Thanks to all of you who E-mailed with best wishes and healing thoughts for Ruby. She has been in the hospital since Saturday morning, and is slipping fast. She has refused all food and water for over 72 hours now. The vet is keeping her hydrated with subcutaneous fluids with a little glucose, at least. Blood work reveals kidney and liver function fine, initial high glucose level that has now normalized, and an elevated white cell count. The vet also x-rayed her and sees something suspicious sitting just under the liver. Spleen is quite enlarged. Vet's current hypothesis is this: a tumor under the liver (not unlikely, considering the mass that was removed several months ago). The tumor would explain the high white cell count and could be putting pressure on the spleen, restricting blood flow and causing it to swell. She is scheduling exploratory surgery for tomorrow (Monday) morning. She is still at a loss to explain why all this came about as a result of ear cleaning. BTW, Ruby's neurological signs are completely normal, ruling out any damage to inner ear from cleaning. The vet's only explanation is that the stress from the ear cleaning somehow brought this underlying condition to a head. If upon surgery, the vet finds something really bad or inoperable, she has asked our permission to not bring Ruby up out of anesthesia. Oh, oh, oh! We can only hope that there is a simple and easy answer. You do your very best for them, but sometimes it's just not enough. I wish I could undo the ear cleaning, and get back my toe-nibbling, eraser-stealing, Ruby-kisses girl. Any suggestions and input is appreciated, as are prayers and loving thoughts for our little-Rubes. Chris & Rick Twoser, Max, Pippin, Kirby, and Ruby (the great one). [Posted in FML issue 1618]