New Member July 9 - Binx hospitalized with DKA

kelsey&binx

kelsey&binx

Member Since 2026
My soul cat Binx was hospitalized tonight with DKA. He’s 14. I feel so lost and scared for him.

I noticed starting last week he was drinking more water, but we were under a heat advisory with temps over 100° so I assumed that was the cause.

Yesterday he didn’t finish his breakfast (out of character) and last night had no interest in his wet food. He grazed on kibble, which he prefers, overnight and this morning, but I could tell something was off. Although he was acting mostly normal - still asking to go out in the back yard and for treats.

I decided to take him to the ER vet since my reg vet is closed. Blood and urine test later and he was diagnosed with DKA and admitted. The vet really scared me, saying DKA can be fatal and the prognosis of it is “guarded.” FWIW Binx went down swinging - I could hear him screaming when they took him back. I had to go back up there to bring his other medication and the tech told me it took three of them to get his catheter in. She did give me a print out of his blood work.

I’m not sure exactly what I’m asking. I feel so overwhelmed with all this new information, scared for my baby that hasn’t slept away from home in over a decade, and worried he may not come home. I’m hoping I caught the DKA early just because I do feel very in tune with my cats, but I’m also beating myself up for not taking him sooner and wondering what I missed.
 
Take in a t-shirt that you have worn for him to sleep with.

Many cats can survive DKA with the proper treatment at the clinic, followed by the proper treatment at home.

At the clinic, he should be getting IV fluids (for dehydration and to help flush out glucose), insulin (possibly a short-acting insulin to get the blood sugar down quickly), electrolytes (if indicated by the blood tests).
It is important for Binx to eat so they might give him something for nausea.

It would help to post the lab results.
Tagging a few people @Bron and Sheba (GA) @Marje and Gracie

What meds is Binx taking?

Some reading:
 
Thanks! Yes they’ve started him on fluids and said they hope to start insulin within 6-8 hours. He’s on fluoxetine for anxiety and amlodipine for blood pressure. I took his favorite toy for them to give him when I took his medicine. I’m attaching his blood results here.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1472.jpeg
    IMG_1472.jpeg
    4.6 MB · Views: 30
No I know they did that on a urine test. They are calling every 12 hours with updates and I’m going to try and visit him tomorrow if they will let me. I will ask then.
 
Hi and welcome Kelsey and Binx to the forum.
I’m sorry to hear Binx has DKA but it sounds as if you got him to the vet early which is so important with DKA.
I can see some of his electrolytes are low on the blood test and I’m sure the vet will be giving him medication to correct those.
Have they put him on an antibiotic?
DKA happens when there is not enough insulin, not enough food and an infection or inflammation in the body.
I’m going to give you a list of things you will need to have for when Binx comes home and a list of things you will need to do for him once he is home.

This is what you need to do now while he is in hospital so you can be ready for him coming home.
  • buy Ketostix for testing ketones in the urine. Can be bought from Walmart in the US or a pharmacy.
  • Ask the vet for antinausea medication such as cerenia or ondansetron. Most post DKA kitties are nauseated for a time so make sure he comes home with one of these. Ondansetron is better for nausea..
  • May also need an appetite stimulant… give the antinausea medication first before the appetite stimulant.
  • Ask the vet about giving sub Q fluids at home
  • get a range of canned food for when they get home including some higher carb foods.
  • set up a spreadsheet and the signature before Binx comes home
  • buy a human glucose meter over an alphatrak meter to measure the blood glucose
  • get copies or all the path results from the ER.
Here is what you need to be doing once you get Binx home.
  • you need to give one and a half times as many calories as he normally eats. Offer snacks every couple of hours during the day and evening as well as the 2 main meals. Food is like a medicine and helps keep ketones away. If Binx won’t eat the low carb food, feed him whatever he will eat as eating any food is better than not eating,
  • Don’t skip any doses of insulin as insulin helps keep ketones away. If the BG is not high enough to give the dose…stall, dont feed and test again in 20 minutes and post and ask for help.
  • Test daily for ketones. Put the results of the tests into the remarks column of the SS so we can see. Please report any trace ketones at all.
  • Give antinausea medication if needed. A lot is post DKA cats are nauseated fora time. This is normal, so give the antinausea meds.
  • Give appetite stimulant if needed after the antinausea medication
  • Give extra fluids. If kitty will tolerate warm water in the food, put a teaspoon into each snack..
  • Ask the vet about subQ fluids
  • Set up a spreadsheet and test the BG frequently
  • Post daily with updates and ask for help as often as needed.
Link to the spreadsheet and signature and other useful information

HELP US HELP YOU
 
No antibiotic - I’m not sure there is an infection. They didn’t say anything about that.
 
kelsey&binx said:
No antibiotic - I’m not sure there is an infection. They didn’t say anything about that.
Click to expand...
I would ask about this. If it was DKA there would be an infection or an inflammation of some sort and it’s important this is addressed and treated.
Ask what the white cell count was in the blood test.
 
Last edited:
Hi thank you for checking! He’s doing really great and they think he will be ready to come home tomorrow. His bloodwork today showed half a ketone left and they are going to switch him from the IV insulin to Lantus tomorrow morning. They are going to monitor him through that and as long as one unit doesn’t make him hypo he can come home tomorrow afternoon.

I’ve been visiting him everyday and I really think that’s helped. He’s a spicy boy to everyone else but he just laid in my lap today while I sat outside his kennel for about an hour. This group has been so immensely helpful! I’ve read so much information and ordered everything we will need from Amazon and it’s getting here tomorrow. So perfect timing! Thank you all so much for all that you do! I know I’m going to be here a lot moving forward. 🖤🖤
 
I’m glad Binx is improving. Great news.
Please post each day.
Test daily for ketones and make sure he eats plenty of food.
Are the vets giving you an antinausea medication to bring home? Even if he’s eating it’s a good idea to have some on hand in vasectomy it’s needed.
 
They didn’t give me any anti nausea meds. We got home at 7:00 and he immediately wanted to eat. Ate a 3oz can of weruva bff. Now it’s 10:00 and I need to give him his lantus and he won’t eat any of the food options I put out. Is it ok to give the shot now or does he need to eat? Also they told me human blood glucose meters dont work on cats and that’s all I have.
 
Nearly every member here on FDMB use human blood glucose meters on their cat, either a manual meter or a CGM. Before pet meters were made, everyone including vets and many published veterinary articles and studies on diabetes used human blood glucose meters. Ignore the ER about human meters. Sure, you could use a pet meter like AlphaTrak but it's more expensive and no more accurate than a human meter.

What is the dose of Lantus?

I would just offer any food, even dry food. A cat recovering from DKA needs to eat to get calories in.

Will you be following up with your regular vet?
 
I agree, the human meter is fine. That’s what I used. And most of us here use.
And yes feed him whatever he will eat. He needs to eat and he needs the insulin.
What was the Preshot BG.
I would go back to the vet in the morning and say you need the antinausea meds. Be firm about it.
The insulin won’t kick in for 2 hours so as long as he eats during that time he should be ok. Keep offering small snacks.
Do you have honey or karo incase he drops low?
 
i didnt test pre shot last night as I didnt know the meter would work but I read more. He gets his next shot in an hour and half so I will test then. He ate a little wet food overnight and now is only interested in churus. I have some human zofran here do you know if I can cut it up smaller and give it to him or is the cat kind in a different form?
 
What is the strength of your Zofran?

For cats, the typical strength is 4 mg. A cat may only need half a 4 mg pill. The vet will have to determine the right dose. Same if your Zofran is 8 mg or something else. Better to ask the vet than to accidentally OD your cat.

There is also an injectable odansetron you can buy from Chewy with a prescription.
 
Ok sorry lots of updates! I called my regular vet who seemed much more knowledgeable about at-home management than the ER vet. He said I was good to give him half a 4mg tab of zofran, which started working after about 20 minutes and he ate! I tested his BG and it was 318, so I gave him 1U. My reg vet said to just keep a spreadsheet and email that to him after a week so we can discuss dosing. Hopefully once he's back on a more regular eating schedule I can fast him for 2 hours prior to testing then food and injection. Side note - can I still give him churus? I just had him lick one off a plate as a distraction while I did the blood testing and injection. Thank you!!
 
kelsey&binx said:
can I still give him churus?
Click to expand...
Absolutely, I gave them as treats after medication.

The dosing for oral ondansetron (Zofran) is 0.5 mg/kg of cat every 6-8 hours. How much does Binx weigh? Injectable ondsansetron you only need to give about half the amount and less often.

The 2 hours fast before injection is something we suggest to new people. It is less important if your cat is in higher blood sugar numbers, but very important if in lower numbers as you want to know what his blood sugars are without influence of food, to know if it's safe to give insulin.
 
Luckily he hasn’t been nauseous today! I’ve still been feeding as much as he wants. The Churu helps distract during testing and injection, so I’m glad he can have those. I got some lower gauge lancets and those are helping make testing easier too.
 
Hello! Binx has been doing well since coming home from the hospital! They had him on the fancy feast there, so I transitioned over to the weruva bff as soon as he got home. He was previously on hill’s c/d for UTIs in the past. He handled this switch well no issues except some stinkier than usual stool. I was still giving some c/d kibble as a treat, but have now switched him over to the Dr Elsey’s kibble for snacks.

Today he woke up from a nap, drank some water, vomited the water with a trace amount of pink blood I think? Then drank a lot more water. He’s been having nausea on and off since returning home from DKA, so I’ve been giving 2mg zofran when that happens. All this happened right when I got home from picking up cerenia tabs at my vet, which I’m going to start giving in place of the zofran.

Tested him and bg good - 203. Gave him the last 2mg half of zofran I had bc he wouldn’t eat even tho I knew he was hungry and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He then went and had horrible diarrhea. Tbf this did seem to give him a lot of relief, he seemed to instantly feel better.

I called my vet just in case bc I was worried about the pink blood in the vomit. They said it’s probably because I didn’t transition him slowly to the new food. I’m thinking it’s the kibble since he just started on that about 1.5 days ago. He didn’t seem too bothered by the switch to weruva bff about ten days ago.

I was scared to keep giving him any c/d kibble as I know it’s high in carbs, but now I’m worried I’ve upset his stomach with the new kibble. Should I go back to transitioning over to the new kibble slowly by mixing it with his c/d kibble? I didn’t get a chance to ask the vet this when I called because they were about to close. Thank you!
 
Glad to hear Binx is home now. Food transition might be the way to go. Post DKA you want him to eat 1.5 times his regular amount of calories for a while. Feed him what he'll eat. More smaller frequent meals may help get the calories in and prevent any liquids vomit.

Nausea is common post DKA. You want to stay ahead of nausea instead of chasing it. Both ondansetron and Cerenia target different nausea receptors, so you can give both at once. Personally I prefer ondansetron for nausea, even though it has to be given more often. Hopefully you are giving the generic ondansetron instead of the more expensive Zofran brand.
 
Yes I am testing for ketones daily! Ok I’ll go back to mixing in his reg kibble too. He will be happy about that! Yes, I had generic zofran prescribed to me that I was using, but my vet said the cerenia works better.

How long will the nausea last? He’s about 10 days home from the hospital. Also how long should I be feeding him 1.5 post-DKA? I’m basically giving him access to wet food 24/7. He’s more motivated by kibble although he’s pretty good about eating the wet.
 
kelsey&binx said:
my vet said the cerenia works better
Click to expand...
Depends on whether he's on the right dose. How much does Binx weigh? 2mg ondansetron is good for an 8 lb cat. And should be dosed 3 times per day.

As far as "how long" goes, keep watching ketones and whether he's gaining back weight.
 
Hes over 14lbs. I’ll have to weigh him again he had lost a couple pounds when he got sick, but I’ve been trying to get some weight off him for years. The 2mg does seem to help. He always goes to his food bowl 10-15 mins after I give it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top