Potassium levels

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Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)

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Can somebody explain potassium levels to me? Bob's continue to be just below the normal range. I found out today that he needs to continue getting subq lactated ringers with added potassium twice a week for another month.
Can't I just feed him bananas?
What does a sub-normal level indicate?
Carl
 
Potassium is vital to muscles, especially the heart. There is a fairly small range that is good. Too low and everything just stops working. Too high can be dangerous also, because the muscles spasm. My limited amount of knowledge on Potassium.
 
Just took a crash course on "K".
Normal is defined as 3.5 to 5.0. Last visit 3 weeks ago, Bob was 3.3. Today he was 3.6. So just inside the "normal range". And it looks like it is commonly associated with CRF as well as diabetes. Bob's never had any kidney problems, never diagnosed with a UTI, so I guess it's related to his diabetes. He was DKA when diagnosed with FDB... I guess he's just not quite "there" yet?
OTOH, he hasn't had an insulin shot for a week, and his tests have ranged from 64-97 over that span. I was really hoping that today's vet visit would be ALL positives, but this beats the hell out of where he and I were 10 weeks ago.

Carl and Bob in SC
 
Hi Carl, and, of course, you too, maybe not so sweet Bob,

How old is Bob? SubQ's twice a week isn't bad. The size of the needle can be daunting... I chose between the shoulder blades on full flow because of time/Cujo issues with Giz. Took two minutes. Often after one minute and change, we both were wearing the rest whilst I madly dashed to turn off the little turn off wheel thingy...

What did his vet say regarding his still needing potassium? Giz was DKA at dx too. Did temporarily add something gunky called Tumil-K back then for a while. DKA can take a lot out of them... It doesn't have to be CRF; but it might be. Sigh...

Sorry; but, you'll have to eat the bananas.

Love and hopeful encouraging hugs for you and Bob,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, who really didn't care for SubQ Ringers pretty much at all added to her dance card... Sigh...
 
About 40% of senior cats have potassium issues. Tucker took Tumil-K pills, easy to give, we crushed it and used a small amount of canned fish flavor foods and he ate it. Low potassium can be scary, kitty will have trouble lifting his head, he'll be lethargic, spaced out. As mentioned, high potassium can lead to heart problems.

If it were my kitty, I'd get the potassium checked every month for a bit and see if you can get up to about 4.

Tucker suffered from Hypokalemia, a fancy way to say low potassium.
 
Now, unfortunately, THIS is a subject that I can tell you WAY too much about. My husband has a rare condition called 'hypokalemic periodic paralysis' or 'HKPP'. He takes MASSIVE amounts of potassium daily and still has paralysis attacks - already done 2 this morning and almost made a hospital trip with HIM. He goes completely limp, is semi-conscious, can't swallow and I still have to manage to pour liquid potassium down him and get him to swallow it without going down his windpipe. If I can't get his potassium back up, eventually his heart will quit beating and his breathing will stop. This is NOT NORMAL - what I'm talking about here is a MUTANT gene condition.

The body runs on electricity just like your car/house. Potassium is one of the required minerals to make the electrical contact making each cell work thus making the muscles work. Remember, almost everything in the body is either a muscle of some type or controlled by a muscle. When the potassium is too low, the ligaments and tendons take over the 'holding' of things together and letting them move. Example - his head falls completely forward because his neck muscles can't hold it up. If he does lift it, he's using ligaments and tendons instead. Those aren't designed to be used that way and can tear away from the bone. I hold his head up all thru the attack (5 minutes to 4 hours) to support it. This works exactly the same with animals.

This link I'm providing is to a page about HKPP but will give you a better understanding of how potassium works:
http://www.hkpp.org/faq/hypokalemic_periodic_paralysis.html.

The biggest reason for low potassium in NORMAL living things is dehydration....

Hugs to All!
Lyresa and KT
 
Bob is 11 years old. Today he weighed in at 14.1 lbs. That's 7oz less than last visit 3 weeks back. She (the vet) had asked me to see if I could get him to lose a bit, so he's been on a pretty strict 250 calorie per day limit (that's about 2 1/2 cans of FF classics a day, so he isn't starving!
I've been doing the 100cc sub-q's since mid-May, so it isn't a "how to" thing. This is the 4th bag I've brought home. I was just hoping we could be done with it. Out of all the stuff I've had to do, the sub-q fluids is the thing I enjoy the least. Bob agrees with me on that. I'm thinking I'm going to try to locate some of those smaller thin-walled harpoons that Lori recently had to use on Tom. Maybe that'll make it easier on Bob.
Still, today's vet visit was otherwise terrific. On the 19th, I made the decision to stop dosing Bob due to low repeated numbers. For a week before that, he'd only been getting dosed in the AM, and never needed a PM dose. So I figured, OK, let's try skipping the insulin this morning and see what happens tonight. Next thing I know it's been 15 straight tests I got a no-shoot number, and that's where Bob is right now.

Since I'm not shooting, it really doesn't make all that much sense to continue testing just before a meal, does it? I mean, that is the point where normally the insulin is done doing its thing, and the numbers have increased. So do I test like halfway between meals? I realize the first couple hours after eating, it should be higher, right? But at what time during the every-12-hours meal schedule would a BG test give me a non-food-related real snapshot of where his sugar is at?

Carl
 
Squeaky and KT said:
Now, unfortunately, THIS is a subject that I can tell you WAY too much about. My husband has a rare condition called 'hypokalemic periodic paralysis' or 'HKPP'. He takes MASSIVE amounts of potassium daily and still has paralysis attacks - already done 2 this morning and almost made a hospital trip with HIM. He goes completely limp, is semi-conscious, can't swallow and I still have to manage to pour liquid potassium down him and get him to swallow it without going down his windpipe. If I can't get his potassium back up, eventually his heart will quit beating and his breathing will stop. This is NOT NORMAL - what I'm talking about here is a MUTANT gene condition.

The body runs on electricity just like your car/house. Potassium is one of the required minerals to make the electrical contact making each cell work thus making the muscles work. Remember, almost everything in the body is either a muscle of some type or controlled by a muscle. When the potassium is too low, the ligaments and tendons take over the 'holding' of things together and letting them move. Example - his head falls completely forward because his neck muscles can't hold it up. If he does lift it, he's using ligaments and tendons instead. Those aren't designed to be used that way and can tear away from the bone. I hold his head up all thru the attack (5 minutes to 4 hours) to support it. This works exactly the same with animals.

This link I'm providing is to a page about HKPP but will give you a better understanding of how potassium works:
http://www.hkpp.org/faq/hypokalemic_periodic_paralysis.html.

The biggest reason for low potassium in NORMAL living things is dehydration....

Hugs to All!
Lyresa and KT
Click to expand...

OMG, that's horrible! God bless him and you.


I read some of the symptoms associated with low K, and so far the only one Bob has ever displayed is a little bit of weakness in his back legs. He hasn't walked on his hocks (in the wildlife rehab world, that can be referred to as "down in the rear"), hasn't had neck muscle issues, just can't jump as high as he used to. But the jumping, we're talking way back. Pre-DB, he was so fat he couldn't jump very high at all (20+ lbs). But he used to be able to jump up on the bed (which is probably 8-10 inches higher than a normal bed because it sits on an antique cast-iron frame) and he won't try now. He'll jump up on the sofa or a chair with no problem. I guess since he's right around the low end of normal, and hasn't been too much lower previously, he hasn't shown critically low symptoms?
Bob has another appointment scheduled for a month from yesterday, and the retest is the number one reason why.
Thanks for the link!
Carl
 
I know that you reduced calories for weight loss, but keep an eye on that. Weight loss is part of low potassium too. Tucker lost 4 pounds before he crashed the first time and we actually tested his K. Unfortunately some symptoms may not seem like symptoms, like in this case the weight loss, it could be the calorie reduction or could be potassium.

Just please get the blood tests at the vet regularly.

Lyresa, wow, you sound so at ease with what your husband goes through but I can only imagine what it must be like. You are truly amazing.
 
Hi Carl, and, of course, you too, maybe sweet Bob,

Google Terumo for the kinder harpoons. You'll need a scrip from Bob's vet. 11 is still considered young around here...

Giz was dx'd at 14. She danced for four years. Of all of our beloved family kidimals, she aged the most and longest gracefully. Ironically, I attribute it to her diabetes and the extra TLC... Who knew?

How do we ever know? We just love...

Speaking of which, love and hopeful encouraging hugs for you and Bob,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, who literally taught me volumes about unconditional love...

PS: Extra love and grateful hugs for you, dearest Lyresa, and your husband...
 
Thanks Jennifer,
He'll continue to have monthly (at least) blood tests to check for potassium. I'm hoping it's the calorie reduction that's dropped the weight. He did climb from 3.3 to 3.6 over the same period that he lost the weight, so that's some indication in favor of the calorie reduction hopefully?

Carl
 
Carl,
Yes that diet change will definitely drop those potassium numbers - sometimes takes a while for the body to relearn it's chemical balances too. Do watch the numbers but don't let yourself become overly worked up about them right now. Let his body relearn that too.

First, all thoughts and prayers are truly appreciated but I always remind myself that there's a REASON for it. I may never understand why but I truly believe there is. Altho I appreciate the compliments and they bring a smile to my face, No, I'm not amazing, I'm not any stronger than every one of you....we were all chosen to learn how to do all this - four legged AND two legged. Every one of you are a little more special than the 'normal' person. Just look at the blessings we all receive because we give!

Hugs!
Lyresa

EDIT TO ADD: Unfortunately there's no way to test potassium (K) at home, animal or human. Well, technically there is but most of us don't have an extra $11,000 laying around to spend on a cardy-meter that isn't completely accurate anyway.
 
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