Katie & Benny
Member Since 2025
Benny has been through another tough week this past week.
On Monday, he was acting a little sleepier but still relatively normal, always eager for his food and behaving better than he had been. He went to the bathroom and I decided on a whim to check his ketones. I used a keto-diastix strip and the ketones show up dark purple for Large ketones. I was in shock because I never did an at home test that showed up positive before. From here on, it was a night of sitting in the ER, being referred to a bigger emergency hospital because Benny has anemia and ketones, and being admitted for the second time in less than two months for DKA and anemia.
It turns out, the anemia was from over testing on Benny’s blood. Since the last hospitalization, Benny has had blood tests multiple times in the week and he is just so small right now and so unregulated that his body has no time to regenerate those cells. I was relieved this wasn’t a more serious concern as the first ER worded this finding as possibly being something “more sinister” going on that no one had found yet. He received IV fluids, went through three chest taps because a Freestyle Libre was attempted to be placed and it punctured his lung (please don’t even ask about a Freestyle Libre because it’s not happening after this experience), and very thankfully discharged from the hospital December 11th after 3 days in hospital.
We are heading into day 3 since Benny has been out of the hospital and my biggest worry right now is that his ketone tests are showing up as Large again. We have contacted his new internal specialist and she recommended putting Benny back up to 2 units again from 1.5 that he has been on since he was discharged on the 11th. She honestly didn’t seem that worried that his ketones were back so quickly because we did say he is acting fine. Benny once again is acting pretty normally, just still pretty tired but definitely not extremely lethargic, no vomiting, no diarrhea, no heavy breathing. He is eating his food as ravenously as usual and his glucose is staying within the 300’s which I know isn’t great but is better than what he was working with before. Benny is getting between 300-350 calories a day, sometimes a bit more.
I was supposed to get a blood ketone meter in the mail today but unfortunately it did not arrive so I am still working with the urine test strips for now. Biggest question, what can I do to try and get these ketones down at home? He always eats all of his food so that, luckily, is never a worry, I am making sure he is drinking water to try and flush out the ketones, and we have made the increase from 1.5 units to 2 this evening. We are doing an at home glucose curve tomorrow and sharing results with his internal specialist who so far is very collaborative.
On Monday, he was acting a little sleepier but still relatively normal, always eager for his food and behaving better than he had been. He went to the bathroom and I decided on a whim to check his ketones. I used a keto-diastix strip and the ketones show up dark purple for Large ketones. I was in shock because I never did an at home test that showed up positive before. From here on, it was a night of sitting in the ER, being referred to a bigger emergency hospital because Benny has anemia and ketones, and being admitted for the second time in less than two months for DKA and anemia.
It turns out, the anemia was from over testing on Benny’s blood. Since the last hospitalization, Benny has had blood tests multiple times in the week and he is just so small right now and so unregulated that his body has no time to regenerate those cells. I was relieved this wasn’t a more serious concern as the first ER worded this finding as possibly being something “more sinister” going on that no one had found yet. He received IV fluids, went through three chest taps because a Freestyle Libre was attempted to be placed and it punctured his lung (please don’t even ask about a Freestyle Libre because it’s not happening after this experience), and very thankfully discharged from the hospital December 11th after 3 days in hospital.
We are heading into day 3 since Benny has been out of the hospital and my biggest worry right now is that his ketone tests are showing up as Large again. We have contacted his new internal specialist and she recommended putting Benny back up to 2 units again from 1.5 that he has been on since he was discharged on the 11th. She honestly didn’t seem that worried that his ketones were back so quickly because we did say he is acting fine. Benny once again is acting pretty normally, just still pretty tired but definitely not extremely lethargic, no vomiting, no diarrhea, no heavy breathing. He is eating his food as ravenously as usual and his glucose is staying within the 300’s which I know isn’t great but is better than what he was working with before. Benny is getting between 300-350 calories a day, sometimes a bit more.
I was supposed to get a blood ketone meter in the mail today but unfortunately it did not arrive so I am still working with the urine test strips for now. Biggest question, what can I do to try and get these ketones down at home? He always eats all of his food so that, luckily, is never a worry, I am making sure he is drinking water to try and flush out the ketones, and we have made the increase from 1.5 units to 2 this evening. We are doing an at home glucose curve tomorrow and sharing results with his internal specialist who so far is very collaborative.
. Which Royal Canin prescription food do you have?