Please help Phoebe!

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It's important that you get multiple blood sugar tests in a day for us to see a pattern and be able to help you with the insulin and feeding amounts. Otherwise you have no way to track her. Almost every pharmacy sells Ketone sticks that you dip into the urine. You really don't need a ketone meter, as they can be a little pricey.

Also, vetsulin is not really supposed to be a once a day only insulin. Your vet is probably not very up to date on the treatment of diabetes. I would look to find a new Vet as soon as possible. If you are willing to drive to milwaukee, I can recommend my vet, which is a cat-only practice, and she's like the #1 diabetes vet for cats in my area.

As for fluids, I wouldn't do subq at home unless you are taught how and have good vet support. The fluids need oversight from a vet due to changes they can cause to electrolytes. Pedialyte (the plain kind) is a good fluid replacement and can be mixed with food.

Whatever the vet tells you to give for the insulin, I would give half the dose in the AM and half in the PM. Ideally, if you could do every 8 hours that would be better.
 
I haven't ever handled DKA myself, but I think the key here is to get you started on home-testing as soon as possible so you can keep a close eye on Phoebe's glucose levels. This link should help you to get started http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/ Depending on how she is responding to insulin, as Meya says, you might need to dose every 8 hours with Caninsulin for now to make sure she always has active insulin in her system. I think every major pharmacy sells ketostix too - you don't need a meter, you just stick a strip under her when she pees and get the reading that way. I am surprised that they were only able to give you a tentative diagnosis - every ER vet should have the facility to test for ketones to make sure their diagnosis is correct. Did they give a reason for not sending sub-q fluids home with her? While there is always the potential for over-hydration, most cats in DKA are going to need fluids of some description. Giving fluids orally is possible, but actually takes longer than giving them sub-q...my feeling would be that if they thought she really needed to be on an IV, then the second choice should really have been sub-q rather than oral so I really hope they come through with those for you.
 
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