'Chopper the Organic Helicopter (about six and a half) has been losing weight recently and has a small lesion on her palate. Her spleen increased a bit again after the antibiotics given during ECE had reduced it. Today she had a check-up and blood taken. Hopefully, the tests won't show anything nasty, in which case we'll probably assume that she might have helicobacter again, or an inflammatory digestive tract problem, or such. In that case it will be back to antibiotics and some steroids which can help reduce inflammation and boost appetite. Poor little girl is down to about 1 pound, 7 ounces, but she's as self-assertive and happy as ever so she doesn't mind it as we do. You should see that skinny, blind, partly deaf, old lady boss around 4 pound kit, Scooter! No one talks back to her!!! Unexpectedly, Meeteetse wound up coming along with us. As long-timers here know Fly had her tail badly broken by abusers before she came here, and we've kept it comfortable with massages for about 5 years. Today, all of a sudden it looked blue. I thought at first that she was just growing in the fur she'd lost, but when I took a look it was all the skin at and below the break, the tail was ice cold, and she was just ignoring the fact that I was looking at it (not like her). Stuck it in a mug of warm water to warm it up and she didn't respond, so at first I thought, "This must feel good." then realized that she couldn't feel it at all. We knew it had been getting stiffer and less responsive to massage in recent months and had already figured out that the ligaments were probably calicifying, but this was sudden (not there this morning or before) and alarming evidence of impaired blood flow and sensory nerve damage. On testing she turned out to have deep sensation, but no skin sensation, has motor nerves still functioning, and still has enough blood flow to keep the tail for now. Given that something changed this rapidly, don't be surprised if you hear after a while of it having to come off, though. We have to watch it for motor control, pinch it gently in pliers (not joking -- and Steve refuses to do it so I have to) until she can't feel that anymore, or otherwise be on the look-out for signs that it can't stay. Spot, Warp, Jumpstart, Ashling, and Scooter are all doing well. Sukie [Posted in FML issue 2154]