My 2 year old boy Charlie has a chrodoma at the tip of his tail and I am
not sure what to do.  We discovered it almost a year ago now and took him
into our vet.  It has never seemed to bother him and still doesn't, its
like he doesn't even realize that it is there or so I hope.  I have never
seen him even look at it let alone lick or chew at it and he has never
appeared to be in pain.  When I took him to the vet she said that to
remove it would require surgery and removing part of his tail which would
be very painful for him so she sent us home and said to keep an eye on it
and watch for it to grow or signs that it is bothering him.  Maybe my
boyfriend and I are being paranoid but it seems like it has gotten
bigger.  It is kind of hard to tell since he has grown back the hair on
his tail after a bought of blackheads and now the fur is covering the
chrodoma.  Like I said, he has never shown any signs of it bothering him
but how do I know when it is time to get it removed?  I have heard that
these things can be very painful for the ferrets and I hate to wait until
he is showing signs of being in pain but in the back of my mind I keep
thinking that the surgery will also put him in pain when he may not be
in any now.  The other thing that worries me is that Charlie is a rescue
that I got over a year ago and the one thing that he hates the most is
change.  My boyfriend and I recently moved and after Charlie had rattail
and a small patch on his back was bald.  After examining him the vet
determined that he was so stressed out from the move that he was licking
the spot bald.  He has since gotten much better and used to the new place
but I just hate to think of what a surgery and a shorter tail might to do
him.  Any advise you could give to help me avoid as much stress and pain
for my boy sure would be appreciated by both myself and Charlie.
 
Angel
[Posted in FML issue 3890]