Well. We just got back from our new vet, and it was quite an eye-opening
experience. We saw an outstanding feline vet, who says that the surgery itself,
while a rather radical excision of the entire fat pad, would be quite
recoverable.

However (big however), he is concerned about the _anemia_, about which we had
previously known nothing. He diagnosed anemia first by the color of Bubba's
gums, etc. and confirmed it by looking at _the bloodwork done by the first vet_.
This has never been mentioned to us as being an issue. Perhaps they assumed that
it was a result of Bubba's condition at the time.

The leukemia test was negative, thank God, but he has ordered another workup to
try to determine the cause of the anemia before we proceed with surgery. In
addition to reducing the chances of survival, there wouldn't be much point to it
if something else is killing Bubba.

His blood sugar was a little high on the last test - 160 - although nobody has
yet classified him as diabetic. I am curious to see what the level is now that
he's eating more like a carnivore should, rather than the "balanced diet" we've
always been told to feed him. It could be that the lack of real carnivore food
might have caused the anemia in the first place, which is the likely cause of
the gangrene.

I also wonder if the steatitis did clear up weeks ago, and what I've seen since
then was merely gangrene setting in. A number of you have tried to tell me that
it wasn't the steatitis, for which I thank you again, but the vet told me that
it was. "No sign of infection," indeed.

I will update tomorrow. Once again, thanks to all!

Steve