a thank you to the board, from a first-time poster

Hi all,

I've been visiting the board since my 6-year-old kitty, Whistle, was diagnosed with diabetes in November 2009. I've never posted before, but I wanted to thank all the regular posters here, as some of the information on this board saved Whistle's life last week. Whistle was initially easy to regulate. Her vet was very supportive and suggested home testing, and even handed me a copy of Janet and Binky's list. Whistle was doing very well on 2 units of Lantus BID for a couple of months, eating EVO chicken and turkey. However, last week I noticed her seeming reluctant to eat. Her blood glucose numbers were looking ok (not great, but not too high), so I tried to pay extra attention to any behavior changes. Last Thursday she refused to eat and started vomiting and hiding under the couch. I made an appointment with my regular vet for the next day, as Whistle has had a bit of a habit of eating things she shouldn't and then vomiting. However, something seemed off. I checked Whistle's blood glucose and my meter simply read "HI," which has never happened. I did a quick urine check for ketones and watched in horror as the test strip turned progressively darker. I had read a posts on the forum about how cats who appear to be DKA need to go the emergency vet right away. With that in mind, my boyfriend and I gathered up Whistle and rushed her to the nearest emergency vet. Sure enough, things were looking bad. Apparently Whistle's kidney values were high (just a month ago the values were normal on her bloodwork, so we had no clue she was having problems). Her BUN was 148 and her creatinine was 3.7, blood glucose stayed steady in the 600-700 range for nearly two days. She stayed at the emergency vet for 6 days, and ended up needing an insulin IV and constant fluids. On Sunday, her kidneys were still not responding to treatment and the vets were quite upset, but urged me to give her a couple more days. On Monday things turned around. Her kidneys started responding and the values are now in the normal range! Her blood glucose came down as well, and they've been slowly adjusting her Lantus dose as she'll need to be on a lower phosphorus diet which unfortunately has higher carb percentages than she's used to. I can finally bring her home this afternoon. I just wanted to let everyone here know how grateful I am that you've made this information available. I'm convinced that had I not been reading the board, I would not have been as prepared for this event and Whistle might not have gotten help in time.

 

Wow! Welcome and I'm so glad you were lurking all this time! I hope Whistler feels better soon; it can take time to recover from DKA but she has a good mom and dad with her so that helps.

Any idea from the vet about what caused her to develop DKA? Not sure if the kidney issues would have come first or second....chicken and the egg kind of thing???

Jen

 

Great news that Whistler is doing better. And I'm glad you found so much information here. You don't have to have high carb food to get low phosphorus. Look at Janet & Binky's list - there are several foods that are fairly low in phosphorus, but still low carb. We feed Wellness Chicken and Wellness Turkey to our Blackie who also has kidney issues. Others feed Friskies Special Diet Turkey & Giblets, Beef & Chicken or Beef & Liver.

I hope you'll post more often and let us know how Whistler is doing.

 

WoW! I can never say enough things about how wonderful this message board is :!: :!:

Thank goodness you have found it and had been reading up when Whistler needed you to. Miracles can happen ;-)

 

So glad to hear Whistle is recovering!! How scary. Its so great you kept informed and knew what to watch for, and what to do! Wishing Whistle a speedy and full recovery!

Jen

 

I'm so glad that Whistle is doing better, and that you were prepared to check BG and ketones at home!


> they've been slowly adjusting her Lantus dose as she'll need to be on a
> lower phosphorus diet which unfortunately has higher carb percentages
> than she's used to

There are a number of diabetic cats who have kidney problems. You might want to check Janet and Binky's food charts; there are a number of foods that are low phosphorus as well as low carb. (Don't forget that adjusting food may mean adjusting insulin as well.)

You may also want to check out Melissa's post on CRF, which has lots of links to things that help support kidney function http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6633.

 

So glad Whistle is doing better, and this IS a great place isn't it!

 

Wow! Glad to hear Whistle is doing better and that you knew enough to take this seriously and really watch her. Good going!

Regarding food - I have a kidney issue cat and a diabetic and I still use the EVO 95% - as it is under the 250 phosphorus level and that is what my vet said was needed to address kidney issues (and of course for me to maintain the low carb issue).

In addition, I also feed Friskies Special Diet - turkey/giblets and Nature Variety Raw - I was feeding chicken until the recent recall and opted to try Rabbit - which my kidney kitty loves! More than the chicken. Both of these are within acceptable carb and phosphorous ranges.

Hope this helps, so that you don't have to eliminate Evo completely, just add some lower phos foods to the mix.

 

Thank you all for the overwhelming and great response! Whistle has been home for about an hour now and is very happy. She seems like her normal self again! She will be getting sub-q fluids twice a day and we'll be re-checking her kidney values in a month.

As for the diet issues, I have been giving this a lot of thought over the past couple of days. I know there isn't agreement among vets about whether low protein diets are beneficial, but there is agreement that low phos. is needed. The emergency vet wanted to err on the side of low protein. Right now, my main concern is keeping her stable, and since they have been feeding her Hill's k/d and increased her insulin I'm going to keep her at that until I can consult my regular vet. I trust my regular vet to be honest with me about whether Whistle needs the low protein/prescription food, as she has steered me away from Purina dm and towards Janet and Binky's list in the past. The emergency vet increased Whistle's insulin to 3.5 units twice a day, so I'm going to be watching her blood glucose at home very closely. I wouldn't be surprised if that dose needs to decrease even in the event of the diet change, as Whistle's bg is very stress-sensitive. Unfortunately I won't be able to do a full curve on her for the next couple of weeks. It is a two-person job to test her, (she will not let us prick her ears, we have to do the pads of her feet) and as my boyfriend and I are both Ph. D students we have to work around weird schedules. We can test her bg before giving insulin, and sometimes work in spot checks, but he'll be out of town next weekend and weekends are the only times we can do full curves on her.

My regular vet has also recommended taking Whistle to an internist. The emergency vet(s) thought that the kidney problems were causing the DKA, rather than the other way around, but I want to get to the bottom of this if possible. Again, thank you all so much for your responses!

 

So glad to hear you found the help you needed, and I hope Whistler feels better real soon.
Oh, and by the way WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!
Terri

 

What is your kitty eating, is it friskies Turkey, or country dinner by chance? If so please find Patti and Merlins recent post in Health and read it.

 

Nancy,

It's Friskies Special Diet Turkey and Giblets--started this right after the big emergency, not before. It looks like the type I'm feeding has a different manufacturer's number than the ones in Patti's post, and I've no trouble yet with Whistle not wanting to eat since I switched to the Friskies. Thank you for the warning though!