Dear Jean:
 
>On my last post I accidently wrote Sickle cell sarcoma.  What I meant to
>write was Spindle cell sarcoma.  Has anyone had a ferret with this type of
>cancer?  My ferret Buddie had this and it could not be completely removed.
>She died post-op from the second surgery to debulk the tumor because her
>blood couldn't clot.
 
The diagnosis of spindle cell sarcoma is a non-specific diagnosis that
indicates a malignancy of connective tissue origin.  There are a number of
possibilities here, but without knowing the site, it is difficult to even
make an educated guess.  If the tumor is of smooth muscle origin in the
skin, then the chnce of surgical removal and a cure is pretty good, but if
it is in one of the abdominal organs, it is a much poorer prognosis.
 
When I see these tumors, I generally try to run some specialized tests to
find out what type of cells it came from.  Depending on which cell type, I
can often get a much better read on the tumor, it's propensity to continue
to grow or to metastasize, and the potential effect on the ferret.
 
If you would be interested, I would be happy to look at the neoplasm and
see if I can offer any additional assistance.  Perhaps there is something
additional here that the FML could benefit from.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM
[Posted in FML issue 3296]