About The Webinar
Diabetic ketoacidosis can cause severe illness and death. Serum hyperosmolarity, osmotic diuresis, and vomiting are common and cause hypovolemia and severe dehydration. Altered mentation from serum hyperosmolarity and oedema, ketosis and increased capillary permeability, acidosis, and electrolyte disturbances can increase the risk for aspiration, nervous tissue injury and seizure activity. The mainstay for initial treatment is careful volume replacement. Re-establishment of intravascular and interstitial fluid homeostasis requires elimination of ketonemia and resolution of hyperglycaemia with insulin therapy. Subsequent electrolyte shifts and their influence on other body systems must be accounted for and managed. Treatment of the sick diabetic patient continues until there has been correction of the underlying cause that instigated the release of counter-regulatory hormones and/or resolution of the ketosis with insulin. We discuss DKA in the dog and cat, its management and briefly discuss hyperglycaemic hyperosmolar syndrome.
