Good morning in Chicago from Paige (me) and River (kitty)

Hi everyone, I'm so happy I found this board (old school)!!

I'm Paige, mom to two cats, Brixie and River. We live in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood with my husband and cat dad, Mark.

River gave us quite the scare over the weekend by going into full-blown DKA before she was finally diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.

We took both cats to the vet in the past month. River had lost a LOT of weight, but we honestly believed that Brixie was simply eating her food. Brix is an 8/10 on the chonk spectrum. The vet recommended a wet diet for both, and that's when everything started to go downhill.

Like Sybil in the most recent thread, I had also noticed extreme thirst and massive urine clumps in the litter box for several weeks but didn't put two and two together because feline diabetes has literally never been on my radar.

River is a very finicky eater — I know, what else is new? — and we tried probably 20 different wet foods, none of which she really liked. She would gobble some up one day, then the next day we'd give it to her and she wouldn't touch it. She lost another pound before I finally threw in the towel and took her back to the vet for the recommended blood testing and urinalysis.

River was admitted almost immediately and spent two and a half days in the veterinary ER hooked up to fluid and insulin drip — we had to bring her home before they could establish her curve, for financial reasons. (I'm down $4,000 and counting, ugh.)

I need very badly to educate myself because I can't afford to keep taking her to the vet every time she needs her blood glucose checked. Neither of the vets mentioned anything about testing at home, which worries me. I'll get into the more specific threads with a bunch of questions soon. Anyway, HI!

Here we are over the weekend:

 

Welcome! Glad you found us. There’s a wealth of info on this site and tons of tips to help make it easier on you emotionally and financially. Come to the Main health forum to ask all your questions. Hope to see you there!

 

Cute kitty!

 

Thank you!! She is a sweet, wonderful girl.

 

Thank you, Sharon!! I'm popping into Main very soon.

 

Welcome Paige! You've found a great place for answers and support on this diabetic journey with River.