Managing diabetic ketoacidosis

Karen Roach, RVT, VTS (ECC), a training mentor at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital in New Jersey, is presenting multiple sessions at dvm360’s 2024 Fetch Coastal conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She recently provided an overview of the multiple sessions she is presenting or co-presenting sessions at Fetch Coastal including diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), pain management, triage, transfusion medicine, and Kirby’s Rule of 20.

In an interview with dvm360, she spoke more about DKA and what she hopes Fetch attendees will take away from her lecture about this emergency condition. The session will also be made available in the coming weeks through dvm360’s Fetch On-Demand programming.

The following is a transcript of this video, which focuses on a talk about DKA:

Karen Roach, RVT, VTS (ECC): I want to show [attendees] that it's not that hard if you just follow the treatment plan and really focus. I really talk about what you need to monitor [the condition], and what we're looking for and what we're hoping to see change. And you know, see that blood sugar start to come down, see those ketones start to go away. Get the animal eating. That's the biggest thing because they come in, they're anorexic, they're vomiting, and they're not eating. So until we get them feeling better—I've literally done a little dance by the cage when I get that animal eating. You're kind of like, you want everybody's attention, but you don't want to shout, but… you know, when they start to eat, they turn the corner.

I try to make the majority of my lectures very practical, because I know I've gone to lectures before and people are talking about these different studies that are done in statistics. And I'm like, ‘Well, that's all great, but I need something tangible I can take home and go to work and treat this patient.’ How do I treat this patient? So I do try and put a lot of that in there, like, this is what you're looking for. This is how you treat them. This is when you know they're on the mend, that type of thing.

For more articles and interviews from Fetch Coastal, visit our dvm360 website and dedicated conference news page.