Dr. Williams (and anybody with advice),
 
Buster was the one with the spleen that seemed to enlarge and shrink often.
He is about a 3 year old MF boy.  Per your suggestion, we treated him with
amoxy and pepto, and that seemed to really help.  For sometime, I wasn't
sure he was going to make it, having to hand feed him for better than six
weeks.  Well, he has been doing well, and occasionally plays, and appears to
be doing pretty good.  But for the last couple months, his spleen has seemed
to remain rather large and firm.  The vet hasn't been able to deduce
anything, and we went the amoxy and pepto route again--but with little
effect, although his stools did seem to clear up a bit.  They weren't real
bad, but have always appeared somewhat grainy a good percentage of the time.
 
My real question is this.  If we cannot find anything that might be causing
the spleen to remain enlarged, would you ever endorse a spleen removal?  I'm
from the school of thought that it has a purpose, and is a good indicater of
health, but his belly does remain a bit tender all the time, and it appears
to me that it does have some effect on his breathing (and therefore activity
level).  And is possible that an enlarged spleen might just be irritating
his GI, rather than indicating he has a GI problem?
 
Would you have any other suggestions as to what to look for?  Although it
was about 6 months ago, we did have lymph nodes biopsied, and it was
negative with reguards to an lymphatic cancer.  At the moment, I think that
his previous problem, which appeared to be helicobacter, and his current
situation are related.
 
There is no emergency here, but I would appreciate your words of wisdom.
 They have most definately saved his life once, and we both thank you
for it.
 
Danny Williams
[Posted in FML issue 1454]