New Member, Recent DKA 11/19-11/25 - Katie & Benny

KatieL09797 · Wednesday at 9:02 PM

Hi everyone, I finally gained the courage to join the forum!

My tuxedo cat Benny was diagnosed with diabetes on September 21st of this year. We believe he is 5 years old (many think he is older), I adopted him from a rescue 9 months ago. He had been surrendered by his previous family and stayed at the rescue for 11 months. We had no clue at the time of adoption that this would be our lives! We have just gotten out of a very scary week of hospitalization due to DKA. The vet we had been working with for 2 months gave us no indication that Benny was anywhere close to this situation and as you all can imagine, we will not be going back to that clinic. We have seen a cardiologist to rule out any heart issues (no heart issues, yay!) and just had an initial internist appointment today.

Benny is currently on 1Ul per meal of Lantus insulin, 1Ul with breakfast and 1Ul with dinner. He has unfortunately lost a lot of weight in the past 6 months or so, he was originally 12lbs and now he is 5.6lbs. On top of glucose regulation, his weight is my second biggest worry and I want to get weight back on him as soon as possible. He is a ravenous eater and is currently eating four 3oz cans a day of Hill’s c/d wet food. I’ve stuck with this food because the hospital gave it to him during his stay, it has a pretty low carb percentage, and we brought him home from the rescue with this food and he was quite successful.

Along with polyphagia, Benny has been urinating quite frequently for the past 2 months, at his worst about 13 times a day. Recently we’ve been getting between 3-7 times a day which I consider an improvement but most of the time it is not in the box. I fear it has become behavioral and he usually pees on the pee pads I have set up around the house. He does poop in his boxes though!

Since Benny’s DKA and return home from the hopsital, I have been doing daily glucose checks with a meter at breakfast, sometimes around the lunch hour, and at dinner before dose and food. I am very lucky that Benny is very good about the paw pricks because he is currently too skinny for a Freestyle Libre. I’ve linked his spreadsheet in my signature, we are on day 6 of 1Ul twice daily and we are only just starting to see some good glucose numbers. I’m waiting to hear about some bloodwork that was done today at the internist’s to see if any dosage change needs to happen but I know we are still very early on in the process. I am also starting daily glucose/ketone urine test strips as advised by the internist.

So, that is Benny right now in a nutshell! This experience has been one of the scariest experiences that I have ever had with a pet and since the experience with his original vet clinic, I am very paranoid of not giving him the best care.

It is nice to meet you all!

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · Wednesday at 9:45 PM

@KatieL09797
Welcome Katie and Benny
Sorry to hear Benny had DKA
I am going to tag some experienced members for you
We need you to set up your signature
It's information we need about Benny
You might want to fill out your signature
Here is the information we need for your signature
Just click on your name up top and then tap signature and add this information. It's at the end of everyone's post in gray letters

Add info we need to help you:
- Caregiver & kitty's name
- DX: Date
- Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
- Name of your meter
- Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
- Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
- DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
- Bexacat or Senvelgo (if applicable) and dates
- Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
- Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
- Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Be sure to put the date Benny had DKA
Did he have ketones?

You also need to get some tests in after you test Benny's PMPS

KatieL09797 · Wednesday at 9:53 PM

Diane Tyler's Mom GA said:
@KatieL09797
Welcome Katie and Benny
Sorry to hear Benny had DKA
We need you to set up your signature
It's information we need about Benny
You might want to fill out your signature
Here is the information we need for your signature
Just click on your name up top and then tap signature and add this information. It's at the end of everyone's post in gray letters

Add info we need to help you:

Caregiver & kitty's name

DX: Date

Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)

Name of your meter

Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"

Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)

DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)

Bexacat or Senvelgo (if applicable) and dates

Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)

Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.

Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Be sure to put the date Benny had DKA
Did he have ketones?

You also need to get some tests in after you test Benny's PMPS

Thanks, Diane. I just updated my signature! Benny was hospitalized with DKA on November 19th. He was hospitalized because ketones were found in his urine.

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · Wednesday at 9:55 PM

KatieL09797 said:
Hi everyone, I finally gained the courage to join the forum!

My tuxedo cat Benny was diagnosed with diabetes on September 21st of this year. We believe he is 5 years old (many think he is older), I adopted him from a rescue 9 months ago. He had been surrendered by his previous family and stayed at the rescue for 11 months. We had no clue at the time of adoption that this would be our lives! We have just gotten out of a very scary week of hospitalization due to DKA. The vet we had been working with for 2 months gave us no indication that Benny was anywhere close to this situation and as you all can imagine, we will not be going back to that clinic. We have seen a cardiologist to rule out any heart issues (no heart issues, yay!) and just had an initial internist appointment today.

Benny is currently on 1Ul per meal of Lantus insulin, 1Ul with breakfast and 1Ul with dinner. He has unfortunately lost a lot of weight in the past 6 months or so, he was originally 12lbs and now he is 5.6lbs. On top of glucose regulation, his weight is my second biggest worry and I want to get weight back on him as soon as possible. He is a ravenous eater and is currently eating four 3oz cans a day of Hill’s c/d wet food. I’ve stuck with this food because the hospital gave it to him during his stay, it has a pretty low carb percentage, and we brought him home from the rescue with this food and he was quite successful.

Along with polyphagia, Benny has been urinating quite frequently for the past 2 months, at his worst about 13 times a day. Recently we’ve been getting between 3-7 times a day which I consider an improvement but most of the time it is not in the box. I fear it has become behavioral and he usually pees on the pee pads I have set up around the house. He does poop in his boxes though!

Since Benny’s DKA and return home from the hopsital, I have been doing daily glucose checks with a meter at breakfast, sometimes around the lunch hour, and at dinner before dose and food. I am very lucky that Benny is very good about the paw pricks because he is currently too skinny for a Freestyle Libre. I’ve linked his spreadsheet in my signature, we are on day 6 of 1Ul twice daily and we are only just starting to see some good glucose numbers. I’m waiting to hear about some bloodwork that was done today at the internist’s to see if any dosage change needs to happen but I know we are still very early on in the process. I am also starting daily glucose/ketone urine test strips as advised by the internist.

So, that is Benny right now in a nutshell! This experience has been one of the scariest experiences that I have ever had with a pet and since the experience with his original vet clinic, I am very paranoid of not giving him the best care.

It is nice to meet you all!

@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Wendy&Neko
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)
@Marje and Gracie
@tiffmaxee
@BanditsMom

Hi Ladies Benny is eating Hills C/D Wet
I looked and it says
On Dr. Lisa's food list Hills C/D wet shows with 23-28 carbs depending on which flavor.
Can you suggest any low carb foods for Katie
Thanks Ladies

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · Wednesday at 10:03 PM

@KatieL09797
Thanks for creating your signature, can you just put the name of the low carb food you ate feeding to your signature.
To draw more attention to your post I would put HAD DKA 11-19- 11-25
You can add it after you have Katie and Benny
To add that
Tap on Thread Tools to the right then tap on Edit Title and add that then tap save just to draw attention to it

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · Wednesday at 10:18 PM

KatieL09797 said:
He is a ravenous eater and is currently eating four 3oz cans a day of Hill’s c/d wet food. I’ve stuck with this food because the hospital gave it to him during his stay, it has a pretty low carb percentage, and we brought him home from the

@KatieL09797
On Dr. Lisa's food list Hills C/D wet shows with 23-28 carbs depending on which flavor. So it's not low carb. It's listed all the way at the bottom where it says
VETERINARIAN-
PRESCRIBED/SOLD

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-

10% and under is low carb
11% -15 is medium carbs.

16- 24 is high carb

Katie on your spreadsheet you have 2 units twice a day? You probably meant 1 unit You can delete that and just leave Lantus ok

Have you read all the yellow stickys about Lantus

When you read the sticky about the 2 dosing methods to follow for Lantus
You can choose one and add it to your signature and spreadsheet up top where it asks you.

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · Wednesday at 10:41 PM

KatieL09797 said:
I am very lucky that Benny is very good about the paw pricks

You can also test on the ears
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capillaries it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets any brand
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand not the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with

Try putting a thin layer of Vaseline on the ear so the blood will bead up

Diane Tyler's Mom GA · 2025-12-04T22:07:24-0500

@KatieL09797
Katie I'm sorry no one has answered my tags .I saw you posted on the Lantus Board today. I'm going to copy it and post it here and re tag the members again.

Here is Katie's post from today ,no one responded to my tags .
Her post from today on the Lantus Board

Hi everyone,

A couple of days ago, Benny was getting some good glucose numbers for him but in the past 24 hours he has taken a turn. Yesterday morning, his pre-breakfast and insulin glucose was 149. He's never been that low when I have tested him at home. He had an appointment with a specialist yesterday that turned out to be super disappointing and we got home. His pre-dinner and insulin glucose was back up to 441. Throughout the night, he was soo sleepy, nearly catatonic. By the next morning glucose check, he was 474 which is not his worst but was not a great sign to me. As the day has gone on, his energy has not kicked in at the usual time, his +5 number was 638. I called the hospital that treated him for his DKA because they have been responsive to me and they advised me to give him a .5Ul of his Lantus so I did at +5 since the morning dose. Tested him again at +8 and he was 631. He seems to have a bit more energy but still not back to what he was for the past few days.

I have taken the advice of the forum and bought some Fancy Feast Gourmet Naturals to try and transition him over to a less carb heavy food. I'm going to have half of his dinner be the Fancy Feast.

He's back to peeing at least 7 times a day and has struggled to have a stool several times. I just don't think there is anything in his system because his glucose is so high. He can no longer hop up on counters or even the toilet seat he is so muscle-wasted and tiny. I'm just so afraid I am not doing enough for him and this specialist appointment was just another huge let down.

We have an appointment with another specialist at a training hospital next week to see if they can help us so I am just in another holding pattern until then.

I am new to the forum as of yesterday but have been reading for a few months. I am seeing an internal medicine specialist because we had a horrible vet experience that has lead us to this point. The hospital recommended a specialist for him because they said he was difficult for even them to regulate.

We just started 2Ul tonight so I’m hoping we see a little more improvement in the coming days.

Katie and Benny | DKA: 11/19-11/25 | DX: September 21st, 2025 | Insulin: Lantus | Meter: Alphatrak 3 | Diet: Hill’s c/d wet, transitioning to Fancy Feast Gourmet Naturals | Benny’s Spreadsheet

Tagging members again can someone please help Katie

@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Wendy&Neko
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)
@Marje and Gracie
@tiffmaxee
@BanditsMom

Here is Katie's introduction post on the Feline Health Board

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Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)
KATIE'S INTRODUCTION POST FROM YESTERDAY