Marigold Scooby
by greg-in-washington

Night shift report

Marigold takes the Night shift watching over Scooby. As some of you know, Scooby became deathly ill. This is what happened. He had a rapid onset of diabetes accelerated by a cortisone shot he got for allergies. The cortisone is insulin resistant and caused the unknown underlying diabetes to attack immediately with a vengeance. He had tested negative for diabetes several months ago. He was almost comatose when he went to the animal hospital. He was severely dehydrated. His liver and spleen were enlarged and very painful. Lymphoma was suspected, but Scooby luckily did not test positive for it. It was caused by diabetes. He was in the intensive care unit. With fluids and insulin, after 4 days he came home. He was a 14 pound cat when he went in. Now he is a ten pound cat! I am told he is now at a good weight. All my other cats are 10 pounders.

I have been giving him insulin injections. He is a very good boy about them. An ultrasound shows his liver and spleen shrunk back down and do not hurt any more. I had a diabetic cat a long time ago, so it was nothing new to me to give the cat injections. We are almost completely out of the woods now. He appears to be in remission. 40% of cats go into remission if they are treated early. His daily insulin has been gradually reduced now from 1 unit twice per day to a tiny 1/2 unit once per day. He eats a low carbohydrate canned food diet. Dry food, even the “DM” diabetes management foods have too many carbs when compared to wet foods. Dry food also gave Scooby crystals in his urine and nearly clogged him up a few months back!

Two weeks and Scooby will go back in for another test. We are hoping for good results. In this photograph, Scooby is sleeping peacefully at home. I have noticed that cats know when something is wrong. Thanks again for all the prayers and purrs.  The camera lens perspective has distorted the sizes of the two cats!

Marigold Scooby

Night shift

18 Comments

  3. Wow, how scary, but we’re sure glad he’s doing well. ITA with you that wet food is best for cats, and especially now for him.

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  4. Och man, das tut mir in der Seele weh und da bin ich richtig traurig wenn ich sowas lese oder höre. Ich hoffe er kann nun mit den Spritzen wieder in sein “normales Leben” zurückfinden. Toll auch dass du die Spritzen setzen kannst.

    Ja, Katzen sind äussert sensibel, die merken sofort wenn etwas nicht stimmt, und absolut niedlich das Foto. Das sagt genau aus wie aufgepasst wird.

    Alles Liebe für deine Fellnasen und natürlich auch für dich

    Herzliche Grüsse

    N☼va

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    1. I was glad Scooby was ill with something treatable. It could have been something much worse. It is difficult as you must always be home to inject insulin at the proper time. That plus keeping him away when feeding my other cats are the two big problems. But I am glad he is sleeping again each night at the end of my bed.

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  7. Marigold is a sweetie. I am glad Scooby is doing so well and I pray he will continue to improve.

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