wombat88
Active Member
I just tested Shaikha with a blood ketone meter and she's showing trace ketones, at 0.9 and then 1.0 on the meter. She has chronic pancreatitis and had a very bad acute flareup recently. She's been on buprenorphine, anzemet, and IV or subQ fluids. She was running a fever early on (that's not uncommon for her in very bad flareups), so she's been on antibiotics as well. She's got about four more days left of those. Most of her acute symptoms have gone at this point other than some nausea and inappetance.
Up until this flareup, she never threw ketones -- always 0.0 on the meter. She started throwing tiny amounts during this one, though, and today showed 0.9 and then 1.0 on the blood ketone meter (Precision). Her appetite has been fairly poor but that's always the case when her pancreatitis flares up. The past two days she's actually been eating better though, so the reading at her mid-day shot shocked me. She was hungry for food and is acting normally, so I don't know if I should worry about the ketones or not. Her glucose levels have been fairly decent the past few days too, mostly in the yellows and blues. Her mid-day reading was 189, tested at the same time I tested ketones.
One change the past two days was not giving her subQ fluids. She had developed an irritated area that we thought was from the fluids, so I stopped her fluids to try to give it a chance to heal. The area doesn't hurt, just is a little puffy (it isn't a fluid pocket or a lymph node; my vet has examined it). I'm guessing stopping the fluids wasn't a good idea given her ketones now. I'm about to give her 100ml of fluids, which is the usual amount she gets. She isn't dehydrated and is drinking fine, but the fluids always help when she's got a flareup.
I have urine ketone strips but have not been successful in using them. She is really private in the box and runs away or jumps out if I get close, so I've just been using the ketone meter once per day during this flareup to keep tabs on them. I can try to set up a box with hydrophobic sand but don't know if I'll be able to get her to use it.
Is there anything else I should be doing? When should I check her ketones again?
PS: Shaikha does have fairly severe anemia, so I don't know if that can make the ketone meter read off or not. She was down to 15% PCV so we sent out blood work to check reticulocytes for regeneration and also test her clotting, as that's been a problem. We were planning on doing a plasma transfusion this week and/or whole blood transfusion depending on what the tests show.
Up until this flareup, she never threw ketones -- always 0.0 on the meter. She started throwing tiny amounts during this one, though, and today showed 0.9 and then 1.0 on the blood ketone meter (Precision). Her appetite has been fairly poor but that's always the case when her pancreatitis flares up. The past two days she's actually been eating better though, so the reading at her mid-day shot shocked me. She was hungry for food and is acting normally, so I don't know if I should worry about the ketones or not. Her glucose levels have been fairly decent the past few days too, mostly in the yellows and blues. Her mid-day reading was 189, tested at the same time I tested ketones.
One change the past two days was not giving her subQ fluids. She had developed an irritated area that we thought was from the fluids, so I stopped her fluids to try to give it a chance to heal. The area doesn't hurt, just is a little puffy (it isn't a fluid pocket or a lymph node; my vet has examined it). I'm guessing stopping the fluids wasn't a good idea given her ketones now. I'm about to give her 100ml of fluids, which is the usual amount she gets. She isn't dehydrated and is drinking fine, but the fluids always help when she's got a flareup.
I have urine ketone strips but have not been successful in using them. She is really private in the box and runs away or jumps out if I get close, so I've just been using the ketone meter once per day during this flareup to keep tabs on them. I can try to set up a box with hydrophobic sand but don't know if I'll be able to get her to use it.
Is there anything else I should be doing? When should I check her ketones again?
PS: Shaikha does have fairly severe anemia, so I don't know if that can make the ketone meter read off or not. She was down to 15% PCV so we sent out blood work to check reticulocytes for regeneration and also test her clotting, as that's been a problem. We were planning on doing a plasma transfusion this week and/or whole blood transfusion depending on what the tests show.
