We've hit on something else which gets Spot to eat a lot WITHOUT help, encouragement, mind-games, etc. (For those who have forgotten Spot has some form of mystery infection (for something like 3 months now, with sores bleeding for about a month) which includes mouth sores, and he had a stroke almost 3 weeks ago, probably related to the severe anemia this thing causes.) Earlier we had found that eats more of EVERYTHING if he also has cake. Now, we've found that we take the AD (a liver based food which is just LOADED with calories) we buy from the vet (and to which we sometimes add Nutrical and water (Nutrical also available from vet), and to the plain AD we add a tablespoon of melted butter (NOT margarine). It goes in well and is eatten with strong enthusiasm. Right now we are trying amoxi and metronidazole ALONE (no pepto, no pred, no whatever) and HIS MOUTH HAS NOT BLED IN SEVERAL DAYS!!!!! There's no way to know if this combination is making a difference or if he's just holding his weight well enough now for his own body to fight this disease better; it's been a long haul, but we've been through worse. He's acting happy about life this last week (acting happier about life in general since the stroke which has to have been a scary thing to get through) and it's intersting to see him test the stroke-damaged leg. He'll purposely make it slip on the tiles over and over to test corrections, and he is very good at climbing both in and out now from under the platform bed (before he just go in). Spot's someone who's inclined to give up about things so the attitude and health improvements are GREAT to see. Whe he's well enough he will be ready for yet another round of tests to see if anything has changed. We all still have it in the backs of our minds that he might be starting kidney problems, though that's not as likely. 'Chopper now at times needs 1.5 ml of Furosemide, but that's not 3 times a day, that's the amount she gets if the now normal 1.2 ml 3x per day doesn't hold her ascites. Yesterday she had a pig-out day and an active one. At this rate she's going to stay the most active of any we've had with cardiomyopathy right till she just stops one day. She's at the point where she could die any day or might go one for a month a two more, but she's only had three days of any discomfort in this entire haul and with careful monitoring she's drinking enough. The Organic Helicopter is NOT someone who gives up. <G> The Fly has a mild vaginal infection so she also gets meds. In her case she's just so blasted overweight (Meeteetse worships food and knows that the best altar to it is in her tum. We have somewhat reduced her overweight just by having increased, enforced exercise. "What? You want to stop and eat? Sorry.", but eventually I think we will have to isolate her and have only a certain amount of food. What happens is that she's so fat that combining even her reduced overweight with the protuberance of her vagina she winds up sometimes dragging in the litter pot (She had a vaginal prolapse so it doesn't go all the way in even after one replacement.); an infected uterine stump or an asystomatic adrenal is possible but as long as this is controllable this way then this makes more sense. Everyone else if fine, except that Steve and I are exhausted. I am waiting for the stuff which Jeanne send early in sympathy for my frustration over the Hackensack situation, and I still have to go through the materails form Dick and Troy Lynn to pull any academic and governmental references which can help. In the meantime, I am repacking Niki's belongings in preparation for her move since she's in Stockholm right now, and still doing whatever else needs to be done. Poor Steve's having to carry everything (about 400 pounds of it so far) upstairs (two flights) to the condo for me to pack and then back down again since the rag weed has begun locally, and I am trying to finish as much as I possibly can before that gets bad enough that my asthma might make work impossible. My 84 year old dad's surgery to replace his knee has been postponed (and will probably be done in Florida where my late Uncle Jay's house is all on one level, and my younger sister is closer than we are up here), and my 84 year old step-mom's ankle fusion is healing well. We are STILL trying to talk them into either having a small elevator, stairway elevator, or a full bathroom on the first floor with convertible sofa beds in the living room (Heck, we'd PAY for it without hesitation if they'd agree) -- but, then we're also still trying to get them to use public transit rather than driving. Arrrgghhh!!!!! (Hey, we have a normal lifestyle for people in their 40s and 50s, right?) Thanks for listening; I just needed to spew a bit since I'm so tired. Sukie [Posted in FML issue 2409]