Category: Toby

It’s been over a month since we’ve been in the mountains and I’m getting antsy–but it’s also nice to stay home with Toby (who’s doing great) and get some spring cleaning done.

How is Toby, you ask? Reader, he cured his own diabetes.

We just finished a round of him wearing a glucose monitor, like we do every six months, and–despite not having any insulin since his hypoglycemia scare–his blood sugar is absolutely normal. His vet tells us that cats can go into diabetic remission, but it’s usually sooner after diagnosis. Toby clearly just does what he wants.

He’s also acting just fine since his appetite loss/possible thyroid issues the week after the hypoglycemia scare, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he fixed his thyroid levels, too.

Toby’s recovery after his hypoglycemia scare kind of stalled out by mid week, and by Friday he was eating and drinking less and less. He had diarrhea and vomiting Saturday night and refused to eat anything at all Sunday morning … so back to the weekend vet we went.

His overnight stay for hypoglycemia was at the 24-hour MedVet hospital in Salt Lake City. We were about to take him back there and just deal with the 2- to 4-hour wait for the ER when Matt found the MedVet “urgent care” location in Sandy. It’s not 24 hours and it’s not critical care, but you can schedule an appointment and for things like dehydration and vomiting. Highly recommend for urgent weekend care. (Well, some of us do. Others don’t recommend it at all.)

They did bloodwork and his blood sugar was fine but his thyroid levels were off, which was probably causing the intestinal issues and loss of appetite–the poor little guy was queasy. He got fluids under the skin and an anti-nausea shot and then ate an entire can of tuna the staff gave him while we waited for his results.

He’s back to eating and drinking just fine now and he has a two follow up appointments over the next two weeks with his regular vet, so HOPEFULLY we’re not going to have another dip in the thrilling Old Kitty Roller Coaster after this.

“Yeah Mom, I hope so too. You better not get that cat carrier out again.”

It’s Toby’s “gotcha day” anniversary today, 17 whole years ago … and I almost didn’t think we’d get any more days with him over the weekend.

He’d been getting slower and slower and using his box less and less over the last couple weeks, but in the middle of last week he got the “big sad eyes” that he had the summer he was diagnosed with diabetes. He was also not walking well, another thing that happened before we got his diabetes under control, so I thought, “Maybe he needs more insulin.” So I gave him a little higher dose than usual Thursday night and Friday morning but he still seemed so distressed and lethargic, we made a same-day vet appointment for Friday.

Reader, he was hypoglycemic. His blood sugar was at 30 (normal is 150-300). He wasn’t walking well because he HAD NO ENERGY. I feel absolutely terrible. That larger dose Thursday and Friday sent him over the edge but it’s likely he’d been getting too much long-term, which was causing the slowness and the big sad eyes. Did I mention I feel terrible?

He ended up having to be transferred from his regular vet to the 24-hour emergency vet to go on an IV drip of dextrose for a night and a day. We visited him twice in the ER and he was NOT HAPPY–this was his first night at a vet in almost 18 years, he didn’t want to eat food, he just wanted to go home. Needless to say, everybody was a wreck.

But we were able to get his blood sugar back to normal and take him home Saturday night, where he immediately had a wash and an entire can of wet food and a big nap. And now he’s like a new cat–getting on the bed with us at night, walking fast, being sassy. I am so relieved (and still feel so terrible–we’re not doing any insulin until we can consult with his regular vet and get a blood sugar monitor on him).

So Happy Adoption Day to Good Old Toby. I’m so glad we didn’t lose you.

Take it easy because you were up all night being a menace:

Doc finally had to go back to work after his sabbatical, which means Toby and I were alone Saturday. It was also a rainy weekend, so no spontaneous trips to the mountains. Just a cat and his lady wondering, “Where is our person?”

Someone is doing well again after a week of what seemed like really high blood sugar … so someone gets to go to the vet for a 6-month checkup and glucose monitor tomorrow.

At least he’s feeling sassy again, though (and showing off his manicure!).

Advance footage from tomorrow:

Yesterday was the anniversary of bringing home a nine-month old Smol Orange Boi:

He quickly turned into a Large Sassy Boi:

He aged into a crumpled-ear Older Boi but remained sassy:

And now both ears are crinkled and he is a Very Old Boi with diabetes, but he’s still going strong:

I couldn’t get into any of my three thousand hobbies over the weekend, nor were the meals I planned and made as delicious as I thought they’d be, nor was the concert we went to Sunday afternoon as good as I wanted it to be. Even Toby was feeling the meh:

I guess we’re just waiting for the sun? Good thing spring starts this week.