New and happy to be here!

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Kelly Howard

Kelly Howard

Member Since 2016
Hi guys, I've been hanging around the forum for a week or so but haven't done a real intro yet. My name is Kelly, I live in San Jose, CA with my husband, almost-2-year-old daughter, and four cats! My oldest cat Maggie, who I adopted at ~2 years old in 2009, was just diagnosed in August. Maggie is the sweetest cat I have ever known, and she and I have a very special bond. Though we have many cats, she is definitely "my" cat. I've known her longer than I've known my husband! :)

Here's a pic from several years ago of Maggie soaking in some sun. She and I are definitely happy to have found this board! Everyone is so friendly and helpful. I hope to be able to contribute some knowledge to new members one of these days!
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Hi Kelly, welcome to you and Maggie. She looks so happy soaking up those rays! Sorry for the diagnosis, but since you've been hanging around for awhile, I'm sure you've seen that this is a very treatable condition. If you have any questions, please post them on the health forum. Oh, and thanks for offering to help us update the food list. By doing that, you're already helping out!
 
Welcome to you Kelly and your beautiful girl Maggie! There's so much help and support available here to guide you in looking after Maggie.
 
Maggie is beautiful and looks just so content in that picture. Welcome to the forum, This is a very special place with some very special people. We all work together to share our knowledge and support with each other.

Once you get more relaxed with posting, you can post specific questions...and I am sure you will have lots of them ;)...over on the Health forum at this link

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

There is a lot of "traffic" there and lots of people to answer any questions you have.

:bighug: :bighug:
 
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. It was scary at first, but I was also really happy to have a diagnosis at all. For a few months prior, Maggie had been losing a lot of weight. She's 9 years old now so I figured it was just her appetite decreasing as she got older. She's also been a chubby girl since I got her so I thought this was a good thing. Then, she started being very strange about water. She wouldn't drink from the bowl, but she was literally knocking over glasses in the middle of the night trying to drink out of them. I had a gut feeling that there was something wrong. There was one night she slept between us and I kept my hand on her belly so I could feel her breathing. I just had this sinking feeling that she wasn't going to last the night. The next day I made the vet appointment.

She was diagnosed right away after the blood tests came back. I think her numbers were in the high 400s. It was a little overwhelming at first to think about how I would balance this with the baby, the other cats, and working full time. It's only been about a month, and I just started home testing this week. I think I'm starting to get a handle on all of this!

Our big challenge right now is food. I got some Nutro wet food for Maggie which she loves, and I give her some before her AM and PM shots. But I think she is still munching on the other cats' dry food during the day. It's Science Diet sensitive stomach and it looks like it is VERY high in carbs. I need to find a low carb dry food that the others will eat too. I was reading last night about Young Again, which I think I will try out. But I also want to get the SD food out of the house ASAP. Are there any decent dry foods that they sell at Petsmart?
 
I think the best dry at Petsmart would be Natures Variety Instinct or Instinct Ultimate Protein
 
Hello and welcome. Young Again will send you free sample. They sent me one for each cat. I think it's the lowest carb dry there is. Another is EVO cat and kitten dry. Specialty pet shop should have it or at least be able to order it. You can also order from chewy.com.

Glad you started home testing. Good luck, will be interested in the progress you make.
 
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