Mishka was the one who actually came to me about 5 p.m. and was in ER the next day with DKA. She also had never been started on insulin, had been vaccinated 3 days before I picked her up, and we went through hell those first 3 months. She'd been in ER for a week, come home for a weekend, go back in with ketones maxed out. There is a very fine line between ketones and DKA and it depends on how acidic the blood is so my first question was always what her blood pH was. Also, at that time the Humulins were still available and I refused N and PZI so she was started on L. Didn't do dip for her so we went to U. Once we got over that major hump she really did well but........at least once a year Mishka would go back in and usually be in DKA. Only one time did we find any reason for it......a UTI. Before that her numbers would be in the 100's, no blood work out of whack, no temp, no nothing to account for the ketones. She was just prone to them and I think even a little upset tummy could put her into DKA. Knock on wood, it has now been close to 2 years that she has been fine. Patches(GA), Baby(GA), Hope.........never had ketones and so far Vinnie hasn't either. Oh, there was one weekend when Mishka threw hi for ketones on the strip, trace next morning, back up to hi, then medium....took her from Fri. to Monday to come back down to negative. Her numbers were great, eating well, playful as all get out, but throwing ketones. Mishka is a total mystery as to why. She is well known by the specialists and all the ER vets.
I want to add one thing though.....believe Thursday is a full moon. Not posted about too much anymore but we see a lot more hypos happen during the phase of the full moon and I kept track over the years because I saw more cats throwing ketones also.
I hope Woden comes through this. I'm always catching Mishka's urine because I can't trust her and it's going on 7 years in Oct. She is on her PZI IDEXX still and will be switching to BCP PZI when time comes. I call her urine "liquid gold" because I am so happy to not only catch it but get negative on the reading.
Prayers coming for Woden .