They are reliable and not expensive and our dosing methods are based on the human meters.
 
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